The brown girl walked between the tables of the cafeteria, at each step the high heels she wore produced a deaf ticking that drew the attention of all the people present towards her.
She did not seem to care about the looks. She held her head high, focused on her goal. The extremely bright eyes under the neon lights of the room were fixed on a point, the lower part of the long white coat she wore moved swinging at every step.
The face was not extremely fixed but what little was enough to show a clear difference between her and everyone else present.
Maeve thought she was the kind of girl who could make the world her own personal catwalk.
When she reached the table of the two she removed the gown from his body and then placed it on one of the chairs still empty.
She moved the long cascade of brown hair behind her shoulders and sat down next to Liam.
"Esme," the boy said as he greeted, accompanying the words with a nod from his head before his concentration returned to his own meal.
"Lee, only you can be hungry after today." the brunette smiled and then frowned at Liam eating.
She poured herself a glass of water.
Maeve had not looked at it, but the latter thought it was not a gesture dictated by malice or superiority.
Esme did not seem unpleasant. She thought maybe she didn't notice her presence because people like her, people passing by, were so many that she didn't notice them anymore.
Liam cut the meat into portions before answering the girl sitting next to him.
"Nothing happened at the entrance: a woman started screaming but immediately the Scrubs intervened, I think she had a cracked rib."
The boy then continued to eat undisturbed by taking a look at Maeve just to make sure that she had also started.
Esme took the boy's knife and stabbed with the tip of that a piece of meat cut by Liam and then carried it to the mouth.
"A man is now dead in lab 2."
She said calmly before taking the bite of meat.
Maeve started coughing and tapping her chest. Esme looked up at her and raised an eyebrow, confused.
Liam immediately dropped his fork on the plate and silence suddenly descended on the entire room.
"Lab 2 is your lab! Did you kill a man?!"
Esme turned her eyes to the sky and passed a hand through her long wavy hair.
"No Liam. They were quietly preparing him for the memory process. Evidently he had internal injuries, but he didn't report any pain to any of the Scrubs, and he told everyone he was fine. I wasn't even in the room when he couldn't breathe anymore." Esme said it with such naturalness and tranquillity that Maeve changed her mind about her reaction: how was it possible to react in this way to a death?
She never would have understood.
But one thing had caught her attention.
"What is a memory process?" instinctively the brunette looked at Esme.
The girl, however, was interrupted by Liam as soon as she tried to open her mouth.
"A medical process whereby some memories can be restored in the mind if lost or damaged."
Then both girls spoke in unison while watching Liam.
Maeve felt awakened from a long sleep:
"So can I have mine back? Remember what happened?"
Esme instead tried to correct Liam dissatisfied with the description of the trial that the boy had just given:
"It's more of a biochemical process than a medical one, it's not surgery."
However, the brunette was surprised and interested in Maeve's answer.
"Did you have a TCL?" Esme asked, pointing his elbows at the table and leaning towards the brunette who looked at her with a confused face.
Maeve for a moment felt as if the girl could look through them.
"Mild Cranial Trauma. - continued Esme - Do you remember confused or absent from your memory set-up?"
Liam stopped the conversation by picking up the fork and wiping the handle with a napkin.
"Esme don't pretend not to know, her files should already be on your desk for a request for memory process."
"No record or protocol comes out until this afternoon. - answered the brunette, looking back on the boy - About half an hour ago the extraordinary meeting of the Initials began."
Liam turned pale and suddenly got up and knocked the chair to the ground with a thud.
For Maeve it was evident that the two boys did not care to attract the attention of other people.
They didn't even seem to notice how half the room had just turned to them.
"You didn't say anything to me until now! Why are you still here?!" the boy looked at Esme badly.
"I spoke with Metamer, better an extra Scrub operational for now. I will update later. - immediately replied Esme in an extremely calm tone - Why are you tasting grilled meat while you should be there?"
Maeve was sure that if the looks could kill whit the one Liam had just given to Esme, she would have layed on the floor instantly.
The boy quickly moved away from the table as the brunette chuckled and watched him leave and then raised the chair from the ground.
Esme re-wore the white scrub. This time Maeve saw the plaque hanging from the top left pocket of the garment.
"Esme Westhood" read Maeve quietly.
The girl noticed, however, the small call of the brunette. She picked up the card finishing to read it for her:
"Primary operator, medicine and biochemistry."
Esme nodded a smile at the tag and then put it right back in place.
"They are very fiscal here, I know. - Esme again spoke - I have always tried to say that the name would have been more than enough but everyone obviously thinks it is essential."
"The woman who helped me before didn't have a card - Maeve said - and yet she was wearing a lab coat."
Esme had laughed shaking his head.
