I rush past them, through the doorway to the perimeter of the room, scanning the bodies lying there. Their mouths are duct-taped, their wrists handcuffed to the metal bars of their cage. Every single DNA parent and original wears some kind of regulation burlap shirt and pants, tied at the waist with string. They’re barefoot and thin, lying on coarse mats on the hard floor. I have to bite my lip so I don’t get sick; Gravelle’s been treating them like animals all these months. Worse. All I want to do is release them, but I can’t. I’m not inside the cage, but merely on the outskirts of it. I couldn’t free them if I wanted to.

Beside me, Maude is trying to pry the bars apart with her extraordinary strength, but they don’t move. She’s strong, but not strong enough to bend the thick metal.

“Emma!” I hear Maude scream. I glance behind me just in time to see three guards charging me. Maude’s warning doesn’t come soon enough. They grab me.

I struggle against them, but it’s no use; I can’t fight them all off. The next thing I know, a gun’s being fired, two of the guards release me, and Pippa charges the third, who lets go of my arm. I flee, toward the far end of the cage.

“Emma?” says a voice. I squint into the dimly lit pen and see him standing there in front of me, wearing that same burlap uniform and gripping the bars of the cage from the inside, his eyes looking unfocused and confused.

It’s him. It’s really Ollie.

If I could, I’d fling my arms around him, not caring about anything but feeling him, solid, for the first time in months. He looks so frail, like he’s barely eaten the last hundred days. My eyes roam over his face, that familiar face that’s been my lifeline since we were kids. “I thought I’d lost you again.” I choke out the words. I can’t believe he’s here, in front of me. Our only barrier is those bars.

“You didn’t,” he whispers, his eyes glistening with tears. I feel our connection even as the world falls to pieces around us. “You won’t. Ever.”

“Promise?” I breathe.

“Promise.”