Reset

“So I don’t know how long I have been up. My guess is about a half an hour,” Jason said.  “I just know when I ventured out of the room, the hall was lit, but all the rooms were dark.  I couldn’t call out, my voice wouldn’t work. It was confusing. This room wasn’t far, door was open. Almost as if set up like that on purpose. Or maybe it was on automatic, like my lights. Like yours. I found the water. Drank it like you. I paced a minute or two, threw up…” He cracked a partial smile. “Then coming back up the hall, I heard water and saw your light on. I went to get you water, figuring, and heck if the same thing happened to you that happened to me, you’d need it. I planned on meeting you but you beat me to the punch.”

Nora brought the bottle to her lips.

“I just was confused. I mean all I got was some short video, cut off after the guy told me to take a leak and shower.”

The video.

Upon hearing that, mid drink, Nora cocked her head and when she did, the ‘it’ dislodged in her throat and the water in her mouth involuntarily shot out.

Jason inched back.

As if the water went down the wrong pipe, Nora violently coughed, and the spell ended with the expulsion of a small dime size chunk of the blue gel substance,

“There it is,” Jason looked down to it. “Now try talking.”

Nora exhaled, then breathed in. “I…” She paused and smiled, the words came out with ease. “I’m Nora.”

“Nora, pleased to meet you.”

She shifted her eyes around. “Where… where are we?”

“Now that is the million dollar question. And the answer to that is…” He lifted a finger and flashed a closed mouth smile. “I don’t know.”

FOUR – Discovery

When Nora was six years old, she had her tonsils removed and suffered an odd reaction to the anesthesia. She woke foggy from it, slightly sickened, but in spiral of so much confusion, Nora didn’t recognize her mother. Eventually it all came back.

She likened what she was experiencing in ‘The Hall’ to that day. She christened the place ‘The Hall’ because that was all she saw. One long well lit hallway, with doors every eight or so feet. Each door was like hers, with a small window. But the rooms were dark.

Or at least she couldn’t see inside.

There were two doors at each end of the long hallway. It was strange because she had no desire to go to those doors, no desire to do anything. She dreamt of having a family. Deep within her she felt it wasn’t just a dream, yet why didn’t she feel any emotional urgency for them?

She had no overwhelming sensation to get out of The Hall. It was as if she either was just born or somehow knew why she was there. She just didn’t recall. In fact there wasn’t much she recalled at all. She was from Ohio. She knew her name.

The buck stopped there.

A gnawing feeling filled her gut, frustrating Nora because she could feel the memories, pulsating in her brain, yet unable to surface. On the tip of her tongue, like she was trying to remember a name. It was there, right there. Nora supposed once she had a breakthrough then she would scream to get out. Until she knew why and where, there was nothing she could do.

It would come.

Until then, she felt safe in that room filled with supplies and began to see what all was there.

Jason said he was going to walk the hallway and see if anyone else happened to be around.

He had lost just as many memories. In fact he didn’t even know his last name. Nora knew hers, at least she thought she did.

Jason didn’t know if he was married, had children. Unlike Nora, he didn’t remember being lowered into that fluid.

He did, however say he remembered a phone call. That was his last memory. A phone call. What that call entailed… he was lost.

Did Nora receive a call and not remember? Clearly Jason was lowered into fluid. Maybe together, the bits and pieces they did know would fit together like a puzzle.

She could hear him trying the doors, knocking on them. Her focus was deciding on what to eat. She was still weak, her legs didn’t want to move much.

Nora checked out the boxes. There were so many, lined up, stacked high. From what she could see, some were marked.

She grabbed a box, marked protein, and opened it. It was filled with four inch, airtight sealed silver packs.  She grabbed one.

“Someone’s up,” Jason called into the storage room. “The light went on.”

The protein pack slipped from her hand and Nora stood. She lost her balance as she turned to face Jason who stood in the doorway.

“You all right?”

“Yeah. Yeah.” Nora moved to him. “Did you look inside?”

“I did. I didn’t see anyone or that fluid.”

“So they’re waking up now.” She walked with Jason.

“Maybe their video will work. This way.” He pointed. “Number Twelve.”

She quickly followed him. “Do you think the door is still locked?”

“I don’t know. I just want to get there before he comes to.”

“And falls out of the contraption. Like I did.”

“Me, too,” Jason said and stopped to the door. “I just splashed out with the ooze. Woke up choking. Of course, you did, too.”

They stopped before Door Twelve.