Planet Expo: Origins [Book One]

Chapter Six

[A.K.A. Awake & Confused]  

      “James, wake up!” Lisa whisper-shouted for what seemed to be the hundredth time as she kept alternating between poking his side and tapping his shoulder. At this rate, he was bound to have at least some bruising. With a sigh, Lisa gave up and slightly scooted away from James to give him some more room. It was fortunate that their captures were kind enough to provide James with a light blue-gray futon, by the looks of it, it seemed to be a traditional Japanese futon.

    “That’s the fifth time the guard or whatever passed us,” Lisa grumbled to herself with evident annoyance. The room they were in was made entirely of unbreakable, soundproof glass. They could see what was happening around them, yet could not hear what was happening. Lisa was quick to catch on that it was soundproof since when the people outside opened their mouths, it seemed to be that no sound came out. 

    She was quick to discover it was unbreakable when she kept throwing the wooden chair that she woke in. After the tenth throw, the wood on the back of the chair started to split. Lisa then stopped and resorted to just sitting on it, thinking about what was happening and about why they didn’t place any restraints on her. She supposed it was because of the number of armed guards in front of them. 

    She then began thinking why the guards didn’t flinch as she threw the chair against the glass, but she suddenly remembered that was because the guards or whatever they already knew it couldn’t break with a simple wooden chair. “I’m sure y’all are laughing at me right now.” She huffed to herself as she put her head in her hands. She didn’t know how to describe this overwhelming feeling of dread and nervousness mixed in with anger and frustration as well as the sadness and longing she felt to return home. 

    Plus, James still was knocked out for who knows how long. She guessed they had been there for an hour or so. Maybe less or more, she wasn’t very sure since she just woke up after passing out after getting hit by that dart. As far as she knew, James had been asleep the whole time. Her worry for him took the main concern at the moment; despite her other overwhelming thoughts and emotions, she mainly felt worried for James, who lays still in front of her. 

She knew he was not dead for his chest rose with every breath he took, yet his face looked flushed. She didn’t know what to do, so she just stayed back and gave him room to sleep. “James, why won’t you wake up?” 

    Another hour seemed to pass, but Lisa guessed it was more so ten or so minutes that actually passed. At this point, she soon became fed up with being “locked” in there, yet she knew there was no way to escape with the seven people, who seemed to be armed, walking around the room. Her aunt suddenly appeared, walking out of a hidden hallway and into the room. The people outside stopped roaming around and stood still. Their peering eyes locked in within the room. Every angle covered by their eyes, Lisa rather liked this one pair of hazel eyes that landed on her. She thought they were pretty yet oddly familiar.

    “I’m sure you both- oh, he still asleep.” She halted as her gaze landed on the sleeping boy. “Hmm, well, that’s not very good. He should be up by now. Unless…” Her eyes then went wide. Lisa perplexedly looked up towards her aunt from her chair. “Unless what? Will he be ok?” With narrowed eyes at Lisa, “this boy is your twin brother, no?”

By Lisa’s crazy bewildered expression at that question, the aunt knew her answer. “But- well, it wasn’t the best lighting. Oh, dear. The darts you were hit with were tailored to your specific DNA.”

    “WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? WILL JAMES BE OK? WILL HE EVEN SURVIVE THAT DART?” Lisa was standing up now, full of rage and concern for James’ survival. The chair was thrown to the side as Lisa stood up so abruptly, her eyes darkened despite the bright lighting of the building as Lisa held such an angered gaze. 

    “Your friend will be fine… but to reassure you, I’ll send a doctor to come and take a look at him.” With a snap of her finger, what seemed to be a medic entered the room. At least, Lisa was able to tell that it was a medic since this person dressed differently than the people who continued to stare and peer into the transparent room. The gazing people dressed in all gray-white military gear with white headgear that had transparent visors. They seemed to be armed with soft air rifles, which meant that the bullets were a small ball of felt that hired at people via pressured air. Relatively harmful, but could hurt at a close range. Obviously not enough to cause bleeding but definitely bruising and some skin breakage depending on the range and such. 

