Chapter 17:

Chapter 17: Concentration

Max stayed awake all night thinking. Step by step, back from the moment she got into her cell. She kept thinking. Cindy called her name a few times. But she remained silent. She couldn't be disturbed. She sat on her bunk and slowly started to recall what she had forgotten. Full memories started to come back to her. She remained silent and spoke to no one except in training. An entire week went by and she remained this way. Even while she was training she thought of memories. She retraced her steps inside of her mind; she categorized everything she remembered in her head. One night she remembered why. Why she had forgotten. She remembered sitting inside of her cell thinking of Logan. Intimate thoughts, she remembered how he was what motivated her to hang on and get out. Then she remembered when Manticore had to save the eye laser torture to reprogram only, so as to save money. Instead they went back to the old torture system that Manticore first invented.

That invention was known as Shock Wave'. She remembered that she was told that she would be the first soldier to be used in Shock Wave' in 43 years. She remembered the first time she was stuck in the room with the machine and how Renfro was going to observe the operation. She remembered how Renfro asked her a series of questions. And how at each one Max lied about. And after each question wasn't answered truthfully Renfro would give a one-minute electrocution. Horrified, she remembered that she did say this to Renfro after asked where the people she knew worked. She remembered saying, "The postoffice I used to work at." That night she had decided to forget Logan. She had to forget him to protect him. But before she could forget any of the others that she knew, she was told that she was going on a mission. Her mission, to destroy the people that she had known and worked with. Max remembered that she had taken the opportunity to escape. But just incase she decided to run, Renfro ordered the TDD to be placed on Max's head.

She remembered loading into the van, and pulling into the postoffice. How the troopers were sent systematically to areas around the postoffice. She even remembered looking up for some reason at the roof of the post office and spotting her brother and sister. She could remember the troopers grouping Normal, Cindy, Herbal, Sketch and Logan up against the wall. And she had grabbed Cindy by the hair and had thrown her up against the wall. Then she winced remembering breaking Cindy's nose. Soon she remembered being taken outside, and how she sensed Renfro watching so she acted like a soldier calling Syl and Krit traitors. She opened her mouth and spoke to her friend in the next cell.

"Hey Cindy, sorry."

"Bout' what?" Cindy asked, startled to hear Max's voice.

"Sorry I broke your nose."

There was a light laugh in the next cell.

Max gave a wry smile. Then it was wiped quickly from her face. She heard footsteps again. Was it Renfro coming back? Her cell door opened. Her course trainer stood in the doorway.

"SOLDEIR X-5452ATTENTION!!!"

"YES SIR!"

"SOLDIER X-5452 HAS A REPROGRAMMING SESION IN TEN MINUTES. BE READY SOLDIER!"

"YES SIR!"

The door shut. Cindy asked Max,

"What the hell are they going to do to you now?"

"Shit" Max began rolling down a pant leg. "Renfro must sense that I have been rebelling again. Damn it."

"Max, what are they going to do to you? None of that electrical shit right?"

"Naaaa. Doubt it. Probably will last one to two hours at the most Give or take an hour. Don't worry. This shit I can deal with. They did this when we were still on course 6. Huh. Course 6. Heh."

"What?" Cindy asked in a curious tone.

"Nothing. It's just that I was remembering that course 6 was the last course that the

X-5 group completed Because we escaped that night."

Cindy asked Max changing the subject, "So, you remember anything important?"

"I don't want to talk about it. Hey, when was the last time they fed you?"

Cindy thought a moment "I don't know May be like two hours ago."

"What do they give you anyway?"

"Some kinda stew I think."

Max jolted her head up at the last sentence. She walked quickly over to Cindy's wall, "Cindy, don't eat anything they give you? Got it? Nothing. Don't eat anything from them. You don't know what kind of shit the pumped up in there. I will pick you up some grub got it?"

Cindy was startled by the sound of sudden worry in Max's voice. But she knew better than to argue. She merely agreed and let it go. She knew she could trust Max. She knew that she could trust her even now. When her friend was just starting to remember her life.