It wasn’t Archie.

It wasn’t even a cat.

It was a dog. Or it might have been a dog at some point. He had ears so long that they were touching the ground. His body was small and stretched out. One eye was crusted over and swollen shut.

“Oh,” said Louisiana. “He’s some kind of rabbit.”

“He’s a dog,” said Beverly.

The dog wagged his tail.

Beverly put her hand through the wire of the cage. She patted the dog on the head. “Okay,” said Beverly. “Okay, it’s okay.” The dog wagged his tail some more. But when Beverly took her hand away, he stopped wagging his tail and started to howl.

The hair on Raymie’s legs stood up. Her toes flexed without her even intending to move them.

“Right,” said Beverly. “Okay.” She raised the latch on the cage and opened the door. The dog stopped howling. He stepped out toward them, wagging his tail. He looked up at the three of them out of his one good eye and wagged his tail some more.

Louisiana dropped to her knees. She wrapped him up in her arms. “I’m going to call him Bunny,” she said.

“That’s the stupidest name I’ve ever heard,” said Beverly.

“Let’s just go,” said Raymie.

Louisiana picked up the dog. Beverly shone the flashlight ahead of them, and they walked out of the terrible darkness of Building 10 and into the normal darkness of nighttime.

The moon was still up in the sky, or half of it was. It didn’t seem possible to Raymie that the moon was still shining after everything that had happened. But there it was — brilliant and very far away.

Raymie sat down on the curb. Louisiana sat down next to her. The dog smelled terrible. Raymie put out her hand and touched the top of his head. There were bumps on it.

“Archie isn’t dead,” said Louisiana.

“Would you please shut up?” said Beverly.

“He’s not dead. But he’s missing and I don’t know how to find him.”

“Fine,” said Beverly. “He’s missing. Right now, what we need to do is get out of here.”

“I don’t think I can walk anymore,” said Louisiana. “I feel too sad to walk.”

“Get in the cart, then,” said Beverly. “We’ll push you.”

“What about Bunny?” said Louisiana.

“We’ll push him, too. Duh.”

Louisiana stood up.

“Here,” said Raymie. “Give me the dog.”

Louisiana handed Bunny to Raymie, and Beverly picked Louisiana up and put her in the cart.

“It’s not very comfortable in here,” said Louisiana.

“Who said it would be comfortable?” said Beverly.

“No one,” said Louisiana. And then she said, “I feel really sad. I feel all hollow.”

“I know,” said Raymie. She handed Bunny to Louisiana. Louisiana wrapped her arms around the dog.

“I wonder where Archie is,” said Louisiana. “And I wonder what will become of us. Don’t you wonder what will become of us?”

No one answered her.