“There’s nothing to know, I keep telling you that. I wear them sometimes, or at least I used to,” Sylvia said.
“So of all your possessions, you bring things to my place that you never use?” Jacob countered. “That just seems sketchy is all,” he said, trying his best to get under her skin. Both had learned how to push the other’s buttons. All he really wanted was to be alone and explore, and he didn’t want to find anything with Sylvia around.
“So now I’m sketchy?” Sylvia asked. “You’re going to pay for that remark, mister,” she said, pointing her index finger in Jacob’s direction, clearly upset by the accusation.
I’m already paid in full, sweetheart. “I didn’t say that, stop putting words in my mouth.” Jacob’s tone rose. “I said the situation is sketchy, and it is. With such limited space, why bring something that you don’t use anymore? And they were pushed so far back, like you were trying to hide them.”
“Maybe I was planning on wearing them for you,” was the best reply Sylvia could come up with. “And I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“Look, I don’t even care about the damn wigs. I’m sick of arguing with you. Can we just stop, please?” Jacob asked. He placed a few choice rocks and leaves in his duffel bag.
“No, not until you tell me what the note I caught you shredding said. Until then, you can forget about it.”
Which note was that? There have been so many. “Oh, come on,” Jacob said, lowering his voice and offering a hug.
Sylvia defiantly folded her arms and turned her back on him. Jacob countered by playfully tickling her while she defended the unprotected areas of her body. She finally cracked a smile and returned the playfulness. Soon the couple was rolling around on the ground, laughing loudly as their roller coaster relationship continued in its unhealthy pattern, while Jacob counted down the days till it was over.
“See, now isn’t this better?” asked Jacob.
“I’m still mad at you, but I guess I see your point of view. But don’t think for a second this argument is over, it’s just on hold,” Sylvia said and she lightly bopped his nose. “Plus, we need to get back to the ‘Haus, and we need to have the ‘happy couple act’ in perfect form.”
Little did Sylvia know, that’s all it ever was now for Jacob. An act. He had practiced his role and perfected it. He would never break character, until the final curtain dropped.
Chapter 40 (Samantha Needles)
Her eyes blinked slowly a few times before they opened for good. Her mind was still a blank slate, and her vision was blurry, but coming into focus. Only seconds passed, but she regretted waking. Her entire body ached, nothing worse than her stomach. The searing pain in her abdomen made her wish for more sleep. She had no recollection of any injury or trauma to explain the pain in her midsection, but that was just the beginning of her troubles.
A white drape surrounded her. Hung on small, clear rings that attached to the large stainless steel ring above her, it was further secured mid-height by a gliding track. Samantha stood up and when she did, bumped her head. Dizzy, she crawled on all fours around the limited space, trying to find a way out. Finding that she was enclosed on all sides, a feeling of panic overwhelmed her.
Sweaty palms patted the cloth that enclosed the space. A solid, hard material blocked her at every turn. Furious, she grabbed and pulled the cloth, tearing it from its rings and off its track, revealing an oval-shaped glass prison surrounding her.
She looked up for a way out, but a rounded white cap covered the space. Her fists beat on the thin, clear egg, but they could not break it. Hyperventilation started and her escape attempt turned frantic. Her palms moved quickly, hoping to find an exit. After several moments of despair, her hands found a latch. She wiggled it until it moved, which unlocked a panel.
Momentum brought her crashing to the floor. Her face broke the fall. It added to her pain, but the physical pain paled in comparison to the mental anxiety that had racked her inside the glass oval. Pain she was familiar with; her body had a high tolerance for it.
She surveyed her surroundings and saw that she was still trapped on all sides by more glass. Something ingrained deep within her made her hate being confined to such small spaces. Above her people were walking around and she could see the bottoms of their feet. Below it was more of the same, people moved about, paying no attention to her, possibly unaware of her existence.
She felt her face, finding a large lump on her cheek. As she started to stand up, she heard a voice call out from behind her. “Well, good morning princess. How is my little Sammy?”
She spun around to address the unfamiliar voice. The face was similarly unknown to her, but she followed her first instinct and asked, “Who are you?” while rubbing the growing knot on her cheek.
“Someone still a little banged up from the accident?” he asked.
“Accident?”
“You were trapped under a section of the Greenhaus that collapsed after an Outsider attack many months ago. This ringing a bell at all?”
That can’t be right, she thought before saying, “I don’t remember that.”
“Loss of memory is one of the primary symptoms of a bump to the noggin like you received, but it will all come back. We will help you remember,” he explained.
“We?” she asked.
“Yes, we,” he replied. “Your family, your teachers, and the rest of the ‘Haus, too. Really, whoever you come across will help. People are friendly here, especially given who you are.” She sat quietly as she tried her best to conjure up a memory; anything to remember who she was and how she got there, but nothing came. “You have been asleep for a while now, so you’re probably hungry. Would you like to eat, Samantha?” This man in a silver, skin-tight suit gave her the first clue to who she was.
“Sure. But who are you,” Samantha said.
