Project LAZARUS

III

           “Get on your feet, Maggie. You’re not dead . . . yet.”, Sydney instructed her. She has already set her gun aside.

            Maggie was still shaking with fear when she opened her eyes to see Sydney offering her a hand. The cold, serious stare from her was still there but Maggie sensed a genuine generosity as she extended her waiting hand to help her get up. Maggie carefully took the hand which pulled her back to her feet. Then, she looked back to where she was sitting seconds ago, where she saw the single bullet hole dug upon the concrete street road.

            “So, you believe what I’ve been telling you now?”, she warily asked Sydney.

            “No, not yet, Maggie. I’m just giving you the chance to be true to yourself and tell me about everything that you know. For the sake of the innocent lives that those bastards took while you where still gone. Don’t you think you owe Emily and Fatima that? To tell their friend the real reason which caused them getting abused and ending their own lives in misery and shame?”

            “Believe me, Sydney. If I only know anything at this moment, you would have it yourself already. But I don’t, I promise. In fact, I was hoping you could help me with that. Tell me anything that you know about me and my former life. That way, I might remember something. Help me help you and your friends.”

            “Anything I know about you, you say?”, Sydney smirked at her.

            “Yeah.”

            “Like what, Maggie? No one really knew you. I barely knew you myself! All I know about you is your first name . . . which, by the way, I think is not real also. And that you are some kind of a lab person experimenting on whatever that you have in your playpen.”

            “I know it’s a lot to ask of you but those are not good enough. I need to know what and where I was working before. You have at least an idea, Sydney?”

            “Beats me, Maggie. I don’t know sh*t about you.”

            “A while ago, you mentioned something about men sent by The Higher Echelons. What is that? Some kind of a rebellious militia?”

            Sydney laughed at her personal notion about it but Maggie could hear the hidden disgust that Sydney had in her laugh for her complete ignorance.

            “They are not like your petty ideas of rebels and small militia groups, Maggie. They are way far from that stupid assumptions that you have. But only to answer you, The Higher Echelon was death and hell dressed in shiny suits and ties. And the streets are not the best place to discuss about them.”, Sydney explained to her before pulling out a black handkerchief made of cotton.

            She stretched her hand to Maggie with the kerchief’s two ends dangling from her palm.

            “What should I do with that?”

            “Put that on so that we could get you to my new place. That’s where we are gonna talk about this strange but dangerous situation that you have now.”

            “Is this really necessary? You know I’m not gonna fight back whatever you are gonna do with me. You saw that already, right?”, Maggie tried to convince her.

            “Can’t take the risk of you pointing out my new crib to The Echelon. Who knows? You might turn out to be one of theirs, not ours.”

            “Theirs? Ours? What the hell is happening here, Sydney?”

            “You’ll know soon enough. So, go and put that on now.”

            Maggie could not withstand that stern look on Sydney’s face so she blindfolded herself. She was not yet done when she heard her speak to her.

            “Make sure to do that properly, Maggie. No peeking for you or I just might change my mind about giving anybody any chance for anything right here, right now.”

            “Okay, fine.”, she said as she tightened the cover of her eyes.

            “I can assure you one thing for sure right now. You’ve got to do a lot of catching up to the real world, woman.”, Sydney chuckled.

            It did not take long before she heard a car pull by the street.

            “Is that her, Syd?”, she heard the man from behind the wheel asked Sydney.

            “Yeah, that she is.”

            Maggie was sure she heard something like a snort from him. Then, somebody opened the door for her and she was escorted inside the vehicle. Maggie knew she was seated at the back for she felt the car rocked as they took their seats, but no one of them was seated beside her. And then she felt the car starting to accelerate. In her mind, Maggie started to count the seconds that passed from the moment she sensed they left the place where she was picked up. As she was doing so, she did not notice herself silently uttering the words as she counted. What she did not know was that Sydney was watching her the entire time.

            “Run around the place for a while.”, Sydney ordered the driver.

            “Why?”

            “This b*tch is clocking our trip. She’s trying to draw a mental map to our spot.”

            Maggie was shocked but she tried to hide it. She imagined the man behind the wheel switching his attention to her for a short while as Sydney revealed her observation to him.

            “Clever woman, if I may say. But I just want to warn you that we might run into some sentinels if we do what you want. That could spell trouble for the two of us.”

            “Oh yeah? Why haven’t I thought of that?”, Maggie heard Sydney sarcastically asked the man.

            “Well . . . I’m just saying, boss.”

            “So, you’d rather have the whole goddamn infantry charging in to our place if she learned how to get there? Better have the entire colony wiped out than the two of us getting caught?”

            The man fell silent after that. Soon, Maggie felt themselves turning left and right for a couple of times. There was even one instance that she felt the car making a U-turn somewhere before resuming in its journey. Maggie gave up on her count. She could not be so sure but it was maybe ten or fifteen minutes after they picked her up, she felt the car took a slight plunge. At the same time, the little light that she could somehow see through her blindfold suddenly disappeared. Maggie presumed they were inside some kind of a tunnel. Then, she heard somebody shouting from beyond them.

            “Open the gates! It’s them!”

            Maggie heard the loud clamor of heavy chains and locks as they opened the enormous gates for them. Then, she felt the car travelling another short distance forward until it finally stopped. She heard both doors in front of her open as Sydney and the man got off the car. Then, her door opened and she felt a firm hand ushering her out of the car.

            “Carry her to my workplace.”, she heard Sydney’s order to the man before she waltzed out ahead of them.

            It all happened so fast for her to get ready. The next thing Maggie knew was that she was already hanging with her head and feet both above the ground as the man carried her on his strong shoulders. She tried to wriggle her way out of there, screaming and hammering her fists on the man’s back but she silenced her by threatening to throw her into a cage along with the colony’s wild dogs. Maggie could only imagine her fate if that man did what he just said. But she never gave up totally. She tried to get her way out by begging him.

            “Please, I did nothing wrong. Or if I ever did, I can’t remember any of it. But believe me, I’m sincerely regretting whatever it was right now.”

            “Shut up, will you?”, the annoyed man told her.

            “Where are you taking me?”, Maggie asked nervously.

            “To the boss’ workplace. Prepare to get the kind of education that you really deserve.”

            Maggie had no idea what lessons he was talking about. But she was sure that it was not the kind that she got from her former schools.

            And just the mere idea of it was starting to numb her with fear.