The silence has been the hardest part. Jim kept talking to the children as he waited for the others to arrive, but the more he talked to try to stave off the eerie quiet, the more and more obvious it became that he just wanted to fill the space with some sign of life.

He's grateful for noise, now, for activity. Jones, out warding the area, and now Tadhg, talking, kneeling to examine the children.

"I don't know." He strokes the hair of the girl who's perched in his lap, absently. "One of the guys here told me they'd been given something, but who knows. None of them has said a word or made a move since I got here. Well... not a move that I didn't tell them to make."