The Forgotten

II - Confindential

Earl King POV

How could it be possible? He was in this room for 500 years!

Ashley's report said that the oxygen here wasn't enough for a human and less three! Plus, the tests we ran said they didn't eat or drink hours before their death!

How? It was simply impossible! How could they be asleep for centuries and not wake up after all the ruckus and tests we did on them? Or even worse, how and why were they still alive?

I gulped loudly as we all watched the man stir as he opened his eyes. He blinked multiple time before seeming to regain his senses.

As he slowly sat up, I stopped breathing fearing what would happen next.

He looked around and when he saw us, he stopped moving and started to stare at us.

No one dared to move. He seemed to have a hard time to adjust his eyesight, so I wasn't sure if he could actually see us.

Then his mouth opened and closed multiple time as some weird sounds came out. He was mumbling things as if trying to learn how to talk.

"Cò a tha thu?" he asked after a while always staring at us warily like an animal ready to fight or flee.

We looked at each other trying to see if someone understood. It seemed like no one knew the language he used and they didn't seem very eager to talk either.

"D-do you speak English?" I asked carefully finally deciding to make the first step. His eyes went on me, looking up and down as if he was analyzing me.

"Sasannach?" he asked then an incomprehensible mumbling was heard again. Then he looked back at me, "Yes, I do," his tone was monotone.

That made everyone gasp since they were not expecting an actual answer in English.

"Good, what's your name?" I asked trying to calm him down.

"That's confidential unless you have an authorization."

Confidential? Who were they? Why didn't we find any documents on them? What did they do to get stuck down here?

Again, all the questions were swirling in my head, but I was growing ecstatic with a person now able to answer them.

As the silence grew, I realized that made a mistake since I could see mistrust in his eyes, he was getting wary of us.

"That's okay, but do you know why you three are down here?" I asked again, hoping for an actual answer.

"That's confidential," I sighed in desperation.

"What... Can you tell us then?"

"Nothing," he replied without having us any supplementary information and this time, we all sighed.

"Then... At least let me present myself, I'm Earl King, head scientist of this case. Nice to meet you..." I greeted hoping he would give us his name even though it was "confidential".

He only nodded and as he had enough of our small talk, he tried to stand up. I tried to help him, but I was stopped by his glare.

When I thought he was going to fall since he didn't walk for centuries, to my surprise and relief he didn't. I was half expecting him to have weakened muscles, like people in a coma after they woke up. But again, he wasn't completely... Normal...

"What century are we in?" he asked as he stretched his arms and legs while looking around... Almost naked.

"We are in 2017. When were you last awake?" I asked trying to peel my gaze away from his almost naked body even though I wasn't expecting much as an answer.