The tree that had fallen through the second story had torn through the first floor as well. There was a large pile of bricks and rotting lumber underneath a dead tree, and they could see into the second floor above them.

“I could probably climb up there,” Ariel said.

“Climb? No, you’ll fall and hurt yourself.”

"I'll be fine. I've always liked to climb trees, and I don’t think this will be any harder."

Eden sighed, but she let him do as he wanted. She shined her flashlight above him to help him see what he was doing.

Ariel put his own flashlight in his teeth, and he climbed up the pile of bricks. Some of them slid beneath his weight, but he stretched his arms and caught the edge of the upper floor. He swung his foot over the lip, and he rolled into the room.

"Are you okay?" Eden asked.

"I'm fine," he assured her. "I made it just fine."

"Don't fall, seriously. I can't carry you back to camp by myself if you get hurt."

"Nothing happened. Stop worrying."

Ariel looked around the new area. There was half of a bathroom with a broken bathtub and a toilet, and on either side of the bathroom were two rooms. One had a bed with a twisted frame, but the tree had left a gap too large for him to get to it. A solid wall and door blocked his view of the other room, and there was plenty of room for him to walk to it. He crept toward the door, and he pressed his ear against it.

There was a loud clatter from behind him, and he spun toward it, shining his flashlight. Eden was clinging to the floor--in the same spot he had used to climb to the second story--and she closed her eyes against the sudden light.

"Ow!" Eden exclaimed. "Why?"

"You scared me," Ariel said. "Why didn't you tell me you were going to come up here?"

He rushed to her, and he grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet.

"Why wouldn't I follow you up here? It wasn't part of the deal to split up.”

"You were talking about how dangerous it was, so I just assumed you wouldn't come up here. I would have helped you if--"

"Well, I didn't need your help."

Ariel sighed as he realized anything else he said would just start an unnecessary argument. He just went to the door and opened it.

There was a collapsed bed on the furthest wall of the room, and there were two broken windows on either side of the bed. A second door was only a few feet away from them. He opened it, revealing a small closet full of tattered clothes, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"There really hasn't been anything hiding in this house," he said.

Eden went to a window, and she looked at the other houses. Ariel stepped behind her and looked over her shoulder.

There were about nine other houses that they could see. Some had busted doors, and one had a door that had been left open. They all looked similar to each other, and Ariel realized the one they had gone into would have also looked like them if a tree had not fallen into it.

"Why didn't we go into any of those places?" Eden asked. "Those might have been more interesting."

"I just went into the first one we saw, and besides, we found something, which is more than what we would probably say about any of those houses."

Eden turned to him. The moonlight streaming through the windows allowed him to see the subtle smile on her face.

"Do you still want to keep going?" she asked.

Ariel took one last glance at the houses, and then he shook his head.

“No, we’re already pressing our luck being here, so let’s just go back home.”

“Are you sure? You were so excited to come here. It would be a waste if--”

Ariel held up his hand.

“No, this is more than enough,” he assured her. “I’m just glad you came with me.”

Eden’s subtle smile turned into a frown. Ariel turned from her before she could say anything more, and he went to the hole in the floor that lead to the kitchen. He turned and grinned at her as she emerged from the bedroom.

“You want help getting down, or do you still need to prove to me that you’re an independent woman?”

Eden crossed her arms over her chest, and she glared at him.

“I don’t need your help,” she insisted.

Ariel chuckled. He laid flat on his belly, and he slid himself off the floor. Once only his hand dangled from the edge, he let himself fell the remaining couple of feet onto the floor, and then he shined his flashlight around the kitchen to make sure the two of them remained alone.

Ariel never heard Eden move, so he turned to see what she was doing. She was sitting on the edge of the floor, letting her legs over it.

“Do you need help?” he asked.

“Are you happy, Ariel?” she asked.

“Am I happy? Yes, but why are you asking?”

“I’ve noticed that you’ve been really sad lately.”

“What would I have to be sad about?”

“You haven’t talked to about it, so I don’t know. I just know that I look at you sometimes, and you look like you’re thinking too hard about something.”

“I’m fine, Eden. Let’s just go back to camp, okay?”

Ariel reached out his hand to her. Eden just rested her chin in her hand.

“I’m not going down there until you tell me what’s been bothering you.”

“Eden, come on.”

“I’m serious. This is the first time we’ve had the chance to talk about anything with just the two of us, so I just wanted to make sure you knew that you knew that you could talk to me about anything.”

Ariel looked at her dangling feet, and he nodded.

“Okay, thank you.”

“Are you going to tell me?”

“There’s nothing wrong, Eden. I’m fine.”

Eden groaned, and she slapped her forehead with her hand. Ariel held up his hand in surrender.

“No, no, listen,” Ariel said. “I’m honestly fine, but I will say that I have been thinking about something for a while.”

“About what?”

“Well, it bothers me sometimes how we’ve never met anybody outside of our little group, you know? I mean, we’ve come across strangers before, but Mother and the others always hid us away from them. It’s always just been us, Mother, Aunt Dana, Ron, and Levi. We’ve never had anyone else.”

“And that bothers you?”

“It’s hard to explain it properly, but yeah. I mean, there’s an entire world of people out there, and we’re so isolated from them. I just wish Mother would loosen the chain she had on us.”

Ariel looked at Eden’s face. Her eyebrows came together as she thought about his words.

“I suppose it would be nice to meet new people,” Eden said, “but it also sounds really scary.”

Ariel chuckled.

“Yeah, it does.”

“Is that really all that was bothering you?” Eden asked.

“Yeah, I’ve just been thinking about it a little too much.”

“Did coming out here make you feel any better?”

“Yeah, I think it did, but it’s not really because I got to see something new. It’s more because I got to spend some time with my little sister.”

“‘Little’? We’re twins! We were born the same day! Besides that, I was born first!”

“But you’re also incredibly short,” Ariel said, chuckling.

Eden scowled at him, and she lowered herself off the second story. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she turned and punched her brother in the shoulder. He chuckled, but then he led the way out of the destroyed house.