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  Jacqueline Druga

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  By Jacqueline Druga

  Copyright 2015 by Jacqueline Druga

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any person or persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Thank you so very much to Kira R and to Shona for your editorial help services.

  Cover Art by Christian Bentulan

  www.coversbychristian.com

  Chapter One – Awakening

  It is said, that in the moments before awakening, that an outside stimulus can be registered by the brain, therefore influencing the dream. A change in temperature, alarm clock, noise, anything can influence and invade the dream of the slumbering individual.

  A dream lasts only a few moments.

  That is what happened to Nora.

  She was dreaming. An odd dream, she was on the beach with her two young daughters, yelling to her husband Rick not to let them go in the water. It was too cold.

  But, he allowed them and they went under.

  Horrified, she raced into the water for her family, only to become engulfed by waves that felt thick, too thick. She couldn’t move, couldn’t swim, couldn’t breathe.

  Nora was drowning.

  A bright light passed over her eyes, the water changed from warm to cold and trying to gasp, she opened her eyes.

  She had been asleep. But she wasn’t in bed, she wasn’t lying down. Her position, what was going on, was secondary to the fact that she couldn’t breathe.

  Something was lodged somewhere between her throat and chest, and Nora coughed. Coughing wasn’t easy, because she couldn’t inhale enough air into her body to produce the cough.

  Calm, she thought. Stay calm.

  Using what little air she had remaining in her lungs, Nora gave it all she had. The object moved up to her throat and she went from unable to breathe to downright choking.

  She was dying.

  Suddenly, a sense of ‘release’ hit her and she fell face forward to the floor. In an attempt to stand, her body slid on the smooth cold surface. She pushed and pushed from her diaphragm and throat, but couldn’t clear the object. Surroundings fading, Nora, through her vision blurring, spotted a chair not far from her. She reached, gripped it, and after slipping once, stood and lunged her body full force, mid-section first into the back of that chair.

  The object dislodged and she gasped for the much needed air.

  Then she felt the horrendous pain to her stomach and chest. She broke a rib in her self-attempted Heimlich maneuver.

  She caught her bearings and her breath, then she saw the object that came from her. It was thick, about the size of an egg and blue. Clear and gel like, it looked as if she had choked on some sort of gelatin dessert.

  After a very brief moment, reality set in. Choking done, breathing normal.

  What was going on?

  She was completely naked, and she shivered freakishly out of control. Her skin felt damp and she turned around slowly.

  Behind her was an open glass door. It looked like it was attached to a closet in the wall. A panel of lights beside it blinked and more of the blue thick gel lay on the floor and in the encasement.

  That had to be where she had fallen.

  Where was she? Her mind felt full and in the fog, it took her a second to even remember who she was.

  My name. My name. My name is Nora. I think. Is it? Nora Something. What?

  It wasn’t a large room, but it wasn’t tiny either. More compact with space utilized to the fullest.

  An unmade single bed, the sheets and blankets were folded and in bags on top. A desk and a chair, above the desk was a flat screen adhered to the wall. Next to the bed was a door that resembled something from a prison.

  Against the other wall were two white doors and what looked like a chest of drawers, white as well, built into the wall.

  Very clinical.

  Very clean.

  Her body still shaking, arms tight to her, she looked back to the small coffin closet.

  Then she remembered …

  Moving, on her back, rolling down a hall, white fluorescent lights blinking above her.

  “She’s still awake,” a voice said.

  “We don’t have time.”

  “Should we hit her again?”

  “No, it’ll kill her. It’ll kick in.”

  Whatever they had given her made her unable to speak or move, she was drugged.

  They moved her from that cart and placed her on something else. It wasn’t comfortable. She merely balanced on a thin metal rod that pressed against her back.

  Nora wanted to cry out, to scream, to fight. But she couldn’t.

  Something wrapped around her head, then her chest and waist. Leveled to a standing position, Nora was then lowered down.

  The encasement.

  She remembered the encasement and seeing that room before she passed out.

  A clear view of the room and someone in there, she may not have been able to speak or move but she could see. Who was he? He wore a white lab coat. There was a hiss, a click and then a warm thick liquid encompassed her feet. It crept up to her shins, her thighs and then her body.

  She recalled the fear of drowning as the fluid hit her chin, and that was the last Nora remembered.

  All went black.

  Her immediate thoughts after the memory were to get warm, get dressed and find out what was going on. It hurt to walk and her body was rigid, not only that, but her skin began to tighten from the liquid as it dried.

  A step toward the bed and the monitor above the desk blinked and came on.

  The picture was bad, it flickered and distorted. A man in a lab coat stared at the camera.

  “Good morning,” he said. “By now you have awakened. Please, for your health, as quickly as possible, relieve your bladder and wash any remaining residue from your skin and hair. You will find we have provided you with clothing. At this point, you are wondering what …”

  The monitor shut down.

  Her eyes widened. ‘What?’ she thought. ‘Wondering what?’

