by Jodie Kobe
When I meet Rian in the middle of the white hallway, he has glasses to give me. I look at them, realizing they look similar to the ones Rob showed me.
“I-I don’t need glasses.” I say stupidly.
Rian just laughs and shoves them into my hand. “They’re not glasses. I forgot to give them to you. Most of the people have them.”
I turn the object over in my hand, keeping an eye on the path ahead of me as we start walking.
“Try them out,” Rian says.
I hold the glasses up to my face and squint at them. “What do they do?”
“Just put them on,” Rian urges.
I look up at him. “Tell me what they do first. I don’t want to get electrified. Rob told me about them but I wasn’t listening.”
“Rob?” Rian asks. “You talked to Robin?”
I decide to be brave and slide the glasses in front of my eyes. “Yes.” Nothing happened. They feel like regular glasses. I pull them off.
“And he didn’t attack you or anything?”
I let out a fake burst of laughter. So Rian hasn’t heard?
He looks perplexed, asking, “What?”
“Nobody told you anything?”I attempt to hand the glasses back to him, but he doesn’t take them. I shove them into his hand harder, but he just lets them fall to the floor. I bend to pick them up.
“What happened?” Rian's walk slows, and I slow my pace down too. “Vivian, what happened?”
I try dismissing it with a wave of my hand but Rian is demanding.
“Tell me.”
I laugh. “You’re bound to hear it from someone else.” I try giving him the glasses again but he rejects it another time. “Take it,” I urge. “I don’t know how to use these anyway.”
This time, Rian takes them from me, but only to put them on my face. “They’re basically an electronic map of the whole facility. It’ll help you get around. These are still in development so we don’t have a finished product.” He clicks something on the side of the glasses, and my left eye goes dark.
“I can’t—” My hand flies up to my left eye, attempting to rub it, but Rian stops me by grabbing my wrist.
“You’re fine. Calm down.” He lets go of my wrist and adds, “You have to wait for it to light up.”
I nod and say, “Do you have this too?”
“Yes.” He pulls out another pair of glasses and slides them on his own face.
“And you still carry them around?”
“Why not?”
I focus on what I see in my left eye. The black screen has turned a light turquoise. Lines appear, shaping themselves into what appears to be a complex map. “Um,” I say. “What is this?”
Rian walks faster, and I follow. “It’s a map. It’ll take you a while to learn it. Anyway, I told you about the map. Now you have to tell me what happened with Rob.”
I grunt. “Rob...tricked me into going aboveground.” I pause and he urges me to continue by rolling his head a little.
I pull the glasses off and blink as white spots start dancing in front of me. “Have you ever seen that place with the glass hallway? The one that leads outside but never actually into the open air?”
To my surprise, Rian replies, “Yes. But I never stepped out of the building. Wait...did you?”
I nod. “Rob locked me out.”
Rian stares at me.
“B-but you’re here.” He points to me.
“Janelle got me out.”
We stop in front of a door and Rian says, “This conversation isn’t over yet. I’ll talk to you later about this. But before we enter, you need to hear a couple of things from me.”
“What?”
“A few warnings. First, don’t freak out. We have a new member with...” He holds his right hand up, where I can see the black swirl of tattoos weaving around his fingers. “This. Second, the girl we're reviving is named Megan. Third, this is my second time watching someone wake up.”
“Who was the first?” I don’t really care. It’s not like I would know that person.
Rian scratches the back of his head. “Not to be creepy or anything but...it was you.”
I laugh, remembering two voices talking that first day I opened my eyes. Could that have been Rian?
“Not creepy? No?” He opens the door, leaving me no time to reply. “I don’t think you’ll be asked to help, so you can just watch.”
We step into the room and I immediately recognize it. This is where I had been when I first woke up too.
A scientist in a white lab coat stands by a solid, metallic bed. It’s the same man that I first saw. The guy with that shiny, bald head.
He turns around when we come in, a tablet in his hands. He's scribbling something.
On the bed behind him lays a girl. Wires connect to her arms. Is this how I looked like?
She is motionless, but I assume it's because she’s still “asleep.” Red hair is plastered on her face, and from where I'm standing I can see freckles on her cheeks.
The scientist with the tablet gives me a questioning glance. “What are you doing here?”
Rian cuts in before I answer. “She’s here to watch. She’s fascinated by science,” he lies. “She says she wants to train to become a scientist too.”
I give the scientist man a fake smile and hope it’s believable. But I question the word too.
“Too?” I whisper to Rian as the other man turns back to the motionless girl.
“They’re training me but I’m not too keen on the idea. Welds suggested it.” Rian grimaces and points to the scientist. “Anyway, gotta go.”
I start to follow him, but the scientist holds up a hand, telling me to give the girl some room.
“Ready, Callum?” the man asks.
“Go ahead.”
The scientist disconnects the wires from the girl’s arms and presses a button on the machine next to the girl. I wait, holding my breath.
Her eyes flutter open. Let’s meet this Megan.
