I tapped my pen on the clipboard and he flinched like I'd struck him. A throat mic projected my voice from the wall. "Mr. Anthony Schwartz, it makes me so happy to see you alive." He whimpered, breathing hard through his gag. His eyes scrunched shut and I could see his veins bulging in ropes around his neck, through his forehead. Thick chains bound his arms to the chair because anything less had led to violent performances of extraordinary strength and bloody murals on the walls. A thrill of pleasure shot through me. The brain has so much potential. Science has shown over and over again that with the proper motivation, human beings are capable of amazing feats. A mother will lift the three-thousand-pound car to save her trapped child. Incredible. Super-human, even. The body was a fascinating thing. So much untapped potential. Now, for the constant question: how far could the human body really go?

Carter just wants to go to college and have a normal summer at his grandparents' farm. But his ordinary life is flipped upside down in an instant when he finds a mysterious girl who seems to have strange powers and a connection to lightning...