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No.

No, she couldn’t. Of course she couldn’t.

She let out a shaking breath and lowered the knife.

“Alex,” Ellen snapped, what little patience she had thinning.

“No.” Her voice was firm. Strong. “I won’t.”

A beat of silence.

Then chaos.

“She’s a risk?—”

“You’re putting all of us in danger!” yelled Ellen. “Someone else has to do it!”

“She’s one of them, Alex!” shouted a small child who Alex didn’t even recognize.

“I said no,” Alex snarled, stepping in front of Sophia like a shield.

Then they waited.

Every second that passed felt like an eternity.

The tension was suffocating. The people around them kept their weapons drawn, watching Sophia like a predator waiting for its prey to make one wrong move. Alex felt the weight of their stares, the pressure of their expectations. Usually the signs of infection spreading would happen fast.

She held Sophia’s gaze, searching for the first sign of change.

She should have changed a little by now…

The clouding of the eyes. The twitch of fingers. The tremor of breath that would eventually turn into a growl.

The minutes continued on.

Sophia didn’t change.

She remained herself—breathing, warm, alive.

The whispers continued.

“She should be different. She should be changing by now.”

“She should be one of them.”

“But she’s not.”

Sophia stood in silence. Shocked. Confused. Terrified of her fate.

Someone ran to inform Henry.

Henry arrived in what felt like a flash. He paced in front of Alex and Sophia, his expression unreadable. “What the hell is going on? We need to test this.”

Sophia’s hands curled into fists. “Test? Huh?”

“She’s not changed at all? How long has it been? What’s going on? If she’s immune, we need to understand why,” Henry continued. “We need to know if this is real.”

The murmurs of agreement spread through the gathered crowd.