Nora was impressed that he had done that. It was simple, yet something she herself didn’t think of.
They began to explore.
Of the ten rooms, eight of them contained lockers. Each with a number. John guessed and told her since there were forty-eight lockers; he supposed they were numbered according to the rooms.
They were locked.
“Where are the keys?” Nora asked. “Do you think there are any?”
“I’m gonna guess they are in our rooms or storage. I mean, have we had the chance to check?”
Nora shook her head. “No. We haven’t been up all that long.”
They left the locker rooms. Not much they could do there. The final room on the top floor was locked, and something they knew they had to investigate. And the last room checked, on the bottom floor, was a computer room. None of which were turned on. There were file cabinets and boxes.
“Should we dive in?” Nora asked.
“I would love to, but we should check back with the others. Maybe see if anyone else wants to come back. Also, we need to look for keys. They’re here somewhere.”
“Maybe behind the locked door?”
“That’s possible.”
“The video said we might not comprehend. I know I’m not thinking clearly,” Nora said. “When we all have our wits then …”
“Hello?” Jason’s voice called to them.
Nora and John stepped from the small computer lab.
“Look at this place,” Jason said. “What is it?”
“Near as we can tell,” John explained. “This is our dining area. We have locker rooms with lockers that are … locked. Yet numbered.”
“Forty-eight?” Jason asked.
“Yep.” Then John pointed up. “A locked door up there. And behind us,” he indicted. “A computer room. My guess, that’s where a lot of our answers lie.”
“This is amazing, thank you for finding it,” Jason said. “Did you by chance touch something? Turn something on.”
John glanced at Nora with a quizzical expression and smiled. “Just the circuit box. I flipped the switches.”
“That’s what I thought.” Jason turned. “Come here.”
“What is it?” John asked.
“It’s easier to show you than explain.”
Curious, Nora followed the two men. The small hall was now lit and the door that was propped with the ax was marked Block B. She turned to look back at the door that led to the dining area. It was marked Block C.
Where was Block A.
The second they stepped back into The Hall, Malcolm raced forward.
“Guys, you did something, right?”
“What are you talking about?” John asked.
“That.” Jason pointed. “You weren’t gone five minutes. We heard the humming of electronics and then that.”
Nora looked. Jason pointed to the door at the other end of the long hall. She moved forward to get a better look.
Malcolm stated. “That isn’t a busted Exit sign.”
In a whispering voice of shock, John said, “Oh my God.”
Above the door, the box that they all assumed should have said ‘Exit’ contained the numbers – 4:08:22:23.
The last two numbers decreased every second.
“Four days,” John said. “Eight hours, twenty-two minutes. It’s counting down. It’s a countdown.”
“Yeah, it is,” Jason said. “But counting down … to what?”
Eleven – Who Am I
Nora rolled the tiny key between her fingers, feeling the texture, finger to finger while she sat on the bed in her room. Seventeen.
It didn’t take much searching. Actually it was the first place she looked. The lone item in the top desk drawer. She didn’t tell the others where she found hers or even that she did. Somehow she didn’t want to be motivated to go check that locker. She would in the morning. A part of her felt that she had no connection to what was in it.
The countdown clock threw her back some. But she felt she knew what it meant. It immediately drew questions and conversations from Jason and Malcolm. The other three who survived and emerged from their units were still processing the events that just occurred.
In a way, everyone was still processing one thing or another.
How could they make an educated guess when their minds were all over the place?
Nora did try talking to the president once more. Again, he declined to speak, saying he didn’t remember anything and asked her to stop calling him the president.
“If indeed I am the president,” he said. “Then I am ashamed because if I am not a prisoner here, and if this was a government plan, then I am being protected from something.”
Protected.
Nora didn’t even think of that.
Before retreating back to her room, she spoke with the three new people.
The one woman, Amy was around the same age as Nora, an African American woman who was strikingly beautiful and showed no signs of being worn out from the process. She wrung her hands a lot and was bitter because she couldn’t remember anything.
Meredith was in her forties, maybe fifties, it was hard to tell. She had a healthy build and a line free face, but her hair was prematurely gray. Totally gray. Nora didn’t know if that was the process. She wore glasses, because like John, they were on the desk. Meredith presented herself uppity and spoke educated, even though she claimed to remember very little.
The final newcomer was Grant. He was more than likely in his late twenties, handsome and slender with blonde hair that fell right into place.
“I play the piano,” he said. “I know that, because that’s the last thing I remember.”
A piano. An explosion. New York.
Nora hoped the next day, things would be clearer. They planned to meet after they all woke up and had something to eat.
John wasn’t resting, he told Nora that. He set his sights on the storage room and what was in there. He found a box of watches. Wrist watches with a compass. An odd find. He handed them out and guessed the time of day.
Last she heard Malcolm went to the computer room. He remembered he knew about them.
A light knock on her door drew her attention from her thoughts and that key. “Come in.”
The door slid open and Jason peeked inside. “Hey, I’m not bothering you, am I?”
“No. Not at all. Come in.”
He shut the door. “Are you sick?”
