𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐬𝐭

14

I traced my fingers over the indentation below it, a black snake with its jaw unhinged, curling around an olive branch. "I think this is it."

Allison nodded, checking her watch. "Four minutes or less."

I cursed under my breath as I pointlessly searched through my hair for a pin that wouldn't even get past the thick locks, but Allison was already moving past the door and towards a dark mirror, which I realized was a one way glass. It wasn't until she stepped back until I realized what she was planning to do.

I moved away from the glass as Allison twisted and threw her foot into the center of the mirror.

It shattered into a million tiny shards, falling like water to the floor. For a moment, I was frozen, watching the glass, but the shrill sound of an alarm willed me to move and jump through the opening.

At first, everything was dark. Then Allison flicked a light on, and we saw it.

Rows upon rows upon rows of cells, all filled with pale, glassy- eyed civilians. They looked exactly like what I had seen all those years ago, in the square.

The mind control is killing them.

Killing the governor.

That's why they took Joanne. They thought she would help heal him, since she's resistant.

But what's different about her than the rest of us? Why release us outside the border, if we could be the solution?

The alarm faded to a faint ringing in my ears as thousands of thoughts swarmed around my skull. I was completely numb- I felt nothing, even when Executives came and grabbed us and dragged us away. They could never erase what we had seen.

Eden is not the garden. Eden is the snake.