Faces, Names, and Memories (completed)

Chapter 5 - Craziness

"I think you guys should take her back upstairs; something's wrong with her," I heard Cale saying.

"Nice try, kid," Someone else, I presume one of the guards, said.

"But-" Cale began but from his angry sigh I knew they had left. I opened my eyes and found myself with my head on the pillow and my feet facing the door. That wasn't the position I remembered passing out in. Cale was sitting up on the bed legs crossed looking very, very troubled. I tried to sit up but a wave of dizziness went through me and I had to stay down.

"Cale," I said. "I'm sorry." Cale looked down at me.

"You better tell me what's going in. This definitely isn't normal," Cale demanded. "And they discharged you."

"You're going to think I'm crazy," But still I told him. "I was born in 1999, Cale. I'm 14. I'm pretty sure the last time I checked I was in the year 2013. Then I wake up in this hospital and I'm just now finding out that I'm in the year 2033."

Cale blinked at me twice.

"You don't believe me," I said looking back up at the ceiling.

"Strangely, I do," Cale said. "Have you even heard of flying cars?" I shook my head. That's why I couldn't stop looking out the window.

"Do you have any idea why, or how?" I asked knowing that he wouldn't.

"No, I've been a basement kid all my life," Cale said.

"Really, why?" I asked him. His expression hardened.

"Lots of reasons, but my mom and dad definitely aren't dead. Let's just leave it at that," He said, his voice icy. I decided to change the subject.

"So why is there a basement full of orphans in the hospital and not an orphanage?" I asked.

Cale laughed, genuinely this time. "Orphanages were banned a long time ago. Something about inappropriate living conditions."

"Well it isn't as if this is much better," I said. The only things in the room were two cots on metal frames and a bathroom.

"Yeah," Cale said. He laid back on the bed and looked up at the ceiling with me. "The T.Vs got it all wrong. They say that the basement levels of hospitals are like paradise. But it's more like prison. I bet a whole lot of the great things Jaz says on the T.V. are lies."

"Jaz?" I repeated turning to look at him.

"He's the president, and he ended the Rebellion," Cale explained. The word rebellion spiked a memory in my head.

"If we keep this up, we'll have more than a full on rebellion on our hands," A man in a lab coat said. "I think we should stop this before it gets out of hand."

"But think about the benefits!" My dad was saying, slamming his fist on the table. "We can do wonders. Stop the plague. Stop the world war. We can change life as we know it!"

"Yes by taking out the events in the past that benefited us in the future!" A lady said. It was my mom, I recognized the voice.

"Also, think about the risks, we could cause a rip in the space time continuum!" The man in the lab coat said.

Then the memory faded out with a headache. I didn't understand how I could possibly pan my eyes to see all of that. I have the feeling that I wasn't there, just like that time when I heard my friends talking about me. But then how can I remember something that isn't my memory? It didn't make sense. I massaged my temples and closed my eyes tight, thinking about the memory just made my headache worse. I sat up and leaned forward, putting my elbows on my thighs. The bed shifted as Cale sat up too.

"Jade," Cale called.

"It's okay, I'm fine," I insisted, though I really didn't feel it. But I got the idea that feeling "fine" was a thing of the past for me.

"Jade, you said that after you blacked out for 30 minutes. Blacked out again for another 30 minutes and puked about 10 times in the bathroom. You're scaring me," Cale said. I sat up and looked at him.

"Well guess what, I'm scared too. I have know clue what the heck is going on, I barely know who I am and I get a headache or puke every 5 minutes!" I cried, nearly losing it again. Cale put his arm around me.

"I know how you feel," He said consolingly.

"What do you mean?" I asked composing myself. I'd never make it through this being all weak and wimpy. Cale sighed.

"When I was younger I would always get really high fevers and cry at night and what not so one day when I was five my parents finally decided to get me checked out. And it's just my luck that as soon as I got onto the checkout table, I got a really high fever. The doctor immediately put me into the ICU and they watched me. Within and hour or so, the fever was completely gone. But while I had the fever I had blacked out a couple times so the doctors were really worried. My parents explained to them that that had been happening to me just about every other day since I was a baby. The doctor said that they needed to observe me for a few days and I stayed at the hospital. They said that I had a disorder where my hypothalamus didn't use enough of it's energy to maintain it's body temperature so they had to do an operation to insert a chip in me that would regulate my body heat by machine. A couple times a week I had to come in to get it checked. But the thing is my body didn't like having the chip in so I would be sick all the time. It only lasted for about a year, and then I was fine, but I know how you feel. Just letting you know that, okay?" Cale had basically just given me his life story, well except for the part about how he ended up down here, never the less, it was still a whole lot of information to process. It was encouraging to know that he understood though.

"Thanks," I said. There was an awkward moment of silence. "Tell me about the rebellion." I ordered laying back down.

"Of course, my lady," Cale joked lying down next to me. Then he got serious. "What happened with the Rebellion was that with all the new technology coming out that could do stuff that humans could do, companies began buying the machines instead of hiring workers. Eventually pretty much every job having to do with manufacturing, construction, production and even dry cleaning was taken by drones. People were mad. The unemployment rates increased by 50 percent and people started picketing. But they didn't do much more than that until the invention of the time machine. Scientist were using them to go back in time and observe ancient civilizations and history." Was that what my dad was talking about? "Historians began to use those instead of paper references. More people lost their jobs, then eventually it all just got crazy. Riots, havoc, bombings shoot-outs. People were beginning to lose their lives. Then president Jaz walks in. He initiates the Robot Man Coalition, which gives rooms for robots and humans to work together to prevent humans from being unemployed and to give things a more creative touch. And that is the story of the Rebellion." Cale said. He was a very good story teller.

"Wow," was all I could say. Then I had another flashback.

I was actually in this one, I knew since it was from the first person perspective. I was swimming, in an ocean I think, then all of the sudden I'm forcefully whipped out to sea. In the memory I was struggling to breathe. Coughing and gagging and spitting up salt water. I was getting pulled further and further out to sea.

"HELP! HELP! HELP!" I was screaming swallowing more sea water as I spoke.

Then out of now where I was pulled under by a giant wave. I had been out pretty far and it was a struggle to get back up to the top. I was not able to. I was flailing my arms and screaming but I hadn't been able to breathe and I had been drowning. Then suddenly I was pulled above the water by someone, a boy. I was coughing and sputtering and choking on air. He said to me:

"Calm down, relax you're okay now." He hadn't been any older than me. Just a few inches taller. But he had saved my life. Before anything else could happen the memory faded.

I gasped, the memory had felt so real. I could feel the sweat on my forehead and I was panting as if I really had been drowning. My hands were shaking. Then I felt Cale holding me. I leaned onto his shoulder, and that was when I cried.

I cried about my mom and dad. I cried about the hospital. I cried about my memory. I cried for every possible thing I could think about crying about and it took a long time. For the whole time, Cale never let me go.