And that’s when it hits me: I remember everything. I’m not suffering from future shock—which means I’m not the killer and we’re all still in danger. I can’t tell if I’m relieved or even more scared now, knowing it isn’t me. Mostly, I feel like I’m going to throw up.

“You all did such a great job,” Lynne says. “We know you must be tired, but we have to send you to medical quickly to make sure you’re okay, and then we’ll debrief you. We want to know about everything you saw in the future.”

“Please follow me,” Dr. Kapur says, suddenly at my side. He herds me like a sheep into the elevator. The others are split up too, following scientists in different directions. Chris shoots daggers at me with his eyes, but I don’t see Adam anywhere.

In the elevator I lean against the walls, clutching my side and trying to breathe. Time must have finally caught up to me, because I feel like I could sleep for days. Hell, maybe I should after this is all over. Assuming I’m still alive, that is.

A part of me can’t believe I’m in the present again. Everything I experienced in the last twenty-four hours, everything I saw and heard and lived through, hasn’t actually happened yet. And yet it feels just as real as this moment now.

I limp into the medical area and the nurses descend on me, taking my blood pressure, draining my blood, and checking my heartbeat. I barely notice any of it. I rub my eyes, trying to snap out of the daze I’m in, but it’s like I’ve been drugged or something. Is this future shock? I still remember everything, but the world around me is just a little bit fizzy, like I can’t quite grasp on to it. Like my brain is out of sync. But maybe I’m just exhausted.

The nurses cluck at my ankle and aching ribs, taking x-rays of both. There’s nothing broken, so they wrap me in bandages and give me some pain meds. None of them ask me what happened.

When they finish, I’m carted off for an MRI scan so they can study my brain. I understand now why they’re doing all this. They want to see if I’m messed up like the other people who went to the future. But I already know the brain scans will come back normal.