NUMB

Day Seven - Jet

My shift ended at noon. A rare happening, since Beck seems to love to schedule me for the swing shifts. It was hell being here at four in the morning, but it's nice because now I've got the entire rest of my day to do what I want without having to worry about needing to be back here at six again. I managed to sneak into the Compound for lunch. Even though I could have gone home. I don't know. I wanted to be in there again.

I saw Elyse again. And someone else too. A friend of hers maybe? Do they make friends? Is that a horrible question to ask? Anyway, Elyse is interesting. She comes across as such a flat-line person. Like there's nothing going on in there, with her monotone way of speaking and that borderline bored look in her eyes. But I swear, there's something in there. Just out of reach, but it's there.

I must be talking about her because Seth is giving me this look like he wants to reach across the table and strangle me. I finish whatever it was my mouth was saying.

"Done?" he asks.

"Mm-hm."

"Alright, so I found a group online that meets up sporadically to talk shit about the Compound. I figure, with nothing else to go on, this is probably the best bet on where to start." Seth unlocks his phone and starts poking around on the screen.

"Are they meeting soon?"

"Tonight." His eyes flick up to mine for a second. "I already told them I would be there and I'm bringing a friend too."

I grin. "Knew I could count on you."

The corner of his mouth twitches as he taps away on his phone.

///

The group is bigger than I was expecting. I had thought maybe a handful of people were going to be there, five at the most—not including us. But there's about fifteen in the room when we get there and a few more show up later. It's mostly just talk of rumors. Things people have heard about the Compound from their friends or family. Stuff they've seen online about the Compounds in other places.

The idea of there being more than one place like this sits weird in my stomach.

There are a couple of people who have kids in there. My assumption was correct, they've never been up there to visit. One of them says he tried to go once but they wouldn't let him in. Gave him some excuse about not wanting outside influences messing up the work they were doing with the kids in there.

Seriously, everything that comes out of this place is sketchy.

"Jet works there," Seth says at one point in the conversation. The entire room goes silent.

"What?" I ask. "None of you ever thought to get an inside look?"

"They won't hire people who have Numb relatives." The other person who has a kid in there, a lady about the same age as my mom, says. "They find out if you're even remotely related to someone during the background check and if you have even a distant cousin in one of the Compounds, they won't let you work there."

"Because that's not red flag raising at all," someone chimes in.

I didn't know about that. I guess I don't have to be curious about whether I've got Numb relatives or not anymore.

Questions come pouring in after that. What kind of stuff goes on in there? Are the kids treated okay? Are they taken care of? Getting a good education? Have I spoken to any of them? Do I know So-and-So? It's a lot all at once and it makes me sad. So many people must be feeling the same way as these people do.

I wonder why nobody has made a fuss about the secrecy before.

"People have." An older man tells me when I voice the thought. "I know at least two separate families in this area who have made complaints against them for the way the families are kept in the dark. Neither of them will talk about it anymore. My guess is, the Compound is either paying them to be silent or threatening them somehow."

"You think it's that sinister?"

"Does anything else make sense?"

Seth hooks his arm around my neck, dragging me down closer to his height as he does. "Jet's our inside man as of right now. I think we should try to find at least one more person in there who can help too."

"I'll send some texts, make some calls," a girl close to our age says. "I think I know a friend of a friend who might work there still."

"Perfect."

The conversation continues on, planning and chatting. I get told by more than one person that they're excited that I showed up. That having someone on the inside who can shed some light on stuff has given them something they've been missing for a while now.

Hope.

Not everyone here has kids inside the walls of the Compound. But a lot of them know someone who went in. A neighbor. A classmate. A childhood friend.

I'm filled with a fresh burst of motivation to find out what's going on in there. I make a mental note to fill them in on the violence that's been happening, next time I'm here. I know I should tell them now, but it feels too heavy at the momemt.

It's a darkness that will smother the small light they've got in front of them.