Grey

July 10th, Saturday, 5:46p.m

Patricia was confused. Unable to paid attention to everything and anything going on around her. She was lost in thought, part of her thought Echo was a liar. More like wished he was. She knew he couldn’t have lied.

Patricia was beginning to realize how incredibly repetitious days at the institute were. Each day followed the same schedule exactly. You wake up go to your classes, go back to your room and then after a while go to bed.

The place seemed more and more like a prison with each passing day. Patricia had figured out that this was most likely designed to break the children’s spirits. Echo’s offer of freedom became more appealing with each passing moment in the horrid Institute.

Echo. He’s so different, where could he have come from? Patricia couldn’t stop thinking about him. The way he spoke, he had a tone of voice she had heard in so few people. A tone that seemed to show that he was thinking over every single word he said instead of just saying it without a second thought.

He had some kind of bizarre charisma that she’d never seen in another person before. It was also obvious that he had some kind of moral obligation to try to, to the best of his ability hamper the World Government. Patricia knew that if what Echo had told her was correct, the people behind the World Government weren’t good people. But she just couldn’t understand what this one guy thought he could do about it.

The world was an okay place as it was wasn’t it? Sure the way it had gotten where it was wasn’t the best, but it was fine the way it was right? Patricia didn’t understand what exactly that guy was thinking.

But apparently it didn’t matter. Thanks to his Tress gizmo she was a part of the whole fiasco as well. Another thing Patricia considered was whether she would have been happier just not knowing about everything. It was a bit early to make a judgement call on that she decided.

That brought her back to thinking about Echo himself. Echo was unlike anyone she’d ever seen, his calm, thoughtful attitude seemed to be hiding something. That she could tell. Between his emotionless glance and passive looks it would have been easy to assume he wasn’t really ever thinking about anything.

Yet he was so calculated. He almost seemed cold and unfeeling the way he had spoken about some of the things. But Patricia could tell there was more to it then that, he was almost certainly. Maybe he was putting on some sort of act.

There you go, being all curious again. She thought to herself, Look where it’s gotten you so far.

She knew she couldn’t help it though. She remembered having so many people tell her how her curiosity would only get her into trouble. She thought of how many times her mother had told her not to be so nosey.

Patricia sighed thinking about her mother. Her mother would be all alone now with her gone. Her mother had said to Patricia before that she didn’t know what she would do if anything happened to her, and yet look how much trouble Patricia had managed to get herself into.

Patricia remembered the look on her mother’s face when the men with the black sunglasses and suits came to take her to the institute. Her mother hadn’t made any attempt to stop them, she knew it wouldn’t have done any good.

Patricia had come pretty quietly. She didn’t make any attempts to get away. They simply lead her to the long limo and had her get inside. She remembered looking out the window at her house and seeing her mother standing on the front step, crying.

Patricia had never seen her mother cry before that, the last time she had seen her. Although she did remember someone telling her once how much her mother had cried after Patricia father had died. Patricia’s father had died when she was very young, and she had only a few hazy memories of him. Her mother had talked about him a lot though. Patricia’s mother said that Patricia was a lot like her father in spirit.

Patricia was sitting in her room on the bed. The classes had ended for the day and she was bored to death. The room was like her cell in this prison. She was trapped in their for hours with so few possible things to do.

One of the odd characteristics of the Institute was that the building had absolutely no windows, save a few in the offices. Patricia couldn’t even look outside. The only time she ever had any actual freedom was during the short daily recess break and that she knew, was a false freedom.

Patricia understood now what Echo had meant when he had explained what this place was for. A few more weeks of this repetition could easily break anyone. When she thought about it Patricia almost thought herself lucky to have had the Tress system go inside her head. All things considered it practically forced Echo to bring Patricia with him when he left the Institute. The Tress system was her ticket out of this place, and from being taken anywhere similar to the Institute afterwards.

As Patricia sat on her bed lost in thought a quiet knock came at her door. Patricia looked in the direction of the door, “Come in, the door’s open.”

The door opened and Harriet stepped inside the room she was smiling warmly seemingly happy about something, maybe happy just to see Patricia, “Hey, what’s up? Haven’t spoken in a bit.”

Patricia sighed and fell backwards on her bed looking at the roof with her hands behind her head, “The ceiling is up apparently.” Her voice bored and passive.

Harriet grinned and stuck out her tongue, “Well somebody is in a bad mood.” Harriet walked over and sat on the bed beside where Patricia was laying, “So what’s wrong?”

Patricia looked over at her, “No, you sound happy. I don’t want to ruin your good mood complaining.”

Harriet gave her a stern look, “The only way you could ruin my good mood is by not telling me. Do you not trust me?”

“No it’s not that,” Patricia sat up on the bed, “You just probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you, and there’s so much stuff I’d probably forget and leave something important out by accident.”

Harriet raised an eyebrow, “Well alright I guess. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Harriet sounded hurt. It seemed as though she was trying to sound hurt, but Patricia got the message.

“I’m sorry, I’ll tell you as soon as I get everything strait in my head okay?” Patricia sighed gently.

Harriet nodded still smiling faintly, “It’s alright. I understand, you can tell me whenever you feel like it.”

Patricia smiled back at her friend. Happy at least that she understood.

Before Harriet could attempt to change the subject to something a bit more cheery there was a knock at the door. A male voice from the other side of the door said, “Room service.”

Harriet looked at Patricia and whispered, “Did you order something?”

Patricia shook her head confused and whispered back, “No I didn’t.” She then raised her voice and called out towards the door, “I didn’t order anything.”

