Chapter 28

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Warm.

The first thing I felt was completely engulfed in warmth. Fuzzy blankets were holding me close like a soft embrace on an even softer bed. There was also a warmth coming from outside my cocoon, radiating into my very bones. I shifted from my side to my back, unwilling to open my eyes. It seemed that I hadn’t been this comfortable in a long time, or slept this well.

Slowly the darkness behind my eyelids was permeated by light. It grew brighter and brighter until it seemed as if my eyes weren’t closed at all. I unwound my arm from the bed coverings and raised it over my face to block out the intense brightness, then finally blinked as questions started to flood into my mind.

Where was I?

I had thought that someone was pushing an artificial lamp into my face to try and wake me, but as I turned again and moved out of the light to better see it’s source I realized I was on a bed facing a great window. The sun had just escaped the horizon and was shining, full force into the room, lighting every corner.

It was a tidy room. Everything was stark white. The bed was large and luxurious, framed by carved white posts at each corner. The window was hung with gauzy white panels that had been drawn back to let in the morning light. A huge chair was in one corner and a chest of drawers opposite. Skimming over all of this opulence, my eye was immediately drawn to a small white table next to the chair. On it a white vessel stood center, over flowing with flowers of every color. Some I recognized as weeds we were meant to destroy in the fields of my home community. Others I had never seen before. The air was filled with a sweet aroma I could only guess was coming from them. Seeing them also brought a melody to mind. It wasn’t one I had heard at School and yet, I couldn't’ have made it myself. It was too complex and beautiful and it contained the names of the flowers I was looking at, many I knew I’d never seen before.

Troubled by this intrusion of strange thoughts I turned to the window. Outside the world was white as well. Snow had fallen and covered every bit of land and tree. Like a fresh coat of paint to erase the flaws of the dying grower’s season. The mountains were far off in the distance. I was surprised by this and stopped to wonder why.

In a flash of memory the mountains grew close. So close I felt suffocated. I saw Thomas’ face grin at me just before he took a running leap off the cliff.

“No!” I doubled over on the bed and held my head.

What had happened after? What had happened to me? I tried to remember. I had to remember.

Slowly a stream of images and words came back to my mind. The guards shooting me, the pain, the night before spent hiding under my cot while Thomas whispered the most wonderful things to me. I wish so badly now that I had come out, that I had trusted him and embraced him fully in the dark and followed him immediately off of the cliff. Death together would have been better than living with the memory of losing him.

My throat was choked with emotion, tears formed a puddle on the pristine bed coverings. And then another thought came to me: How did I remember all of this? The Mind Wipe chamber was my clearest memory by far. My fear had been so real I could still taste it. Had I really been strong enough to beat them?

I needed to get myself together. I took a deep breath and found that I felt strong, rested and not nearly as defeated as before our day on the cliff. I slid out of bed and wiped my face on my sleeve. There were two doors in the room. I touched the knob of the first door hesitantly. It felt so strange to be able to walk up to a door and open it after being locked away for so long. It turned easily under my palm. No lock, no alarm. I pulled it towards me and peeked through the crack.

I was not surprised to see a hallway lined with more doors exactly like my own. I closed it again, not sure where I would go, not wanting to go anywhere in the thin night dress I had been sleeping in. I turned to the second door and opened it with more confidence. A washroom with a large tub and sink and thick white carpet in the center of the floor greeted me. There was also a stack of towels and an array of soaps I’d never seen the likes of before in my life.

“I must be in the Head Leader’s mansion at the capitol,” I thought to myself. Where else would this kind of luxury be left to a country girl just out of prison. And what were they going to do with me in all of this luxury? I shuddered at the thought.

Upon examining the door I found it had a lock from the inside with no keyhole or card swipe on the outside. I took a deep breath and hoped that I was right in thinking I could safely take care of my needs and not be disturbed or surprised. I went back to the room and opened the drawers in the chest finding suitable clothing for a cold winter climate. I took the stack of garments back to the wash room with me and then stopped at the door.

I scanned the ceiling. Every corner, every tile, every joint. There were no AutoEyes. How could that be? I turned back to the bedroom. Unless it was some sort of new technology that made the Eyes so small you could not see them, I was completely alone.

The thought of that being true was surprisingly scary. Even in my first cell at the prison an AutoEye had loomed over me, recording my every move, even personal and private things that wouldn’t have been allowed to be monitored in public areas. Before I could close the wash room door a knock startled me from the hallway. I was so used to hearing an approaching visitor in prison and in school, how did I miss footsteps in that long hallway?

I hesitated, unsure of what to do.

“4245?” I knew the voice. It was the kind and gentle version of Professor 789. “May I come in?”

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