my hand was the one
you reached for; all
throughout the great war.
vicky, nancy, thèrèse and beatrice
the crank, the key, the outcast and the rebel
let the trials begin!
Disoriented and blurry, cold and stiff. Suddenly, she's back in the war, the battle, the bloodshed and crimson clover.
Vicky, who thought that she had lost everything, that her life had gone down into a deep pit of misery and sadness, but now she was rescued, saved by someone who wanted to help her.
She felt the warmth of people's hands as they cared for her, the tightness of the grip holding hers was reassuring. She felt as if she was a child again, being protected and loved and taken care of.
Vicky's world faded to black as she heard her mother's screams piercing her ears. She knew that she was going to die, but she couldn't do anything about it.
The voices of her loved ones, faded in the background, fading just like she was, and then it all went still.
That was the end of Victoria Rosewood.
And then suddenly, she was awakened from her slumber, she could hear the voices of people around her. Her ears no longer filled with the cries of her mom, but the voice of strangers and people who wanted to help her—the non-immune crank who cheated death.
"Stay with us." A voice calls out to her, the voice was concerned and sympathetic, trying to calm her down.
She's struggling to understand what's happening to her. She is unable to recall the pain she felt before, but she could feel something inside her, something is missing, and she can't pinpoint what it is.
Vicky tries to understand the environment she's in. The screaming, the smell of blood, the running footsteps, the flames and the new unfamiliar smell. She realizes that she is in a new place, far away from the Last City. This is not the home she once knew.
The ringing in her ears grows louder and louder, she is struggling to make sense of the chaos around her. She is scared and confused, she is unable to calm down or collect her thoughts.
"Stay with us." The voice is calling out to her again, and she feels a hand on her shoulder.
Vicky felt the hands lower her body onto the wooden table, and suddenly she felt a sharp stab of pain, as if she had been stabbed with a knife. The ringing in her ear grew louder and louder, drowning out the voices around her.
"Keep her awake!"
"Her pulse is dropping."
The voices around her became muffled and blurred, her sight was growing darker and darker. She can't stay awake any longer, she can't fight the urge to fall unconscious anymore.
Vicky was trying to speak, to say that she was awake, that she was here, but she couldn't get the words out.
She was desperate to remember her past, her memories were all blurred and mixed together, and the virus was still infecting her brain and body.
She was slipping back into unconsciousness, she was losing her battle.
She could make out a noise. "Miss, are you okay? Miss? Please answer if you can. Miss? Can you hear me?" A woman's voice called out to her, it was concerned and panicked.
Vicky heard the voice but she had no strength left, she was slipping back into darkness and she couldn't fight it any longer.
She was unable to respond, she was desperate to remember whatever she needed to remember before she was fully consumed again by the darkness.
She ignored their words. She felt close to it—the strange memory pinpointing in her brain. It was just at edge.
Even if she couldn't fully remember what it was, she felt that it was something important to her. She felt like she was close enough that she wouldn't let it slip away so easily.
She ignored everything, the voices around her, the hands on her body, even her own heartbeat as she tried her best to focus solely on that memory.
The word that made her recall the most important person in her life, the person she had been trying to remember, the person she would never forget again:
