Sound returned first. A gurney trundled over the floor. Parchment fluttered. The scratch of pen on paper thundered in my ear, as though someone held a microphone to the tip as they wrote.

Later I heard voices and a horrible metallic scraping. Even with eyes closed the lights glared. The brightness penetrated my eyelids straight to the space in front of my brain. Static pinpricks of light moved inside my forehead.

They wheeled something over. It got closer and closer.

A smooth voice said, "Find me the moment she starts to come around."

Then sound left the room like fire sucking oxygen from a burning building. For a while there was nothing, not even the static in my mind. And then the first traces of feeling returned.

Blood rushed through my veins. My heart began a steady pump. My eyes fluttered. I balled my toes up and released them. The thin bones in my hand moved under my skin like hammers connected to piano keys as my fingers twitched over the sheet.

"How are you feeling, Aurora?"

I lowered my chin and got my first glimpse of the face behind the voice. He was a young man, cleanly shaven, wearing a gray suit.

When our eyes met he smiled. "I am Agent Melcher. Welcome back."

My voice croaked the moment I opened my mouth. "Where am I?"

"You're on Elmendorf Air Force Base and this..." Melcher said looking around the bright enclosure "is our unit's own private ER."

It made sense that I would be in a hospital, but why on base? My family had no ties to the armed forces. Dad was out of the country surveying, but where was Mom?

"What happened?"

"You were in a car accident. Do you remember?"

Of course I remembered. How could I ever forget the last seconds of my life? Or what I thought were the last seconds.

"The other driver..." I couldn't finish the sentence.

"Is gone," Melcher answered.

Suddenly the steady smile on his lips was too much. I looked at the door beyond his shoulder.

"Don't worry, Aurora. We've taken care of everything - the surgery and organ transplants. Thanks to the blood transfusion we performed your bones are healing quickly. You'll be better than new in no time."

The smile in his voice made me distrust him at once.

"Why am I here?"

"Because you have very special blood, Aurora."

No one ever referred to my blood as special. Doctors called it unique and rare  - the rarest of all blood types. Less than one percent of the population had AB negative blood. Maybe that's why I was on base. Maybe the government had the only supply of AB negative for my blood transfusion. But why would they help me?

I looked at Melcher for further explanation, but he kept smiling and said, "I'll send in your mother now."

Melcher's calm, calculating tone was replaced by my Mom's own hysterical outburst as she flew into the room. "Oh, my God! Aurora! Thank God! Thank God!" She grasped me by the shoulders and lowered herself over my chest, pressing me into the bed. She pulled back. Tears streaked her cheeks. "Thank God," she said again. "My baby. It's a miracle."

She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. "How are you feeling?"

I squinted at her. "Why am I on base?"

Mom's face screwed up funny and it looked like she might start crying again. Then she took a deep breath and returned to patting my hand.

"You look like you're feeling much better," she answered for me. "Agent Melcher said I can take you home in another week."

The agent, not the doctor.

"How long have I been here?"

"Two weeks..."

"Two weeks!" I cried.

Tears started pooling in Mom's eyes once more. "They had to put you in a medically induced coma."

My eyes darted around the room frantically looking for a clock or a calendar  - a window even. "What month is it?"

Mom hesitated before answering, "December."

"But my exams. My assignments."

Notre Dame might have accepted me, but that didn't mean jack if I didn't graduate.

"I spoke to all your teachers and they're giving you extensions. You'll be able to go to school the week before Christmas then use the holiday break to catch up."

Mom placed a hand on my face. "Don't worry. Just rest and we'll get you home."

My stomach twisted into knots. Going home meant getting in a car and I was never getting into another moving vehicle as long as I lived.

I'd just have to walk back  - all fourteen miles.

A young man in a white lab coat and crew cut burst into my room early the next morning. I pulled my bed sheet instinctively against my chest.

"Alright, Aurora, up and at 'em."

The possibility of a car waiting outside made me wince. "Where am I going?"

"Not far...next door."

"What's next door?"

"The treadmill. It's time to start physical therapy."

I waited for him to laugh and say he was joking; he really needed to take my blood pressure and check my vitals. But he frowned when I didn't leap out of bed and do something peppy, like a hundred jumping jacks.

"Um, I just woke up from a coma yesterday, and it sounds like I had some pretty major surgery."

If there was ever a reason to get out of physical anything, surviving a head on collision should rank top.

"Yes, but you have special blood."

I was starting to think it was mutant blood the way everyone talked about it in this place.

Physical therapy guy nodded at a neatly folded stack of clothing on the chair beside my bed. "I'll wait in the hall while you get dressed. You have five minutes."

