Faces, Names, and Memories (completed)

Chapter 13 - LE First Encounter

"When are they going to get here?" Deen asked in a hushed voice. The guards hadn't shut the door, so they could hear us.

"Don't know, I bet the guards and the doctor are stalling," Spenzo replies, rolling his eyes. Spenzo, Deen, Tressa and I were sitting on the floor; Zuke, Tammie and Kinnie had all fallen asleep on the beds.

"Why would they need to stall?" I ask.

"Because," Spenzo shrugs. "They'd all get fired and maybe arrested if the LE's find out what this place really looks like."

"Oh," is all I say. Tressa gets up and goes over to the corner of the room; I'm not sure why, though. She had been awfully quiet and sat staring at her lap for the past few minutes, maybe she felt uncomfortable.

Deen bites his lip and Spenzo glances over his shoulder. They both get up and walk over to Tressa. I get up and go with them, not sure what is going on.

"Hey, Tressa," Spenzo calls. I'd never heard any of them speak to Tressa since I've been here, not that that was long.

Tressa looks up, her eyes are watery.

"Thank you, for - you know - all that stuff you did to help Cale," Spenzo tells her, looking at down at her.

"Yeah, he would've died if weren't for you," Deen adds.

"It-it wasn't just me, it was mostly Jade," Tressa stutters.

"No it wasn't," I say, truthfully. I didn't even know how to check for a pulse.

"C'mon," Spenzo holds out his hand to help Tressa up.

"You can sit with us," Deen says. Tressa shakes her head.

"I can't, it - my," Tressa stutters.

"Look, you're making a bigger deal out of it than it is. Either sit with us, or not. But, when you help save one of our friends lives, it's hard for us to hate you, okay?" Deen tells her. Tressa gets up and we go back to the center of the room. Two guards are talking outside of our door.

"The LEs came cause they found out about the Salmonella outbreak?" One asks.

"Yeah, I think so. some of the guards upstairs are saying that they might be staying for a few days," Another clarifies.

"Great, the kids are going to get spoiled," The first one snarls.

"Heh, that's never going to happen, if they know what's best for them."

"You know it, we'll make sure to give them a good beating when this is all over." The first one cackles while he says this and the second joins.

I swallowed the fright in my throat and looked at Spenzo and Deen, then Tressa. They were trying to look defiant, which wasn't working out so well.

"I assure you that they're in the best possible care," Someone said loudly, the doctor. "It was a mishap in the kitchen that won't happen again." Ha, my butt.

Two people, wearing full body black suits with helmets and carrying big black guns, peeked into the room. The other kids in my room and I feigned cheeriness.

"Hello, sir and ma'am," Deen greeted them. He was very good at acting happy to see them. Somehow, he knew one was a girl and one was a boy. The LEs nodded in recognition, and kept moving. They seemed so familiar to me, their suits and the way they acted. My mind drowned out everything else as I flashed back.

I was watching my dad present his idea to the ethics board.

"These suits will revolutionize protection and defense," My dad announced. "The helmets have capabilities to connect to any frequency within a 5,000 mile radius and can call anywhere they can get telephone reception. Also, they're programmed with thermal vision, night vision, and a life-sign scanner." There were impressed "hmm"s coming from the audience.

"Not to mention the rest of the suit, which is even more useful in a combat situation. Fully equipped with wrist gauntlets with high energy lasers," the people modeling the suits displayed the wrists and demonstrated the laser on a target.

"Belts with flotation properties, an expandable holster to fit virtually any size gun, and pouches for small explosives, hand-cuffs, your wallet, you name it." The models showed each of the pockets.

"10 times stronger than kevlar, these suits provide full protection to the wearer as well as giving an early attack warning." Two men with guns shoot the two models; the bullets don't even leave a dent.

"Did I mention that the suits have both a jet pack and rocket boots?" One model demonstrates the jetpack, the other demonstrates the rocket boots. They work without a hitch.

"So, I think that with this suit, we can make society safer," My dad finished, causing the audience to clap. He looks at me and winks. 'I can't believe I helped him design something so powerful,' I think, and the flashback dissolves.

"Jade?" someone whispered. My eyes focused and Spenzo was worriedly shaking me. The pain in my head that had disappeared for most of yesterday and this morning, was back.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," I assure him, seeing the guards looking in the doorway and catching a glimpse
of a jumpsuit off to the side. "You know me, I'm always zoning out." I say this for the other people, Spenzo knew that I had a flashback and I knew that he would ask me about it later. The guards in the doorway left.

"What was the flashback about," Spenzo whispered, as I predicted. I shot a glance to the doorway.

"The suits," I chance saying it.

"The suits, wha-" Deen started but the two guards started talking in the doorway. Obviously, they wanted to listen to our conversation.

"You know, like prom suits," I elaborate. Prom was a big high school dance, I remember. Deen smirked; I couldn't tell whether he knew I was lying or not.

"Was there a specific basement kid you imagined in a suit?" He asked. My cheeks heated up.

"No! Why would you even think that!" I cried. Spenzo and Tressa laughed at my embarrassment. I shoot a glare at Spenzo; he knew I had lied about my flashback yet he's still laughing.

"You're blushing," Spenzo pointed out, making my cheeks even hotter.

"I am not," I say, anyway.

"Come on, who is it, we won't tell," Deen pried. Even if I did have a crush on someone in this basement I wouldn't say so with the guards eavesdropping.

"No one, I've been here for like, three days," I reply.

"3 days is enough time to get a crush," Spenzo said.

"You guys are such girls," I say.

"Really?" Spenzo seemed surprised by my statement.

"No, I mean, I don't know. It just seemed like the right thing to say," I admit, laughing at myself a bit. I think we were all trying way too hard to put on a show for the LEs.

"Jade, what are we going to do with you?" Spenzo shook his head with a smile.

"I dunno, what are you going to do with me?" I countered.

"You talk a lot," Deen commented. I gave a nervous laugh, nerves were making me talk a lot.

"I think we're a pretty talkative bunch, actually," Spenzo remarked.

"Yes, talkative's the word for it," Deen replies.

We were pretty talkative, for about an hour or so. Then, we started worrying about Cale.