Victor and Sydney, two ExtraOrdinary individuals, are at Merit Cemetery. The two met only a few days before, right after Victor broke out of jail and Sydney was shot by Eli, Victor’s former friend. Now partners against Eli, Sydney, age 12, looks up to Victor, and Victor feels protective of Sydney. Victor uses his EO ability to search the area for other living people. When he finds none, he and Sydney dig up an unidentified grave so Sydney can bring the corpse back to life. Sydney worries that she will accidentally resurrect all the bodies in the cemetery. Victor reassures her only the one they exhume will respond, and they continue to dig.

Chapter 2 takes place 10 years earlier. Victor is a pre-med student at Lockland University. His roommate and only friend, Eliot Cardale (Eli) is also a pre-med major, and both boys are at the top of their class. Victor takes great pleasure in blotting out passages of the self-help books his parents authored so the remaining words advise the reader to give up. To Victor, the destruction is “a kind of meditation” (18).

Victor and Eli declare topics for their senior theses. Victor chooses adrenaline—what causes it and its effects on the body.