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Chapter 3
Rick was walking down a corridor of smooth black rock with lights interspersed regularly across the ceiling. Shadows hid in the corners and voices drifted on the air towards him. It reminded him of H.I.V.E. even if he'd only been there for a couple of hours.
He was looking down at his feet as he walked and out of the corner of his eye he saw someone step past him. The boy wanted to lift his head to see who it had been. But he couldn't. His eyes stayed firmly on the ground and his black sneakers.
Next Rick tried to move his right hand. It wouldn't move. He couldn't even feel it.
The boy began to panic. He couldn't control his own body.
Rick watched as an apple appeared within his field of vision and he bit into it. What was going on?
Then suddenly his head moved and he glanced at a door indented in one side of the corridor. It was made of metal and he could vaguely make out his reflection in the split second. His face was the same. But his hair was not. Short and white. Otto?
Maybe this was a dream.
That was the way it seemed. Rick felt like a passenger sat at the back of someone else's head and watching out of their eyes, unable to do anything. That thought calmed him. He was asleep. Nothing more.
The boy continued to walk down the corridor, randomly choosing the direction in which to go. As he moved, he ate the apple in his hand and studied the passageways. Everytime he walked past a door, he'd listen for any voices and if he heard none, then he'd glance inside the room.
A laborotory. A classroom. A storage cupboard.
The next door made him pause. He could hear muffled voices coming from the other side.
"Right. Any more ideas on how to find Rick?" A male said.
"Yeah. Use Otto as a magnet. He's bound to find trouble." A girl replied, laughing. It faded into an embarrassed cough.
Rick suddenly felt dizzy. He would have fallen over, but this was a dream.
The door became framed by darkness and was then promptly swallowed by it. Lights popped and fizzled in the dark. A wave of vertigo overcame the boy and he felt his knees buckle.
He felt his knees buckle.
Rick's eyes snapped open and he squinted into the light of the small room. He was still chained up and there was a dull throb in his back where he'd been whipped. The boy could feel his blood crusted over his skin and if he moved a stab of pain shot through him.
But he could control his body.
That had been a weird dream. Everything had felt real. The school had looked real. The apple had looked real. The feeling of being trapped and unable to move had seemed real.
He flinched from the pain of his wounds and suddenly he was back in the corridor. The shock of it made him stagger back. But of course he couldn't move. Instead the feeling of vertigo came over him again as did darkness and what seemed like lightning flashed before him.
His eyes snapped open on the small room and he gulped breathlessly. Sweat trickled down his forehead and he waited for his heart to calm down.
That had definitely not been a dream.
Otto listened outside the room a moment longer. His curiosity had been piqued and he wanted to know more. Even though the people on the other side had strapped him to a bed and quite possibly kidnapped him. But they had seemed genuine. And he had lost his memory. He could feel it. Like a black hole in his head, where something should have be.
The question was did he believe them enough to trust them?
He sighed and bit into the diminishing apple in his hand. What choice did he have?
With his free hand the boy pushed open the door and walked into the room. It was furnished with a long oval table around which seven people were seated. A man with grey at his temple's. The red head, Laura, who'd shouted at him before. The asian boy, Wing. A blond girl he'd never seen before. A dark skinned man in army fatigues with a metal hand. A bald man in a suit. An old man with wild white hair. And the woman with the scar across her face.
As the door swung shut behind him, everyone turned to look. And one by one their eyes widened in shock.
"You were meant to be in the hospital department." The man opposite said. He was the one with the grey in his hair.
"Yeah. And you didn't strap me down very well. It was easy enough to pull them loose. And there was no - one to stop me because someone..." Here Otto looked hard at Laura. "...left in a huff. And forgot to get me something to eat. I wasn't about to stay there and starve."
"Wing?" The man said, eyebrows raised.
"I'm sorry. I went after Laura because she was upset and then H.I.V.E. mind called us to come here and we got caught up with finding Rick." Wing replied, shrugging.
"Why didn't you just try to escape then? That's what I would've done. Instead you go in search of clothes and food and run into us. Idiot!" This time it was the blond who'd spoken.
Otto glared at her and jumped up onto the end of the table nearest to him, sitting down crossed legged and biting into his apple again.
"Then I couldn't find out about you guys could I? Now is someone going to tell me your names or not?" He said nonchalently.
"I'm Shelby." The blond said with a smile. "And I can play every prank that I've ever done on you over the past three years again. Because you won't remember them."
"I'm..."
"Yeah I know who you are. Wing wasn't it? And the red head is Laura." Otto said, glancing at them.
"Well, I'm Professor Pike, a scientist." The old man explained.
"Hence the lab coat." Otto murmured.
"I'm Darkdoom." The bald man said with a slight smile.
"And I'm Colonel Francisco." The army man beside him growled.
"Check check." Otto whispered to himself.
"I'm Raven. Don't ever attack me again." The woman with the scar said, a predatory smile on her face.
"Noted." Otto muttered. "And you?" He continued speaking to the one person left.
"Nero. And I'm curious. How did you find your way here and to the kitchen and to my rooms, because those are my clothes."
The boy's eyes widened and he glanced down. He was wearing a black shirt and black pants. Both of which he'd found in a bedroom leading from what looked like an office.
"That was your room?" Otto said in disbelief.
"Yes. Now answer my question." Nero said, leaning forward on his elbows, frowning. "How did you find your way around the school?"
"School?" The boy frowned and looked down at the table. How had he known where to go? A sharp pain suddenly stabbed through his head and he gasped aloud, the apple in his hand rolling to the floor. His eyes scrunched up and he gripped his temples.
All at once everyone was on their feet. Nero caught him as he fell backwards and toppled off of the table. His head hit the floor with a thud and he lay there the world spinning above him. He shut his eyes and when he opened them, everyone was looking over him with concern. Laura stood closest to him with a glass of water ready.
Otto ignored it and looked over to the man, Nero.
"What were we talking about?" He asked in confusion.
"Nothing. You felt dizzy that's all. Come on. Get up. You can go back to the hospital and rest." The man replied, helping him to stand.
"What do those numbers mean?" Otto asked as he stumbled to his feet and leant against Nero. He watched as the man glanced over to the screen on the far side of the room.
"They're co - ordinates." He whispered.
"Co - ordinates. For what?" The boy asked, blinking slowly to clear his head.
"Raven. Get ready to leave. Looks like we have the location of both Rick and H.I.V.E. mind's seed core." Nero said. Then he turned to the white haired boy. "You may have lost your memory but the Otto we know is still there. Wing? Take him to the hospital. Make sure he gets something to eat."