Chapter 15 · Reset Protocol - Chapter 15: Lucas Remembers the Door

"Dad, please don't leave me."

Lucas froze. His hand was already on the door handle, the one Mark said would take them down to sublevel three where the protocol core was supposed to be. But that voice came from the stairwell behind him, small and cracked and exactly the way Emma sounded when she was seven and he'd worked doubles three weeks straight.

"Lucas." Mark's voice, sharp. "Don't."

"That's my daughter."

"That's the protocol."

Lucas turned. The stairwell was dark, but he could see her outline two flights up. Pink jacket. The unicorn backpack. She was gripping the railing with both hands.

"Daddy, I'm scared."

Mark stepped between him and the stairs. "She's not real."

"Get out of my way."

"Lucas, listen to me—"

"I said move." Lucas shoved him. Mark didn't budge. His right hand had those bone spurs grown in again, three of them pushing out through the skin just above the knuckles. He'd died twice since the convenience store. Each time he came back a little less human.

"You told me she was in the east block," Mark said. "You told me she was with your sister."

"I thought she was.