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questioned. “I’m
afraid you will not be leaving us so soon, Corrine.”
    My legs shook. I took a step back. “But you said if I passed
the test then...”
    “Yes,” she interrupted. “I said that if you passed then it
would be a good sign, and it is a good sign ... for us.”
    I quivered. Her words were cold, and she was a cold-blooded
snake of a woman. Still, I looked up at her. Dr. Hailey stepped forward. She
smiled. She placed a hand on my shoulder. My eyes screamed mercy at her. “Don’t
be afraid, Corrine. We are going to take good care of you.” She waved a hand at
her subordinates.
    Suddenly, their hands were on me, pulling at my arms and
legs. “Let go!” I snapped.
    “Ms. Sandra, please give our Corrine something to ease her
mind.”
    “No please!” I cried. “Let me go home! I want to go home!”
    I screamed. I fought. I cried. To them, it didn’t matter.
    It was all the same. Deception. Once again, I had fallen for
it. Once again, the darkness came.
    I woke to a wild sound. It was a deep and unsteady sound,
like a beating heart. I couldn’t move. The world was a blur. A blinding light
blazed from above. The smell of iron was in the air. I looked down at myself,
my body strapped down inside some glass-like tube. I wasn’t alone. There were
voices. I could hear them whispering.
    “How is the analysis?”
    “All positive. She is very healthy,” a voice responded.
    I tried moving again, struggling against the metal straps
holding me down, and as my vison finally cleared, I screamed.
    “Dear God, she’s awake! Stop the procedure!”
    My arms and legs were sawed open, the skin peeled back over
bone and flesh. So was my chest. I could see my heart. I could see it pulsing
between my lungs. The surrounding tendons were stripped back, and the reddish
muscle kept beating, and pounding, and beating.
    “What is this!?” I screamed. “Let me out of here! Let me
out!”
    “Issue Proloxy 7 now!”
    “Not with this one. Dr. Gerald has decided to test Gene-Nome
1 on this subject.”
    This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. “Let me out!” I
cried.
    “But eighty percent of our recruits have been exterminated
due to the effects of Gene-Nome 1. The other twenty percent are unsustainable.”
    “This one is different. Issue Gene-Nome 1 or I will relieve
you from your position.”
    The smell, the smell was sickening. I couldn’t take the
smell.
    “Yes, sir. Now issuing Gene-Nome 1.”
    From the bottom of the tube, several wires hooked my arms
and legs. They continued upwards, and with one quick strike, they dug into my
flesh, drilling to the bone.
    There was pain, there was misery, and there was blood,
spraying everywhere against the glass.
    “Issue Blue 15 now!”
    Suddenly, the cylinder flipped upright. Blue liquid rushed
into the container, filling the capsule to the ridge. I panicked as it leveled
over my head. “She’ll suffocate. We need to halt the procedure.”
    “We have other test subjects if this one dies.”
    I couldn’t breathe.
    “Yes, but shouldn’t we at least...”
    What is this?
    “Ms. Sandra, end your sympathy if you wish to continue
working in this lab.”
    This wasn’t real.
    “Yes, Dr. Gerald.”
    I was drowning. The pain twisted low in my chest. Then came
the fire. It ripped straight through me. My body jerked and turned.
    Everything was fading. I was numb. I couldn’t feel. I
couldn’t see. The numbness took me. It whisked me to the dark recesses of my
mind until the person I was became someone I would never be again.
    The journey was dark. My memories gathered there in the
blackest of space. They flashed before me, each one vanishing into a realm of
forgetfulness.
    Mother was there, singing me to sleep. Fern was there too,
laughing and decorating my hair with braids. I watched the blurred memory of my
father slip away as well. I reached out for him, but the dark battled against
me. It lured me into the unknown, where the past