“Keep running,” Timothy yelled. “We’re almost there!”
William had no idea why he let himself get pulled into this. He lived in a small apartment in New York gaming and eating Hot Pockets all day. Now, he was outside, with the sun, loud noises, and, worst of all, people. Timothy, on the other hand, was completely different. He didn’t know much about him, though, but William knew he was different. “BANG!” “CRASH!” Now because he met Timothy at McDonald’s, he was running through alleys in New York being chased down by men in suits with weapons. “Okay, this is our stop,” Timothy said, “Three…two…one…JUMP NOW!”
Wait. No. Jump? Did he hear that correctly? They were in an alley, and jumping would do nothing. He should get hearing aids. “WILLIAM, NOW!”
BOOM!
GASP! William woke up, panting and sweating. He had had dreams like this before, but not this bad. Usually he survived. He would go back to another day of slouching around until he looked at his phone. It was a text from Timothy that read, “Walk outside your house, dressed nicely and 9 o’clock sharp.” William never got any texts that were this serious before from Timothy, but, nevertheless, he decided to get dressed and ready.
BEEP! William walked over to his microwave for his Hot Pocket when the doorbell rang. He went to the door and stepped outside. Nobody was there. Then, all of a sudden, he heard the door shut behind him and rustling coming from a bush to his right. “Who are you?” he said. “Show yourself!” As he said this, someone came out of the bush. It was a man in a suit, the same one he saw in his dreams! Then, suddenly, he felt something poke him in the back. William stepped back in shock, falling over, now unconscious.
William woke up to blinding lights and lots of talking. “Oww….Where am I?” He sat up rubbing his head, realizing that he was in a different location. He looked around the room for anything. There was a window and a logo on a wall that read, “S.C.O.O.T.” Or maybe it didn’t say that. Click, chunk! That was the sound of a door opening. William turned around to be greeted by a man with a plate of cookies. “Welcome back, sir, we’re glad to see you!” he said.
William looked at him, confused. “Are you sure you have the right person? Where am I?”
The man looked back and talked to someone behind him. “Did you give him his memory back yet?”
“No, he just came in, unconscious.”
“Well, then, give him his memory back!”
The man turned around again.
“We’re sorry for this misunderstanding,” he told him. “The name’s Owen. We’re part of S.C.O.O.T., which is the Super Cool Organization Optimizing Tranquility. We try to keep the peace in this world. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we are going to give you your memory back.”
The men stepped out of the room, closing the door behind them with a click! The room began to light up and hum. The humming grew louder and the room got brighter as William’s memory came back to him. S.C.O.O.T., his office, his importance, everything, until the humming abruptly stopped and it got dark.
The door opened and Owen came in again. “Now, welcome back, sir! We’re glad to see you,” he said.
William responded, “Where am I? What was that light show all about? Am I in danger?”
“Well, yes, but actually no,” Owen responded. “Darn, did we get the wrong person or did they use the permanent memory eraser? Well, then, I guess we have to- CLANK!” Owen turned around. William was not in his bed. He looked around and saw a vent cover, lying on the ground, surrounded by four screws.
William ran through the hallway, past old offices, containment chambers, subjects, atrocities. What happened while I was gone? He dwelled on the thought as he ran. What had these new, corrupted employees done here? He was originally part of S.C.O.O.T. as head scientist, but, after experiments involving Life-Giving Serum and dead organisms, he decided he had dealt with enough. This was not tranquility or efforts to make the world a better place at all. He was going to leak the information and tell it to the authorities, but someone found out about this and told it to the head director, who sent him to Test Chamber ML-L5, Memory Loss Level Five. It erased everything he knew from being here since the day he stepped into the entrance. I have to get rid of all of this, he thought. He ran throughout the long hallways and bridges overlooking the large rooms where subjects were held, overhearing the constant blaring of “Warning! Code Red in progress. Subject containment breach!” He ran through empty hallways, dark hallways, empty rooms, dark rooms, looking for only one room, the weapons room. He ran until he spotted a hoard of security guards. “HEY! GET OVER HERE!”
Like he was gonna do that. They started firing at him, breaking glass around him and getting debris in his eyes. BANG! William crumpled to the ground, a bullet in his leg. GASP! William woke up. Was it all a dream? Was he imagining things? Where was he? Oh. William sat up, being greeted by a group of men in suits and Owen in the middle, holding a bag. “We’re sorry for the misunderstanding. We forgot to give you your goodie bag.”
William snatched it out of his hands and took a look inside. Inside was a grapple hook, some candy, dynamite, and a fortune cookie. “Personally, I would take the fortune cookie and throw everything else away,” said Owen. “Everything else is pretty boring.” William took the dynamite and inspected it. He felt his pocket. There was a lighter inside it. He looked up at Owen and he winked. He took the lighter and he lit the dynamite. William never got back to his Hot Pocket.