Waters of Lethe, Book 2

45. Visibility Zero-Zero

I told Alex to trust me. 

I let him know that help would be on the way soon, within a couple of days. And he believed me. Which was all I could ask of him.

An air cleared between us, a fog that this place had created. We were on the same page, having remembered most of the wrong things these people did to us. I told Alex of when Scott and I were both in Maine, then how Scott was helping Khan, who was a unexplained pawn. I told him about how Audi and the rest had come to the conclusion that this experiment was the work of the Taliban, which Alex laughed at.

We knew that the brain wave monitoring Scott had ran us all through was actually to clear our heads so that they could use us. I told Alex how many times I'd woken up in the dentist chair and remembered what had happened, first having no memories and then having them all come flooding back to me.

"Each time I woke up in the dentist chair, they'd be standing back, Nico with a gun. And I'd remember quickly after waking up why I was there, what they were doing, that they'd almost killed Jai."

Alex leaned back on his hands, his legs stretched out in front of him. "So, Jai is the Asian fellow?" 

"Right."

"And who shot him?" 

I pushed the cotton in my throat down into my stomach. "I'm... not sure exactly. I was too busy trying to get to Enzo that I didn't see where the shot came from. But I know as soon as I woke up in the chair, I remembered they'd hurt him. And I was mad. And they shot me again and again and again until I woke up for the last time and didn't remember anything. Not even that Jai existed. I was oblivious."

Alex was silent. 

"They aren't creating a safe haven for us, Al. They're going to use us somehow. And the more of us they get, the better. They'll be stronger. They say they want to speed up evolution, but that makes no sense."

"But what could they possibly want to do with us? What, do they want to take over the world or something?"

I laughed silently. "I don't know. I just don't know."

We didn't have anything scheduled for the morning, only weaponry at 2pm. I was thankful for a morning off. I needed sleep. When I got back to my room after talking with Alex for thirty minutes, I found Enzo gone for regular daily training. I hadn't seen him much lately, but I was glad to have the room to myself without his soft snoring. I grabbed the phone I'd hidden under the bed, between the frame and the mattress, and immediately curled up on my bed, under the thick blankets. I put the phone under my pillow. For some reason, I just wanted it close.

I decided I would call them tonight, when everyone here was asleep and I could sneak up to the roof. I would try Audi's number. Hopefully it went straight to him. I didn't like the idea of calling them so late, a day after we'd gotten back, but I had no choice due to the fact there was a higher risk of being caught in the daytime. Hopefully they'd know that I wasn't found out by Scott, that everything was alright.

Or as alright as it could be.

Plus, if Jai really thought I was as strong as he said I was, he didn't have to worry. I'd fight tooth and nail against these people. And there wasn't much I couldn't do when I had that mindset, I'd come to realize.

***********************

One o'clock rolled around sooner than I wanted it to. The alarm I'd set woke me up, startling me for a second, and I'd rose too quickly to bang the snooze button to make the noise stop.

"Easy," Enzo said from his bed. He was laying down, looking at the ceiling, arms crossed over his chest.

I rubbed my eyes and sat up. I felt horrible. The weight from the previous night had found its way to my chest and sat there, taunting me. I felt like crying. But I couldn't.

I tried focusing on Enzo's terrible facial expression, which quickly tore my mind away from myself.

I couldn't help but knit my eyebrows together. "What happened to you?"

He tilted his head over to look at me. I'd never seen bags under his eyes, but they were there now. He chuckled, which sent chills through me. His expression and laughter were an odd pair, like tomatoes and marshmallows. I knew why he was laughing though. "Life happened to me," he said, his British accent sad but oddly comforting.

"This isn't your life," I whispered, afraid of who else was listening. "This isn't either one of our lives."

"You don't have to whisper. We know that these people aren't really who they say they are."

I sat up straighter. "What?"

He knit his own eyebrows. "What? What do you mean, what? Some people here who had amnesia are remembering things. Scary things, from the sound of it."

"People who had amnesia...?"

He pursed his lips. "Everyone."

"And you?"

He shook his head. 

"How much do you remember?"

"Nothing. That's what's bugging me."

I shook my own head, trying to separate this information and clear up the fog in my brain. I held a hand up. "Wait. What are Scott and the rest of his people doing? Do they know about what people remember?"

"Yeah, they do. And we don't know what they're up to. They've got security out roaming the halls, guarding the doors. Rumors are going around that they're putting us back through brain wave monitoring. They've been in a meeting all morning. Haven't came out to observe training or anything."

I put a hand on my forehead. "They do want to send us back to brain wave monitoring. But it's not what they say it is, Enzo. They're wiping our memories with that thing, not monitoring the function of our freak brains."

Enzo pursed his lips, his cheeks budging out.

"Crap. Crap, crap, crap," I mumbled as I got up, throwing the covers off me.

"Hey. What's..."

I was heading toward the door when I looked back at Enzo, who was looking at my bed and pointing a finger. I looked at where he was pointing and my breath caught.

It was a good thing I trusted Enzo, because otherwise I'd have been flipping what little shit I had left to flip.

"I'll explain later," I told him as I rushed back to the bed to grab the phone. I had moved my pillow in my sleep and the black phone was now poking out. I took it and wedged it back underneath the bed. Then I walked the two steps to where Enzo was and held out my hand, extending my pinky.

"Swear you'll forget all about seeing that," I prompted.

He smiled. "If they run us back through that machine that frigs with our heads, you won't have to worry about making me pinky swear."

I sighed, then grabbed his hand and forced my pinky around his. On the way to the door, I turned and pointed a threatening finger at him. "I know where you live," I joked.

He smiled again. "Good, love. Because I don't."