Undead School

Chapter XXIV: Field Day

 I awoke still aching, with Janice standing over me with a tray for breakfast. "Good morning, Evelyn." Eat your breakfast and we can start the mending process, extract the memories out of your head, and you can be on your merry way."

I was groggy and still confused as I usually am when I first wake up, but I was pretty sure I heard that they were going to extract the memories out of my head. "Did you just say...?"

"Yes, Evelyn. Your memories of the testing. They didn't get removed completely when you took the drugs, so we have to go much more drastic measures to keep you from getting those memories back completely." Janice said as I sat up and started to eat. I wanted so badly to fight every last bit of this, but it wouldn't do me any good.

"Why does it matter so much that I don't keep the memories?" I asked calmly, pushing myself hard to keep me detached. Keep me from launching myself at Janice.

"Think about it, Evelyn. If you got all the memories back, you would have everything you came out of the apocalypse with. You were a wreck, and I hope to heaven that you didn't retain any after memories..."

I shook my head, and Janice continued. "You emerged confused, unstable, heavy amounts of PTSD, depression, and bipolarity that developed from the loneliness you felt in the apocalypse. Worse yet, you were effectively a twelve year old in a seven-year-old's body. Evelyn, if you had kept all of your memories, you would have felt nineteen by now."

I thought about that long and hard. It was such a strange thought to wrap my mind around. "What exactly do you have to do to get my memories?" I asked, boredly.

Janice paused for a moment and then gave her signature smile, which I was getting beyond sick of. "We have to put you under a culling device. With the culling device, we can pick through your brain for any memories you have recently uncovered or those that were still clouded. Then we can destroy them one by one. It will be a long and mentally exhausting process, but if you want to keep your sanity, it's the only option."

The last thing I wanted was to give Janice free range to all of my memories. I also didn't want to let whoever they were holding hostage die either. I couldn't forgive myself if Janice had them killed because I couldn't swallow my pride. "Sounds like a plan," I said handing Janice the empty tray back.

"I'm glad you finally came to your senses, Evelyn." Janice said before leaving again, "I'll be back real soon so we can start the quick healing process. That part will be the easy part. We'll be putting you under and setting to work. Once you awake you will only have some soreness and the very explicit need to stretch."

I waved Janice off and laid back down and buried my face in the hospital bed pillow. I then flipped around, starting to feel a little ancy, and rolled around right off of the bed. I figured I would make a joke by hiding under the bed, but once I was down there I discovered there was one thing in the room I had not seen yet.

There was a small metal vent under the bed, presumably hidden because I could clearly hear voices sounding below. I tilted my ear up to the vent and listened as hard as I could. "Janice is crazy if she thinks she's..."

"A full on memory culling will kill her... It's dangerous!"

"Janice thinks that it would be better that than break her mind with disorders and a strange mental age thing. She has no idea what would happen if she regained all of the information from seven years ago.

"Speaking of... You were there for that right?

"Right. I was one of the testers."

"How is she?"