Four unmarked survivors. One totalitarian government. A fight to keep their humanity intact.
100 years into the future, the E-91 virus has thrust the world into chaos.
For Rachel Wilson, survival hasn't come easy. For the last fifteen years, she's...
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She found it difficult to fall asleep underground.
It had less to do with knowing she was underground and everything to do with the hum of electricity that vibrated in the walls and ceiling.
Back at the compound, it was Jed's soft snoring and the rush of the river that had lulled her to sleep most nights. But here, those familiar sounds were nothing but the ghost of a memory of a life long ago.
Swinging her legs over the bed, she stood and swiped her finger across the glass panel that served as a door to her newly acquired room.
Peering outside, she noticed that every door was set to black for privacy, all except hers.
She couldn't help but wonder if it stemmed from a place of fear.
Maybe despite all the reassurances, she still felt the need to see whoever was coming for her because surely someone still had to be coming for her.
The capital's power, after all, was encompassing.
She drew in a deep, steadying breath, casting thoughts of the capital out of her mind.
Instead, she studied her new home with its sterile, bland walls and brightly lit corridors. It was like staring into the sun on a cloud-filled day, a glimmer of hope among black skies. But to a realist, like herself, maybe it was only just the promise of rain.
Perfect square rooms, like prison cells, lined each end of the room, all stretched out towards infinity.
She made her way until she found the elevator and swiped at it to activate it, feeling her stomach drop with the movement. It was irritating that everything she did was recorded with her fingertip but it was a small price to pay for having a roof over her head, she supposed.
The elevator descended into the lower level.
With a creek, the door opened and deposited her onto what Debra had referred to as the rec room.
In reality, it was a room with glass walls, with a giant couch that wrapped the perimeter of it, with Televisions suspended from several cables on the ceiling.
She dimmed the lights and then sat down on one of the squishy seats.
Footsteps came and went, after all, to get to the kitchenette, you had to cut past the rec room but no one bothered her as the hours went by.
For a long time, all she could think about was the compound.
How much she missed it. How despite the luxuries and technology, this place could never compare to its warmth.
And her chest throbbed at the memory of the compound children, wondering if they too were being hurt like the children in her simulation.
Not to mention that there was so much to turn over in her mind regarding what Abby had told her. Because if it was true, if the country had closed its borders and communication had ceased with the outside world, who knew what lay beyond these shores?
