Two Eight Six

Chapter 1

I ran through the large room, crashing into practically everyone physically possible. The contents of my bag we're entirely too big for it, but I was already past my curfew and Ashe had been waiting all day. I ran down the hall all the way to our door and opened it, barging in with a smile on my face. Ashe was on the couch, and I just saw Emmy's head poke out from behind the sofa. Ironic, that finally on our off day it took all day to get the creature. We had been waiting to be cleared for it since me and Emmy crashed the Cat 17 on a test run.

The girls shouted out in excitement, and I pulled the cage out of the bag. Of course they made me make the final run to get it, which was a lot more work than you would think. They both hopped up and I put it on the large tabletop, not before pushing all the manuscripts to the side. Finally, after waiting so long, we got an actual, living naeraen.

"Oh my gosh it's actually living what the heck." Ashe said, just bending down and looking at the small thing. It's large coat of fur was a mess, but it was lovely. It had gray fur with a couple light blue-ish-gray patches that blended in with the gray almost completely. It's large ears stood out, hitting the top of the cage.

"As what, opposed to stuffed?" Emmy asked, laughing,

"Of course, what else would she mean?" I laughed, grabbing a bit of fruit for the creature.

"Oh come on Lexi, we all know what I mean."

"No, we actually don't." I busted out laughing at Emmy's last comment, but we all quickly quieted and fed the small creature some of the orange. We let it out and practically melted at how cute it was, taking turns holding it. Of course we immediately started arguing over names, but we really liked the name Tee. Soon enough, we put it into the room with our mattresses and decided to call it a day. But, not before the door busted open, scaring the crap out of all of us.   

"Is this the residence of Emmy Dredger number 218, Ashe Piero number 184, and Lexi Cumber number 286?", a sentry asked. We all looked back and fourth, flinching at our respective numbers. We nodded and he showed the way for us, taking the lead.

Sentry's are the main authorities to workers here, and if they're showing up at your door after curfew then you know somethings up. 9 months ago, a group of workers from our section went missing. Including one of my own, Calvin. The sentry's don't know how close we really were, because if they did they would forbid it. Workers aren't supposed to have close relationships, but we make our way around that rule at the market. Emmy's own brother disappeared, and Ashe lost her best friend. Because we all had someone close to us disappear, they put us on the suspect list (because yeah, that makes sense, as Ashe said).

We walked a ways down, until we got to the viewing room. The doors shut behind us, which was very ominous. I flinched, genuinely scared of what was about to happen. We are still in our young twenties, they can't just kill us off. I looked at my ID badge, hanging from my neck. Suddenly, the superior walked in. I took a step back, bumping into Sentry's. I looked around and it felt like the walls were closing in on us. Emmy grabbed my hand, and I could see Ashe was holding hers. I realized I wasn't the only one spiraling, and saw the view of space and the distant galaxy outside blurring. It was so familiar and seeing it made me feel safe in the scariest moment of my life. Then, everything went dark. For a long time.

~3 months later~

In a way, everything hurt. I woke up and saw bright lights, everywhere. I had a hilarious dream in my head where I got to engineer spaceships and even lived in space, running around and living life on colonized planets. That's hilarious. Everything was hazy, and I saw a white wall across from me. For a moment a lovely picture of a galaxy flashed in front of my eyes, but it blurred and my eyelids fell back down.

I awoke again, this time my wrist felt like it was on fire. Everything was too bright and clean. I could only remember things briefly from my dream. And, a number. 286. I looked around, and heard some sort of beeping. A strange woman rushed in, looking at me. She looked as if she was steel, not friendly at all. Moments later, a woman rushed in.

"Oh, thank god you're awake. I've been so worried." I scrunched up my face, as the woman ran to me. She had black hair in a braid that hung down her back. It looked artificial, yes, that's the word. Everything here looks that way. I shook my head slightly, my eyes still focusing. A curtain hung in front of me, and beside me. A man came in, more calm than the others. He wore a long white coat-ish thing. I opened my eyes and went to sit up, feeling unsafe and like something drastic just happened, yet I can't remember. When I think about it, I can't remember anything.

I started to panic and sat up, pulling off the wires. It hurt when I bent my arm, and I went to reach for something at my hip instinctively that wasn't there. I have no idea what it was, or why, but I did. Purple strands of my hair fell into my face, and I heard them all rushing to restrain me. I once again reached for my hip to find nothing there.

"She had the same reaction as the others, maybe we should introduce them? See if they recognize each other?" I heard the woman who recognized me say.

"I don't remember anything!" I shouted as people grabbed my arms. The beeping got faster and went crazy, but they put all the wires back into me and got me down again. I fell asleep, again.

I was still unplugging the wires from the bottom of the Cat 11 when it lifted off. I started yelling,

"Emmy! Put it down! Now! I'm still unplugging!" She of course couldn't hear me, and Calvin ran over and slid down, getting blown in the face by the small thrusters we built. My purple hair was a mess, blowing everywhere, but he helped me yank the rest of the wires out and she lifted off, pretty successfully. We ran out from under the craft, laughing. I leaned into his arms and we smiled as she lifted off the ground. Suddenly, I saw the right thruster. A piece of metal was tearing off, and if it went a certain way she would jerk to the side. I grabbed the piece of red paper we had laying around to alert each other when we test it, and lifted it into the air.

"What? What's wrong?" Calvin asked, his hair blowing into his face.

"The right thruster. Metal is tearing off." I said, climbing onto the table so she would see the red. She turned and I saw her see the paper, but not before a piece of sharp metal flew off the thruster straight to us. Calvin pulled me under the table, not that it would do much. We watched as several other inner pieces flew off, and she jerked down right near us. Ashe ran in and threw the Cap at us, which we used to teleport approximately it's maximum, 24 feet. It got us just out of the crash zone for Cat 11, as it slammed down onto the metal table. Wonderful, our notes.

Much more of the metal broke off and the windshield cracked. Wonderful. Emmy ran off, waving out smoke with a towel. Ashe ran over with an extinguisher. We started picking up the pieces of scrap metal and putting it into a pile. I tried to work out what happened but I really thought the design for the metal was flawless, but clearly not since as soon as she crashed all the metal broke off when they crashed. And it's not like we can invest in flawless glass until we know everything else is perfect.

A sentry ran in. Every time we make even a little bit of disruptive work they do. Our jobs could be so much worse though, at least we got the luxury of choosing. Well, not all of us. Sinara popped her head up,

"We made some editions to the cap." Sinara said, smiling. We tossed it back to her, and Ashe caught it before her. I heard the craft beeping from the crash, but it got louder and louder.

I woke up to the man observing me. I crinkled my face. I've had another odd dream.

"I'm going to ask you some questions, I hope that's alright. You're in a hospital in Chicago, Illinois.", I nodded, "First of all, what's your name?"

"Uh... I, I, 286? That's all I, all I know." My voice was raspy and quiet. I racked my brain for a possible name I could have, but remembered nothing. He cocked his head at me.

"Do you recognize the numbers 218 and 184?" I pulled my head back slightly, just now noticing the wraps around my wrist. I shook my head firmly. All I remember is 286.