Doc passed the soul into Ian’s waiting hand, then turned at once to heal the human body.

Ian stared at the silver ribbon in his hand, his face full of wonder rather than revulsion. It felt warmer inside my chest while I watched his reaction.

“It’s pretty,” he whispered, surprised. No matter how he felt about me, he’d been conditioned to expect a parasite, a centipede, a monster. Cleaning up severed bodies had not prepared him for the beauty here.

“I think so, too. Let it slide into your tank.”

Ian held the soul cupped in his hand for one more second, as if memorizing the sight and feel. Then, with delicate care, he let it glide into the cold.

Jared showed him how to latch the lid.

A weight fell off my shoulders.

It was done. It was too late to change my mind. This didn’t feel as horrible as I’d anticipated, because I felt sure these four humans would care for the souls just as I would. When I was gone.

“Look out!” Jeb suddenly shouted. The gun came up in his hands, pointed past us.

We whirled toward the danger, and Jared’s tank fell to the floor as he jumped toward the male Healer, who was on his knees on the cot, staring at us in shock. Ian had the presence of mind to hold on to his tank.

“Chloroform,” Jared shouted as he tackled the Healer, pinning him back down to the cot. But it was too late.

The Healer stared straight at me, his face childlike in his bewilderment. I knew why his eyes were on me—the lantern’s rays danced off both his eyes and mine, making diamond patterns on the wall.

“Why?” he asked me.

Then his face went blank, and his body slumped, unresisting, to the cot. Two trails of blood flowed from his nostrils.

“No!” I screamed, lurching to his inert form, knowing it was far too late. “No!”

CHAPTER 54: Forgotten

CHAPTER 54

Forgotten

Elizabeth?” I asked. “Anne? Karen? What’s your name? C’mon. I know you know it.”

The Healer’s body was still limp on the cot. It had been a long time—how long, I wasn’t sure. Hours and hours. I hadn’t slept yet, though the sun was far up in the sky. Doc had climbed out onto the mountain to pull the tarps away, and the sun beamed brightly through the holes in the ceiling, hot on my skin. I’d moved the nameless woman so that her face would be out of the glare.

I touched her face now lightly, patting the soft brown hair, woven through with white strands, away from her face.

“Julie? Brittany? Angela? Patricia? Am I getting close? Talk to me. Please?”