It was cold, the room itself, the chair she sat on, everything. All of it had such a chilly temperature. The woman sitting across from her gave her a gentle smile, but it could only do so much to settle her nerves.

“How well do you know Sarah Adele?”

Ella could still feel the pressure of an arm around her neck, felt the desperation in her soul when she fought against Sarah in the hallway at Amest. And despite her warning, shouted out to the whole facility, nobody had been able to stop her from leaving. Ella had woken up in the infirmary, given a short time to rest, and then was called here.

Why?

She didn’t know.

Not until now.

Sarah.

They wanted information on her?

“Uh, clearly not as well as…” Ella paused, jumping to a new sentence instead. “I didn’t know she was part of the Ghosts until the notice came out. She seemed…” In her head, she could still see the way Sarah’s face had changed when she said it. It wasn’t even offense. It was more like disappointment. “Normal.”

In her head, she could still recall all those conversations she had with Sarah. All those things they talked about, all the things Ella herself had said, unknowingly, giving a part of her identity to someone she knew so little of.

Just because she’d trusted her.

Trusted that Sarah was who she claimed.

Was Sarah even her name?

Had one thing been true?

“Did she speak of anything to you? Any places mentioned that she might go to?” The woman asked, folding her hands on the table calmly.

Ella shrugged, shaking her head.

“No? She never really said that much about herself.”

“What did she tell you?”

“That she barely got in as a soldier, that having a job felt important. That she had family in Citel City.”

Things that made her blend in.

Barely got in?

Ha.

Ella couldn’t believe how ridiculous that was. Maintaining the vision of average, when in reality, she was completing secret missions in an infamous group. Jobs that changed how everyone else lived. Missions that affected the world. Ongoing fights between corporations. Changing the landscape inside Fallacy.

The woman was silent for a moment, listening to the earpiece she had in, hearing the full story of what they knew regarding Sarah Adele.

“Anything else?” she asked after the voice on the other end had stopped.

Ella let out a startled laugh.

“Why don’t you talk to her family?”

Without missing a beat, the woman responded in kind.

“What family?”

Ella took a few seconds to process those words. The woman waited patiently, without complaint, leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed.

“What do you mean? She mentioned a brother and sister.”

“Sarah Adele has no living family. Every last remaining relative died twenty years ago. Even then, she never had any siblings.”

No…

No family.

No siblings.

What were those stories then?

Those funny moments she told Ella all about, the ones they laughed to and joked about…

All of it wasn’t real.

Frustrated, Ella threw up her hands. If they knew all this already, why had they called her in? Why put her through this if she didn’t know anything?

“Well, I don’t know why you’re asking me! Clearly, all she told me was lies!”

The woman, who had maintained a mask over her true emotions, over her face and expressions, now cracked a different smile. Unfolding her arms, she leaned toward Ella, right where she paraded around in the palm of her hand, her frustration at the highest point it could be currently.

A perfect time to move forward.

“What if you could get back at her for those lies?”

“What?” Ella froze, searching the woman’s face, finding nothing but an enticing hope written there, like she could do something. Like she was needed for something important.

“We have a special program we’d like you to join. The first order is collecting the members of the Ghosts.”

Collecting the Ghosts?

She hesitated. Fighting Sarah, just one of them, had been incredibly difficult. And she’d lost.

Horribly.

And yet, the little glimmer of something had her asking a bit more, rather than refusing outright. Frankly, she was already placing every last burden and frustration she had onto one name.

If she could beat Sarah Adele, do this one thing and become better than her, wouldn’t things work out?

“What does it involve?”

The woman picked up a file on the seat next to her, pulling a page from it and sliding it across the table with an amicable smile. A pen was set down right next to Ella’s hand.

“Just sign here. It’ll be no different from what you usually do, only, your orders will come directly from the top, and there will be some special training involved.”

The pen felt cold in her hands as she picked it up and looked over the detailed collection of words in front of her.

Relinquish rights.

Self-autonomy.

Product testing.

Words jumped out at her but most were too complicated for her to fully grasp what it was saying. And yet, her mind kept jumping back to them, like there was something wrong. Like they were bad.

She tapped the pen on the table a few times, lightly, while nibbling on her bottom lip.

“You won’t go in the field right away,” a soothing voice said to her from across the table. “You’ll have your own room and food whenever you wish.”

Whenever?

Have her own room?

Her mind jumped to the positives, overlooking that negative feeling on the page. She glanced up at the woman, who nodded with a smile.

That blank line, with a space for a signature.

An uneven scrawl filled the white area.

Ella had written her name in, signed the paper.

The woman smiled to her, stood, and held out a hand. She took the offer, rising from her seat, before being led from the room. The subsequent hand on her back pushed her down several hallways.

“The boss wants to meet you. Each candidate for the special team gets to meet them.”

“The boss? You mean…”

The owner of the Williams Corporation?

He wanted to meet her?

Ella felt nervous all of a sudden, not noticing even where she was being taken. As she stepped into a room, the woman left her there, telling her to wait.

It was a small room, with a window overlooking a large space spread out below. She peered through it, seeing the rows of cylindrical tanks filled with liquid. At the far end, there were two tanks separated from the rest, a light shining on one. She stepped closer, squinting her eyes to try and determine what was in it.