The voice replied, sounding impatient, “My order slip says room one hundred thirty-one.”

“Just go get it,” Harriet said as she got off of the bed and crawled underneath it.
Patricia sighed and got up walking to the door. She opened it up to find an older teenage boy holding a tray. He sneered and handed her the tray, walking away while pulling a cart of what appeared to be other food orders behind him.

Patricia looked at the stainless steel tray. On it were a pair of cans of soda. She walked back inside and locked the door behind her. Harriet struggled to move around under the bed sticking her head out from under it.

“So you didn’t order those? You sure, ‘cause there is two,” Harriet asked as she pulled herself out from under the bed and stood up, brushing dirt and dust off her clothing.
Patricia shook her head again, “No I didn’t.”

Harriet shrugged and grabbed one of the sodas, “Well, the order’s must have been mixed up. Lucky for us I guess.”

Patricia sat back down on the bed and placed the tray on beside her. She picked up the second soda and looked at it, the can was completely unlabeled other then the word soda written diagonally across the can. Patricia looked back over at Harriet downing her drink and shrugged, popping the opening of the can open and raising it to her mouth to drink.

Just as Patricia was about the drink the soda she heard a few odd sounds from Harriet’s direction. See looked up just in time to see Harriet collapse. Patricia dropped her drink, letting it fall to the ground and spill all over the floor.

Patricia rushed over to Harriet and kneeled down beside her, “Harriet?!” Patricia felt for a pulse, Okay good she’s alive. Oh but, what can I do?

Patricia looked around the room feverishly for something that could help her. As she searched the room with her eyes she saw the small metallic device Echo had given her sitting on the night stand. Patricia quickly grabbed it up and pressed the red button on the end of it.

She waited expectantly for a second. But when nothing happened she dropped the little device and moved back to Harriet’s side. By this time Harriet was turning blue, she wasn’t breathing either.

Patricia was about to scream when she heard a voice from behind her, “You really know how to get yourself into a mess don’t you Patricia?”

Patricia looked behind herself, “Echo, help!”

“Move over,” Echo motioned for Patricia to move out of the way, once she had he kneeled down beside Harriet, “Hmm, good thing you got me. Your friend’s been drugged.”

Patricia looked at him, nervously pulling on her hair, “So someone was trying to kill us or something?”

Echo ran his index finger through the pool of liquid on the floor that had spilled out of Patricia’s drink onto the carpet. Examining it carefully he rubbed his index finger and thumb together.

“No, this wouldn’t kill you,” He turned back to look at Patricia, “This kind of drug would knock you out for a good while. But it shouldn’t kill you,” he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “However it seems Harriet has had an adverse, probably allergic reaction to the drug.”

“So what can we do?” Patricia asked him desperately, watching Harriet laying on the ground still not breathing. She was also getting annoyed at how calm and uncompassionate Echo was being.

Echo took off his backpack a placed it on the ground. Reaching into a small pocket he pulled out a small vacuum-sealed plastic bag with a bunch of tiny pull pills, “These should help her.” Echo pulled a single blue pill out of the plastic bag and handed it to Patricia.

“What is it?” asked Patricia looking at the pill.

“It will enter her bloodstream and chemically attack the drugs, I think,” Echo shrugged slightly.

“You mean you don’t know if it will work?” Patricia yelled at him.

Echo sighed and rubbed the back of his neck with his right hand, “Well uhm, no I don’t... but what other choices do we have here?”

Patricia nodded reluctantly and pulled Harriet’s mouth open putting the pill inside, “Okay now what? We need to get her breathing again!”

Echo frowned at her, “Calm down, you freaking out all over the place isn’t going to help us any.” Echo pulled a small device out of his pocket. It was a thin rectangular shape with two prongs on each end, Echo adjusted a dial on the device and pressed the prongs onto Harriet’s chest. He then pressed a button on the one end of the device with his thumb.

Harriet’s body jolted and her eyes burst open. She abruptly sat and a looked around, “Wha - Where am I? What’s going on?”

Patricia gently grabbed her shoulders, “Harriet that soda you had was drugged.” Patricia hugged her, “I’m so glad your alright.”

Harriet continued to look around confused, “What? It was drugged? How?”

Echo sighed and frowned smugly at the two. The sound of the sigh drew Harriet’s attention to him.

Harriet broke out of Patricia’s hug and backed up, “You. Your that guy.”

Echo sighed but smirked at the scared girl, “Yea I know, I’m so scary right?” He laughed sarcastically at the thought.

Harriet looked back at Patricia thoroughly confused, “What’s going on here?”

Echo held out his hand to her and spoke passively, “My name is Echo. I just saved your life. Try to be more appreciative okay?”

Harriet shook his hand hesitantly, “Okay...”

Echo pulled back his hand, “Well I’ve got to get going, I’ve got some stuff to do.” He looked at Patricia, “I’m sure you can manage to explain everything to your friend here right?” He spoke seriously, the sarcastic tone his voice had just had gone.

“Your going to just take off like that?” Patricia asked surprised, “What if somebody shows up to pick us up because they think we’re unconscious?”

Echo shrugged, “Use the thingie I gave you before, it still works. I’ll get the signal.” Echo yawned and opened the door, stepping out into the hallway he made a small wave to Patricia before closing the door behind himself.

Patricia sighed gently then turned back to look at her friend, “Are you alright now Harriet?”

Harriet looked at her, shaking uncontrollably, “I feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach. What is going on?”

Patricia sighed again and sat on her bed, “Harriet here come sit down and I’ll tell you what I know alright?”

Harriet nodded hesitantly, “Alright...”