Rosabelle drifts through dreamlike memories and sensations that blur into clinical voices discussing failed attempts to implant a chip in her. Soledad angrily demands results while Sebastian and others report that, despite repeated, anesthetic-free attempts over two years, Rosabelle’s mind goes nonresponsive and rejects the tech. A voice concludes that the program reads her as “dead inside,” with brain waves nonresponsive whenever they try to bring her online.

As consciousness returns, Rosabelle realizes she is naked under a sheet on a gurney being wheeled to the morgue. A woman explains she suffered a head injury and appears to have died about thirty minutes earlier. James protests performing an autopsy without confirming her condition, but an unfamiliar male voice insists they proceed.

Rosabelle forces her eyes open, startling the attendants. She focuses on two similar men: James and his older brother, Aaron Warner Anderson, whom she recognizes by reputation. Kenji, a black-haired man, reacts with alarm and gallows humor, calling her a zombie and joking about putting a bullet in her head, while the woman cannot reconcile Rosabelle’s revival with prior lack of pulse and brain activity.

Rosabelle notes James’s anger and realizes their relationship has shattered after the previous night’s events. The emotional shock helps restart her body, allowing improved motor control. She quickly surveys the room, noticing a lab coat, the vial of earth on a steel counter, and the exit, and mentally inventories potential morgue tools that could serve as weapons.

As Kenji asks for a plan, Warner silently takes command. He studies Rosabelle with cold precision, reads her intent to flee, and announces, “Lock down the building, she’s going to run,” signaling an imminent containment effort as Rosabelle prepares to act.