Experiment VII

Chapter Forty-Eight: Infiltration

     Chester wastes no time brushing off my question to the baffled gate-guard. "It's nothing, he's just rambling. Don't worry about it," he hurries to dismiss Dan as his eyes narrow at us both.

While his helmet obscures his facial features, it doesn't take a genius to guess Chester's glaring expression as he gives me a less-than-gentle nudge. Hesitating, my eyes rescan the mutant before me, whom I once knew to be Dan Everett. "No, but that's-" I cut myself off mid-sentence, the realization finally sinking in that regardless of what happened to him, Dan doesn't remember any of it. He doesn't remember anything. Of course, with all the mutants' memories stripped from them, we all knew such a memory wipe was possible, but that doesn't mean any of us would expect to go through it for a second time. And that's even failing to mention how Dan's alleged death with many other mutants when Umbra attacked the first time. I bite down a further comment. An effort to do otherwise would only serve as a futile effort by this point.

"Okay..." he says slowly, pinching his brows together as his gaze flickers between us. "You two gonna give me your I.D.s or what?"

"Right, yeah." Sensing his waning patience, I quickly fumble through some of my many pockets and pouches before locating the card I looted from one of the Umbra agent's corpses, the same agent whom I got my armour from. Though with no certainty whether or not it's what Dan is expecting, I hand it over to him with false confidence. My heart thrums inside my rib cage as Dan carefully inspects the card before holding his scanner above it. The scanner washes it in a soft blue light before letting out a light beep. Dan gives a stiff nod, handing it back to me. Although the previous confusion fails to slip from his features entirely, it lessens somewhat.

The adrenaline coursing through me still refuses to wane as he moves on to Chester, extending his hand for the next I.D. My eyes remain glued to him as he calmly procures an I.D. from his pocket, handing it over to the other mutant. He must have also had the same idea to swipe one while we were back at the not-so-safe house. I stifle an audible sigh of relief as Dan scans the card without issue, returning it back to Chester after a few moments and allowing us to follow the rest of the Umbra agents to our unknown destination.

"Wonder what they did to him..." Chester mutters, keeping his voice relatively low to avoid anyone else overhearing.

My breathing grows heavier as our trek drags on. "Probably the same thing they did us," I say, figuring it out as the words leave my mouth. "Bastards must've wiped his memories again-..." my voice drags off as my pace slows, the sight in front of me pulling my focus. With the mist having dissipated a while back, it allows for a clear visual of the massive mountain standing before us. What draws my eyes are the two black dome-like buildings resting near the jagged rock's base. So that's where Umbra's been hiding all this time. Although, perhaps hiding isn't quite a fitting word for what they might have been doing since our escape.

"I thought it'd be bigger," Chester comments.

I don't answer him immediately, uncertain as to how I was expecting Umbra's main quarters to appear. It was hardly a topic that had consumed my thoughts. Getting here, sure, what it looked like, not so much. "Well there are two of them," I reply as I stare at the dark buildings in the not-so-far distance, wondering what might be happening inside them. I vaguely register Chester saying my name, or some variation of it before he snaps it a little louder.

"What're you on about?" he asks as I glance back at him. "I'm only seeing one."

Staring back at the building, I blink a few times, trying to locate the other, but to no avail. I squint for a moment or two, unable to spot what was there previously. Or perhaps it wasn't.

"You should've told me you got shot earlier," Chester says after a short pause, putting two plus two together.

"So you could do what exactly?" I sigh, already sick of hearing this. It was too late to change now. "Let's just get going."

Getting into Umbra didn't prove to be as much of a challenge as I might've assumed, but avoiding drawing attention and finding what we came here for is where the real difficulty begins. I squint as we step in, my eyes take a moment to adjust to the glaring lights reflecting harshly off the polished white floor. It's a shame the scientists didn't have better tastes in terms of colour palettes for their facilities, though not because of how mind-numbingly identical everything is. Subtly as I can, which is not very subtle, my fingers press against the bullet wound lodged in my shoulder, not wanting to bleed all over the pristine white floor. Repressing a grunt, the warm liquid seeps through the material of my gloved hand as I apply more pressure. If even a single drop of blood drips hits the ground, someone's bound to notice. We haven't come all this way to get blown over staining the squeaky floor. Briefly scanning over the simplistic interior of the lobby, we're barely through the door when my attention is pulled as a woman speaks up.

"You two," she barks, her eyes lifting from the multiple monitors splayed before her atop the desk as she spares a glance between Chester and myself. I try to keep my shallow breaths even as my eyes catch on her hand, comfortably resting on a holstered weapon.