In the After

stopped the bullets . . . but it hurts. . . .” He coughed loudly. “Hurts like hell.” He gingerly rubbed his chest and then tried unsuccessfully to stand. I helped him get to his feet and let him lean on me, supporting most of his weight.

“He okay?” Kay asked, pulling off her hood as she jogged over.

“I’m just peachy.” Gareth’s attempt to smile turned into a pained grimace.

Kay looked at me. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“I know. I wanted to help. . . . Are the Floraes secure?” They’d quieted down since the gunshots.

“Yes, as long as they’re wearing that headgear. How did you know which direction the trucks were coming from?”

There was no reason not to trust them, but I noticed Marcus hovering nearby. I motioned with my eyes toward him.

Kay understood my hesitation. “Marcus,” she yelled, “you and the Elite Eight should do a quick run of the perimeter. Make sure it’s secure.” Marcus glared at her, but grunted an affirmative. After he’d gone, Kay turned back to me expectantly.

“It was Baby,” I said at last. “She has extra-sensitive hearing.”

“She heard the trucks?” Gareth asked, unbelieving. He winced slightly. “From halfway across New Hope?” I nodded. “Honey, that’s not extra sensitive, that’s supersonic.”

I watched their faces nervously, hoping I hadn’t made a mistake.

“Don’t worry,” Kay said, “we won’t tell your mother.”

“Why would my mother care?” I asked uneasily.

Kay and Gareth gave each other a look. “Believe me, this is something you do not want her to know. She would incorporate Baby into her Florae research.”

My blood ran cold. “What? Why?”

Kay frowned. “Listen, Amy, your mother only sees what’s good for New Hope.”

I swallowed hard, pushing down my sudden anxiety. I was still shaking my head slightly.

Kay reached past me, guiding Gareth to lean on her, relieving me of his weight. “You’d better hustle so you can get back before the director notices you’re gone,” Kay told me. “I’ll wait a few minutes to report in.”

I gave Kay and Gareth a curt nod before I took off at full speed. When I reached my building, I hurriedly climbed up the fire escape and frantically changed into my jumpsuit on the roof. I quickly shoved my dark clothes and gun back into the bag. I barely had time to stash it before my mother appeared on the roof.

“I guess everything went well,” I said, trying not to look nervous or guilty.

My mother studied me. “Everything is fine, Amy. You shouldn’t worry about it. Trust me.”

I smiled weakly, unsure. Kay warned me not to trust her. My own mother. Unconvinced, Baby and I followed her downstairs.

The next morning, I caught my mother before she left for work. “What’s going to happen to Amber?” I asked. “Where’s her gang?”

“Amber was released. The others were taken care of,” she said, closing her computer before I could see the screen.

“Were they sent to the Ward?”

“The Ward is where citizens can go to get the help they need,” she said irritably. “It’s not for criminals.”

“Then were they expelled?” I asked, confused. What punishment would releasing them be when they already survived so well in the After?

“No,” my mother muttered, annoyed. She didn’t want to tell me.

“What about Paul, Amber’s brother? Is there any chance he’ll be released?”

“No,” she said with finality. My mother wanted the conversation over.

“Can’t you rehabilitate them?” I pressed. “There’s got to be some work they can do for the community, some way they can contribute even if they aren’t freed.”

“No, Amy, there is no chance that any of them will live in New Hope.”

“Why not?” I demanded, refusing to back down.

She turned to me and sighed. “Because they’re dead. All of them,” she told me quietly.

I looked at her, shocked.

“Dr. Reynolds and I . . .” She rubbed her temples. “Sometimes the people in charge have to make difficult decisions.”

“Spare me the rhetoric,” I sneered.

“Would you rather they were let loose on New Hope? Can you imagine the damage?” She tried to defend herself.

I shook my head, sickened. “But you let Amber go.”

“Dr. Reynolds will keep her under close observation. He said that she might eventually fit in here.”

“Did he?” I asked angrily. “And is he the one who decided the others should die or was that you?”

“Amy, I . . .” She moved toward me and tried to hug me, but I shook her off.

“Dad protested against things he thought were wrong, like capital punishment.” I glared at her. “How do you think he would have felt about this? About New Hope’s policies? About forced psychiatric evaluations?”

“It’s different when you’re responsible for the last members of the human race. We don’t have the luxury of your father’s kind of thinking now.”

“It doesn’t help our numbers to sacrifice them.”

“We collected their genetic material first. . . . We need a cohesive community here. It’s essential.”

I looked at my mother in disgust and rushed out of the apartment, repulsed by her clinical detachment about what anyone else would call murder.

* * *

Rice hasn’t come to visit for a while—I think it’s been days—and there hasn’t been any word from Kay or Gareth. I try not to show my fear, but I’m becoming more and more nervous. I have trouble sleeping and Dr. Thorpe has commented on the dark circles under my eyes.

I try to keep my mind busy. I watch the doctors, the nurses, the orderlies. I wonder which of them really think they’re helping us, and which know our treatment is an act.

I also study the other patients. There are thirty on my floor. I sit in the common room and wonder what they each did to be put in here. I change seats to sit next to Amber. She doesn’t acknowledge my presence.

“Amber?” When she still doesn’t move, I go on. “I saw you the other day.”

She continues to stare forward. I put my hand on her shoulder, take her head with my other hand, and turn her toward me. Her eyes are blank, unseeing. The side of her head is shaved, revealing a long row of stitches. I drop my hands, horrified.

“Oh, Amber.” I feel like I’m going to be sick. Breathing heavily, I place my cold hands on my flushed face. I can’t get enough air and feel faint. I begin to hyperventilate, but make myself slow my breathing, desperately trying to remain calm.

When I’ve composed myself, I look again at Amber. A glob of drool gathers at the corner of her mouth, and I use my sleeve to wipe it away. “I’m so sorry that this happened to you,” I tell her.

I hated Amber for so long, but now I only pity her. She was just trying to survive. No one should suffer this. No one deserves to be forced into oblivion.

* * *

“Did you know?” I asked Kay. I’d waited for her all day to come back from her secret mission, which was most likely making sure there were no more gangs in the surrounding area, ready to pounce on New Hope. I finally caught her in the locker room.

“Hello to you, too.” Her voice lacked its normal bite and when she looked at my face, she dropped the sarcastic tone altogether. “I didn’t know what they were going to do with them, no.”

“It’s barbaric,” I spit.

“It’s necessary.” Kay looked around the Rumble Room, lowering her voice. “I thought we should detain