“Maybe behind the locked door?”
“That’s possible.”
“The video said we might not comprehend. I know I’m not thinking clearly,” Nora said. “When we all have our wits then…”
“Hello?” Jason’s voice called to them.
Nora and John stepped from the small computer lab.
“Look at this place,” Jason said. “What is it?”
“Near as we can tell,” John explained. “This is our dining area. We have locker rooms with lockers that are… locked. Yet numbered.”
“Forty-eight?” Jason asked.
“Yep.” Then John pointed up. “A locked door up there. And behind us,” he indicted. “A computer room. My guess, that’s where a lot of our answers lie.”
“This is amazing, thank you for finding it,” Jason said. “Did you by chance touch something? Turn something on.”
John glanced at Nora with a quizzical expression and smiled. “Just the circuit box. I flipped the switches.”
“That’s what I thought.” Jason turned. “Come here.”
“What is it?” John asked.
“It’s easier to show you than explain.”
Curious, Nora followed the two men. The small hall was now lit and the door that was propped with the ax was marked Block B. She turned to look back at the door that led to the dining area. It was marked Block C.
Where was Block A.
The second they stepped back into The Hall, Malcolm raced forward.
“Guys, you did something, right?”
“What are you talking about?” John asked.
“That.” Jason pointed. “You weren’t gone five minutes. We heard the humming of electronics and then that.”
Nora looked. Jason pointed to the door at the other end of the long hall. She moved forward to get a better look.
Malcolm stated. “That isn’t a busted Exit sign.”
In a whispering voice of shock, John said, “Oh my God.”
Above the door, the box that they all assumed should have said ‘Exit’ contained the numbers – 4:08:22:23.
The last two numbers decreased every second.
“Four days,” John said. “Eight hours, twenty-two minutes. It’s counting down. It’s a countdown.”
“Yeah, it is,” Jason said. “But counting down… to what?”
ELEVEN – Who Am I
Nora rolled the tiny key between her fingers, feeling the texture, finger to finger while she sat on the bed in her room. Seventeen.
It didn’t take much searching. Actually it was the first place she looked. The lone item in the top desk drawer. She didn’t tell the others where she found hers or even that she did. Somehow she didn’t want to be motivated to go check that locker. She would in the morning. A part of her felt that she had no connection to what was in it.
The countdown clock threw her back some. But she felt she knew what it meant. It immediately drew questions and conversations from Jason and Malcolm. The other three who survived and emerged from their units were still processing the events that just occurred.
In a way, everyone was still processing one thing or another.
How could they make an educated guess when their minds were all over the place?
Nora did try talking to the president once more. Again, he declined to speak, saying he didn’t remember anything and asked her to stop calling him the president.
“If indeed I am the president,” he said. “Then I am ashamed because if I am not a prisoner here, and if this was a government plan, then I am being protected from something.”
Protected.
Nora didn’t even think of that.
Before retreating back to her room, she spoke with the three new people.
The one woman, Amy was around the same age as Nora, an African American woman who was strikingly beautiful and showed no signs of being worn out from the process. She wrung her hands a lot and was bitter because she couldn’t remember anything.
Meredith was in her forties, maybe fifties, it was hard to tell. She had a healthy build and a line free face, but her hair was prematurely gray. Totally gray. Nora didn’t know if that was the process. She wore glasses, because like John, they were on the desk. Meredith presented herself uppity and spoke educated, even though she claimed to remember very little.
The final newcomer was Grant. He was more than likely in his late twenties, handsome and slender with blonde hair that fell right into place.
“I play the piano,” he said. “I know that, because that’s the last thing I remember.”
A piano. An explosion. New York.
Nora hoped the next day, things would be clearer. They planned to meet after they all woke up and had something to eat.
John wasn’t resting, he told Nora that. He set his sights on the storage room and what was in there. He found a box of watches. Wrist watches with a compass. An odd find. He handed them out and guessed the time of day.
Last she heard Malcolm went to the computer room. He remembered he knew about them.
A light knock on her door drew her attention from her thoughts and that key. “Come in.”
The door slid open and Jason peeked inside. “Hey, I’m not bothering you, am I?”
“No. Not at all. Come in.”
He shut the door. “Are you sick?”
“No. Why?’
“You kind of just disappeared.”
“I was done for the day.”
Jason reached for a chair and paused. “May I?”
“Please.”
He pulled it up then set a bottle on the nightstand. “John found wine. I’m gonna have a glass to relax me. You?”
“That sounds wonderful thank you.”
Jason poured. “We may need it to rest. We don’t know how long we’ve been asleep.”
“Long enough to give birth.”
He hesitated before handing her the glass. “Maybe she was close to her due date when they put her in there.”
“I don’t know.” Nora accepted the glass and sipped it with a gasp of enjoyment. “Thank you.”
“Hey…” He reached forward. “You found the locker key.”
“I did. Top drawer. I’m in no hurry to check the locker. I figured I’d do it tomorrow.”
“I’ll look in my drawer.”
She placed the key on the nightstand. “Clock still ticking out there?”
“Yep.” Jason said. “I just hope it isn’t counting down to an explosion.”
“Nah, I think it’s counting down to the door opening.”
“That’s so odd. Why are we in here for a time period?”
Nora shook her head. “Maybe we’re on a spaceship and were abducted by aliens.”
Jason laughed. “Really? Where did that come from?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have my own thoughts. I’m so foggy still, like… John said New York and Bam. I knew I was in New York for something. What? I don’t know.”
“An event.” Jason said almost with revelation. “An event.” His eyes widened. “I don’t know what kind. But it was big. Holy crap.” He ran his hands through his hair. “The phone call. It was asking me if I would do the honors of doing the benediction at something in New York. I just remembered.”
“So me, you and John were all in the same place.”
“Yeah. Something big, the president was there.”
“Well….” Nora tilted her head. “Unless like John believes, he is part of it. Are you remembering anything else?”
“It’s coming back. I know I was a preacher or pastor. I know I was a pretty big deal because my memories have me in front of thousands. Like an arena. I’m a husband and father. I feel a sense of sadness for my wife. Like I hurt her or abandoned her. You.”
“Nothing. Just the New York thing. But there’s one thing I do know.”
“What’s that?”