Unremembered (Unremembered #1)(56)

‘I don’t understand,’ I complain. ‘If it wasn’t Diotech, then what could have happened that would erase my memories? And how did I end up floating in the ocean with a bunch of plane wreckage if I was never actually on the plane?’

‘That’s the thing,’ Zen says, anxiously rubbing his chin. ‘I don’t know. I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure it out but I can’t. All I know is, something went wrong. You weren’t supposed to be at that crash site. You were supposed to be with me. But somehow you ended up here and I ended up . . . there.’

I frown. ‘You’re not making much sense.’

‘I know. I’m sorry.’ He sighs. ‘I just need to come up with a way to explain it to you.’

He presses his lips together so hard they’re white when he opens his mouth to speak again. ‘After we figured out what Diotech was doing – what you were involved in – we knew we had to get as far away from there as possible. It was the only way you could have a normal life and we could be together. Because it was clear that they weren’t going to let that happen.’

I nod. ‘So we tried to flee the compound. You already told me.’

‘Yeah. But our escape plan was much more elaborate than that.’

‘OK,’ I encourage him.

He is visibly struggling, kneading his hands. ‘Maybe I should start with the poetry.’

I shoot him a glance. ‘Poetry?’

‘Yes. Sonnet 116. Remember?’

‘“Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments . . .”’ I recite softly.

Zen smiles and I feel him relax somewhat.

‘Cody says it’s about eternal love,’ I prompt him.

‘It is,’ Zen whispers. ‘It’s about constant, unchanging love. That no one can stand in the way of.’ He stops and peers out the window. ‘They implanted so much in your brain. Languages, math skills, everything they thought someone would need in order to be considered exceptionally intelligent. But they left out a lot of important things.’

‘Like poetry?’ I guess.

He sighs. ‘Yeah. Like poetry. And the ability to comprehend it. I used to bring you poems to read when I would come to see you. We would spend hours deciphering them. At first, it was very hard for you to understand. You took everything so literally. Like a computer. It took you a while to learn how to attach your own emotion to someone else’s words. That’s one of the things I taught you.’

‘And Sonnet 116?’

‘Sonnet 116 was your favourite.’

I feel my fingers tighten around the steering wheel. The silence in the car is almost thick enough to touch.

‘But it eventually became more than that,’ he explains. ‘It became the inspiration for a very complicated plan.’

Beep!

The car makes a strange sound and I jump in my seat. Zen leans over and looks at the dashboard. ‘We’re low on gas. You should probably get off at the next exit.’

I merge into the right lane and veer on to the next off-ramp. Zen directs me to a gas station. I park in front of the contraption that Zen calls a pump and kill the engine.

‘I’ll go inside and pay for the gas and buy some snacks,’ he says. ‘I’m assuming you’re hungry.’

My stomach rumbles right as he says that and I laugh. ‘I guess so.’

‘Wait here,’ he commands. ‘Don’t get out of the car.’

I watch him disappear into the building and then I lean back in my seat and try to take deep breaths. Everything I’ve learned over the past two days is swimming frantically around my head, trying to find solid ground.

There’s a knock on the window, startling me, and I turn, expecting to find Zen standing there. But instead I see a stranger. A young woman.

She’s smiling animatedly and bouncing up and down. ‘You’re that girl!’ I can hear her shrieks even through the glass. ‘The one who survived the plane crash!’

Then there’s a bright flash and I watch in horror as she lowers her cellphone and begins tapping on it. ‘I have to tweet this!’ She turns and walks away, a slight skip in her step.

Tweet?

Zen warned me to stay in the car. But he also warned me not to be photographed by anyone. And that’s exactly what just happened.

So should I get out of the car and tell him?

No. I should wait until he comes back.

Nothing can happen in the few minutes it takes him to pay for some food and gas. Even if Diotech is able to track the girl’s photograph, we’ve been driving for thirty minutes. It would take them just as long to get here. If not longer.

Right?

The answer comes almost instantly.

A trembling sensation tickles the inside of my wrist. I look down at my tattoo. It’s vibrating again. Which can mean only one thing.

I glance in the rear-view mirror and see two men dressed in black approaching the car. I recognize them as the two men who were lying unconscious on the floor of the barn last night.

And they look more determined than ever.

‘Sera!’ I hear Zen’s panicked voice soar across the parking lot. I turn and see he’s stepped out of the gas station, about five hundred feet away. I watch several items drop from his arms and clatter to the ground as his eyes widen in terror. He has only one directive for me now.