"Frya is one of the best in here, she hates the tag because she feels labeled. Whenever she can, she takes it off. The security people hardly tell you anything, but they expect me to follow the rules more strictly. It's not always that easy."
Maeve smiled extensively.
The girl's voice was calm, friendly. She felt almost in a familiar place as she spoke to her. She leaned forward and reached out a hand to her.
"I'm Maeve Geller, nice to meet you."
Esme looked at the brunette's hand for a few seconds before grabbing it and holding smiling.
"Nice to meet you, Maeve. I'll be happy to give back what you lost."
She rose from the table and began to walk towards the door from where Liam and Maeve had previously entered.
The latter quickly looked at the trays still full of food before getting up and running after the girl wearing the white coat that had stopped between people just to turn around and wait for the brunette to reach her.
***
"It won't hurt. It'll burn slightly at first, then you'll feel suspended. You don't have to be scared, it's all normal. - smiled Esme - I did it to more people than you could ever imagine."
At the center of the room was a completely white tree with emerald leaves, the roots of this were as implanted between the tiles of the light floor and created a contrast similar to what there was in the large room where Maeve had woken up.
The girl was lying on an uncomfortable green nursing bed.
Esme had completely cut off one sleeve of her already disfigured shirt with the promise that she would be provided with new clean and in good condition very soon.
The brunette put bandages on Maeve's chest. These were wired to a monitor that marked the brunette's vitals.
She was told that she would relive her memories in the first person, but that she would not be able to make decisions other than those she had already made in the past.
Reliving the memories would bring them back.
"What are Scrubs?" Maeve suddenly asked while Esme filled a syringe with a opaque transparent liquid.
"It's not a thing, it's a who. Scrubs are the experts in medicine, biology and chemistry who perform important functions here at the beginning. They are not really doctors, they also deal with other things, but you can easily recognize them: they practically always wear very light clothes if not directly a lab coat. Dark clothing is imposed on the other groups, so it is very easy to recognize one of the Scrubs in the crowd in case of an emergency."
Esme flicked on the side of the syringe; air bubbles quickly went up to the needle and she pressed the plunger to let them out.
"Are you part of the Scrubs then?" asked Maeve watching her fix the syringe.
Esme shrugged and looked up at her.
"Not in theory, not in practice. I am part of the Initials group, when I am not involved in my duties as an Initial I can devote myself to this. It's always convenient to have an extra hand between the Scrubs and, modestly, I'm quite good at it" she answered sitting on the stool next to the bed and crossing her legs.
"Why do you call yourself Initials?" Maeve asked looking at her.
She seemed to have entered a new nation where every rule and behavior was too far from her way of thinking.
"Me and who? - asked Esme looking at the values of the vital functions written on the monitor - Who did you know?"
"Liam is now my... tutor? - said Maeve uncertain - He told me he was an Initial, he seemed very proud."
Maeve hinted at a smile as Esme began to laugh by shaking her head. The braid in which the brunette had tied her hair moved along with the girl's laughter.
"Liam volunteering as a tutor? Do you have any special powers at all?"
Esme passed a piece of cotton soaked with disinfectant over a point of Maeve's arm just below the shoulder. A strong smell of alcohol spread in the air.
"He didn't exactly offer. - Maeve answered looking at the actions of the brown haired girl - Metamer asked him to do it. Is it so strange?"
"That my brother Liam offers himself? - Esme turned his eyes to Maeve's face - It would have been so strange. But if Metamer told him that, then it makes a lot more sense. Liam would never say no to him unless there's a really important reason, of course. Lee is selfless and would do anything to help others but hates to be tied to one task, does not give him the opportunity to make a selection of priorities. Don't get upset if it's a little dodgy or annoying, that's why he does it, not your fault. If Metamer had to go as far as asking him to fill the role of tutor, we're really short-staffed."
Esme laughed right after.
She took the syringe and inserted the needle into Maeve's skin.
She pulled the plunger towards her only to check that no blood entered the syringe, once ascertained this emptied the contents inside the arm of the brunette.
Maeve made a grimace and bit the inside of her cheek. It burned bloody: it was not exactly a slight tingling, far from it. She looked up at the ceiling.
On the panels she clearly saw the reflection of her figure, lying on the medical table.
The hair ruffled and ruffled, the face marked by a cut on the cheek.
The torn and ruined clothes, soiled.
The girl barely recognized herself, couldn't believe he was really in that kind of condition, and that all of that wasn't a movie.
Her eyesight began to become increasingly blurred and imprecise, her eyes burned and begged to be closed to rest.
She took a deep breath like you do when you are preparing to dive into cold water and closed his eyes exhaling.
The next thing she smelled was the perfume Aunt May used to spray around the house.