I walk to the cafeteria with Mom and Declan, vaguely listening to them discuss their dreams from last night and what they want to eat for breakfast; but my mind is too busy juggling my anxiety over seeing Nathan again—not just seeing him, training under him—that I don't really pay attention. I don't want to fight, I don't even want to learn how, but I know I will need it in the bunker. Envisioning the rest of my family here with us is the only thing keeping me calm right now.

When we enter the cafeteria, I focus on the bright white floor. I can't risk looking up and finding Nathan's face like I did yesterday, or anyone else's for that matter. I'm too embarrassed. I've never yelled like that at anyone before, and I don't want people to think I'm cruel; but the deed's been done. I've already let my anger get the best of me, so now I'll just hide my face until everyone forgets about it.

I'm so focused on remaining under the radar that I don't even pay attention to Mom or Declan until they tell me it's time to head to training, and I hug Mom goodbye before following Declan to the lab. I keep my head down in case Nathan is in the office, but when I look up I see it's only me, Declan, and Dr. Patel who sit at the desk.

"Where's Nathan?" I ask, trying to play it off like I'm not freaking out about seeing him.

"I understand that there was a disagreement between the two of you yesterday during dinner," Dr. Patel begins formally, as always. "So to avoid further aggravation, I asked Nathan to join me in the lab a little earlier than usual today." He rests his elbows on the desk and leans toward me. "Do you see how your behavior last night could be perceived as immature?"

"My behavior? What about his?" I ask in shock.

"I don't mean to display any favoritism, as I have none." Lie. "But this disagreement needs to be settled, and I hope you can both move past it. We are a team here on the Immortal, and we all need to behave accordingly."

I look at Declan who shrugs in defeat, so I throw up my white flag. "Okay. Sorry for the inconvenience," I say, but I'm sure he can hear my insincerity.

"Thank you," he says. "This morning, Declan will be spending the majority of his time with you. That way he can review what you learned yesterday and assess whether or not you're ready to move into the lab. Dr. Kunkle, you are free begin at any time, unless you have any questions."

"Nope," Declan says. "I got it from here."

Dr. Patel heads into the lab, off to meet Nathan who obviously lied and threw a fit about last night, but I breathe away my frustration.

"Sorry about that," Declan says.

I shake my head. "It's not your fault. Let's just get started so I can get into the lab with you."

"Sounds good to me," he says. "Let's start talking about your notes from yesterday."

I agree, and begin to tell Declan about genetics and cellular structures and evolution, things I've known about for years. But now I have someone to discuss them with, since physics and astronomy always interested Daniel more. We talk about how life is created and sustained, and how the human body works to keep us alive. We rummage through different books for information, and read as much as we can together for a couple of hours. Our words flow from us like water and we're happy to swim about the room uninhibited, two fish gliding in and out of thoughts. Then I get to the end of my notes, and it's as if someone has pulled the plug from our pool. We float back to our feet.

"What now?" I ask. "Am I ready?"

"Well... you still have more to learn, but I've always learned better with hands on tasks," he says, his thin lips stretched into a smile.

"Yes... does that mean?"

He laughs. "Yeah, you goof, let's get you in there." He stands from the chair and inputs the security code. All those years of studying have led me here, and now, as Declan opens the door and white light shines out, I feel unprepared.

"Are you sure?" I ask, still in the chair.

"I wouldn't lie to you. Remember? We botanists got to stick together. Come on in."

And just like that, I forget my nerves and leap from the chair. In my mind the laboratory looked a lot like the cafeteria: White, clean, and without personality. In my mind it was filled with clear beakers and tubes, all of which were filled with brightly colored toxic liquids. I imagined steam billowing from the tops of beakers, and scientists wearing goggles and gloves would put out their hands to stop me from coming any closer. But in reality... in reality the laboratory could not be more different.

The walls are cement, like the walls of the hospital room, but you can hardly see them through the vines that creep up to the ceiling. As soon as we walk in, Declan begins buzzing between all the different plants and flowers around the room, like a bee in a garden.

The furthest left wall is a matrix of cubed enclosures and tanks of varying sizes, which fit together from floor to ceiling, each containing different animals that I've only ever seen in books: poison dart frogs, lizards, snakes, birds, rodents, insects, and one very vocal monkey. The animals dance in their cages, waiting to help the Deathless, and I can't help but think how well I'd fit on that wall with them: All of us waiting our turn to make a difference.

I walk toward the tall plastic cage where the monkey, a white-faced capuchin, sits on a perch. "That's Victor," Declan tells me. "Say hi, Victor." The monkey waves, and I smile, waving back. "We don't do any tests on him. He's more like our mascot. I stole him from Gunther," Declan says, chuckling. "We can play with him later. I'll see if anyone has taken him out for his morning exercise. And over here are the medical areas," he says, guiding my focus to the other end of the room.

