Remember

Chapter Eighteen (edited)

 Colette slowly sat down next to Kaden, taking a gulp. "You mean she escaped? She's alive?" The last time Colette had seen her best friend was at the bottom of Earth's End getting attacked by the darkness. She had not thought Madie had made it out alive, but now that she knew it was like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

"She was the one who helped me escape." Kaden went back to staring into the darkness. He looked so lost in his thoughts and that made Colette more frustrated. How could he have kept all of that from her?

"You knew she was alive this whole time and you didn't even think to tell me?" Despite her growing anger, Colette's voice was eerily quiet and calm. There was so much that was happening at once, could she really blame him for letting it slip his mind? All in a matter of a few days they had found each other, broken the simulation, and escaped a highly guarded government headquarters building.

Colette looked at Jordy who was sound asleep behind them. She almost wished she could be like him and not have a care in the world. Or in his case, multiple worlds. Colette could hear soft snores coming from him and all she could do was shake her head. She did not understand how he could fall asleep so easily with the worry of being found by the guards -- who were no doubt looking for them.

"It's just complicated Collie. There's a lot you don't know." Kaden looked down at his hands that were gripping his legs to his chest. His shirt had come up in the back and Colette could see the beginnings of what looked to be some very nasty and gruesome scars. They stood out upon his otherwise smooth skin like a deadly disease -- a warning of how cruel this world had turned out to be.

She found herself reaching out to brush her fingers against the mauled skin. How did they get there? What had he done to deserve them? Did he even deserve them. Colette could not imagine he did, he was too kind for scars that deep. He had thrown himself back into the Paradisium Federation's lie of a world and saved her, after all.

Kaden spun around and seized her wrist tightly just as her fingers made contact with the scars. He did not look angry with her for her actions, but nor did he look sad. He looked cold and unfeeling like his mind was buried deep in some cold mountain where it could no longer feel anything, but the numbness of the isolated cold.

"You don't understand." He repeated.

Colette frowned. "Then why don't you explain it to me?"

Kaden finally looked at her again. "Go get some sleep Colette. We need to leave when the sun comes up. It's going to be a long day tomorrow."

With a sigh Colette stood up and turned around, pausing to put her hand on his shoulder. "You need sleep too, you know." He said nothing, fixated on the darkness once again.

***

"Do you even know where we are going?" Colette looked over at Kaden who had not spoken since they started their trek. He was not exaggerating when he said the world was broken. Besides the constant destruction that lay everywhere she looked and the weird smell of the air, the sky was orange. And not like the pretty sunset orange that danced across the sky has the sun kissed the sky goodbye in Paradisium.

This orange was in the form of a thick fog that hung in the air and stuck to their clothes. It was dark and made the day seem like an eternal afternoon. The grass all around them was either dead or full of overgrown weeds that devoured any structure it could cling onto. So far, Colette had seen no sign of animals. Luckily, Kaden and Jordy had been hoarding their food rations for weeks or else they would already be starving by now. It was not good food, but at least it was better than dying of hunger.

It was Jordy that answered her question instead of Kaden. "When Kaden first broke through the barrier he said that Madeline had set up a meeting spot that he was supposed to reach once he had helped you out too, but it's been weeks since. There's no telling if she's still there." If she's still alive. He did not need to say the rest.

"How long will it take to get there?" Colette did not know how much longer she could take walking constantly through the nasty fog. Her hair felt as if it were glued to her neck and her clothes were so wet she might as well have gone swimming in them. Hopefully, not all of earth was like this. No wonder the Paradisium Federation put them into simulations, who could live like this? She still could not understand why they had to of wiped their memories or why the people had not chosen to go into the simulations willingly. Maybe the world was not like this before.

Jordy shrugged at her question, pulling his lips into a thin line. Here came the insults. "She said walk north and we'd know when we found it." Wow, no annoying comment. That was a first. Had he known Madie too? Is that why he was acting weird, like Kaden? Colette did not think it was a good idea to try and pry.

Colette kept her mouth shut and continued to follow Kaden who was about twenty feet in front of her and Jordy. She furrowed her eyebrows and looked at Jordy with utter confusion. Why exactly was he walking with her? The entire time she had known her she could feel his hatred for her rolling off of him in waves. Why not walk with Kaden or between her and Kaden or behind her -- anywhere, but beside her.

"Is there a reason you are staring at me? I know my hair is probably a mess but it's not like I have a brush to fix it. And yours doesn't look any better either." Jordy glanced at her sideways as she frowned and ran a few fingers through her hair and threw it up into a greasy, makeshift bun. He was right, her hair was nasty, but at this rate she did not think she was going to get a nice shower any time soon, let alone any sort of fresh water. He would have to deal with her mess if it mattered that much to him.

"No I-" She paused. "I was just wondering why you were walking next to me and not next to grumpy pants up there." She glanced at Kaden who looked back and shot daggers with his eyes at the two of them.

"Just because I'm walking in front of you doesn't mean I magically became deaf." He scoffed and turned back forward and went back to sulking. He must have known Madie pretty well to be upset like this. Madie was... is Colette's best friend and even she was not acting this childish.

Jordy ignored Kaden's remark. "I mean I don't have to." He started slowing down and creating a distance between them. Colette frowned and slowed down too.

"It was just a question since you seem to hate me. I didn't mean you had to stop." She didn't want him to stop, oddly she wanted to be close to him. Even if the only perks were admiring his features.

"I don't hate you."

"Well maybe you should try to be nic-" Jordy cut her off, putting a hand over her mouth and pushing her behind a broken down car. Kaden appeared next to them in an instant. "Does somebody want to tell me what's going on?" She mumbled between Jordy's fingers and the boys shot her a look. She shut her mouth.

Footsteps could be heard shifting through the brush and coming closer to where they hid behind what Colette was still assuming was a car. Though, it looked nothing like anything from Paradisium. It looked much older and far less advanced. These were most likely the last ones to ever exist before the Paradisium leader's outlawed them.

Colette could hear voices. One that sounded oddly familiar. "Search the area. They can't be much further ahead." The familiar woman's voice said. Colette tried to peer over the car but Jordy quickly pulled her back down. Not before she could get a look at the woman's face.

It could not have been. She was trapped in the simulation with everyone else. There was no way she could have figured it out. But it made sense. Her keeping such a close eye on Colette at the hospital. Never answering any of her questions of the world. Colette should have known.

"Yes Ms.Garner." The man's voice confirmed her suspicions. Nurse Garner must have been working for the Paradisium Federation this whole time. The Paradisium Federation must know what Colette is supposed to do, that she's supposed to save everyone, but how did Nurse Garner find them? How did she catch up so fast?