The Encroacher's Trilogy: Dystopia (COMPLETED)

Chapter 18

I looked away from her face. I couldn't bear to see her like that.
"Look at me." Her voice came out strangled as if she was dehydrated.
I couldn't say no to her demand so I forced myself to look at her.

One of her eyes was closed and black, and her cheek on my left had a circular shape in it as if a suction cup for some sort of torture was placed there. Her whole face sagged with tiredness and various cuts lined her neck as if the wires on Noah had also been on my mother. The bags under her eyes were puffy, and her lips were chapped and close to bleeding. Despite all of this... it was the fact her voice shook when she spoke to me that scared me. It was as if she was afraid I would hurt her.

"Who did this to you?" I held her hands between mine to give her strength.
"It doesn't matter."
"It does. I can stop this." My grip became stronger.
"No! You... can't. He is too strong." She gasped as if she had said too much.
"Of course. The way he spoke to you when you had to leave home. Of course."
I wanted to kill the bald man for everything he had done to her.
"Your friend too..."
"You know Noah?" I was afraid the same thing had happened to him, but she shook her head.
"He has been calling your name... I can hear him through these walls... it hurts... to hear him in pain..." She looked at the ground gasping after every sentence.
"How do we get out of here?"
"....I don't know." She said as if she was afraid to tell the truth,
"Do we get fed?"
"Once a day... I get the remains of prisoner food." Mother cried out in pain and lay on the ground. She looked up into my face as a sign she still wanted to talk.
"Where... where is everyone?"
"Noah's sister is cradling her leg. She wasn't hit directly but she felt an impact and must've fallen over. My... friend Avery... he is fighting Brian with a restraint."
"No! He will not win..." She cried, sitting up on her elbows with alertness. I nodded and carried on.
"Aldo... he is fighting Wilma. He is strong-" Mother shook her head. "Wilma... is strong. Stronger than all Rottweilers.... She had heavy chains on her as a puppy... to strengthen her neck."
We both looked at the ground.
If only I knew.
If only I knew.

"What... what about Eric?" She smiled hopefully, and I noticed her gum was bleeding.
I couldn't bring myself to tell her. I shook my head.
"How... he was meant... to stay in the school.... Meant to stay alive... Meant to... meant to... survive." She began to hyperventilate.
"He was upset about your departure." I had to tell her the truth. She had the right to know.
Her breathing began to slow and silent tears slipped down her unwashed face.
"He... he is safe now." She hiccuped.

***

For a while we sat there keeping our thoughts to ourselves.
It was I who spoke first with a nagging question on my mind.
"Mother, who was that women? She said I should've known who she was..."
"Brian's wife..." Her voice was stronger after our quiet lapse of time.
"Could you please... please just tell me everything? Like, why did Noah say 'they may act intelligent yet I bet they hired them because they weren't acceptable', and the Bald man... he said I was 90% when reading out my profile. What about the consultation room? They wrote my surname down? Why couldn't I have communications from you? Why was Noah taken away? Why was Noah in school?"
"All of these questions have something in common."
"...What?"
"They are all to do with Noah's parents." Her voice was getting stronger.
"What?"
"It may come quite a shock to you... but Noah's parents are our enemies in the war."
"I... know." I said quietly so she didn't hear.
"Ahh... well that makes everything... easier. You see, my child...Noah's parents needed spies in their army... to identify our plans. The newbies you found in the Lab all signed up to be spies... but they were not mature enough. They are extremely intelligent... but not intelligent enough to act as spies. That leads me onto the 90%. The 90% links with the surname.... When they asked for your surname, they intended to use it to find your family tree and the importance of your family.... therefore the 90% means you have a very important family..."
"But...they gave me the worst bed in the Lab!"
"And they took Noah away..." She pointed out,
"We both had very important families and had to be treated like vermin so our family wouldn't be captured?"
"Correct. Look what has happened to Noah... trained in the Lab... released... revealed... now he is being tortured." Everything became clear to me. No wonder the bald man hated us- he was protecting us!
"Wait... if the bald man was protecting us... why is he torturing Noah now?"
"When the bald man became the new leader of the war... he also wanted the authority of the Lab. He brought in his wife and the power went to his head... so he refused to protect the children."
"That woman... Is his wife?" I forgot she had already told me this, but mother still nodded. With each question, she got time to think and she slowly recovered her strength.
"Why did Noah get communications from his parents? You were just as important."
"I'm not sure... perhaps a member of the family was on the inside?" I put two and two together.
"Of course. Ailis."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Ailis... Noah told me she was one of the newbies and she gave letters to Noah! Maybe Ailis wanted to be a spy but although she was intelligent enough, her mother didn't want her getting hurt?"
"Very likely."
"And why was Noah in school if his parents were so important?"
"From what I have heard from the village... Noah's parents worked full time and they were sent away from the village to do an important task. Ailis had to stay at home and look after Noah. Their last name was not Bolders... but Carlisle."
"Yes. That would explain it. That would explain everything. So everything makes sense. It finally makes sense." I slumped back against the wall, finally relieved everything made sense. As I relaxed, I looked around the room working out my next challenge:

How to escape.