Vestige Chapter 16 - Jean Hauberg Pt. 2

Julia and I walked slowly through the abandoned corridors of the inner wall. The place was quiet and dark and a slow mechanical whirl within the walls somewhere created an atmosphere of solitude. Both of us were pretty tired from what had gone on earlier, yet we continued on our way through. We didn’t have time to rest, we had to reach the outside world as soon as possible.

“What do you think we’re gonna find when we make it outside?” Julia asked me as we strolled past through a narrow hallway.

“I don’t know.” I responded.

“Hmm.” She sighed.

“But, it doesn’t matter.” We turned into the next passageway. “Because we’re gonna be just fine.”

“You’re right. That’s what Christa fought for.”

“Yeah.”

Looking for a moment’s rest, we soon turned and entered into a room labeled ‘File Management.’ Inside was a large space littered with drawers and desks. Files were scattered haphazardly throughout the place. Cobwebs and dust filled the corners and tables and the musky smell made it obvious no one had cleaned up in a while.

“This is pretty spooky, isn’t it?” Julia broke the silence as we laid on the rotting chairs we found.

“Yeah.” I stood up and searched around a little. What was this place for? What actually have they even been doing here? Most importantly though, where is the exit?

As I rummaged through documents, I started to notice a trend. Each of these detailed files were of a kid at the orphanage. Many of them I didn’t recognize, yet I saw a few kids I did. Scurrying up and down, I noticed the drawers were ordered chronologically. Using that I was able to find my file.

“Whatcha find?” Julia asked from across the room.

“Look at this.” I showed her the document and she quickly scanned it.

“Wow, that must be you!” She pointed out a picture of me as an infant. “Are there ones on everyone back at the orphange?”

“Maybe.” I began to inspect my own file a little closer though first.

The paper held all sorts of information, some even I didn’t know. It contained my date of birth, age and even records of my scores in training, which they never disclosed to us. The depth of some of the reports on it were astonishing. How did they even know all this? Medical reports, internal compositions, statistical likelihood for disease, what was this stuff? Out of all this though, most importantly, was the info at the bottom though. I couldn’t believe my eyes upon seeing it.

Christa was right. The serum she spoke of was there! Listed right at the bottom was a whole section dedicated to it. It spoke of my medical records and how “capable” according to the paper I was for the serum. Even more so, the file went into a second procedure later one. That of a memory machine. It was all so damning.

“Julia! You’ve got to see this.” I gestured towards her and she quickly hopped over.

“What is it?”

Her eyes scoured up and down the paper quickly. “This is exactly what Christa meant.”

“Damn, yeah. I didn’t believe that she was right.”

“Their gonna use that serum and turn us into monsters, just like she said!”

“Yeah. Everything she said was true.” I paused with a sigh of relief yet anxiety. “Hey, you wanna see your file? I think I could probably find it.”

“No, I don’t want to see it.”

“Really? Why not?”

“Seeing it doesn’t change anything. They're still gonna turn us into those monsters either way.” Julia paused and stood up. “Unless, we do something that is! We’ve gotta get out of here, quick. There’s no point in loitering here any longer.” Julia began walking towards the exit.

“Do something…” I stood there for a moment thinking. If only there was something more than just running we could do. Hmmm, I gotta think. That’s it!

I rushed over towards a nearby desk. Tossing aside a pile of papers and wiping the dust off the table, I booted up the PC sitting on top. Promptly, a bright flash of light and a loud start up sound greeted me.

“Come on, Jean! We’ve got to escape, as soon as possible!” Julia called from the exit.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be there in a second.”

This is my chance to finally do something! Inspecting the operating system, it was identical to the one the computer in the library back in the orphanage used. I searched through it’s files with renewed vigor. There it is!

I located a database of information. Looking through it, it was clearly identical to that of the physical files around the room. Scrolling down, I found my file, which was exactly how I expected it to be.

I quickly went down to the bottom of the page. Lemme test this out. I went to the section on the memory machine for starters. Hmmm. Yeah I think I can do this. I changed the document so that it listed I’d already completed the operation. Now that I’ve done that, I can update the real document.

I printed out the updated file, then took the other and ripped to shreds. There we go! Now if they ever check my file, they’ll think I’ve already lost all my memory!

“Hey Julia! You’ve gotta take a look at this!” I called in her direction. She must have left the room.

“Julia?” I walked out into the hall. Where could she be?

I started walking up and down the hallway, searching for her. Crap, I couldn’t have lost her already. I promptly increased my pace and frantically explored the different rooms. Yet she was nowhere to be seen.

“You can’t just kill like that, man.” A voice called from somewhere ahead of me. “It’s not the correct procedure.”

Hearing the voices approach from ahead of me, I quickly ducked into a nearby room and hid in the shadows.

“Whatever, she was holding a knife, I couldn’t help myself!” A second voice responded, this one I recognized. It was the man who killed Christa!

“Did you even read the new conduct the capital put out? We’re supposed to detain escapees now.” Seymor replied.

