My mind is clearing. The confusion is being replaced by something else. Fear. Overwhelming fear. Jean spots it.
"Don't panic. Just breathe."
I try following her advice and focus on breathing. But then something comes to my mind. I turn to Bill.
"Why did you say she was Laurie? Is she dead?"
Mike's the one who answers.
"She might as well be. Everything is gone when we fall asleep. Hell, she'll only know she's Laurie if we tell her she's Laurie. We only know you're Jake cause that's what you told us."
My eyes drift to Jean. She nods. "We only know what those who are awake tell us. There's nothing to identify us."
"Well, I do have this." - Bill points to an embroidered "Bill" on his shirt - "But, given that this shirt feels oversized, I doubt that's even mine."
Jean looks straight at me.
"Make sure you recall everything. If you're the only one awake, you'll need to tell us what we're telling you now. We try to remain awake for as long as possible but, when someone falls asleep, we need to wait until they awake on their own and that takes hours. We weren't able to wake you. Believe me, I've tried."
"Where are we?"
"We don't know", Bill answers. "It looks like some sort of bunker. There's a hall with a bulky door, but we can't figure out how to open it. Apart from this main room, there are three smaller ones, each with two beds. There are two bathrooms, a kitchen with a decently stocked pantry, a laundry room and a wardrobe. Whoever got us in here planned for us to stay a while. There's even a garbage incinerator."
"You mentioned six beds. Who's the sixth person?"
"We've never seen a sixth. As far as we know, there's only the five of us."
Mike chimes in: "Tell him the weird stuff now."
"Weird stuff? Weirder than this?" - I look inquiringly at Bill.
"Yeah... we don't know who we are or how we got here. We don't anything about us. But we know how to operate all the available equipment without batting an eye."
"Except the damn door."
"Yes, except the damn door."
ns 15.158.61.6da2
