In the After

necklace,” I said, cutting her off. “Why would a Florae be wearing Vivian’s necklace?”
    My mother let out a long sigh and rubbed her face with her palms. She got up and walked over to the office door, glancing outside before closing and locking it. Then she returned to her desk and settled wearily into her chair. “Vivian didn’t die during that awful incident. Not technically anyway.”
    “The Floraes aren’t aliens, are they?”
    She paused. “No.” My mother looked into my eyes. “Vivian was bitten by a creature and became a creature herself.”
    Minutes passed in silence or perhaps it was only seconds. I reached back toward the wall, grasping for support, trying to process it all.
    My mother looked at me and sighed again. “We were developing a strain of bacteria,” she finally explained. “Something the military commissioned, Dr. Reynolds in fact. They wanted a bug that would impair enemy soldiers without killing them.”
    “Biological warfare,” I said.
    “I wanted to save lives, Amy. The project was supposed to be an end to violence. The soldier would be sick for a few days, then recover completely. Even a short amount of time can give any military a huge advantage.” She was staring intently at me, willing me to understand.
    “What happened?”
    “It wasn’t ready. There were side effects. First it turned our test subjects’ skin green from the phytosterols. A few died before we realized they needed direct sunlight. I modified the bacteria, but then the subjects became incredibly hungry. They craved protein and could not be satiated. I was so close to developing a solution.
    “I sent a sample to our New York office and a young lab assistant broke the slide. He cut his finger. Once it was in his bloodstream, the bacteria took hold and it was the beginning of the end. He turned into a bloodthirsty creature and infected everyone in the lab. It takes only one bite. They infected the city, then the country, then the world.”
    “Why wasn’t there a quarantine?” I asked, my voice weak. “How did it spread so fast?”
    “The bacteria mutated and became airborne. Some people began to show signs of the infection right away, but in others it lay dormant. Do you know how many people you can contaminate in an hour? Someone got through airport security. As soon as that happened, it was over. That’s how it traveled so quickly, why there are so many of them. The airborne strain soon died out, but the original strain remains. Now it can be transmitted by bodily fluids, most usually by saliva.”
    “The creatures, they’re people,” I whispered. I finally allowed myself to say it.
    “No, Amy, not anymore. Once you’re infected, you change; you’re no longer a human. I’ve studied them. Every ounce of humanity disappears.”
    “So it’s all lies.” I regained my voice, raised it forcefully. “How many of those creatures actually got into New Hope and how many were our own citizens? What really happened that night?”
    “It’s not all lies, Amy. Those thugs disabled all the sonic emitters. Using members of their gang as bait, they lured a dozen Floraes into New Hope.”
    “A dozen Floraes? But there were so many people killed.”
    “Some were killed. Most turned, then killed others.”
    I thought back to the first day, sitting alone on the couch, seeing the horror of the Floraes for the first time. “But I saw the ship, the spaceship in Central Park.”
    “That wasn’t a spaceship; that was a new piece of installation art. Some idiot newscaster decided it was a spaceship and that’s how the story spread. We decided it was better to portray the Floraes as an outside threat, not a plague manufactured by the government. The misinformation was a fortunate turn of events. Right now only a select few know the truth, those who can help us in our quest to eradicate the infection.”
    “You did it,” I said, still trying to comprehend what she had told me. “You’re the reason all this happened. You’re the reason Dad died.” She watched me, her eyes full of pain. I glared at her, no longer knowing who she really was, what she was capable of.
    She closed her eyes, exhaling through her teeth. “It was an accident, Amy. None of this was supposed to happen. We’re working on something now that will stop the infection. Don’t you see that’s why I’m here night and day?”
    “A cure?” I asked, daring to hope.
    “We can’t find a cure. We tried to develop an antidote at