FOREVER. newt

four. failing them

My mind felt fuzzy. My body felt weak. There was this heavy feeling crushing over my body, and it felt as if I couldn't move, even if I tried.

Looking to my right, I see that Naomi is wearing a surgical mask around her mouth and nose, holding a syringe. As she moves towards me, I remember. Her mannerisms. The way that she was moving as she puts the syringe next to my arm, pushing the needle inside my flesh.

As I look into her eyes, studying her features one by one; that's when the realization hits me like a truck.

Naomi.

Naomi was my nanny. She used to take care of me as a child. That's why the way she moved, the way she talked, her mannerisms; it used to make no sense at all but now I understand everything.

"All done," Naomi says, probably not aware of the fact that I had already recognized her. "For a normal person, everything would come back in a few days or so. But your brainwaves are enhanced, so I reckon that everything might come back in a few hours. The mission is in a few hours. I suggest you go back to your room and rest for a bit."

"Go back to your room, Jennie."

"Jennie," I mumble, now realizing why no one cared to call me by my full name and why I woke up in the Maze thinking that my real name was Nini. I hated being called Jennie. I hated it so much that I never told my friends what my real name was.

But if Naomi already knew me... why did she call me Nini?

"You used to call me Jennie," I breathed out, my memories with her flashing up in my brain extremely fast. "When you came here... why did you call me Nini?"

"You hated being called Jennie."

I raised a brow. But that didn't stop you before, did it?

Then another rush of information enters my brain and spreads like a wildfire.

Cord compression, coma, and confusion are each presented well, and there are good overviews of common (and rare) neurological conditions pitched at just the right level for the readership. Chapters on raised intracranial pressure, cerebrovascular disease, epilepsy, infection, spinal disease, and many other topics guide the neurological novice confidently through diagnosis and management are published by your mother. In the library. The books are in the library.

So much information is rushing into my brain that I had to take a step back and lean against my chair to grasp each and every single thing. It was like my brain was extremely hungry and thirsty for knowledge, and now that it was being fed with a lot of it, my brain is now in a food coma.

I knew that I was smart— but oh boy, I was smart.

As I sat upright on my chair, the surge of information still coming back to me, I couldn't help but be grateful for my brain at the fact that it chose to retain information before all the emotional baggage that I was nowhere near ready for.

"The Swipe wasn't the only procedure WICKED had at first, you know?" Naomi mumbles. "I remember Ava telling us something about this other machine that could manipulate memories. But it seemed more of a torture device than a tool for an experiment so she said they threw the machine out."

I ignore her. The information was still rushing in my brain and every word she said came out slurred.

Looking to my right, I cannot help but notice the unreadable expression on Naomi's face. Her eyebrows were scrunched together as if deep in thought- but when her eyes flicker over to my leg; that's when I realize what must have happened.

"Don't worry," I assure her with a soft smile. "I'm immune."

"I know that. The Flare attacks the brain, but I saw no signs when I studied yours." hearing this officially, I let out a sigh of relief. So it was official, I was immune.