“No. Why?’
“You kind of just disappeared.”
“I was done for the day.”
Jason reached for a chair and paused. “May I?”
“Please.”
He pulled it up then set a bottle on the nightstand. “John found wine. I’m gonna have a glass to relax me. You?”
“That sounds wonderful thank you.”
Jason poured. “We may need it to rest. We don’t know how long we’ve been asleep.”
“Long enough to give birth.”
He hesitated before handing her the glass. “Maybe she was close to her due date when they put her in there.”
“I don’t know.” Nora accepted the glass and sipped it with a gasp of enjoyment. “Thank you.”
“Hey …” He reached forward. “You found the locker key.”
“I did. Top drawer. I’m in no hurry to check the locker. I figured I’d do it tomorrow.”
“I’ll look in my drawer.”
She placed the key on the nightstand. “Clock still ticking out there?”
“Yep.” Jason said. “I just hope it isn’t counting down to an explosion.”
“Nah, I think it’s counting down to the door opening.”
“That’s so odd. Why are we in here for a time period?”
Nora shook her head. “Maybe we’re on a spaceship and were abducted by aliens.”
Jason laughed. “Really? Where did that come from?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have my own thoughts. I’m so foggy still, like … John said New York and Bam. I knew I
was in New York for something. What? I don’t know.”
“An event.” Jason said almost with revelation. “An event.” His eyes widened. “I don’t know what kind. But it was big. Holy crap.” He ran his hands through his hair. “The phone call. It was asking me if I would do the honors of doing the benediction at something in New York. I just remembered.”
“So me, you and John were all in the same place.”
“Yeah. Something big, the president was there.”
“Well….” Nora tilted her head. “Unless like John believes, he is part of it. Are you remembering anything else?”
“It’s coming back. I know I was a preacher or pastor. I know I was a pretty big deal because my memories have me in front of thousands. Like an arena. I’m a husband and father. I feel a sense of sadness for my wife. Like I hurt her or abandoned her. You.”
“Nothing. Just the New York thing. But there’s one thing I do know.”
“What’s that?”
“That Event, this whole being stuck in a vat of fluid …” Nora shook her head then sipped her wine. “I’m a mistake. I’m not supposed to be here.”
“How can you say that?” Jason asked. “Forty-eight people were handpicked. That’s what I believe. I think once we all remember, we all will know why.”
“Not me. I’m a mistake.”
“I’m curious,” Jason said. “Why you are adamant?”
“That.” She pointed at the Genesis unit.
“What about it?”
“The name. Look. I emerged from that unit. They were labeled.”
“I know. That’s what made me remember my last name,” Jason said.
“Yeah, so, that name above my unit is Rosewood. And that is not my last name.”
Jason was hesitant before saying anything. He looked at Nora then the unit. “Are you sure?”
“Oh, I am positive. I don’t remember much, but I know my last name isn’t Rosewood. So why am I even here?”
“And where is Rosewood?” Jason poured her more wine. “Drink up. Your mystery is even deeper than the rest of ours.”
“Don’t I know it.” Sitting on the bed, Nora sipped the wine. It was an even bigger mystery for her, compiled with the one everyone else was trying to solve.
Nora wanted answers. She wanted her memory and she only hoped that she got her answers before the clock hit zero.
For some reason, she believed that when the countdown was over, she was on her own. And that thought scared her even more than not knowing at all.
Twelve – Breakfast Club
Being the first to arrive had its advantages. Nora didn’t miss anything, in fact, she was pleasantly surprised to smell coffee.
“Morning sunshine,” John said. “I found the coffee pot and coffee. Grab some.”
“What time did you get up?” she asked.
“I haven’t been to bed,” John replied, “Neither has Grant. Malcolm either. I think he finally powered up the computers. Grant and I got everything logged in storage. You wouldn’t believe the stuff in there.”
“Really?” Nora poured coffee.
“It’s like they have enough stuff for each one of us to survive longer than the three days remaining on the door.”
“What about your locker?”
“I found my key,” John lifted it. “But I was going to wait until everyone was ready. I figured we’d all do it together.”
Nora absorbed her first sip of coffee. It was an instant fix. Suddenly, that slight headache she carried with her all day long, started to fade. “I’m a caffeine junkie,” she said.
“So you got your memory back.”
“No. I don’t remember anything. Just the way this coffee is making me feel, I am betting I’m a coffee drinker.”
“I know I was.”
“Where are you from, John? New York?”
“No. Connecticut. So if we are still in New York, then I don’t have far to travel to get back home.”
“Have you given any more thought as to why we could be here?”
“I have. But all of them are just theories.”
“Hence,” The woman’s voice entered the room. “My specialty.”
It was Meredith, she pointed to the coffee. “May I?”
“Please.” Nora said.
“I’m sorry for intruding. But I know what I did. I was a teacher, a professor at Yale. That’s about where my memory stops, but I know that to be certain.”
“Theoretical physics?” John asked.
“No, A professor of Evolution Psychology and Epistemology. Which is …”
John stated, “The study of knowledge. The theory of thought process. So in a nutshell you are a people expert in how people evolve, think, and act.”
