Children's Games: A Story of Modern Consequence

Chapter 51

~Emilia~

Joshua began by explaining how Maria had approached him, and Emilia was reminded of when he had first told her two days ago. She had responded badly and hoped with her whole heart that Matthew and Florence wouldn't feel the same way. In the meantime, she focused on every word that escaped Joshua's lips, making sure that she memorised the whole story. He told it slightly differently in his rush. The time pressure was starting to make Emilia nervous as well.

Maria had approached Joshua about having suspicions about the mission, and that she had regained most of her memories. She claimed that they weren't really Russian, but really Australian soldiers. She was planning an escape, and she wanted him to come because he had confided in her in the past about having strange dreams of his past life. He had denied, as he originally couldn't believe that the mission could be anything other than what they had been told. So, she brought her idea to the whole table to use Dominik's feelings for her to her advantage. But, as they all knew, he had shut her down immidiately.

Then when they had broken into the council buildings, she found the bet posted to The Games about getting nations to attack itself. She also found something else on the computer that caused her to use the radio to call for help. Dominik sedated her before she got very far. When she woke up later that night, she scoured the house and found the real mission outline and left while everyone else was asleep. Joshua followed her, determined to hear more about what she had to say since he started to see Dominik in a different light.

When he had caught up with her, she was trying to contact someone with one of the watches that she had stolen from Dominik. Joshua had tried to reason with her, to find the bottom of what was actually going on. She was the one who told him about Ivan's book, about the dog tags, and about the whole mission being a cover for The Games. She was sure that all nations were doing the same thing, sending mercenaries all over the world to try and get the upper hand on things under the cover of the disease.

"I woke up and realised that you two were gone..." admitted Matthew with a hand on forehead. "I had no idea... I thought that I was helping." Joshua put a hand on Matthew's shoulder but couldn't meet his eye.

Dominik had appeared just as Joshua was seriously considering Maria's words. The commander had sent Joshua away, so he hid and watched. Maria threatened to shoot Dominik, but he attacked anyway, even though she was lowering her gun. He killed her by stabbing her. Seventeen times.

Ever since, Joshua had tried to continue her plan to escape, which solidified as soon as Emilia had shown up with no memories. It proved the ideas that Maria had claimed about their procedures and proved that their memories were dangerous if they were allowed to have them.

"Since I got one of these watches," he continued, showing the small device that was interlinked with everything he could ever need considering Rosie's high security clearance. "I can tune in to hourly reports and security threats, so I know that they aren't onto us yet... But I found missing persons reports for each of us... then Dominik altered the device to make it more concise for the needs of the mission... but I swear I found all of us. I think we're a lot more involved in the disease and this war than we think... We may not be the victims here."

Joshua's words were heavy, and confused Emilia more than ever... but he must've realised that he had said too much than what was completely necessary for now, and quickly moved on. She couldn't lie, the whole idea made her head hurt, but it also made sense. Instead, she took strength from Joshua's unwavering determination and decided that focusing on getting out should be achieved before she explored the 'whys'...

"This all leads to tonight. Ivan must've thought that the same thing that was happening with Maria was happening with Emilia; that she was starting to remember things. I'm still not sure, but I think he had figured out that Dominik would never realise if this was the case, especially since he had failed to notice Maria. I suppose that's what vulnerability is all about..."