The Dreamer Trilogy: Book One

Chapter 28

We stand in silence for the rest of the ride up, not speaking until we arrive at our apartment. “I’ll keep looking at my watch and let you know when we need to head down and meet up with them” I tell Callista2 as we walk inside. Once we are inside, I close the door behind us and Callista2 sits on the couch, turning on the television. I go into my room and flop down onto my bed, looking at my watch. 2:30. I have roughly an hour and a half before we need to be at the elevator. I sigh and lay in bed, just thinking of Callista2 and the group of friends I met today. They were all so different, but shared one common goal; Breaking out of here. I have thought about it before myself, but never considered it seriously. I didn’t have a group of friends who wanted to escape, but now that I do, I can start brainstorming again. What if Leixia4 was right? What if there are more floors to this place than we know? Does that mean that at a certain point in time you just move even higher than the Specialized Level? I can’t even begin to imagine the things they get up there. Probably a servant for every single thing they want. And what if there are levels above that? Too many thoughts are swirling in my head when I hear Callista2 call me into the living room. “Roger! Come here, you need to see this!” She yells. I spring back off the bed and into the living room, looking at the screen as I approach the couch. On the feed there seems to be a man being dragged out of a room by an Overseer. “What? It’s just another guy who failed the tests” I say, walking around the sofa and then sitting on the armrest. “Look closely” Callista2 says, pointing to the man’s face. I don’t know him personally, but I’ve seen him around a couple of times. “What about him?” I ask again, obviously not seeing whatever she sees. She gets up and points at the screen, “Here” She says. She is pointing to his name tag. I can barely see it, but I see “David” and underneath that, it says, “Serpent” and below that, reads the one infamous number. “52737” I mumble to myself. “Yes sir. And he was a Serpent. The Guild rarely takes Serpents to The Room, they’re usually too valuable.” She replies back, as the Overseer and the man walk off-screen. “You’re right...” I say, my voice trailing off. This asks more questions than it answers, which at this point is definitely not a good thing. I groan and slump down on the couch, and then Callista2 comes over and sits next to me. We both watch the feed from some hallway on the fifth floor and just think about what this means. After much contemplation, I check my watch again. 2:45. Time goes a ton slower when you are actually waiting for something to happen. Throughout the rest of the time I have before 4, I pace and run over all the information I have so far about “52737”. What connects all of us together as a group? The man was a Serpent, and I’m an Amateur so that obviously doesn’t fit. And why did the recording sign at the lower left corner stop at that number as well? Was it just a coincidence or did it mean something more? All of these thoughts were whizzing through my head until I looked at my watch. 3:45. It was time.