The furthest right wall is more like the laboratory I'd imagined: a giant glass box filled with scientists, including Nathan, sitting at microscopes and focusing intently on whatever is growing in the petri dishes in front of them. I laugh to myself thinking about how both ends of the room seem like old time zoo exhibits, with the animals going about their daily activities behind screens and glass.

Directly in front of us is a small wooden bridge, beneath which runs a man-made stream that serpentines through the room, connecting all of the plant stations together. Orange and silver fish swim through the stream, and as I near them I can see that some have evolved past simple fins and gills. Some have legs and walk on the bottom of the cement riverbed, while others glide past one another, making clicking sounds as a greeting.

The white lights overhead dim and brighten on what appear to be a timer, but then I realize, they are changing colors too. Not just that—they are mimicking the sky. We must be heading west, because the lights toward the front of the Immortal are slowly deepening to a muted orange to match the afternoon sun.

Declan returns to my side. "Impressed?" he asks.

I search my mind for the words to capture what is in front of me, but they don't exist. The room is beyond anything I could have imagined, not only in terms of what I believed could fit on a tank, but also in terms of what I believed I would see in my lifetime. I read books set in jungles and books with exotic creatures, but they seemed as far away as fairy tales and myths.

"Uh, yeah," I say, and Declan and I both laugh.

I run to the bridge and watch the clean water pass beneath me. The fish glide through the rivets and curls of current, creating mystic swirls of light.

I move on to the vines sprinkled with purple morning glories whose petals open like delicate French horns in the artificial daylight.

"Those are morning glories," he says.

"I know," I say, running my hand over their leaves. If Daniel saw this place, he would probably stumble around the room in awe too, and I laugh to myself thinking about it.

My hand transfers from the morning glories to a red berry bush, rosehip, and I pluck a berry, mashing it between my fingers. "Rosehip. An immune booster and arthritis remedy." The berry juice binds my fingers together and I watch the threads of drying goo expand as I pull them apart.

"That's right," Declan says behind me. "How'd you know that? Oh wait, your garden, right?"

"Yeah. I used it when my family started feeling sick," I say, taking everything in. "This place is amazing."

Declan's face brightens with a crazed grin. "Want to see what I've been working on?"

"Of course."

He motions me over to a nearby metal table in front of his morning glories, upon which rests some papers, a flat computer, and a petri dish filled with small black seeds.

"Okay, so, morning glories are actually mildly hallucinogenic, right? Well, I've been isolating the hallucinogenic chemical in the seeds and then breeding the plants to produce more and more of the chemical in each generation. I've been working on this since we were in the bunker, if you can believe it. By now just one of these seeds could alter your entire reality. It's not lethal, but it could definitely be used as a weapon to disorient your enemy. I'm trying to make a strain of plant whose hallucinogenic chemical is strong enough for you to be affected instantaneously, that way we can work with the people over in the mechanics sector to create some sort of weapon that could release the seeds during combat." His smile is wide with excitement and pride. "I've made the plants strong enough, but in testing, the reactions have always been somewhat violent. So now I'm working on trying to pair the chemical in the morning glories with something that might actually calm an enemy down enough to hypothetically lower their weapons."

Then something pops into my head. Something I read once in the Crowleys' house. It was in a book about the plants of South America: the Borrachero tree.

"Wait, I know about plants like this. There's one called the Borrachero tree in South America, and I read that even if you just ingest one seed, you could be manipulated to do anything. It totally knocks you out, but you're still awake and will—"

"—do what anyone tells you to, yeah," Declan interrupts, his eyes wild in thought.

"We could use the chemical from that tree as your weapon. An enemy force wouldn't be violent at all, just submissive. All we'd have to do is change their minds. It's perfect. I don't want anyone to die," I add.

"We could have mechanics make some sort of contraption to shoot it out at an enemy. I just wish I had thought of that before messing around with these seeds for years."

"Well... we can use those for something else. Besides, we don't even have Borrachero seeds."

"No need, we can produce the active chemical synthetically in the chem lab. Isla, you are a genius."

A genius. I had never considered myself a genius before, just a girl who happened to learn quickly and easily. But I suppose that's part of what being a genius is. Why did Declan have to say it before I could realize it was true?

A familiar voice, Winston's, bellows from the doorway behind me: "What chemical?" He waits for our answer with his arms crossed over his chest, but he doesn't appear to be angry. From what I've seen of him, I'm not sure he's ever angry. He looks more intrigued than anything.

"Isla just had an idea to use the chemical in the Borrachero tree as a weapon. It's an addition to the project I've been working on with the morning glories," Declan says confidently, and I'm proud of him for his assertiveness.

Winston unfolds his arms. "How did you come up with that?" he asks me.

