“I know,” I said. The act of speaking made my chest kind of hurt. I felt like I’d been coughing a lot, or had a pressure on my chest that had been relieved, but that I hadn’t fully adjusted to. “I kind of defined the loose idea.”

“Oh,” she said. “You’re going to be groggy and dehydrated. Drink.”

She had a water bottle.

I had a million questions, but I put them aside. I drank. As I did, I swung my legs over the side of the bed.

“They recommend resting for twenty minutes before standing. Adjust, let your heart rate creep up to normal. Your legs will be shaky, and I can’t guarantee I can lift you back onto the bed if you fall.”

I eased myself to a standing position, relying on flight to get myself upright again.

“How many are awake?” I asked.

“A handful. We’re going in the same general order that was established before. The first people to accept the treatment will be the first to awaken.”

“Okay. Thank you,” I told her.

“You really shouldn’t stand, or…”

“Or fly?” I asked. “I’ll manage. I need to get on top of things. I need to make sure this went okay.”

“But—”

“I’ll manage,” I told her. “Really. Thank you.”

Kenzie was a concern. There were others. Too many swords of Damocles had been hanging in the sky, poised to drop on us.

“What about your things?”

I turned to look.

My stuff was sitting beside the bed. Costume top, crusty with blood. Armor. Decorations. I’d changed just before settling in.

“I could bring them with me,” the woman said. “I’ve got four more people to check on around here.”

I used flight to help me bend over, and the act of straightening still made all the blood rush to my head. Not something I was used to, when my power normally made me immune. I gathered it up in my arms.

“I got it. Thank you again,” I told her.

She smiled tightly, and then she nodded.

I paused, then turned. “Do you want any of this? Some of it’s bloody and gross, but like…”

I pulled the hood decoration free. The only decoration where none of the spikes had broken off.

She took it.

I opened the door, pulling on a spare coat I’d left behind in the headquarters, and I let myself into the hallway, where a cold wind breezed in through a part of wall that was missing.

I flew out through the hole, over the crack in reality. When I looked at the crystal below, I could see the flashes, the light and the darkness. But there was no red glow. No feeling of danger.

That was just… activity. Scrambling. Mess.

If they wanted us, they would have to start from scratch. Too much of the old data would be too hard to use or reuse, or extrapolate from.