Walls painted a harsh white. So artificial. So perfect.

On a small white bed

lies a girl. She’s bony and famished. She wakes up, blinded by the bright rays of
the sun. She squints. She attempts to speak, but her throat’s dry and hoarse.
Only a desiccated rasp seeps out.

“Jesse! Jesse! You’re awake! Nurse!” a woman in a pink cardigan shouts.

She’s pale, with memorizing grey eyes. The girl glares at the woman. Not a
hateful glare, but with a realization of who she was and their resemblance.

“Dorathy,“ Jesse whispers. Her face expressionless. Unlike sappy movies,

there weren’t any tears or hugging.

“The hospital was threatening to unplug you, you know. But your stupid
father’s the one that kept insisting not to; that you’d get better. I don’t even know
how he paid the bills. Well, we have to go. So get up, get dressed. We’re
leaving.” She says.

The woman storms out of the room. Jesse struggles to stand up, and ends
up rolling off the bed and onto the floor. She crawls to the dresser, and pulls out
a pair of pants and a t-shirt without looking. They didn’t match. Suddenly, a nurse
walks by while she’s dressing.

“Miss? Um,” she utters unsurely, “would you like any help?”

“No.” Jesse replies cuttingly.

“Oh. Okay. Um, tell me when you’re done okay?” she smiles warmly, as if
it’ll change Jesse’s answer. There’s a moment of silence. “Well, um, your
wheelchair is waiting outside.” She strolls out, closing the door firmly behind her.

Jesse slowly pushes herself from the icy tile floors. A white flash blind her
eyes. It’s headrush. A few minutes later, the nurse is pushing Jesse down the
hall. Passer-bys stare at her.

She considers glaring back at them, but then, she thinks to herself, “I
guess no one taught them manners.”

Up at the front desk, she finds the woman shouting at a nurse.

“But we can’t just le-,”

“That’s all I NEED. We have to leave immediately.” There’s a pause. “You DO

remember, right?”

Yes, but the papers and-

 The woman spots Jesse.

“Oh! Jesse. All the paper work’s done. Let’s go.” She demands.

Jesse gets up. She looks down the hallway. Her gaze stops a man.

“Wait! What are you doing?!” The man barks. Run Jesse, run!”

As Jesse turns around, the woman takes out a needle, a few inches long.
The world plunges into darkness. Jesse screams for help, but with no reply. A
pain hits her. Warmness surrounds her on the chilly floor. A sharply metallic
copper-like smell fills the air. Blinded by the darkness, she touches something
soft touch her face.

“I told you,” a child-like voice whispers, “you’re useless.” The creature

approaches, and shakes her violently. Tears run down her face.

“Help.” Jesse whimpers. “Help me.”

The creature laughs mockingly. Warm air hits her face.

“I TOLD YOU SO!” The child shouts.

Her vision is restored. There’s no creature. No smell. All that remains is a

headache, and a sense of cluelessness.

The man suddenly grabs her hand, “LET’S GO!” He says urgently.

I- I don’t know you! Jesse says hesitantly. She’s scared. The tone of her shakes
as she speaks. She flings his hand away, and holds herself tightly.

“Please. You’ll have to trust me. There’s no time to explain. Here. Hold my hand.”
He explains.

Together, hand in hand, they sprint past the woman, past the nurses. To
where? Jesse wasn’t sure, but there was something about the man’s smile that
made her trust him. He wasn’t very old, but not young. More of a young man, one
could say. Maybe in his early twenties.

An hour passed, or so his watch says. They did not rest for food or water, nor did
they stop to catch their breath. They didn’t seem tired at all either, which was
surreal. Suddenly, they stop.

“ OH. Right.” He shuffles some papers in his messenger bag, and takes out a
small, red, leather covered notebook. He shoves it into her hands. “You wrote
this. This whole book. There’s more like it, but that’s the only one I was able to
get. For some reason, you only remember everything that happened before you
were reported lost. A week after, they found you in front of the hospital, naked,
with multiple cuts, bruises, and wounds. All we know is that you loose your
memory each day, like you reset yourself or something.

“So, who are you?”

He points to the notebook. She flips to the first page.

“ They’re after me. Last time I checked, it was Friday, September 13, 1996. My
name is AE-106, and today I escaped from the facility, along with B-21. I’m a
science experiment. They’re trying to develop Super Beings, or as some would
call us, weapons. The woman I call mom, she’s really a scientist, and I’m her
“project”. Since we have left the boundaries, we reset everyday. My goal now is
to find B-21. I need help. “

So what now? Jesse asks.

“I’m B-21.” He says.