In my WIP, my character realizes that she has been duped. In the first couple of chapters of the novel, she's stuck in a post-apocalyptic shut-in Silo-like place called the "Sanctuary," where she lives an isolated life with a few hundred other survivors. She had a government experiment prior to the "apocalypse" (called the Distortion) that gave her extended lifespan as well as other unknown effects, and the researchers are aiming to find out how to recreate it. Even though the world outside is messed up, she has always wished she were outside instead of in so that she could have hope and be free. Visitors arrive at the Sanctuary in chapter 1 who are introduced as leaders from another Sanctuary, but who are actually an inhuman species there to negotiate with the leaders of the Sanctuary she lives in. The inhuman/aliens were actually unknowingly involved in the experiment, and it turns out the experiment was designed to make humans more able to procreate with the alien species. The visitors have a "teenage boy" who is actually an inhuman that they want to breed with my MC. The inhumans are just as physically susceptible to injury/death as humans when they are shapeshifted into human form, but they are able to effect the environment via sending alien elements from "the other side." The human Sanctuary leaders discovered the presence of an inhuman species, and they negotiated that if they hand over the genetically-altered MC for alien breeding purposes, the inhuman species would refrain from harvesting the Sanctuary residents as food (as they've done to other Sanctuaries). Whether or not they plan to stick to their end of the deal, of course, is another story. The 20% "point of no return" is where my MC discovers the truth, and she and several others from the Sanctuary escape, with the inhumans hunting them down. When she first meets the "romantic interest," she is led to believe that he's an Experiment kid just like her, who the Sanctuary leaders discovered outside and hauled in to study. She believes that he's her only kindred spirit in the whole place, etc. and they soon make plans to "escape together" - really this would just be the inhuman species luring her into their plan. Because the inhumans have the same human limitations while in human form (i.e. they could be killed), and because they know my MC has never trusted the Sanctuary leaders, they decided to set it up so that finding the "lover" would be her own idea. So in chapters 3-4 she thinks that she's picking up clues on her own and having this secret romance, but really the clues were planted, and she's falling exactly into their plan. Chapter 5 is when she learns what's going on and makes a break for it. Does this sound plausible? Are there any huge plot holes I'm missing here? I'm making some revisions to the first 20% of my novel so I can get rolling with what happens after they escape, and I want to make sure there are no huge giant plot flaws that I'm totally neglecting. Also, how might they set up clues for her so that she thinks she's infiltrating them but really they're setting up a bread trail? Thanks! (And I've already written some of the post-escape stuff, which is why my word count is almost 30K. I don't have 30,000 words of just my first few chapters lol)
