I had no control over mind.

I thought I had left. Had I not left? Was it a trap? Was the Resistance real? Did I ever leave? Did I escape? Did Elyse escape? Was Rachel's warning right? Should I have trusted Elyse? No, I shouldn't have trusted Elyse. She brought me back to a facility. I was attacked. They said by an animal. There was no animal. A person had hurt me. I had broken ribs. I had a concussion. I was in the infirmary. I left. I was in a facility. I was back.

"I have to get out of here," I choked out to a Elyse but she was gone too, lost in her own mind. "Elyse! I need to get out of here!"

My thoughts were racing. I couldn't see; I couldn't hear; I couldn't feel. I was dead. No, that wasn't right. I was alive again. My thoughts were racing. Bad thoughts, bad thoughts, go away.

It took visible effort to push back my thoughts enough to barricade them from my conscious. Elyse was still lost in her own world. I stumbled over her and tugged on her arm. No response. Her GlowStix had fallen in the shock and rolled under the bunk bed. A red mist rose up from underneath the depths, it was blood.

No, it wasn't blood. Just the GlowStix. I clutched my green one and pulled Elyse simultaneously. She moved ever so slightly but was still lost from me. I hooked her arm around my neck and mostly dragged her from the dormitory. We went back through the common room where I played games with my fellow prisoners and passed the auditorium where I had my assemblies. Past the classrooms where I was force fed propaganda and learned useless stuff about the pitiful lives of Earthlings. Back near the footsteps and the blood, mine and Rachel's combined. Away from the trauma and memories and abandoned facility. I carried Elyse back to the infirmary where I handed her to the shocked boy nurse and back to my safe bed where I sank into a dreamless sleep...

***

When I awoke, I couldn't remember what had happened. For a few seconds, my brain attempted to protect me from the forthcoming onslaught of emotional terror. A weak attempt.

My memories came flooding back to me and not just ones from last night. I saw flashes of my childhood in the facility and even at home with my missing brother and missing mother and missing father. They were taken from me. I was back. Back in the facility.

Of course, logically speaking, that wasn't the exact facility that I stayed in. Mine was over on the other side of the construction zone and not this close to the centre of Zyphia. Plus, mine was above ground. But logic wasn't truly my friend right now and the fear was very, very real.

We had learnt about the other facilities in school. The locations were disclosed for safety but we did know of them. It was all part of the propaganda and masterful re-education programme of the government. Our parents were bad, we were told over and over again, but we were learning to be good. We were model citizens of Zyphia and we should have been proud. On the most part, students and prisoners alike believed them  and strived to be the mindless, indoctrinated puppets that the government sought after. But not me, I refused to turn against my family despite their desertion of me. I had faith in them and I would not be convinced otherwise. Because of that, I was deemed a threat to society. And I was due to be transferred to a more 'secure' facility on the day I escaped. Even then, they were lying to me. No one ever left those facilities. Those facilities were for the people who couldn't be fixed.

The facility here was different though. The rooms and furniture were the same, though the technology a little outdated. But that's why it was different. The facility in the compound was abandoned and old, two things that didn't make sense. (1) We had never heard of a facility being deserted before. That meant failure but it begged the question of where did the prisoners go? Why was it abandoned? Why was this facility different to the others? (2) Its evident age meant that the facility had been abandoned long before the Resistance took over, therefore someone here must have known of its previous uses which then introduced more answerless questions. Why were we in a government known location?  Why were yet again contradicting ourselves by living in a place that was traumatic for others and embodied everything we hated?

I cast my eyes over to the other side of the infirmary, where it was Elyse now who was heavily sedated. It would be hours before she woke up and even then, no one could have guessed how she would react. Lucky. I envied her oblivion although not her story. My own reaction was quite severe to the realisation that the compound was once a facility but Elyse's was inexplicable. I pitied her though she wouldn't want me to. Her time at the facility was obviously far worse from mine and I was still deemed a threat when I came of age. She must have escaped before they could transfer her to an adult facility too, or worse. I had heard of new developing projects under Beta designed for rebels like us. They followed the policy of re-education but introduced all kinds of new horrors. Perhaps, that's what they had in store for her.

