Offbeats

The Examination

The room beyond the door is intimate and lit by a single bright bulb hanging from the centre of the ceiling.

Captain Duketon sits at a metal table underneath and when I meet his gaze, he motions for me to take a seat opposite him.

I obey, all but reluctantly.

I scan the rest of the room from my seat. Two doors, the one I came from and one on the opposite side of the room. No windows or features of any kind.

I focus my attention back to the Captain. His face is aged yet still full of strength and his neat brown hair is wisped with grey strands. His eyes are permanently narrowed as if he is suspicious of everything he sees. I swallow, my throat still dry as a bone.

"Alison Evorgray." He says, his voice low and bellowing even though he is speaking in normal pitch.

I say nothing, focusing on keeping my eyes on his intense stare instead of wondering how in hell everyone seems to know my name.

He waits a few beats before speaking again.

"Do you know how long we have been looking for you?" He laughs, shaking his head, then continues. "Who would have guessed it, under our noses this whole time."

I can't help myself. "Why?"

He raises a bushy eyebrow.

"Why me? Why have you been looking for me?" I clarify, in a strong voice I didn't know I had.

The Captain leans back in his metal chair, a look on his face which suggests he didn't expect the words to come tumbling out of my mouth in such a way. "I'll be asking the questions first, Miss Evorgray." He says after a while, his accent spiking up again.

I swallow, grasping to hold onto my confidence.

"How did you fly under the radar so long?" He leans forward again, resting his forearms back on the table. "People almost never miss our signals."

"Signals?" I dare to ask another question.

"The noise that lead you here."

I narrow my eyes slightly. "I only heard that noise once, when I followed Kipp." His eyes widen the slightest bit at my use of Kipp's name.

"We've been using the signal around here for years." He pauses, tilting his head to the left slightly. "How long have you been awake?"

How long have I been awake? More like how long have I been asleep...

How much have I missed?

"Six months," I estimate, and have take in a ragged breath before I can go any further. "How long have you been awake?"

The Captain leads in closer. "Six years." His voice is a low whisper now as if to lessen the impact.

Six years?

I push myself up from the chair beneath me and start pacing, suddenly having to move.

I cup my left hand on my forehead, in an attempt to stop my mind from whirling.

I look back at the Captain quickly, whose face is a little softer but still alert. "How long have they been here?"

"Same amount of time." He says in a way which was intended to console me. "I was there during the invasion, I saw it all. Saw the world get ripped from humanities grasp in the space of a day." He voice is even, despite the things he must have seen. His eyes show an almost ghostly emotion I can't read. "We had no time to fight back,- to prepare- but even if we did, we still would have had no chance. Myself and another were both unaffected by the Parallel's devices that knocked out everyone around us. We hid here. We came up days later to find-" He stops suddenly, as if he realised who he was speaking to.

He shuffles in his seat a little, and doesn't finish what he was saying when he speaks again. "Do you remember them?"

"Wha-" I stutter, my courage draining away too quickly. "The Off- um, Parallels? I told you I only woke up six months ago."

"Yes, but you had met one of their scouts a few weeks before the invasion." He shakes his head, asking. "Am I wrong?"

The boy from my dream suddenly pops into my head again. He stands before me, but this time, his beautiful face is filled with pain. His hands are being held behind his back by two men- no, Offbeats- and he is being dragged backward towards the gates of a huge factory. The boy writhes in their grip, all the while staring deep into my eyes. He opens his mouth to say something...

Captain Duketon clears his throat, snapping me back into reality.

I open my mouth to reply, but no words come out.

Why do I keep seeing this boy?

I rake my hands down my face and massage the back of my neck, the weight of all this new information suddenly draining me.

"You know what," Captain Duketon says as if talking about them has also worn him down. "This was a bad idea." He pushes himself up- the metal chair screeching against the concrete enough to make my head pound even more. "Get Commander Janson to take you to a dorm and get some rest. We'll talk soon." He motions towards the door opposite the one I came through earlier.

I manage a tight nod at the Captain and turn towards the door.

I just place a slick hand on the cool handle when he speaks again, his voice so soft I almost missed it. "He was a good man."

I shoot him a look over my shoulder. He eyes are strong yet sincere.

I don't ask him who he is talking about.

Instead I turn back towards the door, take a breath and turn the handle, walking out without a word.