Demitria Lunetta - In the End

I want to hate her, but part of me knows she’s telling the truth. She did her best. All the strings she pulled to keep me under Dr. Reynolds’s radar, all the conversations we had about how I needed to fit in to be happy. She was trying to protect me the only way she could.

Still, I can’t help but stay at arm’s length from her. “I only came back for Baby,” I tell her.

“Yes,” she says, a look of fresh pain crossing her face. “Baby. I’ve tried to keep her safe, tried to keep her from him. And that meant acting as though she didn’t matter, as though she were nothing more than an annoyance. I thought having her live in the dorms, distancing her from you, would be enough to keep her under his radar, but . . . one of the minders saw the injection scar on her neck and she was scooped up.”

She’s searching my face. I try to keep it frozen, but I feel my resolve melting.

“I had no idea who she was until then, but Dr. Reynolds is convinced I was keeping her from him. That I knew she was part of the original test group and I didn’t tell him. He began to spread rumors that, after your breakdown and escape, I couldn’t handle the strain. I know he wants me in the Ward.”

“What?”

“He sees me as a threat, Amy. He always has, and now—now he’s just unhinged.”

The idea of my mother—my powerful mother, always in control—thrown into the Ward to be tortured and experimented upon. . . . I just can’t wrap my head around it. “Is he . . . Is he going to do it?”

“Given the opportunity,” she says, “yes, absolutely. But even as mad as he is, he’s kept his political sense, knows not to push too hard too quickly. I’m a public figure, not just to the people of New Hope, but to the researchers. In their eyes, I’m still the director, their leader. If nothing else, it would be a blow to morale to have me committed.” A quiet, desolate laugh escapes her lips. “So I play the political game too. I do what I can—what little I can—to keep him in check while pretending to be on board.”

I’m stunned and terrified in a new way: Now I have my mother’s safety to worry about too. It seems impossible, but it’s true.

“As soon as I could,” she goes on, “I looked at Baby’s blood work and told Dr. Reynolds that I didn’t think she could be useful—it’s the truth; the bacteria that causes the infection has mutated too much. I don’t even know that if she’s bitten again, she would survive. There’s no way to know how she survived the first time. But he didn’t believe me. He thinks I’m trying to sabotage his efforts, as if I’d manipulate my findings just to trip him up.”

Brenna was bitten more recently. . . . Was I right about her being immune to the new strain? If that’s true, then Baby is useless to them. Maybe Ken can find a vaccine analyzing Brenna’s blood. And if that doesn’t work . . . Rice hasn’t been bitten at all. I shake the horrific thought from my head. Would I trade Rice for Baby?

Kay interrupts my horrible thoughts. “The other researchers are unhappy too, right? They must want to get rid of Reynolds.”

“I’m sure many do,” she allows, “but they also know it wouldn’t be easy. And there are others who see what Dr. Reynolds is doing, preserving the human race at any cost, as necessary. I used to be one of them,” she says, then gives her head a shake. “But after they took you . . .” Again I think of Rice. Where does he truly stand?

“But like you say, you’re the director,” Kay cuts in, “their leader, not just another researcher. Surely, you can do something.”

She sighs. “If I ever did have power, it’s all but gone now. Reynolds brought me here from Chicago and made me director, thinking I’d inspire confidence among the citizens. I was non-military and, with my background in bacterial research, the person best suited to find a vaccine. He could hype me as the hope in New Hope. And I did do research work. At the start, I think it made obvious sense to him to bring me in: I’d created the bacteria we were fighting against, after all. But I also made him uneasy, and over these last few months all I do is speak at events, record updates for the news.” She shakes her head. “Now I’m just a talking head. Whatever power I might’ve had, Dr. Reynolds gave me—and, after Amy’s escape, he’s stripped it away.”

“But no one in New Hope knows you’re just a figurehead, do they?” I say. “None of the normal citizens.” After all, everyone in New Hope lives under the haze of the researchers’ lies. “They don’t know that the Floraes are people, or that you’re experimenting on children. They don’t even know how dominated they are by Dr. Reynolds.”

I remember my talks with Dr. Reynolds, my psyche-eval. He wants New Hope to be perfect, but his version of perfection. No room for dissent or discussion. When the bacteria were released, he saw it not as a nightmarish tragedy, but as his opportunity to remake humanity according to his vision. He’s manipulated every aspect of New Hope, using his background in psychology to prey on people’s fears and make them blindly follow him. The last thing he wants is for people to know the truth.

“You should tell everyone in New Hope,” I say quietly to my mother. “You should confess everything.”

My mother shakes her head slowly. “Amy, no. Even if Reynolds didn’t immediately silence me, it would do no good. It would only upset the general population.”

“Well, it’s time they were upset.” I look into my mother’s eyes. “It’s time they knew the truth. All of it. The Floraes, the research, the Ward.”

My mother is still unconvinced. “I don’t think—”

“Then people could decide for themselves,” I say, my voice shaking with anger. I’m so sick of the lies, the cover-ups.

“Decide what , Amy? This isn’t a democracy! It’s as if you think they can just vote Reynolds out.”

“If the people knew the truth, it would rob Dr. Reynolds of some of his power,” Dr. Samuels says from where he’s been standing in the corner of the room, waiting quietly. “It would be a start.”

My mother turns and looks at him, then she swivels back to me.

“I’ve thought about it,” she admits. “But there’s something else. He threatened . . . not in so many words, but he made it clear that if he ever found out I was plotting against him, he’d take Adam away from me. He could do it. He wouldn’t think twice about hurting Adam to control me.”

I think about my little half-brother. He’s only three. Would Dr. Reynolds really take a child? Of course he would. He took me. He took Baby.

“Some of the researchers and I have talked around the issue. They’re as alarmed as I am by Dr. Reynolds. But everyone is so careful. No one wants to be sent to the Ward. I have to be careful, too. For Adam.”

“What would you do?” I ask. “If you weren’t so afraid.”

“I’d distribute my current lab notes. They’re damning enough on their own. But I’d also release the records that would expose that I created the bacteria, that the Floraes are people. But, Amy: What do you expect people to do with that information?”

Again Dr. Samuels speaks up, this time more forcefully. “You could do more than simply release the information. You could set it all out for them, tell them what it all means, what’s really been going on here. And you could put yourself forward as an alternative to Reynolds.”

My mother laughs hollowly at this. “A coup, Dr. Samuels?”

He nods, his mouth set in a firm line. “Precisely. You’re the only person in a position to influence one . . . and we have a secret weapon.”

All eyes turn to me. “What?” I ask, not understanding.