The Girl with All the Gifts

As Parks wheels Melanie up the stairs to Caldwell’s lab, new sensory input overwhelms her. The chemical smell, so dominant in the cells below, fades, and when Parks takes her outside, the bright sunlight and the feel of the fresh air shocks her system. Slowly, she grows accustomed to the overload and begins to process the sights, sounds, and smells. Parks then wheels her into a squat, boxy building. As they move over a tiled floor, Melanie knows a shower is forthcoming. While she and Parks are both sprayed, she observes her surroundings: the movable shower heads and the mechanism that controls the steel shutters sealing the building off from the outside.

After the shower, Parks wheels her into Caldwell’s lab, a startling environment full of objects and images Melanie has never seen before: gleaming stainless-steel surfaces and jars full of animals, and human body parts. Caldwell instructs Selkirk to move Melanie onto an examination table. After restraining her, Parks leaves with her wheelchair—a sign that she won’t be returned to her cell. Melanie wants to cry out to Miss Justineau, but she remains silent, unsure of how to react to this new reality. Caldwell and Selkirk cut off her clothing.