SONDER (IV): tmr thomas

003: I would avoid anger

Michelle 3

They didn't debrief us. We were told that we would need a private debriefing, hours long, and of course they have not delivered. Instead, we've been sitting together in a locked room. There are no chairs, no beds, no nothing. Just the six of us and the clothes we wear. The lights above are dim, and there are no light switches on the wall. At least they've provided us with a sink and a toilet in one corner of the room, in case we feel the need to take a klunk with all of our friends watching. Our bodies are too big in this empty room.

"Would you stop pacing?" Jay rolls his eyes.

Dawn shakes her head back and forth. "Unless you'd like me to start screaming, no. I need to get rid of this energy somehow."

Leo doesn't chime in to simmer down the situation like she usually does. She sits with her back against the wall, and her head pinned between her knees. Stroking her hair, Sheil attempts to comfort her. Leo is still shaking.

My eyes keep floating between the two girls. I've never been the level-headed one in any situation. Since they are both being chaotic, I am barred from freaking out. Not that anything recently has enraged me, but I'm always ready to implode.

"Can we all at least agree we aren't getting our memories back?" I ask, trying to do what Leo does so effortlessly. Shuck, this is so uncomfortable. People are looking at me for answers, not just to shout. I feel naked.

"I'd like to," Sheil offers. "I mean, we should know, right?"

'I'm indifferent," Jay tells me. "Not that I trust WICKED, but I don't see much harm in it."

No one else offers anything. Lott is just staring ahead, glossy eyes. His hands are twitching at his sides, but they've done that for as long as I've known him. At least he isn't trying to kiss me.

"When will they let us out?" Dawn shouts, as if she expects us to answer.

Jay tightens his fist. Would the two of them just stop? They are so similar, I'm surprised that the pair of them aren't matches.

I guess we've figured out why Dawn and Lott are together, what with the whole, becoming-Cranks-thing. Sheil and I have something to do with the Right Arm. Leo is a puzzle though. I only wonder why she is with Jay because of what the scientist guy said when he first saw her. He thanked her for something.

I don't want to know what.

"We tried to remove Ella's swipe," Leo's voice is a whisper. "She wanted her memories back. She had always been so foggy and distant. After removing it, she tried to kill herself. More than once. She's completely different now."

"I'm not going to remember whatever Emil remembered," Sheil shrugs, leaning backwards against the wall. His fingers are wrapped tightly around the hooks in his belt, and his fingers are beginning to turn white.

He doesn't elaborate.

"Yeah, I'm not getting the Swipe taken out," Jay changes his mind quickly. "You've sold me."

Sheil bites his lip, but ultimately shrugs.

The door clicks open and the old shuck-face from earlier is here. He has two armed guards next to him, each with launchers pointed in our direction.

"Hello to you too," Jay snorts.

"I plan on making this as brief as possible," the man begins. He doesn't step in any further than just past the doorway. The men with weapons protect him.