As her mind finally interpreted what her eyes had caught sight of, she backed away slowly. Turning, she bolted for the door, only to find there wasn’t a handle. There wasn’t anything. Not even a line to show where it had once been, the door was gone.

“Welcome, Ella.”

Ella turned slowly at the voice, a chill racing down her spine.

Dread filled her stomach. That wasn’t the voice of Jack Williams Sr. No, that voice…

“What…”

“You have successfully joined Phase Three of Project CARDIC. You are now test subject PC3-03.”

Had Ella known what words were written on the page, she might never have relinquished her right to self-autonomy.

Or sign away her life into becoming a product, rather than a person, enslaved in a new way, unable to escape.

But there was no escaping Project CARDIC, or the ones who set it into motion.

For a brief moment, as everything turned dark, Ella wondered why she was even mad at Sarah.

Wasn’t she just mad at herself all along?

What did it matter if Sarah was better at things, had a higher rank?

Didn’t she listen to Ella’s ramblings?

Remember her words?

Joke with her?

Even if it was fake… hadn’t she played the part of a good friend?

Ella’s last conscious thought was how she’d apologize to Sarah, if she could.

Someday.

As for Sarah herself, she made the call.

“We locate them.” She looked around at the others. “Locate and then determine if it is feasible to retrieve them.”

Slooky nodded with a grin.

“As expected of the new Captain. I approve.”

The rest were bobbing their heads too, in agreement.

Sarah took a breath before clarifying one final thing. “Calling me Captain sounds weird. How about using my name or Vice and keep them as the Captain until we decide differently?”

“Alright, Sarah! Lead us to freedom!” Slooky cried, lifting an arm into the air.

Laughter filled the space, side by side with smiles as they settled in for a rest.

A tape shield was set up across the entrance of the cave, laid out on the ground, activated with a series of specific taps onto the material. Nobody would see them inside, just a cave without any occupants. Of course, it acted as a physical barrier, preventing anyone from reaching through the five feet height it covered.

For the night, they rested, and when they woke at the early morning light barely peeking over the landscape in the distance, they prepared to move. Slooky deactivated the shield tape, and tested out his leg, getting approval from Magnice that he could walk on his own again. It ached, but it wasn’t enough to even make him limp.

Exel was the first to step out, holding binoculars, checking the surroundings distant and close, for any movement, Sarah joining him. They returned with an all-clear and they set to head out and begin their journey anew.

“Lott, can I bother you to carry me the whole way?” Magnice asked her, a bit burdened by the fact that he was the one who would slow down the team, as he couldn’t even move independently. Lott chuckled.

“You’re a feather, kid. A feather.”

“Thanks.”

“Hey, you got me free.” She nodded to the scab on her arm, from where her tracker was removed. “Least I can do is make sure you stay that way too.”

Magnice smiled, nodded, climbing back up onto her shoulders.

As they walked at a quick but reliable pace, they all thought over the last 24 hours, keeping their questions and concerns to themselves.

They were aimless.

Wandering.

Unsure.

There was nowhere that was safe for them.

Nowhere they could go without being noticed. Their faces were likely everywhere by now. Cities weren’t safe. Not until they regained their bearings and figured some things out.

After some time, Slooky stopped walking, catching the attention of the others. They turned, one by one, and the quiet of the world took over once more, lacking the sound of footsteps on the rocks. A breeze whistled through the dead trees nearby.

“Slook?”

He took a breath, but didn’t look up at them. Refused to. His lips, pursed, his mind deeply in thought. Slowly, he opened his mouth to speak.

“I… I might…” he sighed heavily, looking far more serious than he needed to be. “I know somewhere we can go.” His eyes lifted to the others, an uncertainty hovering in them. “While we figure things out.” When nobody responded, he hurriedly added on to his words. “It’ll take some time to get there, though. Just a thought.”

Exel threw his arms wide, glancing around. “Don’t we have time?” he joked lightly.

Chuckles, quiet as they were, dispelled some of the tension in the air around them.

“Where’s the place at?”

“We go around the end of the mountains.” He inclined his head in the direction they were already heading before pointing directly south. “It’s on the backside.”

“Sure it’s safe?”

He didn’t even have to think about that answer. He smiled a bit just thinking about that place. “Pretty sure.”

“Alright. You lead the way?”

He nodded and took the lead confidently, stuffing his hands into his waist pockets, hopping easily up a series of rocks onto another path. For a brief second, the others didn’t move to follow. They just watched him.

Whatever it was that had seemed to weigh down his body, his steps were now lighter, freer.

Sarah let the others walk on ahead of her, taking the rear, glancing back the way they came once, and then she bounded up those same rocks with ease in her movements. But, as Slooky’s steps had grown lighter, the rest of theirs grew heavier, burdened.

Each of them were replaying words that had been said yesterday.

“Does anyone know anything about them?”

“Does anyone know their name?”

“Do we know anything?”

Those had been questions about the Captain, but didn’t it apply to all of them? What did they really know about each other?

For a long time, they were all cut off from anything resembling family, cut off from everything. Lacking relations, they were perfect for the worst jobs.

They didn’t know each other.

They knew nothing.

After all, who could any one of them, cut off from everything, know, in the middle of nowhere?

Sarah pursed her lips, recalling what the Captain had said to her, yet again.

One of us, she thought to herself with a heart that only grew heavier, at least one of us… is keeping a devastating secret.

That is...

Someone other than herself.