THIRTY-TWO

Juliette enters Adam and James’s underground living room and is struck by how warm, furnished, and home-like it feels compared with her own childhood memories. James proudly says Adam made the space for him, though Adam downplays this as simply cleaning it up.

Juliette learns that James mostly lives alone, with help from Benny, and that an entire street is occupied by orphaned children. James has a better arrangement than most because Adam secured a private room for him, but the explanation reveals the grim reality of children surviving under The Reestablishment’s control.

When James prepares food, Juliette mistakes the device for a microwave and panics over the tinfoil. Adam explains that the Automat multiplies a small food cube’s molecular composition to make people feel full without adding nutrition, showing how desperate and artificial everyday survival has become.

After eating, James talks freely about his school, friends, Benny, curfews, armed soldiers, and unequal food distribution based on what people can provide to The Reestablishment. Adam warns James that James must tell no one Juliette and Adam are there, not even Benny, and James immediately understands the danger and agrees.

Once James falls asleep in Adam’s lap, Juliette and Adam speak quietly. Adam says he last saw James six months earlier but kept in touch through Benny’s untraceable line, and he reveals that James has long known about Juliette because Adam has been searching for Juliette since Juliette disappeared from school.

Adam explains that he was drawn to Juliette as a child, believed she would never intentionally hurt anyone, and worried about what would happen to her. Juliette is overwhelmed that someone cared enough to look for her and tells Adam she loves him; as Adam carries James to bed, Juliette understands that Adam joined the army and endured Warner for James, for her, and for a larger fight beyond himself.