Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 113051 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113051 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Holy shit, what do I do?
I go behind the ventilator and crouch down. With the deep shadows away from the light, there’s just enough coverage from it and the cloth-covered operating tray beside it.
I’m barely in position when the door beeps, and I have to freeze. I suck in my breath as I hear it open. Quick footsteps follow.
“And how are we doing, Clayton?” asks Everly as she steps closer to the table. Too close. Oh god, what if she can see me? She’s only a foot away!
“Are we feeling more up for discussion?” Everly goes on. “Hmmm? Have you learned how to talk again?”
Clayton makes a rumbling noise, his breath wheezing.
“That’s it. You can try. It will make things a lot easier for you if we can converse.”
“Everly,” Clayton whispers, his voice hoarse and faint.
“That’s a good boy,” she says cheerfully. “Do you know why you’re back here, Clayton?”
“No.”
“Do you know why we had to shoot you?”
He doesn’t say anything but takes in a ragged breath. My brain is filled with the woosh woosh of my heart as I strain to hear him.
“Because you were a bad boy,” Everly says. “You knew what would happen if you tried to escape. This is only your fault and no one else’s.”
Speaking of gaslighting.
“You can make it up to me though,” she goes on. “You can speed up the process. I just want to ask you a few questions, and I want you to be truthful with me. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Clayton says after a moment.
“You died a second time,” she says. “When you were shot out of that tree. Do you remember?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember dying this time?”
Silence.
So much silence that I fear she can hear my heart. I can barely breathe, and my muscles are starting to shake from holding the crouched position.
“Yes,” he says.
“Tell me about it. Tell me what you saw. Tell me about death.”
“She knows,” he says.
I stiffen.
“Who knows?” Everly says sharply.
Please don’t say me, please don’t say me.
“Sydney,” Clayton hisses. “She knows.”
“What does she know? Do you know where she is? I was just in her room. I couldn’t find her.”
Oh my fucking god.
“I was in the tree, and she saw me get shot,” he goes on. “She knows what you’re doing to me.”
Everly snorts. “She doesn’t know shit. She never did. And we had such high hopes for her. But perhaps you’ll be our star pupil, Clayton. You’ve already died twice, and we’ve used the mycelia to bring you back. That’s never happened before.”
“Fuck you.”
She laughs. “See? Even your personality is starting to come alive. That means nothing was erased. This is a good thing, Clayton. You’re doing a good, noble thing. You’re sacrificing your lives for science, for the greater good. It’s not enough that we can temporarily cure Alzheimer’s. We can temporarily cure death.”
My eyes widen at the truth of it all.
They’re using their fungi to bring back the dead. Those animals in the woods weren’t byproducts of the experiment; they were the whole point. That testing didn’t go wrong…
It went right.
I gulp, dread sticking to my throat, then freeze, afraid that she heard me.
But the machines drone on, burying the sound.
“Of course, we had to make some adjustments,” Everly goes on. “You weren’t good enough before, but you are now. We made you better, Clayton. The mycelia can have a mind of their own sometimes, but it just takes some corralling to get them to behave the way we want them to.”
Suddenly, her phone beeps, making me jump.
“I have to go,” she says tersely. “Try not to go anywhere, okay?”
Then she hurries out of the room. I don’t exhale, don’t move, until I hear the door slam shut and the sound of her footsteps on the stairs fade.
I let out a whimper and then stagger to my feet, my muscles cramping. I hurry around to Clayton’s bedside, staring at him in a different light.
He died.
He was dead.
Now, he’s not.
“I’ll get you out of here,” I say to Clayton, trying to undo the straps that hold him down.
But he shakes his head slightly.
I’m not alive anymore, Sydney, he says inside my head. But you are. You need to get out of here, now, tonight, before you become like me.
“I can’t leave you like this,” I tell him.
You have to, he says sadly. Or you will die, I promise you this. Please go. She’s going to come back any minute, and then you’ll be strapped down beside me.
Panic starts to claw through my chest. He’s right.
“Answer me something,” I say quickly. “Does Kincaid know about this? Is he one of them?”
He stares at me and blinks. Yes.
My heart sinks.
Now, go. She’s coming.
I swallow down my sorrow and fear and turn away from Clayton. I run through the lab to the door, opening it and expecting to see Everly on the other side. But it’s empty. I quickly rush up the stairs, then through the learning lab. I run along the windows, knowing that no one can see in, especially at night, watching for the signs of flashlights in the storm, but there’s nothing.