the newest prisoners

12

Ellie stood up and walked towards the door, with Dr. Norris and Yui following her. the rest of us sat frozen for a beat. then the rest of them all stood up in unison. Raymond touched my elbow and i quickly followed suit.  as we walked down the hall we ended up forming two rows. Ellie led the way, with Dr. Norris and Yui following, behind her Nova and Roman walked side by side, roman quietly asking nova questions, trying to learn how to cope without his sister. in front of us was Caison and Kyra, kyra was holding Caison's hand and he was leaned over slightly so that he could hear her. she appeared to be chewing him out, and ordering him to be good and to not try anything. Raymond held my hand and walked next to me, quietly leading me down the hall, and allowing me to fight with myself internally over Ellie, him and myself.

i didn't pay attention to the path we took to get to the dining hall, but when we got there i was surprised. i had been expecting a long room, filled with long rows of tables. but what we walked into was a large square room, on one wall was was a line of machines,  up above there was a second floor area that appeared to be about 15 feet wide, that wrapped around the room above our heads. around the room was small rows of tables, about 6-8 seats per table. Ellie and Dr. Norris walked off to the side and went up to the second floor area, while Yui walked over to the line of machines. we all decided to follow Yui, figuring Dr. Norris had told her what to do. Yui walked up to the machines and waved her wrist in front of a small scanner, then a tray with food came out of a dispenser in front of her. she walked over to a table. everyone else followed her lead, and got their food. everyone kinda scattered, roman, Yui, Nova and kyra went to a table together, Caison went to sit by himself. Raymond moved to sit with the group, but i just stood there, unsure of where to go. finally i decided to sit over by myself, i went to the far side of the room, and sat down with my back firmly pressed against the wall. and i watched.

i watched as Caison sat and picked at his food. we all had a sandwich, with some kind of bird meat, and different greens; a small cup full of sweet white fruit chunks, and a small glass of water. Caison was pulling apart his sandwich and barely ate anything.

i watched as nova, Raymond ,kyra, and roman, signed with Yui, Raymond's signs being slower and clumsier, while nova and roman's were smooth and graceful. occasionally someone would say a sentence out loud, translating what Raymond or kyra had missed. or one of them would speak and someone else would translate for Yui. every now and then they would start to giggle and laugh. they ate their food as they signed, taking a bite here and a sip there.

i watched above us, as Ellie and Dr Norris sat above everyone's heads, and they talked, i couldn't make out what they were saying, but it seemed to switch between being professional and being friendly., i watched Norris teach Ellie several different signs, starting with different shapes using a single hand. and a few with both hands.

i watched everyone as they ate their meals. my focus switching from Raymond to Ellie to caison. everything seemed surreal. i just needed to have a real conversation with Ellie to ask her to explain herself. to ask her why she decided to leave me.

after about half an hour and everyone had finished eating, Ellie and Dr Norris came down from the balcony. everyone stood up, and went over to a small alcove in the wall and set down their trays and glasses. i followed suit, and caison walked after me. we all walked out the door, most of everyone continued signing, while me and caison walked behind them all in silence.

after a few minutes, i whispered. "its nice to meet you caison." i glanced to the side at him.

his steps seemed to falter and his strong stoic persona seemed to drop a little.

"thank you. its nice to meet you too Vanessa."

we finished walking to the barracks in silence. we swiped ourselves in.

"everyone please sit down at the table." said Ellie, sitting down herself.

we all filed in and sat around the giant table, i moved myself so that i was sitting directly across from her. Raymond ended up sitting near Ellie, with only Dr Norris separating him. once everyone was seated, Ellie looked around at everyone, until everyone was looking at her. then she settled her gaze on nova.

"nova, i would like you to put us all to sleep in a shared dream. please have it so that we are in a situation in which we can easily talk."

nova nodded. "before i do, i recommend everyone lay their heads on the table, that way you don't wake up to a headache."

she waited until everyone laid their heads down, some like kyra and roman laid their heads on their folded arms.  Caison and Raymond just laid their heads down. Dr Norris quickly took off his lab coat and fashioned a pillow out of it. i laid my head on an arm, and closed my eyes. waiting for nova to put us all to sleep.

it was very quick. one minute we were all sitting in the barracks with our heads on a table, the next we were sitting in a medium sized room, everyone was still sitting in a circle, although instead of at chairs around a table, everyone was in their own soft seat, it was like a large pillow with a crevice for everyone to sit in. the walls were the same yellow, orange, green mango-like pattern. Ellie looked happily at nova, while she blushed. Dr Norris looked around eagerly, excited about what he was seeing.

Ellie looked over at yui, who was smiling. "you can hear me, correct?"

"yes, hello, I'm Yui" she said. her voice was soft and sweet and very much suited her.

"hello Yui, I'm Vanessa." i said, smiling at her. "sorry i couldn't introduce myself to you before, i haven't learned sign language yet."

she laughed. "its okay, i completely understand. Ive been getting better at identifying the locations of the sounds that i hear, hopefully soon ill be able to actually hear in the real world as well."

Ellie smiled. "that will be great yui, but don't feel like you need to in order to be part of the team, you are one of us, and we can sign and use the dreamscape to communicate until you are able to speak with us. but don't feel pressured into forcing it, you'll be able to hear when your able to."

"thank you Ellie, i promise I'll work hard though." yui smiled, relieved that she wouldn't have to push herself too hard to be part of the team.

"okay everyone. now, there is two reasons why i had nova bring us into the dreamscape. the first is so that Yui can talk with us, and understand everything. i didn't want her to feel left out." at this Yui started blushing deep red. "the second reason is so that you know that everything that will be shared will stay here between us and that you wont be recorded."

everyone began to shift in their seats. finally roman spoke,

"what are we going to share?" he asked timidly.

"your biggest regret. your biggest secret. and how you came into the capitols grasp."

my heart stopped. I could hear everyone begin to shuffle in their seats, and everyone either began to hyperventilate, or stop breathing altogether. 

"So? Who wants to go first?"