In the After

share her pain. Vivian hugged back and when we pulled away she gave me a small smile.
    “You’d be surprised how many of these people of science go to chapel every Sunday. People who aren’t even religious, they just want a quiet place to pray.”
    “I’m not surprised, it being the end of the world and all.”
    “I don’t think it’s really the end, you know. Just something new,” Vivian said.
    “I hope you’re right,” I told her.
    • • •
    “I feel very positive about this.” I hear Dr. Thorpe say, somewhere in the room. My body and head are secured; I can only see the ceiling .
    “How many treatments before we can hope to see signs of recovery?” comes another, older voice. Dr. Samuels .
    “It truly depends on the patient,” Dr. Reynolds says. My stomach drops at the sound of his voice. “With some, there is noticeable progress after one session. Some take more than twenty, and some never improve at all.”
    “And the memory loss?” Dr. Thorpe asks. “What are the chances that Ms. Harris will be affected? She was very concerned about that when I spoke with her.”
    “Retrograde amnesia can be a side effect. So can cognitive impairment and death. No treatment is without risk.”
    I hear footsteps and the hum of a machine. I open my mouth to protest and something is placed in it. It’s rubbery and smells like old leather. Dr. Reynolds’s head appears above my face for a moment. He licks his lips, a look of pure joy in his eyes. “Let’s begin,” he says loudly .
    The pain hits me like a lightning bolt and my entire body seizes. Every nerve, every synapse is on fire. I am burning from the inside out. I bite down on the piece of leather in my mouth, wishing that I were dead, that the excruciating agony would stop. Anything to make it stop. When I lose consciousness, I welcome it. The darkness will end the torture. The blackness is a relief .
    • • •
    “Keep your focus,” Marcus yelled at me.
    “Watch your back!” Gareth shouted.
    “Where is your head today?” Kay spit.
    They were watching me fight three of the Elite Eight, who had been instructed to behave like Floraes. That meant they would run at me at top speed and try to slice me with their knives. Not the rubber-tipped knives I trained with at first, but real ones with sharp, shiny metal blades.
    I felt someone stab at my back, and it could only be Jenny, because I had the two boys in my sights.
    I thought wearing the synth-suit’s hood would hurt my hearing and obstruct my vision. The hood is attached to the back of the suit, but you can pull it down over your face where it fastens seamlessly to the neck material with a strong, Velcro-like fastener. It’s as strong as the rest of the suit, but so thin, it didn’t hinder my senses at all. It amazed me that the concept for this started in our class. Vivian was a genius.
    I heard Jenny approach again at a run from behind and I crouched down low at the last second. Kay taught me that trick. Jenny tripped over me and fell on her side. I pushed her on her back and traced my knife across her neck. According to the rules, she was dead. We learned that if you were going to fight a Florae with a knife, your best bet was to slit its throat, sever its spinal cord. Stabbing it anywhere else would just piss it off.
    I backed away from Jenny, who played dead on the ground. Nick and Rob didn’t waste any time rushing me, taking me down. They stabbed at my face and torso. Now I was dead. They backed away and Jenny got to her feet. She pulled up her hood.
    “Not bad.” She smiled.
    I pulled up my hood, feeling a little disappointed in myself but also frustrated with the setup. “You know, this is completely unrealistic,” I told them.
    “Don’t be a sore loser,” Nick said. He hadn’t taken off his hood, so I couldn’t see his expression.
    “No. If you all were Floraes,” I explained, “I’d have been dead in five seconds. But if I had managed to kill the Jenny Florae, you two would have been on her instantly, and I could have made my escape . . . or killed you both while you were feeding. I mean, you capture the Floraes, right? Don’t you study them? Learn how they behave?”
    There was silence as Kay and Marcus exchanged an uncomfortable look.
    “Amy, can I speak with you?” Kay said quietly.
    I walked over to them with my head held high, though I really wanted to hunch over and stare at the floor.
    “How do you know that we capture the Floraes?” Marcus