Jim felt stunned momentarily.  He ran over to this woman and picked her head up.  Her brunette hair covered her face. He brushed it away.  One thought was made obvious in that moment, he wasn't alone.  

He was internally grateful that there was someone else, someone who appeared to be in the same situation he was.  What that situation was though, he still had no clue.  His memory was still mostly non-existent. 

He looked closer at her, inspecting her face and visible skin for injury but found nothing.  She was wearing the same thing he was, a very plain outfit much like that of a patient’s at a hospital.

As he scanned her over, he couldn't help but feel something familiar about her.  He had no clue who she was, but yet she was still familiar.  

Jim lightly tapped her face with his palm in an effort to wake her up.  Nothing.  She was still alive, she had a pulse and was breathing okay.  Jim could only assume that she had done the same running he had done, maybe she heard the same noises he did and wasn't going to stick around to know what it was, like he had done.  She must have run the whole way then.  Whatever this place was, it had trapped at least two people

There was another sound of steam hissing,  looking over to his right, another door began to open.  Another sound, ahead of him.  Yet another door opened.  Two more people emerged, a man and a woman, both looking the same way and dressed the same way.  They looked to be about the same age as himself and this other woman whom he was holding.  

"Who are you?!" the man demanded. The fear, anger, and confusion was very apparent.  His hair was black and disheveled.  His eyes were blue, and tired. There was sweat dripping off of his chin. He was looking straight at Jim. He approached slowly, cautiously.

"My name is Jim." Jim spoke as softly and sincerely as he could.

"Where are we?!" the man's question became more pointed.

"That I don't know." Jim attempted to keep his calm demeanor.  "I'm guessing you woke up the same way I did.  A dark room, a loud screech, gate against the wall, and a very long dimly lit hallway?"

The man stood there shocked.  He looked at Jim very closely.

"There was no screech.  Just growling like a demon.  It was enough for me to not waste any time finding an exit." The man started to appear slightly more at ease after confirming similar experiences.

The newest woman was still standing very defensively by the door she came through.  She was blond, medium height with green eyes.  She hadn't said a word yet.  She was obviously taking in the scene.  Jim looked back at the man.

"What's your name?" Jim hoped he would answer given that he'd already divulged his own name.  The man still looked cautiously at Jim, but it was apparent that the knowledge of their comparative experiences had put him enough at ease.

"I'm Connor." Connor turned to look at the woman in Jim's arm's.  "Who's she?"

Jim looked down at her then back up at Connor. 

"I don't know yet." Jim shook his head. He pointed toward the door she came through. "She came through that door and must have collapsed after running down her own hallway.

Connor appeared to agree with Jim's assessment.  Connor turned to look at the other woman standing alone.

"And who might you be?" Connor seemed more at ease.

"Lydia." She spoke sharply.  

Connor stared at her as if studying whether or not she was lying.  Apparently finding no evidence of deception, he spoke again.

"Same thing happened to you? Dark room, noise, hallway?

"Everything except the noise.  There was only silence.  I did find a gate like the two of you, but I took my time walking down the hallway to preserve my strength." Lydia was again, very to the point with her answer.

Connor seemed to be satisfied with this answer. He turned back to Jim.

"How long has she been out for?" Connor expressed genuine concern.

"Just happened.  Couldn't have been thirty seconds before you two came through your own doors." Jim looked back down at the woman in his arms, then back up at Connor. "She looks familiar to me, I can't begin to tell you why."

"Your memory is blank too?" Connor chimed in dejectedly.  Jim shook his head yes.  They both looked at Lydia who also shook her head yes, she seemed almost bored with the questions. 

"So what's the plan then, boys?" Lydia seemed very down to business.

At that moment, the woman in Jim's arms slowly moved her hand.  Slightly jumpscared by this, Jim looked down at her.  Her eyes opened.  Her eyes were like sapphires in color.  Her eyes opened to meet Jim's.  Jim noticed a slight glimmer of recognition in her eyes.

"Where am I?" the woman sounded faint, but slightly rested.

"We're still trying to figure that one out." Jim spoke to her.

The woman broke her lock on Jim and looked at the other two people in the room.

"Who are you all?" the woman asked.

"Connor." 

"Lydia." Both were nonchalant.

"And you are?" the woman looked back at Jim.

"Jim."

The woman smiled very slightly looking at Jim.  Connor chimed in.

"You know our names, what's yours?"

The woman picked her head up a little and Jim helped her sit up on her own. She held herself well enough.  the woman adjusted and rolled her head to crack it.

"My name is Veronica." She climbed to her feet slowly. Her legs had obviously taken a toll while running and were slightly rubbery.  Jim helped her and himself on their feet.

Lydia began exploring and studying the room. Connor kept an eye on her while also getting his own lay of the land.

"So what is this place, this room?" Connor was talking to Jim while looking elsewhere.

"I know about as much as you do.  That pedestal in the middle has some kind of button in that metal dome box.  I pressed it but nothing happened." Jim slowly walked toward the center pedestal.

Lydia walked over toward the ornate door. She was inspecting it. 

"That door doesn't open like other other doors here, I already tried." Jim was looking at Lydia, but she didn't look at him, instead she was focused only on the door.  She was feeling the sides of the door, the various crosses on the door, the center of the door.  When nothing happened, she looked back at everyone. 

