A Land of Despair

I Feel the Same Way.

Three days into our week long break and I was already slowly losing my mind. Addedlina wouldn't allow me to see mother for more than 20 minutes and father was usually at work. As for Charlie, he had disappeared.

When father came home after our episode at the construction site he wasn't angry with me, he tried to talk to me about it but I was not feeling it so he let it go and spent most of his time with mother. He was a calculating businessman to the world, climbing up the ranks with the controllers, but at home, he was just a father dealing with his family issues.
That's how the dynamic was around here, we all mostly kept to ourselves and rarely talked about our feelings or thoughts. It was tiring and heavy to always walk on eggshells around each other so as not to trigger any ill emotions amongst ourselves but it was easier. Running away was easier.
It seems we were a family of cowards. Too afraid to face our own reality, or even what was right in front of us.

"I'm leaving now, are you both ready?" I asked over the phone.

"Yeah. See you soon." Came a gruff reply.

"Okay."

The twins and I had decided to take a trip to Tess's house to see her. To make sure she was actually still there.
We needed an early start because I had to pick them up in the next town, then we had to drive to another town to get to Tess. This would take us all but 3 hours going and coming, it wasn't too bad.

Even when they were not in their uniforms they still carried themselves the same way. Mike with his scruffy casual look and Tina, very prim and proper, no hair out of place.
Once they were both in the car we were on our way in no time.

"How do you think we will find her?" Tina asked, moving closer to the front  space between the two front seats so she could make better conversation.

"What do you mean?" I raised "I took her address from my father's files so it won't be that hard I'm guessing. And I called at the nursing home she's staying at so they are expecting us."

She shook her head vigorously, it was almost comical. "No, I mean like her state of mind. Do you think she would have been brainwashed or something. Maybe her mind was completely turned to mush."

Mike and I both made faces at her assumption. Though it was likely that such a thing could have happened, it was more so unlikely because Tess wasn't a problem for the controllers and the public they were trying to create.
"I doubt it." Mike spoke up.

We neared the dome that housed a rehabilitation center. The different sections and levels talking different problems, like mental illness, physical disabilities, drug abuse and old age. They were all housed in this dome though separate from each other.
At the entrance was a lot of uniformed men, offering security. They all looked quite capable of shooting first and asking questions later, I'm sure they were trained to be menacing in the way they carried themselves. Before they could let us in, we were asked to step out of the car to fill in some form for security purposes while they searched the car. Once we were cleared we entered the care and they handed us some visitors passes to move around the area with.

"The nursing home is in section B, level 3." Said one of the men.
We thanked him and headed on our way.

Once we got to the right parking lot, we walked to the area marked section B and got into an elevator to take us to level 3, everything about this place was high tech, just like all the other domes. Immediately we were out of the elevator we were greeted by a controller at the front desk, she wore a tight skirt suit that brought out the color in her pale green skin. We exchanged pleasantries for the sake of it then she told us what room to go to.
When got to the door, Mike pressed the intercom button and waited for a response.