Evolution # 5

Lily Awakes to Revelation

XXII

"Hello, Lily. My name is Audrey. I'll be helping you through your recovery here at our facility. I'm happy to see you awake. When we heard that we had an up top human coming inbound that was rescued from the explosions, we were concerned there might not be much left of you to save. How are you feeling right now?" Audrey asked while rubbing the top of Lily's hand gently.

"I feel like I've been sleeping for days. I had such vivid dreams, like I was back in Uniontown again. Like I was meeting Evan for the first time again. Like I was reliving my life in high def or something. I mean I feel really good really.......I mean considering that I thought we were drowning in that channel, yesterday? Sorry, how many days have passed? Have you seen Evan?" Lily asked rubbing her eyes with her left hand, then wiping her blond hair back from her forehead over her ears.

"Lily it has been three days now since the explosions. You have been unconscious nearly the entire time although according to your charts, your brain activity has been consistent thankfully. You arrived here at our facility last night. You were brought here because we are specially equipped to fix, to heal, to improve female humans. It's our specialty, in fact," Audrey stated matter-of- factly.

"Wowzers........three days I've been out. Evan must be losing his mind. Is he here?"

"I'm not sure who the Evan is that you speak of.....again.....we focus on female humans here at facility 4. Was he with you in the channel? Perhaps he is still in facility 5 in recovery also, assuming, of course, that he survived," Audrey stated with caution, not wanting to cause unnecessary anxiety for her new patient.

"Oh, if I survived, he survived. He is a survivor, always has been. He'll be asking for me, he'll be coming to find me. I can assure you. He is quite resilient, quite resourceful," Lily's voice rose with excitement as she thought more of Evan, "I mean.....really.......we both are. We've had no choice........." LIly trailed off.

"Well, then, we should get you ready then. Let's start with some simple movements to make sure you don't have anything hurting that we haven't identified. Let's start with some simple leg raises." Audrey removed the blanket from Lily and stood at the foot of her bed. "OK, left leg first, simply raise and hold for 2 seconds and then lower it back down."

"You know I was the fastest girl in my entire county right? My legs are my gifts from the good lord above, they would not fail me...........right?" Lily partially asked and partially stated trying to convince herself that she wouldn't possibly not be able to lift her legs.

"Well, let's see. Which county was that again?" Audrey asked feigning interest.

"Fayette. It's in Western Pennsylvania," Lily replied as she raised her left leg slowly but with no pain and then lowered it back down. She repeated the same with the right.

"Very good. Is Evan........Is his name Evan Schreiner by any chance?" asked Audrey with an incredulous look taking over her face.

"Yes, yes it is. How did you know that?" asked Lily with excitement.

"Small world. I used to know him when I was younger, before I volunteered for Project 23 with CLS. Well, I volunteered for the project once I was here, that's the more accurate statement, I suppose......" Audrey trailed off into her own thoughts.

Lily paused for a moment and looked her up and down. She looked at her athletic build, her sandy brown hair and her green eyes. Yes, those green eyes, she knew those eyes.

"Audrey.........wait.......If I'm remembering correctly. Evan had two sisters but I never met them. I never met them because they were believed to be kidnapped..........they were believed to be kidnapped or worse. Are you Evan's sister? I know this is probably a crazy question. But if you are, is your younger sister Emily here with you also?" Lily's eyes were wide open as she felt she knew the answer before Audrey replied.

"Yes, we are both here. We both volunteered for Project 23 once we were brought here and we were made to understand it was our best option. We intended to return eventually but the longer we stayed down here, the less we forgot about up top- the farther it seemed away you know- once you see how they help you, once you feel the element working inside of you, you realize there is so much more than that life up there," she pointed up and shook her head with disgust, "that life ruled by corruption, ruled by materialism and so much violence, so much of humans killing humans for what? For drugs? For money? For less even? No, it's much safer here at our facility, it's much saner here at our facility, this place- this is our home now. And you'll see Lily, if you volunteer to participate in the project, then, you'll see it too. You'll see how amazing you can feel as a number four evolved female human," Audrey passionately concluded.

Lily listened to Audrey's passionate soliloquy and formed an absolute conclusion immediately. The innocent, young Audrey that Evan had so often spoke of which such love and with such endearment was long gone and seemed likely to never return. But she was curious about Project 23. She had heard so much about it while up top, but mostly just wild rumors or at least she believed them to be wild rumors at the time. But here was Audrey, standing in front of her talking about an "element" swirling through her body, giving her power or giving her passion or perhaps more of both; speaking with such conviction, with such passion that Lily was certainly intrigued to know more.
"Audrey, can you tell me more about Project 23?" Lily asked.

"Of course, I'd love to," Audrey replied cheerily.