  Nora was wondering a lot. However, just in case the fluid that covered her was indeed dangerous, she sought out the bathroom so she could wash.

  It wasn’t the first white door, it was the second and Nora stepped inside and immediately followed her brief instructions of relieving herself and washing.

  Chapter Two – Coming to Senses

  It took the lukewarm water of the shower to bring Nora to a more aware state. She was groggy and tired, her stomach wretched in hunger and she craved caffeine.

  However, she wasn’t home. She just couldn’t go to her kitchen, pour a cup of coffee and start her day.

  Nora had no clue where she was other than in a clinical style bathroom.

  Very clinical, prepackaged toiletries perched on lid of the stainless steel commode

  She was no longer cold when she left the bathroom, the temperature was average and she had to find clothes, see what was in the small room and get out. If she could.

  Her room was a step above a cell, had she been taken prisoner? Apparently she had been drugged.

  Think, Nora, think. She hit her fist to her head. What happened? Where were you?

  Recall your life.

  It was blank. It was absolutely, positively blank up until the point she was rolling down the hall.

  Folded bedding set upon the mattress and next to it a clear bag of clothes. They had to be for her. Boots, drawstring pants and a long sleeve tee shirt, along with generic style undergarments.

  She immediately ripped open the sealed bag and placed on every item, all the while speaking al
oud; hoping the sound of her own voice would jar her memory.

  But no real sounds emerged. Nora couldn’t speak.

  She chanted in her mind what she knew, what she remembered.

  My name is Nora Lane. Lane. Is it? She didn’t remember fully. The dream of a husband named Rick and two daughters … was it a dream? Was it a memory?

  She just didn’t know. Nora closed her eyes tightly as if pinching them closed would cause clarity. It didn’t and she walked to the closet. More clothing, all the same, hung in there. There was a backpack on the floor, she opened it. It was empty.

  Something clicked. At least a little.

  Nora Lane. Yes. It is Lane. That’s it. I’m from … I’m from Akron Ohio.

  The monitor above the desk was blank, yet the power was on. Outside her room door she could see a light, possibly a hall and Nora, not only in a mental search for who she was, sought out physically where she was and reached for that cell like door.

  Unlocked.

  It was her chance to venture out, find answers. She hoped.

  She fought the foggy memory, trying to decipher how she ended up in that room. But all she could recall was the final few moments leading up to her black out.

  That and the vivid dream she had just before she woke up choking.

  The door slid, almost automatically into the wall with a hiss and she stepped out. Her legs weren’t strong, they felt rubbery, her eyes failed to focus fully and the painful knot of hunger grew.

  The dream. A few slow steps and when she thought of it, the husband, the children, she was positive they were reality.

  But why did she get a lump in her stomach at the thought of them?

  Answers she didn’t have and she figured it would eventually all come to her. Just like the simple task of walking with ease would return.

  She felt as if she had been sleeping for days. Her head started to pound, she guessed if she had been sleeping that long, she was dehydrated. The hallway seemed like a mile journey, her weakened state and faulty sight caused the hall to seem slanted causing a vertigo that sickened her some.

  Door after door, just like hers, lined that hallway. All of them closed. It was brighter at the other end of the hall and she set that as her destination. All she heard was the electrical humming surged in and out as if it were going to go out at any moment.

  A part of her felt as if she was alone, but there were so many doors. Were there others, like her, behind them? She tried to peek through the glass panel of the first door, but the room was dark and she couldn’t see inside. Then she reached for the door. It wasn’t locked. Just as she started to open it, she heard a scuffing of a footstep. Or at least that’s what she thought it was.

  She tried to call out but her voice only gurgled, so Nora decided to look for the source of the sound. She couldn’t move very fast. It was taking everything out of her to walk.

  It was another fifteen feet, a few doors later and she came across an open door. She walked inside. It was exactly like her room, Down to the monitor, the bedding on the mattress, the opened bag of clothing and the chamber. Only the blue, gel like fluid looked dry and dusty. With stiff knees she crouched down to touch the fluid. She ran the powder like substance across her fingers. Someone else emerged. Someone else was there.

  Where?

  Grabbing the edge of the bed for support. Nora stood. She now had a quest, to find whoever it was, that had been in the room. But they could have been long gone.

  One more step toward the door and a man appeared. His presence startled her to the point, that not only did she jolt, she lost her balance and stumbled back and on to the bed.

  “My God,” he said, reaching for her. “I am so sorry. Number Seventeen, right?”

  She couldn’t answer. Seventeen what? What did he mean? She took his hand and used it as leverage to stand. He looked upon her with familiarity and a partial smile. But Nora couldn’t return the smile or anything. He obviously was far more aware than she was. Nora … was clueless.

  CHAPTER THREE – HYDRATE

  Four doors down was a storage room with boxes of water, juice, and dry goods. Nora sat on a box, downing her second bottle of water. She could feel the hunger in her stomach, it hurt some. But she started to feel better.

  He had brought her to the room, and reached out midway through her water and stopped her.