“Ha! Seymor, my guy, you’re still young! Once you reach my age, you don’t got time for that sort of official stuff! The world’s moving faster and faster and I gotta put everything towards keeping up with everyone else. I can’t read every word they put out.” Dreddian snarked.

“Whatever, man. Just capture them from now on.”

“Ah, don't tell me your getting soft for those brats, now? Don’t wanna kill them because you were once a rat like they are.” Dreddian jabbed at Seymor.

“That’s got nothing to do with this.”

“Ha! It’s actually pretty funny you feel bad for killin em’ kids now! You didn’t feel that way about the kids in Perado, did cha?!”

Seymor let out a long sigh. “That’s got nothing to do with this.”

“Hahah!” Dreddian laughed maniacally. “Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. Hey, I gotta bounce. I got that meeting with Draklor to attend to in a little while.”

“The one about the election?” Seymor asked.

“Yeah. Man, I hate that formal crap. Anyways, I’ll be seein ya.” I could hear Dreddian walking off in the direction away from me.

“Yeah, see ya.” Seymor said.

I let out a silent sigh of relief. One of them left, which will make this a bit easier for me. Still though, I’ve gotta find Julia and quick. First of all, how am I even gonna out here unnoticed? I can’t just run out of here.

“Clever. But, I can still see you hiding there.” He called.

Shit! How the hell did he find me? I’ve gotta run quick. I scurried through the room, attempting to find the best escape route. I could probably run through the opposite door to a different passage than the one he’s in. That’s gonna be my best bet.

“Ahhhh! Let go of me!” Julia’s voice screamed out.

“Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

Was that Julia? Damn! It wasn’t me, he found but Julia. I quickly picked up a nearby broken chair leg and rushed out of the room. I’m coming Julia!

Standing in front of me, Seymor held Julia up by her shirt and attempted to lift her over his shoulder, she was small enough to do so. Yet, her squirming and kicking did enough to prevent and annoy him.

“Damn, this is harder by myself.” Seymor complained.

“Let her go!” I yelled and readied my stick as I jumped out from the shadows.

“Hmmm. Your friend?” Seymor held Julia with one hand and reached into his pocket with the other.

“Get your hands off of my sister!” I charged forward swinging my stick forward, making sure I didn’t hit Julia.

Seymor adeptly dodged the strike and pulled his hand from his pocket. Grasping a pistol, he pulled Julia close to his body and took aim at me.

“Come on, now. You can’t win. It’ll be easier for you to just surrender.” Seymor delivered.

“Like hell!” I sliced again, this time at his feet, as to avoid striking Julia.

I think the slice missed him, yet I couldn’t tell. Half way through my swing, I heard a loud noise and my head suddenly went light.

Blood streamed down from my shoulder as another bullet entered my kneecap.

“Jean!” Julia cried at the sight of my collapsing body.

I quickly lost consciousness. Maybe it was because of my exhaustion or the blood loss, but I hit the floor cold and when I woke up things weren’t the same as before

I laid there on an ice cold stone floor inside of a dimly lit prison cell. Before me was a room, empty say for a metal bed. My shoulder and knee roared in pain and I could barely muster the strength to stand up. Where the hell was I?

There are many decisions I regret making that day, yet the events that soon transpired laid the foundation for my greatest. Eventually Seymor came back to my cell and explained things to me.

“It’s your decision.” He looked me firmly in the eyes.

He had given me one of the largest decisions I have ever made. One that changed absolutely everything in my life. After his offer, He stood there staring at me for moments on end, as I failed to offer up a response in a timely manner.

I just couldn’t think. Everything was happening so fast and I couldn’t keep up. Not long ago I was sitting in the field reading a nice book with Julia complaining by my side. Just a moment ago I was going to eat dinner with my family. I just wanted everything to end already and go back to how it was. Maybe that’s why I agreed to his proposition. Maybe it was out of selfish endeavors. I really don’t know.

“Alright. I’ll do it.”

“I understand.” Seymor nodded in approval and left the room.

Soon he brought Julia and I out of the cells and into this sort of laboratory room. He sat us both down and a another man came out to greet us And well… what happened next was. Well.

“Is it alright, if I don’t elaborate any further?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Lulu responded.

“I just miss her, you know? She wasn’t as lucky as I was that day, and afterwards, I… I never got to see her again.” I slowly fidgeted with my fingers.

The forest was extremely quiet, yet our hushed tones couldn’t have gone far. After a full day of training, I was exhausted, sweaty and everything in between, yet after explaining everything I felt a large weight leave my chest.

“Sorry.” I broke the silence between us. “This is probably really superimposing of me. I just felt like I could tell you. Like you would understand, I mean. Sorry if this is out of place. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Lulu stared at me for a moment before coming close and hugging me. “No that’s not the case at all. I understand the burden you carry. I too have those same regrets. Those feelings of anxiety and distress about the past we left behind.”

“Thank you.” I couldn’t help but let my eyes grow misty.

“And your sister...” Lulu started.

“Yeah?”

“She’s alright. I’m sure of it.” Lulu let go of the hug and looked into my eyes. “And one day, we’re gonna find her. I promise.”

“Thank you. Lulu. Really. Thank you.”