ReMade Season 1

Shadows and Dreams -- Part 3

"You did better than me," said the woman.

"I puked everywhere," said Holden. "What did you do?"

"Tried to break the glass," she said. "Seyah, water?"

Wordlessly, Seyah dug a plain plastic bottle out of the backpack she was wearing. All three of them were dressed in identical jumpsuits. Seyah was the only one carrying a backpack.

The woman wet a small cloth from her pocket and handed it to Holden.

"Thanks." He did the best he could to clean himself off.

After Holden's freak-out at the observatory window, they'd crawled up a small service shaft and hidden in an empty storage room. It had taken a few minutes to catch their breath, but the woman had finally declared that they were safe for the time being.

"Who are you?" Holden asked the woman.

"Umta." Again, there was that slow, careful quality to her speech, like someone who was uncomfortable in a foreign language, but Holden didn't catch any trace of an accent.

"I'm Holden."

The woman, Umta, nodded.

"But you knew that."

"Seyah told me your name," said Umta.

Holden looked to Seyah for confirmation, but she turned away and didn't say anything. She'd been acting strange ever since they'd stopped running. At first she'd seemed so relieved to see him, just as he'd been to find her alive. They'd run from that creature, whatever it was, arm in arm. She'd probably saved his life. But after the immediate threat was over, Seyah had retreated into herself. She kept glancing over her shoulder, arms folded protectively across her chest, always on the lookout for danger.

"What's happening?" asked Holden. "Am I . . . are we really . . ."

"Above the Earth," said Umta. "High above." The note of awe in Umta's voice was unmistakable. Despite all that he'd seen, Holden wasn't sure he could accept any of it. But he wanted to hear what else Umta had to say. Then he'd decide whether he'd started hallucinating or not.

"How did we get here?"

"What do you remember?" said Umta.

Holden thought for a moment. There were a lot of images in his head, but they were all mixed up. Fragmented. "I think I remember you. I was on a table and these . . . spider things were hurting me. Like that one back there."

Umta shook her head. "Not that. Not yet. Before the dreams."

Holden looked at Seyah. "Uh, I was driving, with Seyah. We were in my car."

"Then there were lights," said Seyah, staring at Holden. Hurt in those eyes. Anger, even. "A truck's headlights right in front of us."

And there was the unspoken accusation: the truck you drove us into.

"Yeah." Holden looked away, remembering Seyah's face as she'd wiped a bit of glitter paint off his neck. Just before she'd screamed. "There was a car wreck."

"Nothing more?" asked Umta.

"No," said Holden. "Did we end up in a hospital or . . ."

Holden's words trailed off as Seyah burst out laughing. "Don't you get it? We hit a truck head on. No one survives something like that."

"Seyah," said Umta. "He needs time."

"We fucking died, Holden!"

Holden waited for the punch line. When none came, he got mad. "What the hell, Seyah? Are you trying to tell me that this is heaven?"