Holly glared at her phone as if she could get it to ring. "She's still not answering her phone. Where is she?"

"I don't know maybe she got tied down with military stuff," I answered with a shrug.

"Even if she did, she'd still answer my calls. Especially knowing we're hiding out at her direction. She'd at least text me and let me know what's happening."

She began pacing and I watched her from where I was stretched out on the couch. Despite the pain killers she'd gotten for me, my pain was increasing and they were doing little to keep it at bay. I'd said nothing because I didn't want to worry her. It had been four days since we'd arrived at the cabin and there had been no further contact from her aunt. I could understand how the silence would disturb her.

I sighed and shifted slightly. No good, something in my back was pinching painfully. "Look, we can't do anything if she won't answer the phone. She did tell us to remain hidden so we'll just have to stay where we are." I shifted again with a small sigh. No luck, everything still hurt. Despite the pain, my stomach rumbled and I wondered if Holly would fetch me something to snack on. She'd gone out the second day we were here and done some grocery shopping to stock the kitchen. I wanted to go with but she felt it would be faster if I remained behind and I couldn't argue with her decision. With the pain increasing, I moved even slower than I had when we'd left the hospital.

She grumbled something under her breath, her pacing continuing. "Wait, I can email her! Maybe she can't get on the phone! Her computer is secure though, maybe she can answer an email!" She spun around and vanished down the hallway to where our bedrooms were.

So much for a snack, I thought as I watched her vanish. I assumed there was a computer somewhere in the cabin and she'd return after accomplishing her goal. My eyes slid shut and a sigh escaped. Thanks to my pain I hadn't gotten up the energy to explore much of the cabin, I'd been here on the couch, in the kitchen and the bedroom I was using. Of course, I'd chosen the bedroom closest to the living room. The thought of trekking any further down the hallway was exhausting. Holly informed me that the cabin had five bedrooms, a small home gym, and an office.

"Move your feet."

My eyes popped open to find her standing beside the couch with a laptop beneath her arm. With a groan, I sat up. If someone ever tells you that eyelids don't hurt, I'm telling you now it's a lie. I pointed to the laptop. "What is that thing?" It was sleek, matte black and I didn't think it was a standard-issue model.

"It's Aunt Caroline's laptop, well one of them."

"One of them?"

She nodded as she lifted the lid and booted the computer up. "She has another one at her home. It's secure, encrypted, blah blah, all that super spy military shit." She waved a hand in the air as she spoke.

"So tell me something ... how paranoid is your aunt?"

She giggled. "She might be just a smidge paranoid. Who can blame her with the work she does?"

"Great, good to know. So, how do we know all of this isn't something she's imagined?"

"Because I know my aunt, Laz, she's not prone to hysterical delusions. She's methodical. She investigates and digs up information before making a judgment." As she spoke she was signing into her email. "Oh, look I've got an email from her!"

With a wince, I scooted closer and leaned in to look at the screen. "What does it say?"

"If you'd get your big head out of the way I could read it."

"My head isn't big," I grumbled as I sat back.

The cursor moved and she clicked on the email and read it. "She attached a file on something called the Rise Project and said it should explain everything."

As I shifted position to get a closer look at the screen, my back pinched painfully and she must have mistaken my grunt of pain for an agreement of some sort because she continued speaking as if nothing out of the ordinary happened.

"She repeats that I need to keep you hidden and safe and that I'll understand everything once I've read the file." She looked at me. "Do you know anything about this project?"

My shrug stopped short when my left shoulder locked up. With a winch, I very slower rubbed it and let it drop. "Never heard of it."

"I wonder how it connects to you. How it's put you in danger." Her brow was furrowed and her eyes were now focused on the screen of the laptop.

"We won't know unless we read that file."

The cursor hovered over the file folder and I wondered if I should stop her. This information could change things. Change my life. It might be something I didn't want to know. Could it affect my life that much? I shook my head and dismissed the thought. It couldn't be that bad. I mean, how could I be involved in some project run by the military without my knowing consent?

The mouse clicked and the file opened. Pages popped up to cover the screen. They filled every open space. It took her a few minutes to sort things out. It was a weird way for a file to open. I'd never seen one do that.

"All right, let's see what we have here," she muttered. "The Rise Project involves twelve subjects cultivated at various stages in their life. All twelve to be observed after being injected with something called the Lazurus serum." She sat back and looked at me with a frown. "What the fuck is the Lazurus serum?"

My shrug was small, I didn't want my shoulder to lock up again. "Beats me."

