And then I woke up.
A submerged smell of rotting fish echoed in through my nose cause the nausea in my mind to throb against my skull. At this moment in time, smell was my only companion – I could neither hear, smell, feel nor taste anything around me. I was oblivious to my surroundings. After a few moments my lost senses began to subside and I began to regain my primary functions.
I was sitting down.
Faint male whispers came from my left.
The smell of rotting fish had attacked my taste buds like bees stinging their prey – it was sickening.
But the darkness still remained.
I could still recall the events of the dome, yet the details were blurred into the limbo of my scattered chronology revaluation of occurrences.
"Has TOLAF's countdown begun yet?" This question came from a deep male American voice who was situated to my right.
No response.
"Do we have any information on New York?" - The same voice, the same non-existent reply.
"It only lasts sixty seconds and we need to be ready!" Silence.
Then another voice broke out from my left, a softer male voice with an English accent.
"We only managed to save a few of them, the dome was not part of the test – we agreed not to assign that part! I don't know for sure but that one's is called Blaine, this one Stiles, her name is Alice, that's Katniss, he's Stiles, this is Ashleigh and that's the one they want the most…"
A paused urged me to open my eyes, I retreated from this and remained still to hear the final name, which could only be, and raised more questions than ever before…
"…Ben".
By my estimation, an hour had passed since my name was last recalled. There were no more voices, no more conversations and no more movement. By now I had figured out I was in the rear of some sort of van, due to the bumps, turns and the significant amount of stops we had made. It was just before I began drifting into another sleep that a familiar voice erupted like a roar.
"Where the fuck am I?!" – this was Alice, "Who the hell are you... Where is everyone else!?"
And then one by one, we all woke up.
I was situated next to two bulk men sitting either side of my dressed in black police like uniform – each resting a large rifle on the laps.
Opposite me sat Blaine, Ashleigh and Alice. Two my right on the other side of the guard sat Stiles and Katniss – no one else was to be seen.
My estimation of being in the back of a van appeared to be correct. The rear end of the average size method of transport was situation with planks for seats on both sides and a small illuminate red light that gave the van a gaze of a blood red setting.
It took several minutes for the panicking guards to calm all of us, much faster than expected.
And then the male with the deeper voice who appeared to have a lightly shaved beard, black glasses and a black hat on, began the tale of TOLAF of a journey.
Suddenly the voice in my head returned…
…Listen to this Ben, Listen very carefully.