    Meanwhile, the medic seemed to dress in all white military gear with a gray cross on their somewhat bulky backpack. This medic also had no headgear but did wear a full face transparent visor. This medic seemed to have a feminine and welcoming face despite the intimidating gear worn. Bending over James, the medic checked James’ pulse and breathing pattern before pressing some buttons on a built-in device of their uniform on their left wrist. While opening their left hand, a soft yellow glow began to emit from the palm. Their wrist device then beeped twice. “Scan complete,” the medic said, with a feminine voice. “Well, is he alright?” Lisa said as she took a step closer to James.

    “The tranquilizer that hit him put his body in a coma-like state. He should wake up within the hour.” The medic then stood up and saluted to Lisa’s aunt in somewhat of an unusual way. The medic saluted by hitting over their heart with a similar motion as someone using a right hook punch to hit someone else.

“See, your friend here will be just fine.” Lisa rolled her eyes at her aunt. “Yeah, and what about the rest of my friends? Why aren’t they here?  Where are they?”

     “Your friends just happened to be a liability that we couldn’t risk. They’ll be fine! Of course, they’ll have a hard time remembering the events of that game room, but they didn’t suffer any physical harm. I imagine they’re all back safe and sound with their families.” She finished with a smile, the kind of smile that attempts to ease someone but actually has the opposite effect. Lisa knew that if Hailie, Rosa, Jon, and Alex all didn’t remember what happened, then law enforcement would have a lesser change of finding both her and James, which meant that both Lisa’s parents and James’ would be freaking out. At that train of thought, Lisa pictured her brother’s face twisted in grief as he heard the news of his sisters and best friend’s disappearance and the low chance of finding them alive.

    “Fine. I imagine you want something from me. After I do or give you whatever you want, will you let us go?” With wide-open arms, almost like she was gesturing for Lisa to hug her, she nodded her head. “That’s the spirit, Lisa, my precious niece. Yes, yes! Come, one my associates will escort you to a better room and bring James to the medical wi-”

    “No, James will be in the same room as me. I prefer a room with two beds. I don’t know nor trust you, so my friend stays with me.” With an eyebrow raised, the aunt nodded. “Of course. I would have lived a more formal reunion, but time was of the essence. And- Oh! Where are my manners? I haven’t told you my name, have I? Well, my name would be Lavender Fields, but just call me Aunt Lav.” 

    Aunt Lav stayed true to her word. Mere moments after she left, a red-haired woman, who seemed to be an office wearing based on her attire, escorted Lisa to another room. James was still sleeping, so the woman had two medics carry him out and placed him on the bed of this hotel-like room. After some “welcoming” words from the woman, the three adults left, and Lisa plopped down onto the rather fancy looking 4-poster bed.

    Both beds had a silky white canopy that was held by light-colored poles that attached to the light-colored bedframe, which had light emitted from underneath. Lisa covered her eyes with her arm. She didn’t want to take in the pleasant scenery of the room since she was overwhelmed by the events and words that happened so far. She was left with more questions after meeting with Aunt Lav. “She doesn’t even deserve the title of Aunt.” 

    Sighing, Lisa turned to face James’ bed, identical to the one she rested on. James still slept, although he showed signs of waking soon. For one thing, he seemed to be moving around in his sleep more compared to when they were placed in that glass room. Thinking of that room, Lisa took a glance around the hotel-ish room before putting her arm over her eyes again. “At least this room has walls with nice wallpapers.”

    “UGH!” Lisa said while attempting to find a comfortable position on a very comfortable bed. With a deep breath, she closed her eyes and let both her mental and physical tiredness take over as the notion of resting lured her into sleeping. 

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    “LISA! WAKE UP!” 

    With a jolt, Lisa snapped opened her eyes only to see James’concerned face take up every inch of her field of vision. Confusion quickly took over Lisa. Having just woke up, she still wasn’t sure if she was awake or if what she saw was apart of some dream. “Lis, are you ok?” James said much softer now compared to his worried shouting before.

