NaNoWriMo Unfinished Novel

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

                   The room was quiet, other than the omnipresent humming of the machines beside his bed. After DeScheele left, having presented his confusing tirade, had nothing to do but wait. The doctor told him he had some orders of business to attend to, and that he would send for him soon to learn about his 'redemptory’ mission'. Whatever that was supposed to mean. Lucas felt helpless. Although DeScheele had assured him his participation was completely voluntary, he felt as if he really had no choice but to obey his wishes. Or rather, demands. Even worse, he couldn't remember anything about who, or what he was. He sometimes got the impression that something was important, or that he had heard it before, but it was brief and left him more confused than before. The more he thought about it, he wasn't really sure that he wanted to get his memory back. Especially if the only way was to help someone as detestable as Dr. DeScheele. It wasn't often he disliked someone in the first 5 minutes of meeting them, but DeScheele took the cake. “Wait”, Lucas thought, “how did I know that?” He tried to puzzle it out for a moment, shaking his head when his wondering came to naught. Overwhelmed by all the happenings of the day, Lucas lay down on his bed and surveyed all the other people in the hall. They were all around his age, with no discrimination of race or gender. “Around my age? What was my age?” Sighing in vexation, Lucas closed his eyes and let the drowsiness that he had held at bay for the past couple hours wash over him.
                   It seemed like he was asleep only a few minutes when a light shock wracked his mind. “Go away!”, Lucas thought wearily. Another shock jolted through him, light enough not to really hurt him but plenty strong to make him bolt upright in his bed. Glaring around the room to find the source of his discomfort, Lucas spotted the same female scientist that had been with DeScheele the day before. She was holding a small touch remote, similar to the one the doctor had. Maybe it was the same. Her face completely blank, she pointed the remote at him again. A strange feeling came over him, a feeling of complete wrongness. “I won't be shocked again!”, he thought, determined to show that even if he did agree to help them, he wouldn't be pushed around. He focused all his will at that one thought, that one idea, that he would not feel that mind-numbing shock. Tensing in anticipation of the shock, he watched as the woman pressed the remote. And he felt nothing. Not even the tiniest jolt. He grinned at the scientist, elated at his discovery. Only the smallest hint of emotion crossed her face, then disappeared. “Dr. DeScheele is ready to see you now”, she said neutrally, as if nothing had ever happened. Lucas's elation left him in a burst, replaced by a cold foreboding of fear.
                   Lucas tried not to notice the sharp scent of chemicals as he followed the woman through what seemed to be a labyrinth of patternless white hallways and chrome doors. The smell made him uneasy; it brought back memories (the few that he head) of the white cell where he first woke up. He desperately hoped they weren't going to throw him back in it. That room seemed to call up  a feeling of familiarity...and danger. “I wish I could remember what's going on here”, he thought wistfully. He knew for certain he had once known, but anything beyond that certainty was blank.
                   They rounded a final corner and entered another hallway. Rather than having chrome doors along the halls, instead there were small barred cells. Detainment cells. The unease that had been slowly creeping through his mind, seeking to gain control, bloomed within him. The woman, noticing the expression that crossed his face gave a tight smile and said, “Calm down, we aren't locking you up.” Although unspoken, Lucas could sense the suffix at the end of her statement. “At least not today”, he thought. The woman now wore a wry smile, obviously her non-verbal message had reached it's target.
                   The woman stopped abruptly at a cell toward the end of the cell. Lucas immediately noticed the difference between this and the hundreds of other cells he had passed on his way here. This one was occupied.
                   In the cell was a girl who appeared to be around Lucas's age, if not a little older. She had jet black hair and was glaring at the man across from her. Glancing at the man, Lucas's suspicions were confirmed. It was DeScheele. Lucas immediately felt that same eerie since that he had felt the first time he met DeScheele; however, to his surprise, when he looked up, it wasn't  DeScheele who was piercing his very being. It was the girl. A infinitesimal look of recognition light up her countenance, but it was gone so quickly, Lucas was unsure if he had really seen it. The sheer will of her gaze was immense, like she was forcing him to open his mind to her scrutiny, his memories an open book. “Not that it would be much use”, he thought, “there isn't much left in my mind.” Seeing him looking at her, she quickly looked away and focused on the doctor once again. 
                   “Ah, Lucas!”, the doctor exclaimed, sitting up from the chrome metal chair in which he sat. “You're right on time! Here, have a seat.” DeScheele pulled his remote out of his pocket again and a chair flickered and appeared beside him. Lucas would have preferred to stand, but the doctor's gaze met him, and he felt compelled to sit. So he sat, his eyes flicking back and forth between the strange girl to his right and the even stranger doctor to his left.
                   “Well, now that we're all here, why don't we get to the point”, the doctor said, a hint of smugness tinging his demeanor. “You both need something from me. And I need something from you. So let us compromise. In order for you”, he continued, his gaze turning toward the girl, “to keep your memories and experiences, you must return to the people who sent you on your little escapade.” Her face brightened slightly at the mention of her release, but transformed back into a scowl as DeScheele finished. “And you have to bring Lucas with you.” Lucas started with alarm. “You can't be serious. I can't-” “I'm dead serious”, DeScheele stated coldly. “As for your inadequacies, we will give you a tiny transplant of knowledge before you leave. Besides, I'm sure your soon to be associate here will fill you in on everything else.” He wore that smug smile again. Lucas felt the icy stare of the girl again. “I wish she would stop doing that”, he thought “it isn't like this is my fault.” “Secondly”, DeScheele interjected, breaking the silent impasse, “you will not reveal where Lucas came from, you will tell them you find him along the way and that he seeks to join your...idealism.” The girl opened her mouth as to retort, but closed again, her defiance still obvious. DeScheele, missing nothing, smiled even more broadly than before. “It will also be your job to make sure he is accepted. And don't think we can't reach you, just because you are with your people. We have agents everywhere.” That obviously meant something to the girl, for she paled and, for the first time, looked afraid.
                   DeScheele stood up and motioned for Lucas to as well. “Oh, and on your way there, I need you to deliver something for me. Come along Lucas we need to discuss your role in this somewhere a little more private.” Lucas risked a look behind him as he followed DeScheele out of the cell. With the doctor finally pointing his attentions elsewhere, the girl showed emotion. She sat staring at the floor dejectedly. He turned back around and entered the white hall.