What We Become | Book Two

16. Tourists

I was pushed down into a chair.

It was hard and my back slammed against the solid plastic. Chris' struggling groans came from the seat beside me but with a blindfold over my eyes, I couldn't be sure what room we were in. My hands were bound and I could only see darkness through the fabric that tightened around my face the more I struggled to remove it.

"What's your business here?" a man questioned. The voice rang familiar in my ears. It was the accent, soft and well-spoken but it had been so long I couldn't place it.

"This is where all the tourists are coming, aren't they?" I joked, testing his patience. "We thought we'd get in on the action like everyone else."

It was a dangerous approach to take considering the situation we were in but I had nothing to lose. The man across the room exhaled loudly and his chair released a plastic scream as he leaned back into it.

"Are the blindfolds really necessary?" Chris asked beside me.

The man ignored his question. "You both could've been shot. You know that?"

I raised my brows from underneath the covering. "But you didn't. That has to mean something."

"Who are you?" a woman's voice asked from beside him, one I definitely didn't recognise.

"I didn't realise there were two of you here," I said, fighting a grin. "Nice to meet you..." I paused, being met with only empty silence. "These introductions would be a whole lot easier if we could see."

The man sighed. It was clear he was getting frustrated.

"You said the name Ben Robertson at the gate. Are we really supposed to believe that's you?" the woman questioned. "Did you get that name from a newspaper or something just to get in here?"

"The sooner you're honest with us, the sooner we can let you leave," the man continued.

I couldn't help but smirk. It had been a while but I remembered the name that matched the voice.

"I don't want to leave. I feel at home here," I said, pausing. "This wasn't in the job description for you was it, Mike?"

He released another sigh, pushing the breath from his nose. "Take off their blindfolds," he said.

"Are you serious?" the woman said. It was a turn she hadn't been expecting and her voice failed to hide the shock.

"Yes," he stated. "He knows who we are. There's no point trying to hide it."

"Since when do we give Tourists this kind of treatment?"

"Ben's not a Tourist."

The darkness lifted and light poured into the room. I blinked hard, squeezing my eyes shut and opening them to try and adjust them to the light. It was a small, dark room. Most likely an office they hadn't given much attention to or hadn't had a use for, until now. When my vision returned and the room came into focus, my eyes landed on Mike's face. 

"Damn, Mike," I grimaced. "You're not looking as good as you used to."

"I could say exactly the same thing to you," he countered. "What happened to your face?"

"We ran into a bit of trouble before we got here... Nothing we couldn't handle."

Mike nodded his head to the chair beside me. "Who's he?"

"Chris Shepherd," he replied himself. "Not that anyone here cares."

"We're a package deal," I shrugged. "Who's that?" I nodded to the woman who still sat beside him.

"Julia," the woman smiled. "I was a Junior Scientist here before but I recently moved over to research... I don't think we ever met."

"I don't think we did," I returned the smile. Her dark skin complimented her eyes which glinted under the fluorescents. She fidgeted her hands on the table between us, picking at the nails she no longer had.

Mike looked around the barren room. "I'm sorry about all of this, Ben," he lowered his voice. "I recognised you from the CCTV but they've got all this procedure to follow now. EDIN isn't like you remember it... This place is on high alert 24/7."

"Isn't that what you wanted?" I asked. "Better security?"

"I did," he nodded. "But not like this. None of us can move anymore without having to write it down."

"It sounds like things have changed a bit from when I was here."

"More than you could have imagined," Mike replied, shuffling in his seat. "After one of the attacks we had-"

"Attack?" Chris interrupted.

Mike nodded, confirming his words as his eyes shifted to the top corner of the room. "Some wild group turned up wanting to get in. Obviously, we turned them down and told them to leave, the same as we did to you..."

"Did it work?"

Julia shook her head. "They drove straight through the gates," she said, looking over to Mike to continue.

"We had people ready for it," Mike said. "So, when they were driving up, we had a guy drive into them... It didn't seem to faze them too much but they seemed to get the message when we started shooting at them."

There was a pause and his eyes wandered between the two of us.

"What?" I pressed.

He exhaled. "I don't think that was them trying to get in..."

"What else would it be?" Chris asked.

"I think that was them trying to figure out our defences, and I think we showed them everything we had."

Mike looked down at the table before meeting my stare.

I furrowed my brows. "You think they're coming back, don't you?"

"Without a doubt."

It was clear from the expression on his face that he was exhausted. It was the look everyone seemed to have these days.

"So, with all that being said, what are you doing back here?"

I moved my hand to my pocket and pulled out the small black hard drive. Both Mike's and Julia's eyes narrowed as I placed it on the table.

"I brought something back for you."

"Ben, what is that?"

"Something I think you need," I said.

Mike reached out a hand. "You know you're going to need to hand that over, Ben."

I pressed my hand over the top of it. "I can't do that."

"Why not?" Julia asked.

"You're not seeing what's on it before I do," I said. "It's either together or not at all."

"Aren't you worried about keeping it safe?"

"It's been through a lot getting here. I think it can survive another day in my pocket."

The door to the room slammed open and my hand launched over the drive, shoving it back into my jacket. There was no way I was letting everyone at EDIN see what was on it before I did.

"What the fuck is going on here?" a man yelled as his heavy boots stormed inside. "Since when do we let Tourists drive through the front fucking gates?"