Chasing Yesterday #3
Truth
JD can't run from her past any longer. She knows the truth now: that she's dangerous, a weapon. If she can't learn to control her powers, there's no telling what--or who--she'll destroy next. To finally unlock the secrets in her mind, she will have to return to the Institute that created her. But going back won't be easy. Almost nobody goes in...and no one ever gets out.
Her heartbeat stopped.
The green line on the monitor went flat. The dull beeps blended into a long, whining tone. The tubes dripped, the machines wheezed, but the girl--the body--lay still. Her eyes were closed, her skin pale, her lips dry, her lungs empty. One last breath had rattled through her, nearly silent, gasped out just as the monitors announced the end.
There were no alarms.
Two men stood by, one at her head, one at her chest. Each had a small gray device, the size of a calculator. It was all the weapon they needed--or had been, when the girl was alive. Now there was no need for weapons at all.
Seconds ticked by, and the men watched.
White straps pinned her swollen body to the metal table. The sensors taped to her chest and head registered the vital details:
No respiration.
No pulse.
No neurological activity.
No signs of life.
The man by her head checked the clock. The girls had been dead for ninety seconds. He smiled. The clock ticked; the heart monitor continued its whine. Thirty more seconds passed. And the man by her head, the man in charge, nodded.
The other man pulled two paddles from a silver cart. He pressed them flat against her chest and flicked a switch. A bolt of electricity tore through the girl.
The body shuddered.
The high, thin tone droned on; the green line remained flat.
"Again," the man in charge said. The girl had been dead for one hundred and forty seconds.
And again, paddles met flesh, power surged, the body shook.
And again, nothing.
"Again!" the man in charge shouted. "Turn up the power."
"I don't think she--"
"Do it!
The other man followed his orders and turned a dial all the way to the right. He clenched the paddles, breathed deep, and, hands trembling, lay the paddles against her chest.
The body shook and shuddered. Her back arched up, then slammed back against the metal with a dull clang.
Then the whine broke off into a chain of beeps, slow but steady.
And the flat green line turned into a mountain range of peaks and valleys.
And her chest rose as her lungs filled, then fell again as she breathed her first breath.
And the man in charge smiled and strode to the door of the small, windowless room.
"Wait until her vitals stabilize," he ordered, pausing in the doorway. "Then begin again." |