"So, there's clearly something we're missing here." Connor started getting analytical. He glanced up at the vent above the pedestal.  "What's up there?" he asked, looking at Jim.

Jim shrugged his shoulders. "I haven't really looked yet.  I only just closed that box when the doors started opening."

"What's with the circles on the floor?" Connor continued inquisitively.

Jim again shrugged. He walked over and stood on one of the circles.  "These have to mean something." Jim motioned toward the shoe prints.

Without any better ideas, they all stood inside of a circle.  They stood there for a few moments, hoping something, anything would happen.  Much to all of their dismay, nothing happened.  Everyone felt an unmistakable yet reserved sense of disappointment.  They all felt lost. Jim spoke up.

"Does anyone remember anything at all?"

They all shook their heads no.  It was clear they were all experiencing the same amnesia, but why? What could have possibly happened that was so traumatic that no one had their memory prior to waking up in a dark room.

"Did you also wake up in a dark room, Veronica?" Jim asked.

Veronica nodded her head and looked at everyone else.  Both Connor and Lydia confirmed the same. 

"Maybe these other doors lead somewhere?"  Veronica suggested.

Jim and Connor both realized that there were two other doors aside from the ornate door that hadn't moved or even really been thought about in the midst of everything happening.  They both looked at each other and both nodded their heads.  Jim and Connor approached an unopened door.  Jim pressed his hand in the center.  The door opened upwards like the others to reveal yet another dimly lit hallway like his own.  Connor shuddered a bit. Neither could see anything out of the ordinary and allowed the door to close. 

Could there be anything more to these doors other than darkness? Anything other than dimly lit corridors that seemed to stretch on forever? 

Jim and Connor both headed toward the other door and Connor placed his hand on the door.  The door slid open and revealed a smaller, very lit room.  They both looked at each other with a renewed sense of curiosity.  They both looked back at Veronica and Lydia who were staring in amazement and wonder.

This was the first real sign of anything even remotely different than Jim had seen in what seemed like a very long time.  Jim looked at Connor who appeared adventurous and analytical, but still nervous.

"We have to see what's in here right?" Jim already knew the answer to his own question.  Connor nodded accordingly.

Both men walked inside the new room.  It was considerably smaller than the larger room that they were in before, everything, however, looked the same though.  They walked in further and noticed a computer screen embedded into the wall on the left side wall.  They both approached it. There was a word imprinted on the top above the screen.  SECURITY. 

"What do you think it does?" Connor asked.

"No clue, and unfortunately, only one way to find out." Jim said reluctantly. 

Jim reached out and touched the screen.  It lit up.  Words appeared on screen. ARM and DISARM.  It seemed very straight forward.  Jim reached out and pressed DISARM.  Another window popped up and a one minute timer began to countdown, a robotic voice could be heard announcing the remaining time.  At the same time, the door they had walked through slammed shut and a locking sound occurred.  Connor ran to the door and looked at Jim in a huge panic.

"What the hell?!"

In his own state of shock, Jim looked back at the screen and there was a place to input a password, along with a number pad one through nine.

"I don't know, it's a password of some kind.  I don't know what it is!" Jim was obviously worried.

"OPEN THE DOOR!!" Connor was attempting to yell through the door.  There was no response.  He looked back at Jim who was rapidly trying any potential combination.  There were only four spaces to input a password, so he was trying every four number combination he could think of.  Nothing was working.

"Forty-Five Seconds remaining." The computer voice continued.  

Connor turned back to the door and continued yelling in hopes that someone would hear him.  He was pounding on the door and searching for anything he could to open the door, but came up with nothing.

"Thirty seconds remaining." The computer voice, unchanged.

Jim continued to rapidly fire off any combinations he could think of, while also trying to avoid repeat numbers.

"Give me four random numbers, anything that comes to mind, first thing, I don't care."

"Fifteen seconds remaining" 

This was not how Jim wanted to die, he wasn't even sure death was inevitable in that moment, but he couldn't think of much worse happening when that timer expired.

"Ten, nine"

"COME ON!!!" Connor was in full panic, yelling, screaming, pounding away at the door.

"Eight, Seven"

Jim continued with the number pad.  He knew there were too many possible combinations to get the right in less than ten seconds.

"Six, Five"

Connor kept pounding and the door slid up in full force.  Another man burst in through the door and shoved Jim to the side.  He quickly typed in four numbers and the countdown stopped. 

"Did you forget the PIN or something, Jim?" The man stood there almost laughing.

Jim had no clue who this man was, he'd never seen him before in his life that he could recall.

"I must have..."Jim trailed off but began again. "You know me, but who are you?"

"Simon." The man answered. "Don't worry, that amnesia will slowly get better.  I still don't know why we're here, but I do sort of  remember how to get around this place."

Jim and Connor looked at each other but were both very confused.

"Come back out to the other room.  I'll tell you everything I can.”

All three men walked back out to meet up with Veronica and Lydia.  They were both standing there in mild shock.

"I am so very glad to see all of you again, and alive none-the-less!" Simon said very enthusiastically. Simon clearly had an accent that sounded British.  "So..." Simon continued.  "Who's thirsty?"