Chapter 1

The rotor wash from the FEMA helicopter was a physical blow, trying to shove me off the rooftop. Below, Los Angeles was a symphony of screams and collapsing concrete. This was it, the final bird out.

My team, the people I' d saved, were already clambering aboard. All except one.

Matthew, my boyfriend, stood blocking the rooftop access door, a pistol gripped in his hand. His face was a mask of desperate resolve.

"We are not leaving without Molly," he stated, his voice barely audible over the chopper and the chaos.

"Matt, she' s not coming," I yelled, my voice raw. "The comms are dead, the building is surrounded. We have to go now!"

"No! I promised her. We wait."

This was my first life. In that life, I argued, I pleaded. I saw the pilot giving me the final signal, the swarm of "Shakers" scaling the lower floors. I made a choice. I pulled the tranquilizer gun from my thigh holster, a tool for handling panicked civilians, and shot him in the neck.

He crumpled, and my medic, a former National Guard named Davis, helped me drag his dead weight onto the chopper. I left Molly to her fate. I told myself it was for the greater good.

We made it to the Green Zone in Arizona. Years passed. I rose through the ranks, my knowledge of geology and the Shaker parasite making me invaluable. I was about to lead a massive operation to reclaim the West Coast.

The night before, Matthew found me in my quarters. He brought me a drink. He never forgave me.

"For us," he said, his eyes holding a chilling emptiness I hadn't seen before.

I drank it. The drug was fast, powerful. My limbs went numb, my vision blurred. He dragged me, just as I had dragged him years ago. He pulled me to the perimeter wall, a sheer drop into the Shaker-infested darkness.

His last words echoed in my ears as he pushed me over.

"Molly deserved to live. Now you get to feel what she felt."

The fall was terrifying. The impact was final.

Then, I blinked.

The rotor wash was a physical blow. The screams were deafening. Matthew was standing in front of the rooftop door, pistol in hand.

"We are not leaving without Molly," he said.

I was back. I was on the rooftop, on the day of the evacuation. This time, I knew everything. And this time, I would make a very different choice.