Children of a Forgotten Tomorrow: Part 6
In The Last Straw, hunger and circumstance drive Doc back to the house she fled, where old ghosts wait behind every doorframe. Her friendship with Bill, the only mind that ever matched her own, glows briefly and ends too soon in a crash that René witnesses from the wrong side of a body bag. Peachy drifts into borrowed identities, the town unravels, and Doc—scarred, exhausted, furious—watches it all from the eye of the storm. By the time she boards the westbound bus, she’s outgrown the gravity of the poisoned river and the broken pumps. She carries only the hum of memory and the strange mercy of surviving long enough to start over.