I stand up, thinking that the aggressive simulation certainly seems a lot like Pander, and then Kina takes my hands. “Luka, this is real, this is not Happy trying to extract information, this is not the Sane Zone. This is happening.”

“Yeah, you would say that,” I mutter.

Kina’s eyes search mine. It hurts too much to look back, so I concentrate on the glass in my arms.

“The first time we ever spoke,” Kina says, “you gave me a book, The Call of the Wild. I thought it was great, but the best one was Never Let Me Go; I loved that book, and a part of me wondered if I was falling in love with you just because you had been so kind to me.”

I stop focusing on the healing wounds of my arms and look up into those beautiful dark eyes. There is silence between us for a moment.

“Don’t do this to me,” I say, my voice cracking. “Don’t make me believe that this is real and then break my heart. I can’t do it again.”

“The first time we met face-to-face,” Kina continues, pulling me to my feet, “was on the station platform while we waited for the Dark Train to take us to a Delay. The guard forgot to close the hatch. It was the first time I had laughed since being imprisoned in the Loop.”

“Can you two hurry this up? We’re on the clock here!” Pander calls from the doorway.

“And the first time we kissed was right out there,” she says, pointing to the corridor outside my room. “That was when I knew I really liked you.”

I look at her, and I dare to believe that maybe I haven’t gone insane. This time I kiss her. And when our lips touch, I know, beyond a doubt, that this is real.

“Romeo, Juliet, enough of the rom-com shit. Let’s move, right now!” Pander hisses at us.

I look to Pander. She looks older than her thirteen years. The hardships she has been through and the horrors she has seen show in her eyes. She has the ax in one hand and a USW rifle in the other. She reaches into the bag on her back and throws a hat and a jumpsuit at me.

“Put these on. I’m already sick of your gross body.”

“Gross?” I say, looking down at my nakedness.

“I don’t like dudes,” she says. “Why am I explaining this? Hurry up!”

I look at the white prison uniform and for a second I’m transported back to my first day in the Loop. I shake it off and climb into the garment. I then pull the hat low over my forehead to hide the Panoptic, a tiny pinhole camera embedded there.

“Okay,” I say, feeling the tide of insanity begin to subside from my mind, “we need to get Woods, Malachai, and Wren,” I say.