CHAPTER 8
Dustin Engstrom
Words. So many words coming to mind. Her mind. Something new now. Something fresh. Burning. Almost. Not quite. But nearly there. Nearly on fire.
“I’m speaking with four individuals,” she said. They didn’t have any choice but to listen. “And, for the record, I’m not una bruja. I’m what they made me.”
“And what the holy fuck is that?” asked Carlos.
Underground. They sat inside a bunker. The light above them fluorescent and buzzing with a clicking sound, almost a steady rhythm. The room was cold, dark, vacant, but for a long bench on which they all sat before her. She looked like a legal secretary. She nervously brushed her tongue along her teeth.
Ignacia spoke up. “None of us are bound. How are you keeping us here?”
“Really?” said Carlos. “That’s the first question that pops into your mind?”
“Shut up, cousin,” said a reconditioned Alejandro. “Let her talk.”
“Who?” said Carlos. “Una bruja? Or whatever the fuck?”
Santino swore and straightened. “Who are you, lady? What is this? Why are you keeping us here?”
Lizette nodded, pulled a chair from the darkness, and sat down. “You are my captives.” She pointed upward and then to her ear. They’re listening. “You will be assimilated. You will no longer remember your past lives. You will work for them and only them.”
“I saw inside your mind,” said Ignacia. “I saw what you saw.”
“Who’s them?” said Santino. “The US government, you mean? Right? This is some kind of X-Files bullshit?”
Lizette bowed her head. She pulled a pad and pen from her inner jacket pocket, scribbled something on a page, and handed it to Ignacia.
Ignacia accepted the piece of paper, read it over, and then a second time. She handed it to Carlos on her right. They each read it and passed it down the line.
“So…that’s why,” whispered Ignacia, careful not to say too much.
Lizette took a tape recorder from her pocket, pushed play, and set it on the chair. A man’s voice began to speak from the recorder. They were commands, words, more words. Some in a language none of them recognized. Lizette covered her ears, encouraging the others to do the same, and beckoned the group to follow her. They looked at one another, Ignacia nodding to them that it was okay, and followed, Lizette leading them up a flight of metal stairs and out of the bunker.
Seconds later, they came out into the night. Dry heat. A bright moon. Sounds of the night like wakened ghosts. They must have been out for hours. They followed Lizette down a desert trail. Minutes passed. She stopped abruptly and turned to the group.
“They can’t hear us here,” said Lizette.
“What the fuck is going on?” said Carlos.
“Don’t you see?” said Ignacia. “This is like some MKUltra shit.”
“What is that?” asked Alejandro.
“Wait wait wait,” said Carlos. “Hold on. Are you now trying to help us escape?”
Lizette nodded.
“Why?”
She didn’t answer.
“Okay, that thing in the desert. What was that?” said Carlos. “It knocked us out.”
Lizette sighed. “It’s all a part of the program. The plan. The process of integration. Of changing who you are. So that you work for them. So you can chase whatever they want you to chase. And force the captives to say whatever you need to know. But each time they bring me back, I remember a little more. Usually it’s hard to even remember a single thing that happened to me when I’m under. When I do what they program me to do. But this time, I didn’t read the files. I didn’t assimilate. Project Greycat won’t go as planned this time. Because this time, we can turn against them. This time we can win. Will you help?”
Carlos scoffed. “Lady, I don’t know how you did your mind control shit or what the fuck is going on here, but we are out. Come on,” he said to the others, turning to walk away.
Ignacia stayed. “You want to destroy them,” she said to Lizette, though that wasn’t her name. It wasn’t even meant to be her name now.
“Will you come?” asked Lizette again, though this time, only to Ignacia.
“And do what, exactly?” asked Santino.
“You guys aren’t actually going to follow this bitch into some kind of fucked up American bullshit, are you? Come on! Fuck. Perez is probably shitting a brick by now,” said Carlos.
“We fight. I will give you what you need. And we fight. And this time, we win,” said Lizette.
“Hmm,” mused Alejandro. “I’m thinking this isn’t our problem, man.”
“Exactly! Thank you, cousin,” said Carlos. “Ignacia. Ignacia.”
“I’m thinking!” snapped Ignacia. “If we go with you,” she said to Lizette, “how do we know this isn’t some trick? Like this is what they had planned all along?”
“You don’t,” said Lizette. “Just over that ridge. That’s where they keep it. Once we go through, there’s no going back. I can hold your memories together, but only for so long. We won’t have much time. But we can stop them.”
“No one stops them,” whispered Santino. “They just get more people. And start all over again. With whatever this is. What do you really hope to accomplish with this?”
“Absolution,” smiled Lizette.
Ignacia glanced at her cohorts scared faces. Men. “I’m in,” she said.
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