Page 38 of Juniper Unraveling

“Ragers. He was out scouting. They attacked the camp. He died saving one of the men.”

Doctor Falkenrath leans forward, entwining his fingers. “The world has no place for heroes anymore. It’s an admirable, but foolish, quality. You’ve played your cards much smarter, Dani.”

His words are a slap that sends a tremor of anger through my blood. All I did was as my mother told me. And everyone else I’ve come in contact with since that day.

“My father is no fool. He wouldn’t have so easily fallen to his knees like me.”

“And yet, here you are.”

Yes. Here I am. “Es mejor la muerte.” Death is better.

“Perhaps it is.” From the drawer beside him, he pulls a cigar and clips the end with a metal object. Stuffing it into his mouth, he lights it and puffs three times. The warm tobacco scent drifts across the room, watering my mouth. “It’s why I don’t feel so bad indulging in the last of these,” he says, lifting the cigar. “How is your brother?” His question catches me off guard. He’s not asked about Abel since offering him the cake.

“Okay, I guess. I think they’re still punishing him, though. He has bruises.”

“Are you certain it’s punishment? Have you examined the bruising?”

I frown at that, setting the book in my lap. “What else would it be?”

“Injections. Bruising from the needles.”

“What kind of injections?”

“There are a number of stimuli they use to reactivate the virus. Anything that might encourage physical, or emotional, stress. Hallucinations.”

Monsters.

“Why are you doing this? Telling me these things. What can I do about it, if it is?”

“My apologies. Your curiosity over his bruises sounded genuine. There’s nothing you can do. He’s part of a study.”

“A study that starves children? Forces them to walk around in their own soiled diapers? One that subjects him to monsters!” Anger courses in my blood, and I shoot to my feet. “What exactly are you studying? How to properly torture a human being?”

Doctor Falkenrath doesn’t move, still casually leaned back in his chair. “For some studies, yes.”

“Why? Why are you doing this to us?”

“Us? As I recall, you’ve not been subjected to any of it.”

A sharp sting hits the rim of my eyes as they fill with tears, and I fall back into the chair. Guilt gnaws at my gut—the same cold guilt I fall asleep with every night in this place, when the screams bleed through the walls. “I would take his place at a moment’s notice.”

“And you would die the moment they learned you’re a girl.”

“I’m going to die, anyway, aren’t I? Eventually?”

“Indifference to death isn’t going to help you here. Learn to be indifferent to pain, and you’ll become invincible. Defiant.”

“Inhuman. No one is invincible.”

His gaze falls to my lap and back. “In your book, had the boy suffered the burden of a brother, or sister, he’d have surely perished.”

I catch a glimpse of the bibles stacked behind him. “And in your book, a man dies on a cross for his people.”

A smile lifts the corner of his lips, but my anger is too at its height to appreciate that it’s one of the first genuine smiles I’ve seen on the man. “Touché. You are a fascinating child, Dani. But for the record, I gave up on that book a long time ago.” He rises from the chair, tapping his cigar into the ashtray on his desk. “I’ll inquire about your brother, but no promises. That’s all I can offer you, for now. Please take the corpse to the incinerator before you head out for lunch.”

* * *

I wheel the body down to the basement, as usual. I’ve made it a point to lift the sheets of the other beds, praying that I won’t come across my brother. Every day, I hold my breath, looking at the mutilated, skeletal bodies, preparing my mind for the day I see my brother’s sleeping face. And now that I know they’ve been injecting him, the knots in my stomach wring tighter than before. In minutes, I make my way to the very front of the lineup, and the doors open, sending a wave of heat and the nauseating stench of burnt flesh.