    “James? Y-you’re awake now?” Lisa said while sitting up. “And yeah I’m fine I was just taking a nap.” James oohed as he sat back on his bed. “Wait, what do you mean by ‘awake now’?” James asked with a perplexed expression. “Oh, you’ve been sleeping for like 2 or 3 hours. I was napping waiting for you to wake up.”

“Oh, ok,” he said while looking around the room. “So… what’s happening, and where are we?”

“Oh yeah, let me fill you in…” 

    About a good 20 minutes passed, according to the clock display on the light tan metal nightstand, and during that time, James was going through a whirlpool of emotions. While Lisa summed up everything that happened from when James passed out to now, James tried to restrain asking questions until the end. Lisa answered what she could, but James mostly asked the same questions that had been haunting Lisa ever since her last encounter with her Aunt.

 “I wish I knew what she wanted, and I wish I knew what she meant by that whole DNA thing. She’s probably the only one who knows or at least is willing to share this information.”

    James nodded in agreement. “I say if what she asks of you is not morally questionable and isn’t too physically or mentally draining, I say you do it. But tell her you’ll do it only in exchange for answers and to go home.”

    “That’s smart, but what if what she asks IS morally questionable? I can handle physically draining. We’ll see about mentally.” For the next half-hour, they kept making strategies in an attempt to outsmart Aunt Lav. It was during this time that they realized they wouldn’t be able to come up with a foolproof plan, so the duo quickly switched to having a brainstorm of what they could do as of right now. 

    Taking a look at the clock display, Lisa was shocked by the time. “James, it’s- it’s almost 11! How long have we been here for?” James was quick to copy Lisa’s shocked expression. “Well, it was around 7 when the movie ended, right? Gosh, that seems so long ago. Anyways, um… Wait, I think it was like 9 o’clock when we went to that escape room place. So… “ 

    “We’ve been here for 2 hours,” she said as realization dawning on her. “OUR PHONES! Do you have your phone?” Wide-eyed, the duo checked their persons and emptied every pocket. They were so desperate they even checked their sneakers. “No phones. Not even my watch, nothing,” James said, clearly exasperated as he fell backward onto his bed, his legs hanging off the side as his head and arms bounced a bit from the impact. Lisa would have chuckled at James’ odd way of laying down if they were in a better-natured situation. 

“Typical,” Lisa said while staring up at the bed’s canopy. “Well, it could be worse.” With a scoff, Lisa looked toward James with a bewildered yet amused expression, “How?” 

    “Well, we could’ve been kidn*pped and brought to my relatives’ house upstate. You know how wild they can be.” Needless to say, James’ big mouth soon collided with a pillow. “Ok, ok, I’, sorry,” James said with a laugh. “I just don’t believe we’re actually in this situation. Like your long lost aunt is the leader of the Seekers cult? And I thought the rich kids at school had wild relatives.”

    “James, you’re asking for another pillow to the face. Also, we don’t know for sure she is leading them. Maybe she just- oh, how am I kidding? She’s either is leading them or is like vice-leader or something; I don’t know.” At her statement, James burst how laughing.

“VICE-LEADER,” he shouted with laughter. “You’re killing me, Archer,” he said as he calmed himself down, wiping the tears that formed from laughing that hard. “Glad I’m still able to provide you with entertainment. Would you like to go back to freaking out about life right now?” 

    “Hmm,” he said while pretending to actually think about it,” Nah laughing at you sounds more fun.” James then caught the pillow she threw at him and threw it back to Lisa. “JAMES! Seriously, what are we going to do?” James shrugged, clearly at lost as well. 

    “Well, I’m going to try to open the door. Maybe they didn’t lock it? I was too scared to check if the other room they had us in was locked, but it didn’t look locked since my Aunt just walked in without putting in code or anything.” 

“Wait!” James shouted as Lisa was about to open the door. “What about Facial recognition?” At that suggestion, Lisa lowered her hand. “No risk, no reward Jem.” With that, she pushed open the silver door.