Chapter 10 · Reset Protocol - Chapter 10: A Body From the Next Loop

"Don't move."

I froze halfway through the exit. The voice came from behind a stack of cargo containers, low and raw like someone had been screaming for hours.

"Hands up," the voice said. "Turn around slow."

I raised both hands. The claws on my right were still out, still slick with whatever the hell my copy had for blood. I turned.

Vera stepped into the light.

Except it wasn't Vera. Not the one I knew. This one had a gash across her left cheek that looked three days old, stitched shut with fishing line. Her shirt was shredded at the shoulder, and her right arm hung wrong, like the bone had snapped and healed crooked. She held a pipe wrench in her good hand, knuckles white around the grip.

"You're not him," she said.

"I'm Mark."

"Shut up." She took a step closer, and I saw her eyes. Bloodshot. Wild. "You look like him. You sound like him. But you don't know me yet."

"I know you. You're Vera. You work nights at the convenience store on Eighth. You hate the coffee machine because it—"

"Stop saying my name." Her voice cracked.