The two men led me to another room, frequently looking back at me. I did not understand why they were both so cautious. Then again, I had no idea what I was doing here to begin with.
The hallways were large. We passed a few meeting rooms, the walls made of glass so that I could see the large tables and empty swivel chairs inside. The room that we had just came from, the one with the dentist chair, seemed so out of place.
We stepped through the door of an office. It was not huge, but not small. A dark wooden desk sat on one end of the room. Two armchairs sat in front of it. Books were everywhere. Papers with numbers and locations were scattered about on the desk. I caught a glimpse of some of the locations: Tokyo, Shanghai, Cairo, Philadelphia. Others were listed, but those city names were bolded.
This office reminded me of a principal's office.
Images of a small high school suddenly popped into my mind. An older, balding man in a suit was situated behind a desk in a room in a school's main office building, tapping away at his computer.
Then another image: an older, already bald man sat behind his desk in a room similar to this one with books everywhere. This man wore different attire than the high school principal. This man wore a Metallica t-shirt and black jeans.
I did not know where the images came from, but they slipped away as quickly as they oddly introduced themselves. I tried to find them again, but could not.
"Take a seat, please," Scott said as he sat behind the desk, gesturing with his hand to the two seats in front of him.
"I'll stand," said Nico, who stood firmly by the door.
Scott gave him a hard look, one that demanded him to obey.
I took my seat and watched Nico at the same time. Nico looked very uncomfortable, ready to run or jump out of his skin or both.
"El," Scott began, not wasting any time. "This is... rather difficult to explain. I understand if you don't trust us or particularly believe us. If you believe only one thing about our purpose, know it's this: to protect you. To keep you safe. Your well-being is our greatest concern."
I did not say anything to that. I was confused. I absolutely did not believe them, but I listened.
Scott continued. "We rescued you. We recovered your damaged body and nursed you back to health."
This time, I spoke. "Who hurt me?"
Scott pursed his lips. "You don't remember?"
"Should I?"
He nodded. "Yes. Of course. We've been monitoring your brain wave activity and didn't suspect any damaging trauma. Are you having any motion sickness? Any—"
"Any sensitivity to light? Any dizziness? No." I answered.
He looked at me. "So, you do remember the things you've learned? In school?"
It was my turn to stare at him. "School?"
"At the time we rescued you, a little over a week ago, you were in nursing school. You still remember all of the concepts you've been taught?"
"I..." I was truly confused now. I did not remember any of this. I remembered a ton of concepts. Information about drugs, how to administer an epi-pen to counteract a bee sting, how to help a person with orthostatic hypotension. I did not remember going to college to be a nurse.
"Well, anyways, the point is that you've obviously had some memory loss. It should jog over the next few days as you stay with us. Might take up to a couple weeks, but no longer."
"Stay with you?" I asked, looking from Scott to Nico and back to Scott.
The blonde haired man looked sadly at me. "Yes, El. You have no where else to go. People wanted to kill you, because of what you are. They attempted, but failed. Because we were there," he told me, pointing to Nico and back to himself.
"What am I?" I quietly asked.
"You're... special. When you were young, a man decided to include you in an experiment of his. An experiment to create... super humans. People with heightened mental and physical abilities."
"Why?"
"To speed evolution. To have his name in the history books as the sole person who pushed the human race into its next big progression in the history of the world, the history of the universe. He wanted to be the one who would make humans into something more spectacular, something more astonishing."
"And I was a part of this? I am a super human?"
Scott laughed. "You are one of the ones he injected, yes. But you're far from your maximum potential. See, we rescue you. Make sure you aren't in the line of danger. Then, we train you, so that you may again live in the real world and protect yourself from the people who know you exist, the governments of the world, the armies of nations who want you to create something that will make them powerful."
"He injected me? With what?"
"He injected you with a serum that we can't decode. We have many others that are like you. Not here, but at a base camp we've established that's off the map, so to speak." He took a break, taking a sip from a bottle of water that sat on his desk, then began talking again. "Not only do we protect you and make sure that you can protect yourself, we incorporate your kind in helping rescue the other people who are like you."
I stared at him in disbelief. "You use us to rescue us?"
"Yes."
I nodded my head. "Are you like me?"
Scott shook his head. "I'm not. Nico here, however, is. He is in the weaker portion, but he is one of you."
Nico looked embarrassed, like he was being made fun of.
"There's a spectrum?" I asked, interested.
"Yes. Low end, high end. You're on the high end."
I nodded again. "So where am I? Where did you rescue me? And from whom did you rescue me from?"
Scott leaned forward and put his elbows on the desk. "This is Dubai. You were here with Americans who were using you in manipulative ways. You see, they need another one of you. Another Red Letter. They wanted to, in a future generation, make a super army. Much like the rest of the world. They were here to find another Red Letter, but we took you before they could force you into even more undesirable situations."
"Are not you an American?" I asked. His accent and physical features suggested that he was American.
Scott looked embarrassed, now. He smiled, looked down at the desk in front of him. "Yes," he admitted. "I worked with the people who had you. But when I found out their secret intentions, I quickly reconsidered whose side I was on."
"You believe this is the moral side?"
"I do. I know it is."
I nodded. Scott seemed like an honest man, a man not much older than me. I was not a person who was quick to trust people, though I did not remember much of whatever past I had. It was so odd to me that I could not remember everything that Scott said I had experienced.
"So what now?" I asked, looking at Nico. He stared at Scott, nervous.
Scott sighed tiredly. "We get you back to base. Run a few tests. Then we throw you into rotation."
"Rotation?"
"Yes. We have several others in rotation. Others, like you, whose duty is to travel to different areas and search out the others like you. We use you to find you, like you pointed out. Bring you all to safety, because none of you are safe without us."
"I cannot opt out of this?" I asked, confused. I was becoming angry. I found that I did not like when I was told that I could not or had to do something.
"If we let you walk out that door, where would you go? The enemy is out there, doing the same thing we're doing. Finding you. The only difference is that we're doing this to help you, not manipulate you."
"But you would let me walk?"
"Sure," Scott said, leaning back in his seat and gesturing towards the door behind me.
I stared at Scott hard. Where would I go?
I had no idea of where I lived. I knew I was American. I knew what I looked like, though I had not seen myself in a mirror since I woke up. I did not know where my clothes were, as I was still in the hideous green hospital gown. I did not know if I had money to get home, which, again, I did not know the location of.
"Where is my family?" I asked Scott.
His eyes grew sad. "We aren't sure of their whereabouts. We only have you."
My heart tightened. I remembered the faces of my mom, dad, and sister, but not much past that. I only knew myself.
"We're here for you, El. I'm not saying that we'll make up for the confusion and heartache, but we understand how difficult this must be for you."
I nodded. I had no choice but to leave with these people.
I had no one.