Her eyes went back to the screen and she moved pages around, reading from one that appeared to be a memo. "Rise will result in indestructible soldiers with unheard of abilities. Immortal and able to rise from the dead." She paused, her eyes fixed on the screen. "Oh my God, they're attempting to mess with DNA."

"No shit, ya think?" I replied with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

She sent me a glare before searching through the documents. "Six subject dead. DNA incompatible with serum. Severe degradation of tissue. No recovery. Subjects in extreme pain for an extended period before death. No tissue regeneration. No signs of compatibility," she read as she sorted through files.

I listened as she read from the subject files. Notes the doctors had taken. With each one that she read my heart sank. I always knew I was going to die but having it confirmed like this was disheartening. "I'm going to die because some military schmuck wanted to play God. Not because I caught some rare disease no one has ever heard of. No, I'll die because they decided to mess with humanity."

"No, wait maybe not."

"What do you mean maybe not? You read the notes, did you not comprehend them? I'm gonna die, Holly. It's all right there!" I waved a hand at the laptop screen.

"Shut up and listen." She glared at me until I nodded agreement and then her eyes went back to the screen. "Lazarus One showing promise. Tissue rebuilding despite constant pain. DNA compatibility seems assured. No rejections thus far." When she looked at me I could see the hope in her eyes.

"What in the hell does that mean? What is Lazarus One?"

"They numbered the project participants Lazarus One through Twelve."

"And what makes you believe I'm Lazarus One?" I asked. Nothing inside me wanted to get my hopes up.

She tapped the screen, pointing to the file she'd read from. I forced my body forward to lean closer and read the file. It was a medical file, my medical file complete with a picture. There were numerous notes on my treatments and current condition throughout. Everything from day one when I was admitted to the hospital up until a week or so ago. Probably when her aunt pilfered the files.

"All right, you win maybe I am Lazarus One. I can't believe my parents went along with this!"

"Well, according to your file they might have agreed to it because they felt there was no other choice."

"What does that mean?"

"You were diagnosed with leukemia when you were almost a year old. The military approached your parents just after you were diagnosed and asked if they'd like you to participate. It looks like they jumped at the chance of the promise that the serum would cure you. The doctors had already informed them there was little chance you'd survive traditional treatment. You were small and you'd been ill for some time before the diagnoses. It appears they did it out of worry."

I stared at the part of the file she'd been looking at. Patient history of participation. I swallowed hard. They never told me. Never mentioned that I'd had cancer. "This serum cured my cancer but now it's going to kill me. Great."

She stared at the screen. "It did. They thought it was a miracle. Your parents were grateful and the military only asked they be allowed to keep tabs on you to see how the serum affected you as you grew. Everything was fine until you were admitted to the hospital six months ago." She tapped a letter she'd found attached to my file. "The military told them it was better if they remained distant. They needed space to work things out."

I snorted. "So they didn't desert me, the military forced them to stay away? That's bullshit. No parent would let that happen. Not one that loved their child would stay away."

She sighed. "I don't think they did. Not at first but the tone of this last letter is mildly threatening. I think they ended up staying away out of fear. Not only for themselves but you."

My eyes went to the letters she indicated with a wave at the screen. It took me several minutes to read them. She was right. They'd threatened my parents. When I'd been given the serum they signed papers and those papers gave the military all rights to me and my care. Assholes took advantage of worried parents. They were so happy to have hope handed to them they didn't read the fine print. I sighed and sat back.

"Look, Laz, we don't know that you're going to die. According to these notes, you are the only patient that has had any positive reaction to this serum."

"Great, I feel so lucky." My eyes slipped shut. I didn't feel lucky. I felt pain. It etched my entire world. "They made decisions for me with no thought how it would affect me." They'd never told me what happened. Never explained anything to me. They should have. As soon as I was old enough to understand they should have told me everything. Now, for whatever reason, I was the lucky one. For some reason, the serum didn't seem to be killing me, though it certainly felt as if it was giving it a good go.

"Don't look so down. This could be a good thing."

"I'm going to die it doesn't matter what that report says." My eyes remained shut. I didn't have the energy to pull them open. "The pain is getting worse, Holly, just like the ones who died. The report is a lie."

"We don't know that, Laz. You are the only patient who has had a positive reaction. The pain might be part of that. Please don't give up."

There was no response I could give her that would wipe the hope from her voice. I didn't believe it. I couldn't, not with the way I currently felt. It would end and I certainly wouldn't be alive when it did. That was a fact. One she couldn't ignore no matter how much she wished to.