“Silly me, I forgot, your memory is gone. I’m Percival Needles,” his eyes opened wide, his head leaned slightly forward, and his eyebrows rose, trying to coax the memory from her before he continued. “Vice Commissioner of Newer Orleans. Head of the Department of Medicine. Most people call me Perry, but you usually call me Dad,” he explained, tossing in some obnoxious laughter. “You were sent back to me after you woke up from your coma. Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing sweetie, this is common among patients who have been out for so long.”
“How long was I out?” the sleepy girl with the short-cropped black hair asked.
“Over a year and a half. Some weren’t sure you would ever wake up,” he said. “But here you are, good as new.”
None of this sounded right, but Samantha played along. She was suspicious of the tall older man with the tapered, pencil-thin black mustache that called himself her father. He led her into the next room and offered her a seat on a cushioned stool next to a marble-topped island. He reached into one of the smoked-glass cabinets, removing a container that looked vaguely familiar. Perry opened the top and slid it in front of her.
“Eat up,” he told her.
She sniffed it first, before dipping a finger into one of the sections and tasting the thick brown goo. Her stomach growled, so she ravenously devoured the different colored pastes inside the container. As she did, it triggered a flashback.
A scene began. Samantha noticed she was somewhere else, a place nothing like her current location. It was darker, and dirt and dust swirled all around her under an angry sky. There was glass, but she was not inside of it, but looking through it from a great distance. The space was small, but in this memory it did not cause the anxiety that currently afflicted her. Samantha had a tray of food, and she saw a man.
He stared out of the glass wall, dressed in a bright orange outfit that resembled the suit worn by Perry, albeit a different color with some slight alterations. In an instant, the memory vanished. Confused, Samantha began to pry at Perry for clues to how she got here and where exactly she came from.
“Dad, how long have I lived in Newer Orleans?” she asked. Her name didn’t sound right, but s
he couldn’t recall another one.
“Well, that’s a silly question, sweetie. You have lived here your whole life,” he responded. “In fact, you’ve never stepped foot outside her walls. No one ever does, except the Rangers. What would make you ask such a thing?”
“I guess the accident really did mess up my head.” Samantha’s comfort level was low for a place that supposedly served as her only home.
“On a positive note, at least you remember the name of your home city,” he said. “So your memory wasn’t completely destroyed. Now hurry up and finish,” Perry instructed her. “We need to get your rehab started for the day, so we can get that brain working like new again.”
Samantha nodded, and watched him as he left, passing through a door that opened by itself. The swoosh noise it made irritated her for some reason. Samantha’s distrust grew. Her flashback made her believe she had been on the Outside. Or could it have been a dream, not a forgotten memory?
A finger swiped the thick white goo in the final compartment, triggering another memory. Contextual clues were nonexistent. The surrounding details were foggy and the scenes short, but full of emotion. Something was not right, and she would continue to search her mind for other memories, however hard they tried to evade her pursuit. One thing she knew for certain, Perry Needles was lying about her living on the Inside her whole life. The only memories she had told her as much.
Samantha shrugged off her initial doubts, thinking that the memories seemed too real, the colors too vivid. She replayed the scenes over and over. Each time more information filled in, until they connected and played as one continuous scene. Samantha remembered. I did live on the Outside. The emotions hit her hard, as they had when the actual event occurred. So how did I get here?
It was one of many questions she would seek the answers to, but Samantha knew the man who called himself her father would not provide any. As far as she was concerned, everything that came out of Perry Needles’ mouth was a lie and couldn’t be trusted. For the time being, until she found a way out, she would have to keep the ruse up and play the role of daughter, so he wouldn’t be suspicious.
A new memory started to play and it starred the man in orange. The flashback kept replaying and elicited powerful emotions. She hoped more of her memory would come back, even in small pieces.
Samantha hated the boxed-in feeling of the glass walls. Her anxiety grew, and each breath became harder to draw than the last. This room was surrounded on three sides by clear glass walls, framed in by steel beams, with the fourth wall covered by a light green cloth. The colored wall drew her close and she pressed her hands against it. The cloth was soft and soothing, but the glass it covered was not. Faint voices of a man and woman came from the other side. She pressed her ear to the cloth to get a better listen.
The sound came alive. She heard more voices than she could count, but the couple was the loudest of all, so she focused on their words, picking up their conversation mid-stream.
“I know, I know,” Perry agreed with whatever the woman was saying. “It’s been too long Lorelei, over a six months since we last spoke, but you know until this is all over, this is how things have to be. Enough of this, though. Tell me about things on your end.”
“As good as could be expected, all things considered,” she replied.
“And your latest subject, any trouble with him?” he asked.
“Negative,” Lorelei responded. “It’s easy for the most part. He is just like his dossier described. Shy, quiet, and I might add, easy to fool. He fell for me hard; I have him wrapped around my little finger. His training is almost complete, and he has been assigned his first mission by the Whisperers. He’s withholding information from me though, and has been tough to crack on that. Messages are being sent from higher-ups directly to him, but I will crack him and get the last sequence of codes. We won’t even have to use his tenth life.”
“Damn that Doyle, it’s always his guys that are the biggest thorn in our sides,” Perry responded, “Well, you know what to do when he divulges the information to you, right?”
