Chapter 8 - Remember When

Life outside the room.

The next few days were spent with staff members and Annabelle constantly testing me. I have no idea what exactly they were testing for but I figured pretending to have lost my little bits of memory again would be a good plan. I was right. On the fifth day, after I was thrown an infinite stream of trigger words for memories I already had, they allowed me to leave my room and mingle with the others. There I sat, in a large, blue room with round, white tables. Each person had been basically reset. They had no idea how to converse with one another and had no personalities. Staff members would wander around and tell people what they liked. One told me my favorite color was purple, therefore everything I'd own would be purple or white. I suppose this was a way to program us. It also seemed like a way to classify people since I'd only seen bot controllers wear purple. As I watched the interactions, I noticed one person wasn't here. Valor. Some of the resets tried to speak with me but their fumbled efforts only made me laugh. I would have felt bad if I hadn’t known they couldn’t feel embarrassment. The staff fed us dinner, more flavorless paste but this time joined with an orange, and sent us to our rooms. On my way through the halls I saw a group of bot controllers tweaking some nurse bots. As I was distracted, I tripped and fell on my face. A controller came to assist me, something we aren't taught to do which should have been a red flare to any watching staff member.
"Are you okay?" He whispered to me. Our eyes locked and there he was. Valor was already a bot controller. The others were looking and I made eye contact with the leader, so I played the reset person game.
"Yes, sorry. I'll be on my way." Before turning to leave I looked at what had tripped me. Conveniently, it was the bot I had driven the spoon into, lifeless thanks to my skill.
"I'll help you back to your room." He remembered me. We turned the next corner to find an empty hallway. His head whipped around as he checked to make sure we weren't being watched. Suddenly, he wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug. After a few moments, he held me away from him and stared in my eyes searching for signs I was still truly here.
"I'll be honest, I don't remember much, Dawn, but I know we were close friends and god is it good to see you."
I laughed awkwardly before responding,"I don't remember much either but I know we have to get out of here." We heard footsteps coming towards us so we parted ways. He returned to his tweaking and I was left to my, now painted purple, room.