Pat picked out a few rolls and some pot roast, then began to head for the dining room. Zion silently waved him through a doorway directly off the dining room which led into a den. Once all four of them were present, they sat and Zion prayed a blessing over the food. Pat didn’t believe in God but he bowed his head respectfully.
When Zion finished his prayer, he looked at Pat and Sirona solemnly. “Today was a bittersweet day. I was informed we didn’t rescue everybody.”
“Mayre was left behind.” Pat said simply.
“Yes.” Zion’s hands were still folded in prayer and he pressed them to his lips thoughtfully.
“There is something sinister occurring with people who have the microchip.” Rachel said, looking at Sirona.
“What do you mean?” Sirona asked with some defensiveness in her tone.
Zion responded, taking extra care to be kind. “Winston Wellness, along with some other medical facilities, have been using the microchip technology to conduct unlawful experimentation on patients.”
“We were just studying patients who had had the chip implants.” Sirona said. “They all agreed to the testing.”
“I didn’t agree to any testing.” Pat chimed in. “I just came in to have my Thought Conductor reinstalled.”
Sirona seemed shocked at this pronouncement. “That’s not possible.”
“Unfortunately, this has been happening. Some patients aren’t informed about what they are volunteering for and others are debriefed on the risks but end up getting more than they bargained for.” Zion said. “We have been sending in evacuation teams to get patients out.” Zion then noticed Pat and Sirona still weren’t eating. “Dig in! Please.”
“How do we know you are who you say you are?” Pat demanded. He looked at Sirona and could see that she was wondering the same thing. “What is this place?” Pat asked, referring to their current location.
“Feel free to talk to anybody here. They will affirm what I’m telling you. This is a halfway house. People that served prison time for addiction or dealing have the option of coming here to be rehabilitated.” Zion smiled mischievously for the first time. “What most people here won’t tell you is that is a front for what we really do.”
“People that don’t have anywhere to go are given a purpose here. God has certainly given us a much heavier calling than we ever expected.” Rachel smiled wistfully.
“How do you know that microchip patients are being mistreated?” Pat was beginning to realize he knew much less than he thought he did about his own product.
“I once had a chip.” Zion said. “I suffered from night terrors which were unbearable. My doctor recommended I use the chip. I prayed heavily for wisdom and ended up feeling led to having the surgery.”
Pat scoffed inwardly.
“It took a long time for us to figure it out.” Rachel said. “But his dreams were becoming real.”
“My night terrors weren’t being resolved. They were simply being put somewhere else. I began to see them in the real world.” Zion shot a meaningful look towards Rachel and she bit her lip.
“I don’t understand.” Sirona admitted. Pat was glad she admitted it because he was not willing to look foolish in front of strangers.
“My worst fears were being played out in the real world as if they were really happening.”
Pat thought on that for a moment. When he was suffering from the worst hallucinations he had ever had, it was unbearable. But if he suddenly found out that everything he had been seeing was real, he wouldn’t know what to do.
“Was this just your experience?” Pat asked.
“Not from what we can tell. People have been experiencing things like this all over but have been afraid to speak about it.” Zion then looked directly at Pat. “I was hoping you might help us figure out what’s going on since it’s your Father’s technology. As long as you don’t mind of course.”
Pat wasn’t sure how he felt about the offer. All of this new information was whirring in his mind but he wasn’t certain how much of it he believed. When Justice had been taken from him, he clung to her memories like a security blanket. Nothing of her memory was ever deleted and yet he continued to see her hallucination. He doubted this was a side effect of his microchip and thought it was simply a side effect of his schizophrenia. What if Zion and all the others were just hallucinating as well?
It suddenly occurred to him that since leaving Winston Wellness, he was no longer seeing Justice or having intense screaming. His brain was mostly quiet. Whatever the surgeon did at Winston Wellness must have fixed the problems he was having, which made him much more confident in his decision-making abilities.
To make sure he could trust Zion and Rachel, he took a chance on the food and took a bite of roll. When nothing happened he said, “I think that is a wise idea.” Even though Zion seemed like a religious nut, he was also highly informed. Pat knew it would be advantageous for him to learn as much as he could about their operation and potentially improve the technology for everybody. Also, if people were being used for unlawful experiments, he couldn’t let that stand. Especially if they were conducting unlawful experiments on Mayre.
“What can I do?” Sirona said suddenly, her eyes bright with the moisture from the few tears slipping from her eyes. Pat suddenly realized that she had removed her facemask. She had a very pointed chin and her mouth was wide and thin. She was surprisingly elegant looking.
“I think the best course of action is for you to help us evacuate the rest of your colleagues and Mayre out of that hospital.” Zion said. “But we need more intel before we go barging in. There were far more complexities to the hospital than we first planned on so we will need more detail. We aren’t professionals but the professionals aren’t doing anything about it. We already tried to involve the police and hospital management but they won’t listen to anything we have to say.”
“Security has probably increased since we escaped.” Sirona said miserably.
“Don’t lose heart.” Rachel said, resting a comforting hand on her arm and looking into her face lovingly. “The Lord is guiding our path.”
Pat doubted her words but appreciated her confidence. It took much more confidence than Pat had to believe in an old man in the sky to get them out of danger. Any time he had even attempted to pray, he had been met with silence.
“I can’t wait to pick your brain.” Zion said to Pat suddenly. “You must have a lot of useful information about what is going on.”
“Of a kind. You do not want to pick my brain though.” Pat ran his spider-like fingers through his hair and raised his eyebrows.
Zion said nothing but looked at Pat with soft, kind eyes. Pat wasn’t comfortable with this look because it was a cross between pity and understanding. Pat didn’t want anybody to try to understand him.
“Well, let me take you to your room.” Zion said finally, standing and smiling broadly. “Rachel, would you show Sirona to her room?”
Rachel nodded and gestured to the nurse. The two women left and Zion then led Pat back into the dining room and out into the hallway again. They walked up to the very top of the home and down to the very end of the hall where a 6-foot-tall window looked out onto the brown gardens getting ready to settle into a winter slumber. Zion then took an immediate left and they were in a small alcove. This space had a small table topped by a vase spilling over with fake flowers and a maroon door with a gold handle on the far wall.
Zion pulled a ring of keys from his pocket and selected one towards the middle and opened the door. Inside the walls were a cream color with white trim. Two twin beds sat to the left side of the room and a doorway to a bathroom was in the gap between the beds. There was a window straight ahead and a window to the right which let in tons of natural light. Finally, the floors were dark-stained wood that looked cold to the touch. Not much decor was in the room, but it was cozy.
“It’s just you in here currently, but if we start to fill up extensively we may need to pair you with a roommate. I hope that is okay?” Zion glanced over at Pat to gauge his reaction, but his expression was passive.
He did not like the idea of having a roommate but he was here at Zion’s home and didn’t think it would be polite to protest.
