Jacqueline Druga - Reset

People were mingling. It was cocktail hour and Nora decided to do the same.

As she made her way to the table the beautiful, soft music drew her attention to the stage area, where musicians played. Led by a brilliant pianist.

She placed her small handbag on her chair. There was a lone woman seated at the table fiddling with her phone.

“Meredith, would you like a drink?” a man paused behind phone woman.

The woman on the phone, shook her head, then looked again at Nora as acknowledgment.

Nora passed her a smile, said nothing, and turned. She needed to find someone to engage, and not to mention grab one of those drinks being served.

Looking as if she knew where to go and that she belonged there, she moved through the tables, eyeing a waiter.

Drink. Engage.

Just as she stepped to him, a man cut in front of her. He was preoccupied, holding an earpiece to his ear as he spoke.

“Yeah. No it’s not Charlie, it’s Malcolm. Get your voices right. Learn who you are talking to. And check on camera B. I’m right under A and…” Malcolm said, then stepped aside, out of her way with an apology.

She nodded ‘No problem. Thank you.”

Finally salvation. The waiter. There was one last drink on his tray and Nora reached for it at the same time as someone else.

“Take it, I am so sorry,” he said. Dashing and handsome. Southern drawl. Perfect hair and smile.

“Really? Thank you.” Nora took the drink. He was perfect. Victim one. “You are?”

“Jason Rudolph. And you are…”

Nora didn’t get to answer, a voice from behind her did.

“Miss Rosewood.” The male voice said.

Damn it, Nora thought. Someone knew her?

“Excuse me,” she said to Jason. Then, with her best smile, she turned.

“Are you Miss Rosewood, I was told you arrived.”

“I am. And you are.”

“Not as funny as you,” he said. “Aren’t you just funny?” He reached out and gingerly took hold of her arm. “Pretending not to know the guest of honor.”

“I am so sorry.” She laid her hand to her chest, while quickly taking a drink and remembering the name of the award winner. “John, right.”

“You got it.” He winked. “This is so interesting. How long has it been, Summer?”

“Hmm. Winter maybe.”

He laughed. “You are funny. It’s not like you to joke about your own name since you are so sensitive about it. How did you say it?” He looked to the ceiling. “I resent my parents for naming me after a season.”

“Ah, Summer. Yes.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “I didn’t think you were coming. I know you’re busy with the newest projects.”

“Busy. Busy. Busy.”

“But I told you ahead of time my wife wasn’t going to be here.”

“That’s too bad, I wanted to meet her.”

John laughed loudly and then turned serious. “Okay. Jig is up. Who are you and why are you pretending to be Summer Rosewood”

“How do you know I’m not?”

“For one, I know Summer. She has red hair. You do not. And second, I certainly would know the woman who has been my mistress for three years.”

Nora gasped. “Wait. Seriously? Or is this a joke for me crashing this event.”

“No, I’m serious.”

“You just blurt it out like that?”

“Well, if you’re gonna crash my event. Doesn’t matter. My wife filed for divorce four months ago…”

“Still. You dick.”

“What?”

“You cheated on your wife for three years.”

“Do I need to call security?”

“Um. No. How about the moral police. Good Lord, mister.”

He laughed again, “Look at you judging when you crashed my event.”

“Um, there’s a bit of a difference between crashing an event and crashing a marriage.”

“Deceit is deceit, don’t you think?”

The microphone squealed just a little and the Master of Ceremonies said, “If I can have everyone return to their seats.”

“I believe you are at my table.” John, with a gentle hand, escorted her.

“Yeah, I’m not your mistress, keep that in mind, so I’m not putting out.”

“Ah, too bad for you.”

Nora opened her mouth to gasp in shock. He had to be joking, but she never found out.

A loud and deafening ‘boom’ resonated through the ballroom and the ground shook.

The entire room erupted with chaos. People screamed and ran about. Security made their way in, yelling out they were escorting people from the hotel.

John actually took interest in holding on to Nora, grasping her arm to see her out.

But he stopped in the middle of the ballroom.

“John?” Nora called him.

His hand released her and he swayed.

“Are you okay?”

“I can’t… I can’t see…” He blinked and then without warning, he toppled to the floor.

Nora shrieked and that was when she noticed, everyone started to drop. Thump. Thump. Thump. as they hit the floor.

Knowing that she had to get out, Nora raced toward the exit, stepping over fallen bodies. She nearly made it before her vision went. Things switched from cloudy to gray to black and then Nora, like John and everyone else, dropped to the floor.

It didn’t end there for her. She woke up to being wheeled down a hall.

She remembered everything. From the moment they put her in the encasement, until they shut out the lights in her room.

It was cold, so cold. She sensed her own heart rate dropping and breathing growing shallow.

This is death, she thought, then closed her eyes. I am dead.

Nora conveyed the entire sequence of events to everyone. It brought about ‘breath holding’ silence as they listened to every detail she recounted.

She snapped out of that memory a different person than the one who woke up in the Genesis unit. Nora knew who she was. Suddenly she felt who she was, she felt changed, and she also knew the reality that she had a family and missed them horribly.

“This is unreal,” Meredith said. “But it makes sense. Complete sense. This is a tank. A survival tank. John, what did the real Summer Rosewood do?”

“She was a scientist. She…”

“Perfect.” Meredith cut him off. “All of us have something to contribute to society. All of us had to have been placed here because there was an event. It makes sense. We are here with supplies to wait out some sort of catastrophic event.”

Jason scoffed. “That’s nonsense. What do I have to contribute?”

“Spirituality,” Meredith argued. “We need to check every locker to find out who was here and let Malcolm get back to cracking that computer.”

“No need,” The president entered the room speaking in a weak voice. It was sluggish, thick with phlegm. He coughed and sniffed. “No need. I remember a lot now. I think I can explain it. Or try.”

It wasn’t the captive audience he wanted. President Wilfred Thomas dreaded standing before the seven people he had only recently come to know in person. On paper, he knew them well, or at least their names.

All but Nora, he didn’t know her and there was a reason for that.

His memory wasn’t spot on. He didn’t have all the logistics. He knew enough that he could at least shed light on why he believed they were all there.