Jacqueline Druga - Reset

Jason was hesitant before saying anything. He looked at Nora then the unit. “Are you sure?”

“Oh, I am positive. I don’t remember much, but I know my last name isn’t Rosewood. So why am I even here?”

“And where is Rosewood?” Jason poured her more wine. “Drink up. Your mystery is even deeper than the rest of ours.”

“Don’t I know it.” Sitting on the bed, Nora sipped the wine. It was an even bigger mystery for her, compiled with the one everyone else was trying to solve.

Nora wanted answers. She wanted her memory and she only hoped that she got her answers before the clock hit zero.

For some reason, she believed that when the countdown was over, she was on her own. And that thought scared her even more than not knowing at all.

Being the first to arrive had its advantages. Nora didn’t miss anything, in fact, she was pleasantly surprised to smell coffee.

“Morning sunshine,” John said. “I found the coffee pot and coffee. Grab some.”

“What time did you get up?” she asked.

“I haven’t been to bed,” John replied, “Neither has Grant. Malcolm either. I think he finally powered up the computers. Grant and I got everything logged in storage. You wouldn’t believe the stuff in there.”

“Really?” Nora poured coffee.

“It’s like they have enough stuff for each one of us to survive longer than the three days remaining on the door.”

“What about your locker?”

“I found my key,” John lifted it. “But I was going to wait until everyone was ready. I figured we’d all do it together.”

Nora absorbed her first sip of coffee. It was an instant fix. Suddenly, that slight headache she carried with her all day long, started to fade. “I’m a caffeine junkie,” she said.

“So you got your memory back.”

“No. I don’t remember anything. Just the way this coffee is making me feel, I am betting I’m a coffee drinker.”

“I know I was.”

“Where are you from, John? New York?”

“No. Connecticut. So if we are still in New York, then I don’t have far to travel to get back home.”

“Have you given any more thought as to why we could be here?”

“I have. But all of them are just theories.”

“Hence,” The woman’s voice entered the room. “My specialty.”

It was Meredith, she pointed to the coffee. “May I?”

“Please.” Nora said.

“I’m sorry for intruding. But I know what I did. I was a teacher, a professor at Yale. That’s about where my memory stops, but I know that to be certain.”

“Theoretical physics?” John asked.

“No, A professor of Evolution Psychology and Epistemology. Which is…”

John stated, “The study of knowledge. The theory of thought process. So in a nutshell you are a people expert in how people evolve, think, and act.”

“Exactly.”

“Wow.” John stepped back. “That just adds a lot to this mess. I think knowing everyone’s field will help. I wrote science fiction. Then again, I wrote science fiction based on fact and circumstances of the now.”

Nora scratched her head. “All of this is foreign to me. I don’t know what I did.”

“I do,” Another voice entered the room. It was Amy. “I’m a scientist. More so an Astronomer, particularly the sun and the study of solar storms. . I know that. I study storms. In particular odd weather patterns brought on by the sun.”

Nora crinkled her brow. “A scientist. A writer. Malcolm says he did computers or so he thinks. Grant is a musician. Jason is a preacher. What do we all have in common?”

“Easy,” Meredith replied as she took a sip of her coffee. “We all contribute to the factors to what makes society civilized. And that my friend is a big clue as to why we are here.”

<><><>

The president was crying; sobbing more like it, at least that was the observation Jason gave when he arrived with Grant. He told how they stopped to see President Thomas and the president was distraught.

“He lifted his hand to me,” Jason said. “And told me to give him a minute. I told him where we were and what we were doing.”

Cynically, John stated. “He knows. He remembers. He probably remembers it all. My memory was good when I woke. Jason? Yours?”

“It was weird,” Jason replied. “When I woke up, I was blasted by it. Everything. Almost every detail. It now is real to me, unlike yesterday where I didn’t know if it was a dream or not.”

“Same with me,” Amy said. “Foggy yesterday. Real today.”

“But…” Meredith spoke. “Do any of us remember the events that led us to right here? Right now. I don’t.”

No one replied.

“I didn’t think so,” Meredith said.

“But that is why we’re here,” John rebutted. “Let’s tell our stories. Let’s put them together. Maybe if each of us remember a piece of the puzzle, combined we can figure out the chain events.” He stepped away briefly, and returned with Malcolm. “We appreciate,” John said. “You taking time away to do this.”

“I’m kinda in the zone but that’s fine.” Malcolm took a seat.

“We were opening up discussion on who we are, what we did and what we remember,” John said. “Trying to piece it together. All of us…” He looked at Nora. “Most of us,” he corrected. “Woke up with clarity to about 90 percent of our lives.”

“I know I did,” Malcolm stated. “I woke up knowing a lot. My wife’s name, my children, my job. I am from New York. City. But we had just moved to Boulder. I’m an inventor. I started with computer chips and my biggest to date is… well, was, who knows, the bio cam.”

Everyone looked at him.

Using his hand to demonstrate, Malcolm explained. “It’s slightly bigger than a golf ball. It looks like one, the ribbed surface, but all those ridges, are cameras. Lasers. The bio cam is placed in a room, pretty much unnoticed. It does a three-sixty-camera camera, but while it does, it is looking for increased heart rates, out of place body temperatures and if it finds any, the camera will lock in.”

“Holy cow,” Nora sat back, amazed. “That’s unreal.”

“Yeah, it was my contribution to stopping terrorism. The main frame is not on site, so even if the cam is destroyed the footage can be retrieved. Maybe the monitors can pick up a threat before it happens,” Malcolm said. “I remember everything up to being at the Astoria. An event, a big one, and my camera was making its debut. Actually three of them were placed throughout the hotel. I was asked to bring it and monitor it on site, but my onsite computers weren’t their only hub. Footage is somewhere in Cleveland. Anyhow, things were going. Someone was speaking, I wasn’t paying attention to that. I was focused more on the two men in the back of the room. The bio cam picked up their heart rate, body temperature, they were abnormal readings. I wasn’t watching the speaker and when they left, the ground shook. Things fell, there was panic.”

Nora said, “The explosion you mentioned.”

“Yes,” Malcolm nodded. “It happened fast, just as I registered something had happened outside the ball room, they were escorting people out. I remember thinking, ‘oh, yeah, bet bio cam B caught the culprit’, then I got dizzy. I started to pass out. I noticed a lot of people were falling. Gas leak. Gas attack. Those were my thoughts and that was the last I recall.”

Grant spoke up. “The passing out, I remember. The explosion is… faint. I was in the ballroom. That is clear. I play with the New York Symphony. I was asked to play with my strongest string quartet. We received a lot of money to do so. I don’t do shows such as that, but my father coordinated the event so I did it for him. Everything else before that, I recall.”