There are two other girls on the far side of the room that I think I also might recognize from school. I am pretty sure the one with the red curls under a bandanna and freckles is named Elise. She started at school right before my mom’s accident, in the middle of the year. Cassie told me later that Elise had gotten in trouble for stealing huge boxes of Trident gum from the Rite Aid and reselling them at school. Cassie also told me Elise was a transgender girl, pleased to be in the circle of people who were first trusted with that information.

Dr. Haddox’s phone rings then, startling me. “Ah, I’m sorry,” he says, digging in his pocket for it. “This is Dr. Cornelia. I called him earlier to tell him what happened to you. I should speak with him.”

“But please, check again about my friend, too. Jasper Salt is his name.”

Dr. Haddox nods. “I’ll do everything I can.”

And then he steps way out of earshot as if it’s not at all suspicious that he doesn’t want me to hear his conversation with Dr. Cornelia.

I don’t doubt Dr. Haddox is well intentioned. But wanting to believe you are doing the right thing does not actually make it so. And I may not know exactly what is going on here—where it starts or where it ends—but I feel certain that Dr. Cornelia being involved is a very bad thing. For all of us.

It isn’t until Dr. Haddox steps back out the doors he came in that I notice the two large, muscular men standing on either side of another set of doors across the room. These have a small window in each. Doors to the outside or the main section of the hospital. The men are wearing dark, fitted uniforms with lots of pockets, and they’re staring straight ahead. They seem armed, though I don’t actually see any weapons.

A couple of the girls have noticed me—the girl with the bright-red lipstick from Gideon’s school looks especially intrigued. And I feel anxious—the regular old, Outlier-unrelated kind—with their eyes on me. Though, as was true when I raced after Cassie, trying to get my footing in this emergency, five-alarm situation is keeping the worst of my anxiety drowned out.

Apart from the two girls watching TV together, everyone else is keeping their distance from one another. Actually, the rest of the girls seem completely separate and alone. Unhappy, but also not terrified.