Chapter 2

The team was in a full-blown panic. Davis, my medic, was screaming at Matthew.

"Are you insane? We have thirty seconds before that pilot leaves us for dead!"

"Shut up, Davis! We wait for Molly!" Matthew brandished the pistol, waving it at the rest of the team.

The pilot' s voice crackled over my headset, a final, desperate plea. "Dr. Clarkson, I can' t hold! I have to lift off!"

In my first life, this was when I tranquilized him. This time, I held up a hand, a gesture of calm that shocked everyone into silence. I walked towards Matthew, my face a carefully constructed mask of understanding.

"He' s right," I said, my voice steady and clear.

The entire team stared at me as if I' d just sprouted a second head.

"What?" Davis gasped.

I put a hand on Matthew' s arm. "We' re a team. We don' t leave people behind. We' ll wait."

Matthew looked at me, his frantic eyes softening with a flicker of surprise and gratitude. He lowered the pistol slightly. "See? Gabby gets it."

The team was horrified, but my authority, combined with Matthew' s armed insistence, was enough. They backed away from the chopper, their faces a mixture of betrayal and fear.

As if on cue, the rooftop door burst open. Molly Fuller stumbled through, dragging a massive, ridiculously impractical Louis Vuitton duffel bag. Her makeup was smeared, but her hair was perfect.

"Oh my god, you guys waited!" she squealed, completely oblivious to the tension. "I couldn' t just leave my stuff, you know?"

At that exact moment, the world lurched violently. A massive aftershock, stronger than any we' d felt so far, tore through the city. The last defensive barricade at the base of the building crumbled with a deafening roar.

The pilot on the chopper didn' t hesitate. With a final, regretful look, he pulled pitch. The Black Hawk surged into the sky, its sound fading into the cacophony of the dying city.

We were stranded.

The silence on the roof was broken only by the growing, guttural roar of the Shaker horde now pouring into our building' s lobby.