Riven

“Alright, Zerick.” I paused for a second. “First of all, why’d you sneak in?”

Zerick looked at June. “I was worried I would wake up the person keeping you guys. If she didn’t know about your situation, it would cause a lot of questions that would be a pain to answer.”

Luneth stared at him. “Let me get this straight. You thought it was a good idea to break in, sneak into our room, and wake us up. Did you expect us to be all happy to see you?” 

He shrugged, but winced when the steel wire bit into his neck just above his armor. “Worst case scenario, I’d be able to at least restrain you both until I explained the situation.” He shifted his eyes to his restraints, then to Luneth and me. “Guess that didn’t work out, huh. Shouldn’t have underestimated people from Site-0.”

I scoffed. “That makes… a little sense, but if you were really sent by Luneth’s parents, why did you try to kill her? You know, with the hit to the back of the neck?”

He blinked. “Muscle memory.”

An uncomfortable silence filled the room for a few seconds. I had forgotten that June and Luneth probably didn’t know about the weak spot, so now they were definitely confused.

Zerick noticed the silence and spoke again. “The only reason Luneth isn’t dead is because I caught myself before actually hitting her. I diverted my hit to avoid killing her at the last second.”

Luneth glanced at me before looking back at Zerick. “What is this back of the neck thing?”

That’s what I wanted to know as well.

Zerick nodded. “Makes sense that you don’t know what it is.” He paused for a second. “It’s the spot where your Quantum Resonance Modulator is. We’re trained-.”

Luneth cut in. “What’s a Quantum Resonance Modeler?”

“Modulator. QRM for short. It’s a device that’s inserted into the back of your neck to allow you to tune into your Quantum Resonance Frequency.” 

June, Luneth, and I stared at him for a few seconds, prompting him to speak again.

“A Quantum Resonance Frequency is… How do I say it? Like a natural superpower, you know? Honestly, I’m not too sure how it works. We aren’t taught how they work. If you want to really know how they work, you’ll have to talk to a scientist or something.” 

I could barely take it anymore. There were too many new words that I didn’t know the meaning of. “What’s a scientist?”

He looked at me blankly. “Someone that does... science, I guess?” His eyes widened. “Hey, how did you guys get me this off track? I need to explain your escape route!”

That’s probably important.

Zerick looked down at the wires around his armored ankles and wrists before looking back up at us. “Can you-.”

Luneth and I spoke at the same time. “No.”

“Sorry for asking. Can I get a cup of water at least? I haven’t had anything to drink in a while.” 

June nodded and left the room, and Luneth took a seat on her bed. 

I decided to ask another question that’s been on my mind. “Why are you in armor?” 

He smiled. “Easiest question yet. Operatives are required to have armor on when entering facilities unless told otherwise.” He lowered his voice. “Only the special ones are told otherwise.”

I happened to have met someone who was special.

“And the other operatives don’t know you’re here?”

He nodded and winced. “They know my location, yes, but they don’t know I’ve made contact with you both. They’ll only notice something when I leave the town.” He smiled. “I’ll say I got a stomach ache and needed to get out early.”

They’re that gullible?

June strided into the room with a glass of water and crouched down next to Zerick with a smile. “Open wide!”

He stared at her. “What..?”

June’s eyes narrowed. “You heard me.”

Luneth looked at me and rolled her eyes. She pointed at June and mouthed, do you understand now?

I nodded. June definitely had a problem. 

Zerick finally opened his mouth and June put the glass to his lips and tilted it down. 

June’s smile widened as he drank the water. “That’s my good boy…”

Water splurted out of his mouth and covered his face.

I placed a hand over my face and heard a loud sigh from Luneth. 

Zerick coughed uncontrollably for a few seconds, causing the wire to cut into his neck. “What the hell?” His jaw tightened. “Out in the real world, people don’t say that anymore.”

June laughed lightly. “But this isn’t the real world, right?”

I didn't know whether to be in awe or concerned by how easily she said that.

After a minute of June coaxing him to open his mouth again, Zerick finished the glass of water.

June got up and sat next to Luneth on her bed while I remained standing. 

Zerick shot a glare toward June before closing his eyes. “Let’s hope I remembered everything correctly, yeah? Just make sure to pay attention because this is life or death for all three of you…” He paused and opened his eyes to look at June and then me. “Are you both coming with Luneth?” 

We just stared at him. 

Wasn’t that obvious? 

He waited for a moment before realizing we weren’t going to respond. “Alright, I shouldn’t even have asked. Keep in mind that the likelihood of this working is already extremely low with three people, so any more would make it literally impossible.”

That brought up something I had been thinking about. 

I wasn’t close with many people, but there was still one person that I cared about. 

What would happen to my father? Obviously I had to tell him what happened and that I was leaving. 

Would he tell me not to go? 

He’s strong… but strong enough to live through another loss? I wasn’t sure. It was best not to think about it too deeply for now. 

Zerick continued, “There’s a maintenance shaft for the water pressure buffer of Site-0. That’s your goal.” After three pairs of eyes continued to stare at him, he sighed. “You don’t need to know what these words mean. Man, we need to get you all a better education. We have an operative that usually takes care of that kind of stuff, but obviously that’s not going to work.” 

He paused for a second before muttering, “Maybe I can convince him… yeah.” He nodded and spoke up. “Alright, this is the hard part. Your… exit is deep in the northern forest. It’s as north as you could possibly go. There’s two ways out there, one for operatives and one for all three of you. It’s about a thirty-second sprint to your exit from the point where the trees clear out. I’ll point out your exit and distract anybody on watch.

“Once you’re in, keep in mind the maintenance shaft is very old. Having more than one person would put a ton of stress on the catwalks, so it may collapse underneath you! I think your combined weight should be fine as long as you go slowly. Okay?”

June, Luneth, and I nodded at the same time.

He smiled. “Great! We’ll head out tonight.”

Wait... Tonight!? Everything was happening way too fast.

Thankfully, Luneth shot up from her bed, her arms outstretched in front of her. “Hold on, can we take a second to breathe first?” She glanced at me for a second and then shifted her eyes to the wall just above Zerick. “I mean… Don’t the operatives do their work at night? Running through the town tonight would be suicide!”

I nodded. It was a good point. I mean, the second one was. I really just wanted some time to rest my mind. 

Zerick looked up at her and shook his head. “By tomorrow, they’ll have already sent out the full force of Site-0 operatives to find Riven. He’s too important to be allowed to roam freely. We can’t do it during the day today either since the cameras in the forest would be able to easily spot you-.”

I raised a hand. “This seems to be a recurring thing, you know. The fact that I’m important. Why? Why do they care about me so much?”

Zerick closed his eyes and remained silent for a few seconds before opening them again and looking up at me. “I really don’t know. All I know is that your classification is seven, or Omega.” He smiled. “Believe it or not, I’m not even close to high enough clearance to access Omega files.”

I had hoped for more information, but alas, my hopes remain hopes.

He paused for a moment. “What was I saying… Ah. There’ll be too many operatives tomorrow and cameras will see us during the day. Sure, some of the cameras may be able to get a glimpse of you at night, but a dark figure isn’t enough to trigger any alarms.”

It seemed we had some semblance of a plan, but it really just felt like Zerick was just winging it. 

In the end, even if it didn’t work, I would rather get killed than continue to live in a world I knew was fake.

Well, given the fact that I was Omega, whatever that meant, Echo would just get rid of my memories again. I would go back to my 'normal' life like nothing had ever happened.

I shivered at the thought.