Signal Lost, Signal Found

She found him at the treeline, not because the radio told her where, but because she'd finally learned to listen to something other than static.

"You went quiet," she said.

"I was giving you a way out," he said. "You didn't take it."

"I never wanted the way out," she said. "I wanted the frequency."

Behind them, channel 9 kept transmitting to no one — three short bursts, a pause, three long — and for the first time, neither of them needed to write it down to know what it meant.