The one silver lining was that I knew I had made the right choice in confiding and trusting her. No one could have faked that intensity and panic. Elyse had come from a facility which automatically created a bond form trauma, add that to the trauma we both just experienced and an innate fury for the government, and I had myself a partner in crime.

I sighed a little, enjoying the quiet. No blaring alarms nor shouting voices. Just silence.

But silence invited the bad thoughts back and my heart rate began to rise again.

Deep breaths, Verity. I calmed myself down before the nurses had to sedate me but I had alerted them. The older nurse headed over to my bed, a determined look on her face.

She most definitely didn't start out easy on me.

"What happened to Elyse?" She demanded.

"The animal that attacked me spooked her. She went looking for it last night to avenge me but it was too powerful. I knew it was a bad idea when she announced she would be going so I followed her to keep her out of trouble," I lied, surprised at how smoothly the words left my mouth.

"And where is the animal know? What type of animal was it?" She questioned.

"It got away before I could see it but it was big... and furry. You'll have to ask Elyse for the finer details, though I doubt she'll remember."

The nurse looked over to her and sighed. I could tell she was still suspicious but my lie was pretty convincing and she would probably get in trouble if she upset me any further.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm getting there," I replied and it was true. The discoveries we made were extremely terrifying but I was willing to put my own emotions aside to proceed without gaining too much attention. I could blame today and yesterday on the 'animal attack' but any more incidents and someone was bound to notice. My priority at the minute was assisting the Resistance, gaining their trust and finding the spy.

Hopefully, Elyse could do the same.

The nurse nodded and wrote down a few notes on a MediTab, once again the Resistance had the best technology for the stuff that mattered. If they really cared that much then the entire organisation couldn't be corrupt, could it? I was relieved although I never really doubted the intentions of the members here. Most were genuine and good people.

"I'll keep you here a few more hours for observation to ensure that you are okay and then you are free to go," the nurse said. I nodded and she returned for the last time to her little corner.

I was left alone with my thoughts again but my control over them was returning. Carefully, I repeated everything we knew so far in my mind so that I could keep track of all the information.

I escaped from my facility and the VISORs protected me from my fall. They saved me again when I wasn't caught by them on the truck after we walked into a trap whilst attempting to rescue Skyfallian prisoners. I tried to kiss Rachel but she stopped it after one. Then she was badly assaulted and warned me that 'they' were out to get me. I was assaulted after and woke up in the infirmary after finding classrooms in the abandoned wing. Rachel was transferred out of the compound to be an 'insider' though I had heard nothing about that leading up to her departure.

In the infirmary, I was also made aware that a spy within the compound had alerted the High Authority that the delivery of NukeFusions was about to be intercepted. The route changed and we missed the delivery. The government now also possessed some very dangerous nuclear weaponry. I was told to trust no one but I took a shot and trusted Elyse. It was the right decision. We went exploring and discovered that the original compound was a facility that was now abandoned. Yet, it was told that the compound was abandoned because of risk of a cave-in.

That was a lie as we never saw a cave-in and we searched every square inch of the abandoned wing. So it was a lie, a lie which led right back to Lucas. Lucas. It appeared I had found my next step in searching for the truth. When Elyse woke up, we had to confront Lucas.

I needed more information. Our little outing had answered some questions but only introduced more. Again.

I pondered it a little longer.

Whoever attacked me and Rachel must have known about the history of the facility when they used the auditorium where Rachel had put up a fight meaning... whoever stopped her must have been stronger than her. Or... there were multiple people.

Whichever scenario was right, I realised that the situation was a lot more perilous than what I once had thought. Strong forces were at play here and the consequences would be catastrophic.

Whether there were multiple spies here or not, they weren't alone.