Five minutes, I grumbled after he left. I was no doctor, but this wasn't how you treated trauma patients. I peeled the sheet aside and took a tentative first step onto the cold linoleum floor. My hand gripped the mattress in case I was unable to hold up my own weight, but I felt sturdy once I got the second foot down.

After removing the hospital gown, I glimpsed a first look at my body. A line of stitches zipped up my chest over a four-inch scar. Nice. At least nothing was crushed beyond repair. My legs and arms weren't even bruised. That only left my face.

I put on the gray sweatpants and army green T-shirt then entered the room's corner bathroom. My fingers trembled over the light switch. Deep breath. I flicked it on.

All that anticipation just to end up face to face with...a blank wall. Seriously? Why not install a sink without a faucet while they were at it? Or maybe my face was so disfigured they'd removed the mirror altogether.

I refused to believe it. Mom would have shown signs of distress when she kissed my forehead.

Pound,pound,pound. My therapist wasn't kidding about the five minutes.

"Time's up, Aurora."

At the end of the week, Melcher walked into my room with a woman who looked to be, like him, in her early thirties.

"Aurora, this is my partner, Agent Crist."

Crist nodded curtly. She wore a frown as tight as the pony tail at the nape of her neck. In their matching suits, she and Melcher looked like missionaries.

They walked over to where I sat in the room's only chair and stood on either side of me, forcing my eyes to ping pong between them.

"How's therapy going?" Melcher asked.

I glared at him. "Is that what you call this, 'cause I feel like I'm training for a marathon?"

Usually I liked making people laugh. Not so with Melcher. His chuckle grated on my nerves. Agent Crist pursed her lips.

"We needed to make sure you were fully functional," Melcher said.

"I'd say walking eight miles a day is functional enough." I could have been half way home that very morning. Then there was the running my therapist threw in at the end of our sessions: one mile the first few days and now he had me pounding out two.

They should call this shock therapy.

"Well, I have good news. We're releasing you...for now. But before you go, Agent Crist and I would like to go over the terms of your revival."

I eyed Melcher suspiciously.

"You have been saved for a specific purpose - a chance to serve not only your country, but mankind."

I don't think so. The air force or military or whoever the agents represented must be desperate if they had to abduct teenage girls from accident scenes by way of recruitment.

Melcher gestured with his right hand as he spoke. "As I mentioned, you have a very special blood type and this blood, when injected with the right combination of modified organisms and viruses, makes you a deadly and powerful force against the demonic beings that plague this earth."

Maybe I should have focused on the demonic beings part, but when my lips flew open I could only think of one thing. "You injected me with a virus!"

Melcher leaned in closer. "You have nothing to fear, Aurora. The virus won't harm you so long as you take your monthly injection."

"Monthly injection! Like a shot? For how long?" When Melcher didn't answer a horrifying thought occurred to me. "For the rest of my life?"

"It's not that bad, we've already administered your first dose," Crist said.

I kept my eyes on Melcher. Something told me he was the one running the show. "Not that bad?" I repeated. "Why infect me with a virus in the first place?"

Melcher listened with patience. I was beginning to wonder if he ever frowned or if he was like one of those scary clown dolls with a perpetual smile stretched across its face.

"Think of it as a vaccination. Like a flu shot." Melcher formed a steeple with his fingers. "As a field agent you will come into contact with all kinds of infected individuals. We do this for your own protection."

"What do you mean field agent?"

"We'll go over that during orientation." Melcher stepped forward. Suddenly he was looming over me. "Do not doubt, Aurora, that evil is among us. It threatens our way of life. Candidates such as you are instrumental in keeping not only our country safe, but humanity itself. This is an opportunity to serve the greater good." Melcher turned to Crist. "Have I left anything out?"

"Yes," Crist said. Her eyes zeroed in on me. "You have no choice."

Melcher cleared his throat. "What Agent Crist means to say is that your mother, as your legal guardian, has signed your rights over to us. We have saved your life and you, in turn, will save the lives of hundreds." Melcher stepped closer. "You were an extremely expensive investment, Aurora. A new heart, kidney, and lungs - I think that was a record, don't you, Agent Crist? If we'd had to replace any more organs we may've had our very first Frankenstein on the team."

I resisted the urge to itch the stitches under my shirt.

Crist still had me in her glare. "Most girls in your shoes would have ended up as organ donors rather than receivers," she said.

"That's right," Melcher said. "Still had a healthy spleen and liver up for grabs." Again that smile. "Do you have any questions so far?"

I stood up. "Just one. When is my mom picking me up?"

Melcher and Crist shared a look.

"She's in shock," Crist said.

"She'll come around." Melcher turned to me. "Your mother will be here in an hour."

My face relaxed. Fine, I'd get in a car one last time. Just to get out of there.

"We'll see you again soon," Melcher said, before he and Crist left the room.

Not if I could help it.