“I published an article years ago, only theorizing the practice of genetic modification at the embryonic stage to immunize future generations against cancer and diabetes and other diseases. Someone at the Branch read the article and approached me with an offer I couldn’t turn down.

“They wanted to create a serum, something that could be administered at the adolescent stage, or even well into adulthood. But… I couldn’t replicate what I’d done with you. Every attempt failed. I didn’t understand it, and we were running out of time and money. The only other course of action was to use you as our map.”

“You had me kidnapped on purpose so you could study me?”

“I knew I would need you for an extended period of time, without you fully knowing and—”

Rage burned in my chest till my vision was tinted red with it. I reached over and slapped her across the face.

Her head snapped aside, and she brought her hand to her cheek where the skin was already an angry shade of pink.

“How dare you!”

She clenched her hands into fists at her side. “Do you have any idea what this kind of medical breakthrough could mean? We can cure diseases! We can save lives!”

“Are you working for the Branch? Is that who’s in charge of this program?”

She pursed her mouth and said nothing.

“The Branch is not the kind of organization that works to cure cancer.” I recalled the things Nick had told me about his past, and the Branch. Terrible, terrible things. “They kill people, Mom.”

“You can’t believe everything Nick has told you.”

“Well, I do. I trust him more than I trust you.”

The look she gave me was almost as if I’d slapped her again.

“Why am I here now?” I asked.

“We need to make more serum, and make it better. We need to finish what we were prevented from finishing.”

Because I escaped, she meant.

I backed up toward the door, wondering if she’d left it unlocked, if I could perform the miracle of escaping a second time. “I won’t be a part of this. You can’t seriously think I’ll cooperate.”

“No harm will come to you. No harm came to you six years ago. You were always treated with respect and the utmost care.”

I narrowed my eyes, feeling the hard edge of my teeth as I bit into my lip. She had no idea what she’d done to me, what the whole ordeal had done to me. The nightmares. The anxiety. The panic attacks.

I might have been indestructible on the outside, but inside I was broken, and it was all my mother’s fault.

“Get out,” I shouted. “Out!”

“Elizabeth.”

“Out!”

She lurched backward.

The door opened, and Riley strolled in. “Move forward?”

Mom discreetly wiped the tears from her face. “Yes.”

Without another look, she turned and left the room.

Two lab technicians swept into the room, carting a massive machine, wires spilling from several ports.

“What is that?”

Once the machine was parked near the door, two more men entered the room. They were different from the technicians in that they were larger, colder, unflinching. They strode over to me and grabbed me by the arms, tossing me onto the bed.

“Let me go!”

Straps were tugged from beneath the bed, and my wrists were pinned down at my sides, my ankles secured at the end of the bed.

“Mom!” I screamed, until my voice broke.

Riley checked his phone briefly before looking over at me. “Don’t worry, Elizabeth. When you wake up, everything will be fine again.”

“What does that mean? What are you doing to me?” I tried the straps, yanking my arms up, hoping for some slack.

Riley murmured instructions to the technicians, ignoring me. The two large men exited the room once I was secure on the bed. I flailed again as adrenaline took over. I needed to get out of here. I needed to escape. Instinct told me that if I didn’t get out of here right now, then there’d be nothing left to fight for.

“Call me when it’s finished,” Riley said. “I’ll see you in the morning, Elizabeth.” He left.

The technicians placed several electrodes on my head, then attached the wires. When they switched on the machine, it started up with a whine and a rushing of noise.

“Relax,” the male technician said. “Everything will be fine.”

“What is it? The machine?”

The female technician, a short, blond woman with wide-set eyes, attached a final probe to the center of my forehead. “It’s a memory alteration system.”

36

NICK

SOMEONE HELD MY HEAD IN THEIR LAP. Something wet kept plinking against my face.

“We have to go,” a voice said from somewhere far away, like I was underwater. “We’ll come back for him. I promise.”

“I can’t leave him.” Anna. “We never should have let him go off on his own.”

“Anna,” Trev said. “We can’t sit here any longer. Either we save the girl or we go.”

Hair fell in my face as Anna bent over to kiss my forehead.

I gulped for air, and the expanding of my lungs, pressed against my ribs, felt like a balloon about to pop.

Anna shrieked.

“Holy shit,” Cas said. “He’s a zombie!”

Trev knelt beside me and pulled my eyes open. “Nick?”

I slapped his hand away and rolled over, my insides pinwheeling. On all fours, hands splayed in the dirt, I vomited until there was nothing left to get out.