Error Code: 2001

Error Code: 2001 (3)

"Here is the plan. I am escaping this terrible place, and I know you are going to be helping me, so um no comment from you." I evaluated my drawing carefully. "So this is the corridor you led me down, correct?" I say as I draw as I draw a large circle on my drawing. "And this is where you and your lovely acquaintances kept me prisoner my entire life." I draw another circle. "And this is where I would like to go." I say as I draw a path down corridors and out into a general area I don't have marked very well. 

"I am not helping you." 

"Funny joke." I said. Sarcasm, is what soldier number 508 called it. 

"I could lose my job, worst case scenario my life." 

"Then let us hope it does not get to worst case scenario, huh?" I neglected to listen to Ash's whining as I thought out my plan. Escaping from a high tech government facility is not exactly easy, even when no one is around. 

"Sometime's I wish I could've been blessed just like you." Ash said it so seriously I nearly laughed out loud. 

"I'm sorry, what?" 

"You have a family, and I don't. Do you know what happens when your parents give birth to a girl?" 

"I would assume that they would check for radiation then if they were a third child, then execution." 

"Well you are wrong. That's the information they choose to release to the public. That's what you heard because that's what they wanted you to hear. They knew you were listening they always knew. They would expect everything, they are always one step ahead of everyone. You don't want to go beyond these walls, in here you are safe. Why would you want out? Why would you want to sacrifice everything you have just to go outside these walls?" 

"You don't get it. Do you?" I am astonished at what he is saying his far fetched tales make me cringe. "I don't have a family, say that and you are lying. I was left alone at birth and I was lied to, my entire life I have been lied to. Want to make that any more of a lie? Go right ahead cause I am not listening." 

"No, you don't get it. You will never understand. At birth you are separated from your family then you are stamped with a job-" 

"You lied to me." 

"What?" 

"Ash, you lied to me. When we first met you said you wanted to be a taker, or a doctor. You said those were the three jobs available to citizens. You said you were a janitor, too young to be everything else! Now you are lying to me?! Fun how this game works, right? First you lie to me then you tell me a sliver of truth that I can't believe cause all you do is lie!" 

"That's not true. At birth you get a stamp. More like a tattoo." He is completely calm, explaining this to me. Patiently waiting and then there is me screaming out of my mind because all I want is the truth. I am desperate for a single small sliver of the actual truth something I need to know. Something I want to know. I just want someone to explain without lying to me. "You get a job." He pulls up his sleeve and shows it to me. A large imprint of words pronounces JANITOR>CITIZEN. I frantically scanned myself up and down looking for my tattoo, and I found it. On the left side of my neck it read QUEEN. I showed it to Ash and a look of sudden urgency came upon his face. "Madam?" He asked. A look of confusion spread across my face. "Truth is the hard surface we need to stand upon and there is no truth in this situation." 

"You told me there was already a queen and a king and prince and princess and all this fantasy that everyone got to live except me. So tell me now, but do not lie." He re-positioned his foot that was still tied with a rope. And I gave a small chuckle. 

"I don't know." He said. And rage came over me and I slapped him across the face. I stood and walked across the room, pacing. Nope. Nope. Nope. I need the truth, the truth. I can't find it. "Ouch." He said across the room. I walked over to him, picked up my map and walked him out the door.