Annika counters my resistance with a gentle voice. “If I’m not your friend, then what am I?”
“Someone I’m not sure I can trust,” I say honestly.
She nods slowly, absorbing my frustration like she knows it’s warranted. Like I’m not the first person to react badly to their welcome methods. “I know it might be difficult to believe right now, but I mean you no harm. And despite what you might think of our protocol, I would very much like to be your friend one day. So perhaps we could start with a simple handshake and see where we go from there?”
Something tells me it’s the best offer I can hope for, so I take her hand.
A smile spreads across her face. “Nami, is it?” she asks, and I nod. “Welcome to the Colony. We’re very happy to have you here with us.”
Footsteps creak across the uneven floorboards, and Ahmet appears beside her, followed by Theo and Shura.
If everything they’ve told me about the Residents is true, then I’m far safer here than I would be on my own. It doesn’t exactly make me feel better about getting stabbed in the heart, but for the sake of finding common ground, it might be worth keeping in mind.
“We’re relieved you’re not a Rezzie,” Theo says with a laugh, pushing a hand through his mess of toffee curls.
“I’m sorry my mom had to stab you.” Shura scrunches her freckled nose. “Please don’t hate me for not warning you.”
I cast my eyes between her and Annika, not quite understanding the relation.
Annika looks amused. “Many people in Infinity adopt new families. It helps us make sense of this world a bit more—makes it feel more like home.”
“And when you spend a hundred lifetimes with someone, they start to feel like family anyway,” Shura adds, smiling at her adoptive mother.
I motion toward their clothes. Toward everything around me. “Most of this stuff looks modern. A hundred lifetimes would practically put you in the Stone Age. So unless one of you turns out to be a real-life Flintstone, I don’t understand how that’s possible.”
“Time operates differently here,” Ahmet says. “There isn’t such a thing as time at all, technically. Our existence is permanent. What we perceive as the passing of time in Infinity has no relation to what’s happening in the living world. Weeks for us could be seconds for them, or it could be years. There’s no science to it, no formula. Our timelines exist separately.”
“So for my family…” My voice trails off as I try to piece together what he’s saying.
“They may not even know you’re dead yet, or they may have lived another twenty years. The only thing we know for sure is that when you’ve been here awhile, it feels…” Ahmet twists his mouth, searching for the right words.
“Like a hundred lifetimes,” Theo and Shura finish in unison, glancing at each other with matching grins. A sign of a very long friendship.
“Which is why,” Annika continues, “it feels like we’ve been waiting for you for quite some time.”
The room falls quiet, and I realize everyone is staring at me. Even Gil, though his gaze is much more accosting.
“A Hero,” Ahmet says, standing straighter.
I’m shaking my head and waving my hands all at once. “No, you’re wrong. I am not a Hero.” I cut my eyes toward Annika. “I know what happened—how I died. But one rush of adrenaline does not a hero make. I’m terrified of spiders, for crying out loud. So if this is some Chosen One moment, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but you’ve got the wrong person.”
Everyone bursts out laughing. Even Gil’s scowl has twisted into a smirk.
My cheeks burn. Clearly I’ve said something ridiculous.
Annika smiles warmly and waves a hand across the rest of the room. “You are no more chosen than we are. We’re all Heroes here. It’s what Queen Ophelia fears the most—what she fears will be her ruin. Because every human story has a hero.” She takes a step closer. “Being a Hero in Infinity just means that we’re still aware; it’s what makes us a threat to the Residents. Because as long as we exist, humans still have a chance. We can still fight.”
I stumble through my thoughts. “So I’m—I’m not special, or anything like that.”
Annika’s face softens. “You don’t have to be special to be important. There are so few of us left; sticking together is how we survive.” She glances around the room. “The Colony makes it a priority to try to save as many people from Orientation as we can, though it’s been a long time since a human stayed aware long enough to see our call.”
I remember the lights in the room, urging me to follow them. To show me the way.
“That was you?” I ask breathily.
She smiles. “That was Ahmet, our best engineer. He’s quite handy with tweaking the foundations of Infinity.”
Ahmet runs a hand against his neck. “I’ve always been good with computers, I suppose.”
I glance at Theo, remembering how he knocked those vehicles out of the sky, and then at Shura, who hid us beneath a veil long enough to get us to safety.
My eyes flick to Gil. I wonder what his abilities are, and if they’re as dangerous as Theo’s.
I look down at my own hands, trembling slightly beneath the overhead lights.
Does this mean I have powers too?
The thought fizzles quickly. Because I don’t feel powerful. I feel like I’m falling through the sky, frantic and alone and bracing for the inevitable impact.
I feel my O-Tech watch like a phantom grasp closing over my wrist, and I’m ashamed that my instinct is to ask Ophelia for help. I relied on her so much. Maybe more than I should have. And I don’t feel her loss the way I feel the loss of my family and Finn, but I feel her absence. It’s like being stranded in the middle of nowhere and discovering you forgot your cell phone.
She was my safety net, and now, according to the Colony, she’s the reason I’m in danger.
I ball my fists. They say information is power, but I no longer have access to Ophelia’s knowledge. I can’t reach her with a voice command. All I can ever know is what these people tell me.
All I have is trust, which I’m still not sure they deserve.
Beyond that, I’m just a girl who ended up at a gas station at the wrong time on the wrong night because I was afraid of letting a bunch of half-drunk teenagers down. That isn’t a superpower—it’s a faulty personality trait.
Everyone is still watching me, waiting for me to speak. They may have seen my dreams, but they don’t know me. Not really. And yet they risked the safety of the Colony to save me from the Residents.
So maybe trust is all they have too.
“Why am I here?” I ask slowly, bringing my eyes back to Annika’s. “What do you want from me?” It’s not an accusation. I just want to know.
Because if they’re saving people, it’s for a reason. There must be an endgame—a purpose to all of this.
Annika tilts her head, her eyes a luminous amber. She doesn’t hesitate. “We’re going to find a way to kill Queen Ophelia and take back Infinity. And when that day comes, we hope you’ll be ready to fight with us.” She pauses, letting her words sink in. “But for now? All we want you to do is survive.”