The Changed (Completed)

Chapter Eight: Plan

           I didn't speak to Taylor for the next few days. My meals delivered to the room through the slot in the door were left untouched. I wasn't hungry. In my bunk, I stared at the bottom of the bed above me. When Taylor and 064 were asleep, I sobbed into my pillow. When I finally fell asleep, I had only nightmares. The terrors were made worse by the fact that they were real. My mother was dead. I was trapped in a prison somewhere where no one could find me. An alien lifeform had given me the virus that caused this madness.

What was far from the oddest observation, though still strange in its own right, was my level of energy. Despite a lack of food or proper sleep, I felt better than I'd ever been. The circumstances made me want to laugh. My physical being was the opposite of my emotional being. I wondered if Taylor and 064 were experiencing the same energy coursing through them. I'd never run a marathon, but suddenly I felt it was definitely in my realm of capabilities. Yet, all I wanted to do was sleep and cry.

"Want to talk about it?" Taylor asked, peeking her head over her bunk.

I rolled over, not wanting to meet her upside-down stare, "No."

"Is it your mom?"

I didn't reply.

"Was she your only parent?"

"No."

"Oh, what about your dad then?"

"They're divorced," I was in no mood to chat let alone talk about my parents splitting. I always thought the day I learned my parents were getting a divorce would be the worst day of my life.

"My parents are divorced too, and my dad married this girl that's like four years older than me–it was really weird. I'm pretty sure he cheated on my mom with her too. She was a yoga instructor at his gym. My mom thought he was doing yoga because he was gay–not that doing yoga is gay, but like, you know, anyway he's not gay."

I sighed, "I'm sorry, Taylor, I'm not in the mood to talk," I closed my eyes.

"Okay," she replied. The bed above creaked as she rolled back onto it, "I think you should eat, Margo. You can't just not eat."

The following day, I gave in to the meal of chicken and rice. I felt as if I could have gone longer without eating. The hunger wasn't painful yet, but just lying in bed was beginning to be a bore. Sitting with my legs crossed on the bunk bed eating chicken and rice was strange. If not for the circumstances creating it, the scene might have been mundane.

I'd been sent to summer camp the July my mom and dad separated. It was a depressing month and at the time, I'd protested going away. That summer had been the only time I'd shared a room with anyone or slept in a bunk bed. I begged my mom for bunk beds when I returned home, but she was worried I'd fall off the top and break a leg.

Though I'd expected the food to give me more energy than I was already experiencing, the opposite occurred. My eyelids became heavy and I wanted to go back to sleep though I'd been resting all day. After napping, I was still exhausted. I was lethargic as if I had the flu.

"Do you feel better now you've eaten?" Taylor's head appeared, long hair falling like a waterfall.

"No, I feel worse, actually," I rolled onto my side, my stomach protesting. I wondered what time of day it was. How long had I been asleep?

"Hmm, want to talk now?" she asked, jumping down from her bunk.

"I think the food is making us sick," I stated.

Taylor's freckled nose crinkled, "Why would they do that?"

"Uh, the same reason that lab coat lady took a taser to my back!" I barked.

"Oh come on, surely they're not poisoning the food."

"I think she's right," 064 grumbled from his bunk, "I've slept more since coming here than I ever did back home."

Fear swept across Taylor's face, "If that's true then we need to stop talking about it immediately."

"I don't think the camera can't hear what I'm saying right now but you both can," I whispered almost inaudibly, "We shouldn't eat the food anymore."

"Why not?" Taylor whispered at the same level, "Even if it's making us weak, what's the harm? We can't escape."

"Why can't we escape?" I retorted, my voice even quieter than before, "If we don't eat the food, we should be strong enough to take on whoever comes through that door."

"Because we have no idea what's outside," 064 mumbled from across the room, "Unconscious when we were brought here, unconscious when we leave."

Taylor nodded, "It's not worth the risk."

"I know what's outside," I said, surprised that they didn't.

064 sat up, his face finally in view. The entire time I'd been here, I'd never seen him. He was more handsome than I'd expected with a sharp jawline and curly brown hair, "How do you know that?"

I tried not to let my thoughts register on my face, "Um, I woke up, when I was being brought in, that's why they knocked me in the head," the memory made me flinch.

"What's out there then?" Taylor asked curiously. Even 064 was leaning closer.

"You know those POW camps they'd show in history class? It's like that. We're in a type of shed and there's lots of them lined up, all identical. There's a path and it was sunny, oh and there's a fence, barbed wire."

Taylor and 064 were quiet.

"I think we should try to leave, I don't trust Enid and I don't want to be here for potentially years," my voice shook.

Taylor began biting her nails again, "It's just so risky, I don't want to be sent away like the girl that was here before. The lady in the lab coat–Enid," she corrected, "she was nice to me, she said it was dangerous for us on the outside."

"Well yeah it's dangerous with that space alien," I began to ramble, "but I don't want to stay here. I can't stay here for years. I need to go find my dad–"

"Alien? What are you talking about?" Taylor asked with wide eyes.

064 scoffed from his bunk, "God, you're worse than I thought, Taylor, you really chose the blue pill?"

"Huh? Is this what I asked her not to tell me about!" Taylor began to rock back and forth, "Wow Margo, I really feel you've disrespected my choice."

"I'm sorry, I didn't think anyone wouldn't want to know the truth," I said, "It doesn't matter anyway, let the government handle it. We should try to leave," I finished, lowering my voice again.

Taylor shook her head, "No, absolutely not. If there is a monster out there somewhere–"

"Interdimensional species," I said.

"Whatever, interdimensional species, that only makes me want to stay here more."

"Of course it does," 064 groaned, lying back down on his bunk.

"Taylor, come on, don't you want to see your family again?" I asked, grabbing her arm.

She pulled away from me, standing on my bed to climb back onto her own, "Not if it means putting them and myself in danger. If the lady in-Enid, if Enid said this is the safest place I'm going to stay here. I won't get in your way if you try to leave, though."

I growled in frustration, "I can't take them on my own!" I hissed.

"I'm leaving too," 064 said, "But I'm just helping you escape this room, whatever happens after, you're on your own."

I fell backward onto my cot. Of course, the worst of my two roommates would be the one to agree, "Fine, that's fair."

"I mean that, Margo," he said more sternly, "Don't think I won't let you die to save myself."

Forgot I had a few more chapters in the vault. -N.K