Remember

Chapter Eleven (edited)

 The light was absolutely blinding as the voices calmed into a normal level. Her vision was blurry as she tried to squint into her bright surroundings with no success. Despite the lack of disinfectant smell, the sounds of beeping machines and hushed talk nearly mirrored the hospital. Did it not work? Was she still in Paradisium? It was possible all that happened was a blackout. Those seemed to have become a part of her daily routine. Nurse Garner must have found her passed out in her office and Colette was now in her own hospital room being treated. Colette was not ready for the consequences that would come from snooping through Nurse Garner's office.

She closed her eyes, shutting out the rest of her senses and focusing on the voices around her. Colette could just barely make out the conversation.

"Subject Colette Degorne, code three forty-six, has broken the barrier. The time is two thirty-three P.M.." Colette broke the barrier, she actually did it. She silently praised herself as relief flooded through her system. The woman who was talking scribbled stuff onto a piece of paper and shuffled to meet whoever she was talking to on the other side of the room. "Dr.Atoni prep the adrenaline shot and brief her."

"Yes Mrs. Khoen." A door was opened and then shut, leaving Colette and the doctor alone. The doctor sighed as he took a shot out of larger briefcase on the other side of the room and shot it into the IV that was stuck in the crook of Colette's right arm. "Three.. Two..."

Colette shot up from the hospital bed -- no, not a hospital bed, a sort of human capsule. Her vision finally focused and her eyes wandered around the very white room she was in. She looked down at herself, her body adorned in a plain white dress, much fancier than any hospital gown. The doctor said nothing as the pads of her feet hit the ice cold, white tile that matched the white walls. Only then did she realize they were not the only two people left in the room.

Capsules upon capsules lined the walls of the room, the clear glass lid showing men and women of all age who appeared to be in a deep sleep. The capsule Colette had woken up in was the only one in the room open and now empty. Kaden had not been exaggerating when he had said that the Paradisium Federation was controlling everyone's minds. For what reason? What could have happened that scared them so much that they had to shove everyone in a fake world?

The questions made her head spin. Colette lost balance and attempted to grab the capsule to keep herself upright. Luckily, the doctor caught her and kept her from pulling the capsule down on top of her. "Careful there, your body has still not fully recovered from it's trip back from the other world." 'Trip', as if she had just gotten back from an eighteen year long vacation on an exotic island. The words angered her as she whirled towards him, only to be greeted by another fierce dizzy spell.

She fell back onto the mattress of her capsule, the world felt like it had been ripped out from beneath her feet. It had already sent her tumbling once before. This was nothing compared to her fall down Earth's End. Colette sat back up, pushing herself to focus on the doctor.

"I'm sure you have many questions and I assure you there are perfect explanations for all of them." Dr.Atoni took a small paper cup out of the cabinet and filled it up with water in the sink. "Drink, it'll help you gain your footing back on this side."

She took a sip but quickly spit the contents back into the cup. Whatever the liquid was, it was most certainly not water. "Are you trying to mind control me again?" Colette merely choked out the words, as if she had never used her voice before. How ironic that in a world where the Paradisium Federation treated their people like slaves, she barely had a voice to protest.

The doctor sighed again, sitting down on the corner of her capsule. "As you will soon find out, things in this world are much different than the one you are used to. The tastes, the sounds, the smells, and everything you see will be unfamiliar. You will have to relearn what it is like to function here. In time it will become as natural to you here as it was in Paradisium."

Colette took another sip, barely able to swallow the foul tasting water. At least it eased away the pain in her throat. After a few more sips she finally tried to speak again. "Why?" The doctor rose an eyebrow at her. "Why take the effort to put us all in that- that, whatever you want to call it? The other world, alternate universe.. thing."

Dr.Atoni chuckled. "To protect you of course. Though it seems the human mind doesn't like to be protected from the things that could bring it to its end." He plucked her empty cup from her fingers, throwing it away in the trash next to the sink.

"Protect us from what?" A smile tugged at the corner of the man's lips but no answers were given. She asked again only for the doctor to flick his eyes up towards the corner of the room and back to her. Her eyes followed his but she found nothing. Colette had an eery sense they were being watched.

She clenched her jaw. "How can you think you are protecting us from whatever it is? You only cause us to be naive to everything. You're hurting us more." Her anger flared again and she had the sudden urge t launch herself at the doctor and rip his throat out. She blinked in surprise at the thought and shuddered as the urge subsided.

The doctor pressed his lips into a thin line, once again his eyes flicked to the corner of the room. His fingers went to his wrist, pressing some button Colette could not see and brought it to his lips. "Subject Colette Degorne is done with briefing."

"That's it?" Her voice rose with anger and she leapt from her capsule, as the throat ripping urge arose again, and barrelled towards the doctor who gracefully moved out of her way. Colette slammed into the wall, still not having full control of her body. She slid down the wall, pulling her knees to her chest. "You call that a briefing? You call that an answer? You think you can control us with your stupid other world?" With each question her voice grew louder and louder until it broke and tears threatened to spill over her bony cheeks.

Suddenly the door was thrown open and the woman, Mrs. Khoen appeared, followed by two bigger men. Presumably guards who were to take her away to who knows where. They had guns strapped to their sides that told her not to protest but her anger told her otherwise."Throw her with the others." The women barked the orders to the two men who hauled her onto her feet and started to drag her towards the door.

"No!" She tried to rip her arms out of the men's grips. Colette frantically thrashed this way and that, but her attempts to escape her hold utterly failed. "You won't get away with this!" Her eyes were like daggers as she looked between the woman and the doctor. Only the doctor showed a hint of remorse for her. The woman, on the other hand, her features were as cold as ice.