Amnesia

XXI.

 Remy really had preferred the nice little paradise where the only things were she and Jeongguk, a gun, a rubber ducky, a palm tree, and some grass. Compared to the nasty old basement bunker she woke up in, that little slice of Amnesia had been paradise.

"You did it!" the scientist woman squawked in her face.

The contentment Remy had felt immediately turned to the urge to kick the woman in the face. Which is exactly what she did, slamming the heel of her foot against the woman's chin so hard there was a loud crack.

"Oh, good," Yoongi said from where he and Seokjin were picking up a very dazed Jeongguk. "I was really hoping someone would do that, but I didn't want to be rude."

The woman backed off, holding her jaw. "My dear, I thought you would be more appreciative of my gift."

Remy gracelessly scrambled to her feet. "Your gift?!" she yelled. "You made me shoot my best friend!"

The woman looked surprised. "Oh. Well, that was unexpected. I apologize."

Something about the woman's sickly sweet words grated on Remy's nerves. "Tell us why you killed those men. And about the people you're working for. And why you're willing to let us go."

The woman checked her lipstick in the silver reflection on a machine. "You misunderstand. I don't work for them. I wanted to make Amnesia. They wanted to create a drug that would aid in high-profile kidnappings. They agreed to fund my research if I could create the drug. I fulfilled my end of the bargain." She tutted. "I promised them a drug that would help them kidnap you lot. I never promised them I'd keep you."

"That sounds dangerous," Taehyung said. "What if they come after you?"

"I don't think I'd fetch a very high price. I'm not young, pretty, or famous." The woman smiled like she'd just said the joke of the century.

"You're a comedian," Remy deadpanned. "And what about those two?" she asked, gesturing to the dead bodies in the room.

"I didn't hire the two idiots," she said. "They were assigned to me."

Remy wanted to kick the woman again. Or at least punch her. Instead, she crouched down to fight the urge. "I meant, why did you kill them?"

"Because they didn't respect my life's work. I gave them access to the mind's eye, and they simply used it as a tool."

"Um, isn't that exactly what those people paid you to create?" Namjoon asked.

The woman plainly ignored him. She didn't seem like the type to appreciate common sense.

"They knew how to get out because I told them how, and then they just used it the second they were outsmarted by you, I would assume. No appreciation, I swear." She turned, gesturing to the group as a whole. "But you all figured it out on your own. You all appreciated the work." She smiled, her teeth violent in the dim light. "And I trust you will keep it a secret."

"You're crazy," Yoongi said.

This wasn't going anywhere fast. "So what are you going to do?" Remy asked, standing up, carefully avoiding the wiry man's dead body.

Wait.

When had she walked back to the dead bodies?

There was a familiar weight in her hand. The gun. She was holding yet another gun. This was really starting to become one hell of a theme.

"And what happens to you if the people that funded your project find out you just let us go?" she asked.

The woman hummed as if this were the first time she was considering this. Remy took the opportunity to approach her.

This is wrong, some part of Remy's mind told her.

All of this is wrong.

Remy didn't give the woman the chance to answer the question. She brought up the gun and swung it against the woman's head. She had no idea what she was doing. Did she hit too hard, too light?

The woman crumpled, and the boys yelled.

"You killed her!" Hoseok screamed.

Some of the woman's hair had fallen in front of her nose, and it moved in a steady breath. "No," Remy said. "She's just unconscious."

There was a surprised silence, then Yoongi asked the question they were all probably wondering. "How did you know how to do that?"

Remy shrugged. "I watch a lot of TV."

Oh, so that's where the idea had come from.

Jimin wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, then went wandering around. "I found our phones!" he yelled a minute later, appearing from behind a machine. Everyone shared a glance, then ran to him. All of their phones were there, along with some jewelry and Remy's purse.

Namjoon grabbed the ring, which had apparently been gone in real life as well as in Amnesia, and pressed a quick kiss to it before putting it back on his ring finger. Jimin started tapping his phone screen, then swore in English. "There's no connection in here, we need to get outside."

Everyone seemed pretty happy with that, so they all began searching for an exit. After a few minutes of concern when they thought they would never get the hell out of that damn bunker, Seokjin yelled, first in Korean and then in English, that he found a way out.

But, just as luck would have it, Remy accidentally dropped her purse on the dirty concrete floor, its contents spilling everywhere. Her phone. Her vintage earrings that had been an heirloom. Some money. Her medications. A few more random objects. She yelped in surprise and immediately dropped to her knees to pick up all the objects. It seemed strange to her that she was so concerned with those objects when she had been kidnapped and almost died - did die. Several times.

Something had rolled under a low table, and Remy cringed at the coating of grime on the floor. Her fingers touched something smooth and cool, and she pulled it out to reveal the small glass vial Emmett had given her so long ago at home, long before this had all happened. She went to put it back in the clutch but then paused.

She glanced back at the giant machine that producing the drug that they had all been injected with.

"Remington, are you coming?" Hoseok's voice called.

Remy clutched the vial just a little tighter. "Yeah, I'll be right there."