  “Easy or you’ll vomit. I did,” he said. His voice smooth and deep with southern Kentucky dialect. “Can you talk yet?”

  Nora opened her mouth and tried. Her voice felt stuck. She shook her head.

  “Can you cough?” he asked. “Whatever substance we absorbed or inhaled, gets stuck in the throat, lines it. It needs to soften or liquefy more. Try coughing.”

  After a deep breath, Nora cringed and again shook her head.

  “Are you hurt? Did you fall?”

  She lifted a finger and cringed a little and nodded that she did, but then waved him off as a signal that she was all right.

  “It will itself work out. Give it a few minutes.”

  Great, work itself out, she thought, I’m going to cough up another fur ball.

  He handed her a cracker. “Try eating this. I know you’re hungry. I was. Still am. But my stomach still feels funny.”

  After accepting the cracker, Nora looked at him. His face was strong and chiseled with a hint of boyishness that offset any guess on his age. His dark, short hair was still damp, he wore the exact same clothing as she did. Preplanned, pre-bagged clothes. She deduced he had more than likely just went through the same routine as her, wake up covered in goo. Snippet video, pee, shower, rinse, repeat.

  Yet, what was up with the stranger? He seemed unaffected by all that was going on. Or perhaps it was an act.

  He pulled up a box and sat down across from her. “I hope you talk soon, because I need someone to talk this over with.” He shook his head then handed her the remainder of her water.

  “I know you’re seventeen because that was the number on your door. The only other room with a light. My name …” He placed his hand on his chest. “Is Jason. I’m sorry. I should have told you that. I’m sure your name isn’t seventeen.”

  She shook her head and drank more water.

  “I haven’t seen a clock yet. I checked my room, none of my belongings are there. Then again, I don’t know if I would know if they were mine. Does that make sense?”

  Nora nodded, it did make sense to her.

  He lifted his hands. “I’m gonna just keep talking until you can. Is that okay?”

  Nora closed her mouth tightly to convey her agreement. What else did she have to do but drink that water and listen? Besides, she did want to know what was going on with him. Who he was. What he had to do with everything.

  “So I don’t know how long I have been up. My guess is about a half an hour,” Jason said. “I just know when I ventured out of the room, the hall was lit, but all the rooms were dark. I couldn’t call out, my voice wouldn’t work. It was confusing. This room wasn’t far, door was open. Almost as if set up like that on purpose. Or maybe it was on automatic, like my lights. Like yours. I found the water. Drank it like you. I paced a minute or two, threw up …” He cracked a partial smile. “Then coming back up the hall, I heard water and saw your light on. I went to get you water, figuring, and heck if the same thing happened to you that happened to me, you’d need it. I planned on meeting you but you beat me to the punch.”

  Nora brought the bottle to her lips.

  “I just was confused. I mean all I got was some short video, cut off after the guy told me to take a leak and shower.”

  The video.

  Upon hearing that, mid drink, Nora cocked her head and when she did, the ‘it’ dislodged in her throat and the water in her mouth involuntarily shot out.

  Jason inched back.

  As if the water went down the wrong pipe, Nora violently coughed, and the spell ended with the expulsion of a small dime size chunk of the blue gel substance,

  “The
re it is,” Jason looked down to it. “Now try talking.”

  Nora exhaled, then breathed in. “I …” She paused and smiled, the words came out with ease. “I’m Nora.”

  “Nora, pleased to meet you.”

  She shifted her eyes around. “Where … where are we?”

  “Now that is the million dollar question. And the answer to that is …” He lifted a finger and flashed a closed mouth smile. “I don’t know.”

  FOUR – DISCOVERY

  When Nora was six years old, she had her tonsils removed and suffered an odd reaction to the anesthesia. She woke foggy from it, slightly sickened, but in spiral of so much confusion, Nora didn’t recognize her mother. Eventually it all came back.

  She likened what she was experiencing in ‘The Hall’ to that day. She christened the place ‘The Hall’ because that was all she saw. One long well lit hallway, with doors every eight or so feet. Each door was like hers, with a small window. But the rooms were dark.

  Or at least she couldn’t see inside.

  There were two doors at each end of the long hallway. It was strange because she had no desire to go to those doors, no desire to do anything. She dreamt of having a family. Deep within her she felt it wasn’t just a dream, yet why didn’t she feel any emotional urgency for them?

  She had no overwhelming sensation to get out of The Hall. It was as if she either was just born or somehow knew why she was there. She just didn’t recall. In fact there wasn’t much she recalled at all. She was from Ohio. She knew her name.

  The buck stopped there.

  A gnawing feeling filled her gut, frustrating Nora because she could feel the memories, pulsating in her brain, yet unable to surface. On the tip of her tongue, like she was trying to remember a name. It was there, right there. Nora supposed once she had a breakthrough then she would scream to get out. Until she knew why and where, there was nothing she could do.

  It would come.

  Until then, she felt safe in that room filled with supplies and began to see what all was there.