Remember

Chapter Nineteen (edited)

Luckily, Jordy, by some odd luck, did not make another stupid retort and they continued down the highway to wherever they were supposed to meet Madie in peace. Colette took one last glance at Jordy and then ran to catch up with Kaden. "How much longer?" She looked at him sideways, his expression unreadable. Her legs had begun to ache so bad that every numb step she took sent a tingling jolt all the way up to her thigh. It was a good thing that Paradisium had forced its inhabitants to either walk or bike places. Colette was almost positive she would have passed out by now.

"Hopefully only a day further. She said it wasn't that far away from the Paradisium Federation building but I don't know. It doesn't seem smart to stay so close. She could have been found." His voice grew with worry the longer he spoke about her. She could not help but wonder what exactly had gone on between them when Madie was helping him escape and how Colette had never known. Why would Madie have kept something like this from her? Madie had never been one to keep secrets from Colette/

She did not know how long the dull silence hung in the air until she decided she could not hold back her question any longer and it slipped out from between her lips. Colette deserved answers. "So are you ever going to tell me what happened between you and Madie?" Kaden stopped in his tracks and looked at the ground. He shook his head and continued to walk, faster than he had before. He was running away, avoiding her question but Colette was not going to let it go. She was sick of him keeping things from her. She matched her pace with his. "Ka-" He cut her off.

"Just back off Colette. Nothing happened between us. She got me out of Paradisium. Done. End of story. That's it." Colette could see the anger and frustration welling up inside him. No, that was not quite it. He looked sad and his burst of anger was only a cover up to hide how truly bothered he was by whatever had happened. Colette tried to speak again, but was cut off just as she opened her mouth. "I said drop it." Kaden stormed off, leaving Colette standing in the middle of the road.

A hand on her shoulder made her jump back. Jordy looked at her for the first time without some sort of judgemental gazee. One that almost showed... pity. Colette did not want his pity. It was probably for show anyways. Maybe in one of Jordy's alternate universes there was a version of him who truly cared, but it was not this one. She jerked her shoulder away from his hand and crossed her arms.

She was done walking and done with this stupid mission. She did not care if the people from the Paradisium Federation found her and drug her back to the compound. She was probably safer there anyways. Instead, she slid down the side of a truck and sat on the concrete road, staring at all the other abandoned cars around her. She could not help but wonder what had happened here. If all the people in the world were put in compounds like the one she woke up in and put into simulations, why were there cars here? How would they have gotten to the compound? She groaned loudly and let her head fall into her hands. There were too many things she did not understand that she did not wish to understand any of it at all.

Jordy sat down beside her, not saying anything. Just staring at his hands clasped around his knees. "I just don't understand." She whispered softly, a few tears escaping and running down her dirt coated cheeks. She quickly wiped them away in hopes Jordy would not see her cry. Being seen as the weak little girl was the last thing she wanted.

"I don't think anyone understands except for the people in the Paradisium Federation and even then, I bet most of them don't even understand why this is happening." Jordy's hushed tone was almost calming. Though, she did not understand why he was suddenly acting like he actually cared or had any sort of emotion at all besides sarcasm and asshole. He was probably only attempting to console her so he could stroke his little ego in pride. It was not going to work.

She took in a deep breath and looked at him. He was already looking at her, that same look of pity she saw in his eyes earlier. Only this time she questioned if it might actually be real. She could almost see that there was a part of him, maybe only a small part, that actually cared. Perhaps it was just her desperate imagination that begged for some sort of consolation that made her see it. "What are we even doing? What are we saving these people from?" She paused. "I mean they didn't just put us under the simulation for no reason. What if, by saving all these people, we're actually putting them in more danger? What if the Paradisium Federation is just protecting us?"

"The Paradisium Federation doesn't care about me or you or even the rest of the world. They just care about themselves. They are only trying to protect themselves. They're a bunch of weak minded people who care more about protecting their stupid secrets than caring for their people." Anger began to consume his features and dripped from his voice. Colette saw the skin of his knuckles flash white as clenched his fist for just a second. He had a point. Even if the people of the world were in danger for whatever reason that did not give the Paradisium Federation any right to stick them in some other world and keep their memories from them. Obviously, nobody was put there by choice. The world would not be so abandoned and broken if people had just volunteered to be 'protected'.

Kaden suddenly appeared from around the corner, nearly out of breath. "Guys we have company."