Subject 116

15

We sat in there for what felt like hours, but nobody came in to check on us. I was still letting the fact that Peyton was dead sink in, and I don't know what Finn was thinking about. He had shown a small amount of fear after our conversation, as any normal person would. But he wasn't normal, so this was definitely new. But in my eyes, this was a good thing. If Finn was starting to feel things again, maybe that would help him remember who he used to be, and he could remember some of his old habits and pick up on them.

And now that he was finally agreeing with me, we both decided that the staff was behind his memory wipe, because of his failed termination. It must have done something to his brain to completely reset it, and remove the life he lived before. So if we could figure out how exactly they did it, maybe it would be possible to reverse the effects. And even if there weren't, which I really hoped that wasn't the case, he would come around to figuring out himself soon enough. This environment certainly wasn't helping, though. It made me feel like a test subject, and I hadn't gone through the same treatment as him. We were all test subjects, or would be eventually if we didn't find a way out of here. Telling everyone the truth would cause a panic, and there would be a few people who didn't believe us. A plan would need to be compromised first. That was the hard part. All I knew that was beyond these walls was the roof, and there wasn't much we could do there. This was a tall building, and there was no way down. Building something would be too risky, especially with our limited resources and since none of us were architects, most likely.

The elevator was operated by key cards kept by the doctors, which they had on them at all times. I saw the doctor who took us here had one, and used it on the door to get it open. Even if we were able to snag it, the doors downstairs were most likely locked too, and we couldn't make a plan without being absolutely certain about everything. All of our lives were at stake, and we had already lost too many. Peyton was the last straw. They took someone so clueless, he put up with the rules every day, he would be the last one to act up. Mainly out of fear, but my point still stood.

I hadn't looked up at Finn even once, I knew he had a lot to think through, which wasn't a normal occurrence, so I had to let it happen for his sake. Eventually, he took a breath in like he was about to say something. "How... how is Monica going to react? She was upset enough just by not knowing where he was, but now..." it was almost scaring me how worried he looked, it wasn't like him at all.

But I didn't know either. I couldn't imagine losing someone who you'd been friends with since early childhood. I lost a few friends to the explosion, and it was horrific of course, but I wasn't as close with them as Monica was with Peyton. She was going to be torn to shreds. That, or she would be in denial and not believe us. I would find a way to prove it to her, she was coming with us when we found a way to escape, she had to. But she wouldn't want to leave without Peyton. I wanted to know how they killed him, and why it had to be so brutal. Clearly it was something to do centering the brain, and it had taken something other than Finn's life, while it seemed to be working properly for the others. The thought terrified me, that there was some sort of device in this place that was being used to murder all of us one by one. I didn't know who would be next, but I didn't want to go back and check the files, that was really risky, and I didn't want to be next.

"I don't know. It's going to be so hard, and I have no idea how to explain this to Lydia. She's so little, she wouldn't be able to understand something as serious as this. I can't just tell her that the doctors are trying to kill us, it would scare her so bad she couldn't think straight. The staff would notice, and then they'd probably take her next. I'm not gonna let that happen." Then what else could I do? On the day of the escape, I could just take her out with the rest of us and say nothing, that might work, she trusted me. I just wouldn't tell her anything for now.