“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” I say.

“I’m s’posed to call a medic drone if something like this happens.”

“Jacob, I’m okay, I promise.”

He sighs. “If you’re sure, Inmate 9-70-981.”

“Oh, it’s 9-70-981 again, is it?” I say, laughing. “What happened to Luka?”

“I was panicking,” he tells me. “I’m not s’posed to call you by your real name.”

I can feel my strength coming back now, feel the exhaustion ebbing away.

“Well, if you’re all right, I need you to lie down on the bed. I have a schedule that I need to stick to. If I’m late again I’ll be in trouble.”

“Yeah,” I say. “I understand.”

I get to my feet—it takes enormous effort after the harvest robbed me of all my energy, but I can already feel my power coming back. I can feel my body healing itself, every micro-tear in the fibers of my muscles, every strained tendon and every scratch. This is a new feature, a piece of Alt tech in my body causing me to heal at inhuman speed. We all have this ability now, all the inmates from the Loop and the Block—this way they can reuse our energy over and over again. We are the rechargeable batteries that power the machines that will end humanity. They heal our bodies with tech and keep us from going crazy with the Sane Zone.

I stand beside the bed and turn back to Jacob. I’m still completely naked, and yet unperturbed by that fact, conditioned by now not to care. I don’t move, just stare at him.

“You have to lie down, Luka,” he tells me.

“So they can paralyze me?”

“Well … yes.”

“Can you imagine that? Can you imagine what this is like? Every day I go through agonizing pain and then unbearable loneliness and fear.”

“Everyone has to sacrifice for the good of humanity—”

“Humanity?” I interrupt, and laugh. “Is that what they’ve been telling you? They’re lying.”

“Galen Rye is ensuring the safety of the survivors, and I need to—”

“Galen Rye sold his soul to save himself,” I interrupt.

“Please, Luka, I’m just tryin’ to get me and my family into the Arc. I’m not a Tier One, I have to earn my place. I don’t like this but I don’t have a choice! What would you do? If I let you go, they’ll kill us both.”

I sigh and look directly into the young soldier’s eyes. “I know, you’re only doing what you have to do to survive, but listen to me, Jacob, they are not going to let you live. They think of humans as a virus, and they can’t let even one of us survive. They plan on eradicating everyone.”