Remember

Chapter Fifteen (edited)

 Learning the entire layout of a building in a few hours was hard. It was even harder when Colette had to attempt to imagine the whole thing in her mind because of the lack of blueprints and things to draw on and with. She groaned in frustration. It certainly did not help that it was Jordy who was explaining everything to her.

He spoke to her as if she was a child. If his voice did not sound so much like the sound of ocean waves crashing against the sand, did not vibrate through her body like the most beautiful form of music, she would have stopped listening as soon as he opened his mouth. That boy was lucky he was beautiful, too bad he knew the effect he had on women. The arrogance of it leaked from him.

Finally, she spoke. "I think I got it." Basically there was only two exits out of the Paradisium Federation, abandoned hotel, building...place. One was walking through the heavily guarded rooms where all the capsules were held and going out the front door -- considering that was a suicide mission, it obviously was not an option.

The second option was just as insane, but they were about a thousand times more likely to survive. At least, that is what Jordy and Kaden were convinced of. After all the incidences that they told Colette they had witnessed, Colette thought they were better off rotting in their hotel prison cell.

Her skin crawled as the stories replayed themselves in her mind. She did not like the idea of not knowing whether her reality was real or not nor the idea of her mind being turned to mush. All of what the illusionist guard could do to a person. At least, what Jordy and Kaden claimed she could do. There was no way to tell if they were right or not. She certainly did not believe anything that came out of Jordy's mouth. He was like a lion teasing his food before he pounced on it.

"We're going to need some sort of weapons in case we run into any of the guards. I don't know about you two, but I'd rather not be defenseless against whatever powers they may have." Colette scratched nervously at the inside of her arm. If only she knew her power then maybe this whole thing would not be so terrifying. Being powerless was like being an ant in a world of chemically enhanced psycho giants.

Kaden gave her a confused look. "Well if you've already forgotten, I do have an active power. If anyone tries to come for you I can knock them back." He flicked his wrist and caused the objects at his feet to go flying at the walls for emphasis.

Colette rolled her eyes at him. "Right." She grumbled, eyeing Jordy in the process. At least his powers were just as useless as her nonexistent ones in this instance.

Jordy cleared his throat and walked over to the door and peered out of it. "It looks like the guards are doing their shift change, we have about five minutes to make it out of this set of hallways and into the next to make it during that hallway's guard shift change." After looking between Kaden and Colette he slipped silently into the hallway and disappeared. They followed shortly after him.

The Paradisium Federation, despite their ability to develop an entire serum that put all their citizens into a simulation world, did not seem like very strategic people. What kind of logic were they using if they thought they could keep a bunch of people who figured out their little mind tricks in a building together and expect them not to figure out a way to escape? Eventually, someone was bound to succeed and their whole operation would be at jeopardy.

The sound of their bare feet against the floor was the only thing that could be heard in the hallways as they made their way to the exit. Kaden led them silently down the hallway, staying close to the walls and carefully peering around corners to make sure they did not get spotted. Colette took in the state of the hallways as they walked down them. They were in no better shape than their room; the walls peeling and the torn carpeted floor was stained in various places. The stains in most hallways resembled closely to spilt food and many looked like dried blood that no one had cared enough to clean up.