“Sure do boss, just like the last two. Already have it planned out. I have been waiting a long time to kill that sniveling little bastard,” replied the woman, pleased with her wickedness.
“Oh, do tell, I’m anxious to know,” replied Perry, who was clearly excited at the prospect of another man’s demise.
“I’m gonna take him to the Oasis. Well, that’s what I’m going to tell him anyway, but we will take a detour to the river. It won’t be hard. He is a weakling and I will overpower him if necessary. He’ll never see it coming,” Lorelei said, and they shared a laugh. “But it isn’t all roses; I do have a bit of bad news.” She paused and lowered her voice. “They have learned about the programs.”
“That certainly isn’t good,” Perry pointed out. “How do you know that?” he asked.
“They have found EPC’s on outcasts that somehow survived. The last two agents I trained were able to connect the dots before I finished them off,” she explained.
“Hmmm, that is certainly disconcerting, but they will never get the evidence to prove these allegations,” Perry explained. “How are they able to survive the wasteland? I guess we need to do a better job of tying up loose ends.”
Lorelei agreed before changing the subject. “I miss you so bad, baby. How much longer before this is all over?”
“Shouldn’t be too long after we get the codes. The Infinity Ship has run aground, so they are stuck without the codes. Our Cryo-walkers had their first training run on the Outsider camp that attacked us a while back. It was unsuccessful, because some of the Outsiders got away, but more importantly, none of the Rangers did,” Perry said.
“Is that so?” Lorelei asked.
“Yes, the weapons have been perfected, freezing the Rangers dead even through their safe suits,” explained Perry. “Some of the nitrogen cannons backfired however, and we lost a few of our own. After a few tweaks in the lab and some training in hunting down outcasts, subsequent missions against Outsiders have proved more successful.”
“Then what’s the holdup, why don’t we make our move?” Lorelei wondered.
“Several reasons. For one, the Cryo-walkers ‘armor’ isn’t ready,” Perry said. “It still needs slight alterations, according to the field report from General Steuben. The blue rays from the Rangers’ guns are still being absorbed instead of bouncing off, and repeated blows weaken the suits. Not to mention we need the codes. They’re our ticket out of here. Without them we’ll be a part of the system forever.”
“I see. Then I guess I better step up the pressure. How’s your latest project coming along?”
“She is in the other room eating. Her programming is finished, but it doesn’t seem to have fully worked. She may need to be reset or sent for additional programming. She asked about the Outside and may have some lingering memories of it, but she knew the name of this colony, so at least some of the programmed info took,” Perry said.
I knew it, this is all a big lie, but how did I become involved in it all? Samantha wondered.
“I guess some minds are just stronger than others,” Lorelei suggested.
“Yeah, mind control will never be an exact science,” Perry said. “But for the most part she seems to be in good shape. Most importantly, she doesn’t suspect a thing.”
“Was the lab ever able to produce a baby with her eggs?” Lorelei asked.
“Yes, the eggs produced life. The baby is in incubation,” he answered.
“That’s terrific!” Lorelei exclaimed. “If we can reproduce with Outsiders, we can farm them and keep the freezers full.”
“Not so fast. Her baby is still dirtier than we would like, but the new drugs are making progress. The lab was able to cleanse their DNA faster. It barely took four months for the latest batch from the Outside,” Perry said. “Their offspring, instead of taking multiple generations, could be completely free of toxins in their lifetimes. Our dreams are finally becoming realit
y, babe, we have discovered the new, improved fountain of youth. And it’s all ours. Pretty soon we will expel all the unclean. Even if we don’t get the codes, we won’t need new bots with this new breakthrough. We just have to cut the cord with command and seal off Newer Orleans. Then, the Pure shall live happily ever after. Forever. Are you ready to play your part as big sis?”
“I suppose so, but first, Muah.”
Samantha pulled away from the wall, stunned at what she heard. She felt her stomach and now knew why it ached so badly. She returned to her seat and nibbled at the rest of her food, forcing it down as her appetite vanished. She waited a few minutes, to allow the gravity of her situation to sink in.
“I’m all finished,” she calmly called out, despite a large case of nerves. “It was delicious,” she added.
Perry returned. Samantha couldn’t decide what she hated more, the room or the man who entered it. The feeling of being boxed in ate at her more and more as the seconds ticked away. A primal instinct burned hot inside her and she wanted out. Out of this room. Out of Newer Orleans. Back to the Outside, where the eavesdropped conversation confirmed she had lived at one time.
A second set of footsteps followed, coming from the other side of the covered wall. In walked a woman in an all red skin-tight suit, zipped up in the front with a slight flare to the unzipped portion near her collarbones. Samantha scanned her up and down, and as soon as she saw her face it hit her like a ton of bricks. The Lady in Red. The scene played. She saw the man in orange and the lady in red.
Fury started to build inside, the boiling of the blood began. While she wanted to scream, she knew it would not be prudent to do so. Samantha remained still. She stewed and steamed while memory came flooding back, playing frame by frame. Something about them together made the fury grow, but she couldn’t make the connection yet.
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