The Others

Chapter 14: Facing the Impossible

As if her confession had seemingly shattered my brain, I began to sputter a series of strange and completely uncorrelated words. "Uh- wait, no. No. No. Um-well, not possible. What?"

Joan waved a cuffed hand in front of my face. "Houston, we have a problem. I think you broke her."

OSCFs were designed to entrap and control burgeoning weapons of mass destruction. Crime analysts, engineers, architects and politicians alike came together to create a labyrinth of complex buildings, armed with state of the art artillery and the most efficient alarm systems. With its intricacies weaved together like a spider's web, a model OSCF was an impenetrable force that did not let any unauthorized personnel in and certainly did not let anyone out. One probably had an easier time sneaking out of Guantanamo Bay than they did out of Garrenbuck. 

I never even heard about someone breaking out of an OSCF or attempting to break out of an OSCF on the news. I didn't doubt that the occasional idiot may have tried something back in the 60s, when they first instituted the OSCFs but that was a different time when things such as blood tests and aptitude trials sounded like foreign concepts. It's been almost thirty years since the first OSCF was built in Texas and no one had ever successfully broke out.

"Are you suicidal?" I finally asked. The question was not meant to be outrageous rather I was actually concerned that her extended time spent in Garrenbuck had left her mentally unhinged.

She rolled her eyes. "No. Believe it or not, I actually want to live and that's why we have to leave."

"Think about it Phe." Esther pushed her tray to the side and folded her hands on the table. "Only one-third of those who participate in the Aptitude Trials actually survive. That means statistically, only one or two of us will make it out alive."

"And who knows what's going to happen in the Otherworld," Joan stared at blankly at her empty tray. For once, her tone was completely devoid of any humor. "For all we know there could be nothing there. Just a bunch of skeletons with their teeth bared at one another."

"It could be more than that!" I insisted for my own sake. I had to believe that there was something more on the other side, that the government wouldn't just torture us for any significant amount of time only to drop us off in a barren wasteland with no hopes of survival.

"We don't know that," said Ana, "The only thing I know for certain about the Otherworld is that I know nothing but I know what exists beyond these walls. Freedom."

"What are we going to do out there, Ana? We can't go back to our old lives."

It's not like I could grab a ride from a stranger on the side of the road, still dressed in my uniform, and expect to be welcomed back into the open arms of my community. As far as they were concerned, Ophelia Georgette Macintyre, the insignificant daughter of an English Professor and a Sunday School teacher had died on November 12th, 2080. Seeing me would be like seeing a ghost.

"We'd have to start new ones."

New lives meant new names, new identities and constant traveling from one place to another in order to avoid suspicion. Sure, we might have been able to survive Garrenbuck but that didn't mean we possessed any real life skills that would help us on the streets. We'd never be able to trust anyone as the fear of being found out and sent back to Garrenbuck slowly drove us to the brink of sanity. What sort of life would that be, to constantly be afraid of your own shadow?

"And then what are we going to do in a year or two when Joan begins to sprout fur and Esther develops a thirst for blood." I said.

Ana gritted her teeth. "We'll figure it out, just like every vampire and werewolf that existed on this planet before the war."