"I just remembered the tree from a book I read growing up, and thought it would be helpful to Dr. Kunkle's studies."

Winston smiles. "You're a good team. Start on that immediately," he orders.

Winston waves to the scientists in the glass box, including Nathan, who I'm sure will continue acting like a competitive jerk after this, and then to Victor before exiting the laboratory.

I stand frozen in shock: I've just been promoted after only a day and a half.

Declan turns to me and makes a face, like he's unsure if this is a dream or not. He turns to ready his—our—workstation, but stops himself. "I know you think you were meant to come here to save your friend, but this—right here in the laboratory, helping me, and being a scientist—this is really why you're here," he says. "Call it fate, call it natural selection, call it whatever, but the point is: You're meant to be here. Thanks... for today...," he trails off, smiling.

"Thanks for thinking I could handle it," I say. I look over to the glass box of scientists, and see Nathan looking at me. He smiles half-heartedly before returning to his project. There's no time to waste before lunch. I return my attention to Declan, and together we create the logistics for our project.

***

By the time we complete our chemical compound request, the announcement for lunch sounds through the room, and I am flung back into panic mode. After I eat, I will have to spend my afternoon with Nathan and Phoebe. My two favorite people.

"Hey," Declan whispers as the medical team, Nathan included, exit the lab. "I know what will make you feel better." He smiles and glances back at the animals. "Want to eat lunch with Victor?"

"Absolutely."

We spend our lunch break playing with and feeding Victor. He and I eat the same foods—bananas, apples, and nuts—while Declan eats a tuna salad sandwich. Taking care of Victor helps put my mind at ease, especially when he jumps onto my head and starts playing with my hair. After a few minutes, the little monkey bends down and slaps my cheeks with his hands.

"Victor, no," Declan scolds, lifting him from my head. "Say sorry, Victor." The monkey frowns, balling his hand into a fist, and rubs it against his chest. "Thank you." Declan looks at me and says, "If you say 'thank you,' you can start to build a relationship with him. Any time he does something you don't like, you have to be firm, and any time he does something you do like, you have to acknowledge it. He's pretty good, but he still acts out every now and then because of what Gunther did to him."

"Thank you, Victor," I say, and he hops back into my arms. He rests his hands over my face, lightly touching it now. I look at Declan, who smiles and nods me on. "Thank you, Victor," I say again. "That's nice." He makes a sound, almost like laughter, and climbs onto my shoulder. "I like him," I tell Declan. Victor plays with my earlobe, and I giggle; but then the weight of curiosity pulls me from the moment. "How did Gunther treat him?" I ask.

He whispers, as if Victor might understand and become upset again. "Gunther did neurological testing on him back in DC. He installed a microchip on part of Victor's brain to see if he could train him to behave a certain way without any formal training. It was part of a neuro program he was working on for mind control. He kept it from me and Hugh who freaked out when he found out about what Gunther was doing to Victor, so Hugh took him into his lab and nurtured him. Victor hasn't been tested on since, but he still has the chip in his brain. Unfortunately we can't remove it without causing severe brain damage, so we can't let him into the wild. The chip suppresses a lot of his natural instincts."

"Gunther sounds like a monster," I say, and Declan nods, his lips pursed in a frown. I lift Victor from my shoulder and cradle him in my arm. He wiggles to get comfortable, but eventually stops and rests his slender arms around mine as if I were a branch. He looks up at me with his small black eyes, and I move my fist around my chest. "I am sorry, Victor." He nestles his face against my white suit, the place where the flag patch used to be, and for a few moments I feel truly at peace. That is, until Nathan comes back into the lab.

"Break's over, Isla. Put the monkey back in its cage and meet me on the patio in two minutes," he calls from the doorway and crosses his arms.

I roll my eyes. "He's a monster too, isn't he, Victor?" I coo. Victor's mouth widens into a smile.

"If only some people behaved as well as you, Victor," Declan says, mimicking my baby voice.

"I'm not a monkey, Kunkle," Nathan grunts.

Declan looks up at me with a goofy grin. "Ha, didn't you call Nate an ape last night?" I don't answer. I don't want to antagonize him, but I also don't stop Declan. And I also don't stop smiling. "That's funny," Declan says, lifting Victor from my arms.

"I'll be waiting in the office," Nathan says in annoyance.

Declan laughs. "But for real, will you be okay? I could pass by a few times if you want."

"It's okay. Time to get it over with. See you later." I wave to Victor. "You too, little buddy."

I meet Nathan in the office, and together, we walk in silence down the hall and onto the patio, where Phoebe sits in a lawn chair, still munching on her lunch. She doesn't acknowledge my entrance. Nathan jumps onto a blue mat has been placed over the cement tiles of the patio, and he hops on the balls of his feet, stretching his arms across his body.

He's going to beat me up.