“Exactly.”
“Wow.” John stepped back. “That just adds a lot to this mess. I think knowing everyone’s field will help. I wrote science fiction. Then again, I wrote science fiction based on fact and circumstances of the now.”
Nora scratched her head. “All of this is foreign to me. I don’t know what I did.”
“I do,” Another voice entered the room. It was Amy. “I’m a scientist. More so an Astronomer, particularly the sun and the study of solar storms. . I know that. I study storms. In particular odd weather patterns brought on by the sun.”
Nora crinkled her brow. “A scientist. A writer. Malcolm says he did computers or so he thinks. Grant is a musician. Jason is a preacher. What do we all have in common?”
“Easy,” Meredith replied as she took a sip of her coffee. “We all contribute to the factors to what makes society civilized. And that my friend is a big clue as to why we are here.”
<><><>
The president was crying; sobbing more like it, at least that was the observation Jason gave when he arrived with Grant. He told how they stopped to see President Thomas and the president was distraught.
“He lifted his hand to me,” Jason said. “And told me to give him a minute. I told him where we were and what we were doing.”
Cynically, John stated. “He knows. He remembers. He probably remembers it all. My memory was good when I woke. Jason? Yours?”
“It was weird,” Jason replied. “When I woke up, I was blasted by it. Everything. Almost every detail. It now is real to me, unlike yesterday where I didn’t know if it was a dream or not.”
“Same with me,” Amy said. “Foggy yesterday. Real today.”
“But …” Meredith spoke. “Do any of us remember the events that led us to right here? Right now. I don’t.”
No one replied.
“I didn’t think so,” Meredith said.
“But that is why we’re here,” John rebutted. “Let’s tell our stories. Let’s put them together. Maybe if each of us remember a piece of the puzzle, combined we can figure out the chain events.” He stepped away briefly, and returned with Malcolm. “We appreciate,” John said. “You taking time away to do this.”
“I’m kinda in the zone but that’s fine.” Malcolm took a seat.
“We were opening up discussion on who we are, what we did and what we remember,” John said. “Trying to piece it together. All of us …” He looked at Nora. “Most of us,” he corrected. “Woke up with clarity to about 90 percent of our lives.”
“I know I did,” Malcolm stated. “I woke up knowing a lot. My wife’s name, my children, my job. I am from New York. City. But we had just moved to Boulder. I’m an inventor. I started with computer chips and my biggest to date is … well, was, who knows, the bio cam.”
Everyone looked at him.
Using his hand to demonstrate, Malcolm explained. “It’s slightly bigger than a golf ball. It looks like one, the ribbed surface, but all those ridges, are cameras. Lasers. The bio cam is placed in a room, pretty much unnoticed. It does a three-sixty-camera camera, but while it does, it is looking for increased heart rates, out of place body temperatures and if it finds any, the camera will lock in.”
“Holy cow,” Nora sat back, amazed. “Tha
t’s unreal.”
“Yeah, it was my contribution to stopping terrorism. The main frame is not on site, so even if the cam is destroyed the footage can be retrieved. Maybe the monitors can pick up a threat before it happens,” Malcolm said. “I remember everything up to being at the Astoria. An event, a big one, and my camera was making its debut. Actually three of them were placed throughout the hotel. I was asked to bring it and monitor it on site, but my onsite computers weren’t their only hub. Footage is somewhere in Cleveland. Anyhow, things were going. Someone was speaking, I wasn’t paying attention to that. I was focused more on the two men in the back of the room. The bio cam picked up their heart rate, body temperature, they were abnormal readings. I wasn’t watching the speaker and when they left, the ground shook. Things fell, there was panic.”
Nora said, “The explosion you mentioned.”
“Yes,” Malcolm nodded. “It happened fast, just as I registered something had happened outside the ball room, they were escorting people out. I remember thinking, ‘oh, yeah, bet bio cam B caught the culprit’, then I got dizzy. I started to pass out. I noticed a lot of people were falling. Gas leak. Gas attack. Those were my thoughts and that was the last I recall.”
Grant spoke up. “The passing out, I remember. The explosion is … faint. I was in the ballroom. That is clear. I play with the New York Symphony. I was asked to play with my strongest string quartet. We received a lot of money to do so. I don’t do shows such as that, but my father coordinated the event so I did it for him. Everything else before that, I recall.”
Amy lifted her hand to speak. “I remember the explosion. Well, I didn’t feel it. I was at the Astoria as well.” Her eyes shifted about as she spoke. “I wasn’t at an event. I was actually at a conference. My room at a much cheaper hotel had a problem and the management put me up at the Astoria. I remember thinking how I lucked out. How I was going to embrace every moment in this plush hotel away from my children. I was asleep. Two men pounded on my door, they were wearing masks. I don’t know anything after that.”
Jason spoke. “I don’t remember the explosion. I know I was nervous. I got a call to do the prayer and introduction at a big awards ceremony. The whole thing is sketchy. My life before that isn’t. But the event is.”
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