The Facility
Chapter 8

Cassidy awoke having had fitful dreams. She tried to save her mom and ended up burning up in a burst of flame.

Looking at her watch did not help must as it said it was 9:34, but not AM or PM and the lights were dimmed.

She figured it was PM.

Feeling an uncomfortable pressure on her bladder, she climbed out of bed and went to the toilet to relieve herself.

The lights provided ambient lighting, but she figured with a sigh that she might as well see how bad her bleeding was.

“Lights,” she called out and they immediately brightened. She looked down and her eyes widened at what she saw. She had bled more than her usual. So much so that it had soaked out and her pants were blotchy.

Not caring about the cameras, she cussed quietly while she cleaned herself up, trying to figure out how to get back to her bed like this.

Half-naked was not an option.

Taking a new pad, she replaced the old one and pulled everything up. They were bound to have plenty of them. If not, they could buy more. She did not care.

“Dim the lights please,” she called out and the light dimmed again.

Self-conscious even in the dim light, she rushed to her bed and grabbed a change of clothes and hurried back to the toilet where she pulled the stained clothes off, cleaned up again and redressed.

After putting the soiled clothes into what she termed the clothes sucker, she found she was physically tired again.

Making her way back to her bed, she looked at it for stains, but did not see any, so she sat down. Out of the corner of the eye she saw the glass and the pack of cookies on the table and her stomach rumbled.

Reaching over, she picked up both and took a drink of the dark liquid. It was room temperature grape juice, so figured it was actually morning.

She ate the cookies and finished the juice, then set the glass and cookie package back down.

Cass knew she was spent and laid back down, pulling the covers back up over her, listening to the silence.

Closing her eyes, she tried to clear her mind and think of nothing, and ha just about nodded off when she heard a voice that said, “Hello?”

Her eyes shot open and she sat up looking around. “Who’s there?” she asked.

“What’s your name?” the voice asked.

“Cassidy. Where are you? Stop hiding.”

“I’m not hiding. I am in the room next to yours. Name’s Rudi with an i.

“Next door? Behind the white wall?”

Cass heard Rudi laugh. “All the walls here are white. But I think I know what you mean, and no. I am on the other side of you at the end of the corridor.

“Gemma is on the other side of you, inside the four white walls.

“And please, stop talking out loud or the security will hear you and figure out that I’m able to communicate with you.”

“Wait, stop…” she said before stopping herself. “How can you hear me if I don’t talk?” she thought.

“Because I’m telepathic,” he replied in her head, causing her to jump.

“I realize I’m a kid, and all I know is what I’ve read in science fiction books, but isn’t it usually one way? You can read my mind, so how can I hear you?” she asked.

“I can do it both ways. I have been trying to contact you, but it is been difficult. My room – actually all of our rooms – have been designed to counter our powers. At least that is what I have been able to catch from the people here. They are not as good at it as they think, however.

“It took me time to replace their flaws, but as you can see, I did,” Rudi said proudly into her mind.

“Who are these people and what do they want?” Cass asked.

There was silence for what seemed to Cass as a long time. Cass sighed at the stupid thought. It had been silent she had stopped talking out loud.

Finally, she heard Rudi. “I think I can trust you. Everything I have heard you think has been normal and none of it has been an act. I can tell when they are trying to fool me.

“I’ve been worried about you because I know they hurt you. You’ve been thinking a lot lately about all your blood.”

Cassidy gasped and blushed furiously trying to think about anything but the real reason. “That’s an invasion of my privacy,” she started to say, stopping herself before she could say it out loud.

“I’m sorry, but you’ve been thinking about it so hard, you’ve been kind of broadcasting it. I do not even need to try to read your mind to hear it sometimes. It is like you are shouting.

“If you want, I’ll teach you how to, well, build a wall around your thoughts so you’ll only send what you want,” he told her.

“Why would you do that?” she asked curiously. “Wouldn’t that stop your power?”

“Only one part. And I want you to trust me. If that means showing you how to block me, then so be it. I will not tell them I can be blocked. And to answer your question, I am not exactly sure who they are. I know they have something to do with the government, but not what part. This place is referred to as The Facility.

“Good ol’ Hugo does not seem to think much it seems. As for what they want: us of course. To exploit us. To see if they can use us. Clone us. Whatever.

“I think they would kill us if it would give them the answers they were looking for.”

“Oh,” Cass said silently.

“My advice to you – give them enough to satisfy them, but nothing more. As little as possible.

“They treat us reasonably well as long as we cooperate and that’s what I do. I read their thoughts, telling them what they want to hear – mostly right, but sometimes all backwards. Always out loud, never like this.”

“So why tell me all this?” Cass asked.

“Like I said, because I trust you. And they more people we can get together, the more likely it is we can escape.”

“But escape from where?”

“From here,” Rudi said.

Cass groaned. “No, I mean, where’s here? It is hard to escape when we have no idea where we are. We could be on the moon for all we know.”

“Not unless they know how to build some sort of artificial gravity device. The moon’s gravity is only a fraction of the Earth’s. We’d know.”

“It’s one-sixth, but Rudi… be serious.”

“I am. We would know if we – “

“I get it,” Cassidy interrupted. “So where on Earth are we? If we escape, where do we go? If we are in the middle of Antarctica, we will not get far before we freeze to death. It would be suicide to escape unless we could hijack a plane or something.”

“Okay,” Rudi replied. “I’ll see if I can replace out more.”

“Good. So, what does Gemma do? What are her powers?”

“I don’t know, she won’t tell me. I cannot get her to trust me. Maybe you’ll have better luck.”

“Maybe. If I ever see her rand can talk to her that is. I am not expecting much from this place.

“I’m sorry Rudi, I’m really tired and need to get some sleep.”

“Okay, well lay down and I’ll start to explain how to stop me from reading your thoughts. If you fall asleep then we’ll pick up from where you remember.”

Cass was too tired to argue and was grateful for company other than Peg – who was one of them – even if it was just in her head.

She laid back and listened to Rudi explain as she dozed off.

Rudi knew when she had fallen asleep and stopped, letting her sleep in peace.