Simon stared over a sea of tents, some large canopies with large pieces of metal underneath them, vehicles and other resources.
Some just had piles of scrap under a tarp!
And the PEOPLE.
Of darker shade from sunlight-sunlight!-and walking around with guns held casually, some practically decorated with weapons as he could swear he saw the glint of a large blade in someone's hand as they hacked at some kind of training dummy.
'The complex has an actual settlement on top of it? No... the complex IS the settlement, this is just our outside, or guarding doors, our walls to prevent invasion by bandits or some other form of looters.'
The Hive wasn't sealed off from the world. It was actively participating in the fight for resources, for survival.
Simon felt a growing pulse in his head, like a hammer knocking his skull that was getting more and more intense as he stumbled down a slight incline, trying to get closer, but it hurt-!
"GAH!" He clutched his head as searing pain flashed through his memories, like a purging fire!
The games in the rec area, the arcade, suddenly became many simulations for shooting and combat styled as a game to help train children.
Corey was from the outside, from a settlement that had allied itself with the Hive for their tech and knowledge, in trade for resources and people.
The Hive wasn't even the actual name of this place, it was the Complex, or just simply home, or perhaps Tesling Corporate if you wanted to use the old world name for what it had been.
The doors had been replaced to reduce the amount of electronics necessary, and only the higher levels still had electronic doors.
Simon reached down, almost in stupefied shock... as he pulled out a metal ring with a few keys on it.
The keys to his cell... no room. Why did he think they were cells even? Why Hive? How did this happen to him?
How on earth had he gone unlocking his own door and stepping through while pushing it... thinking he had been using his comm to open it?!
A shiver went down Simon's spine, as fear delved into him.
'How do I even know what's real?! It's not like I'm being out in an illusion, it's my own mind that refuses to understand what's happening! I spent MONTHS living a lie and not even noticing that my mind had altered the world around me to be more picturesque!'
Which begs the question.
'Why did this happen? Who or what did this to me? And what's the point of making me think things are different, that the Hive or whatever is hiding from the world?'
Simon stumbled again as he tried to take another step, reaching out his hand to lean against the rocks next to him.
He could see that some people below had noticed him, a few fingers were pointed and someone was calling out to someone else, but it was so hard to hear...
Why didn't his brain just make him think Corey was from a higher level? Why blank it out so obviously? Sure it wouldn't make sense why they had dinner at he and Matt's room, and all that, but it still would've made perfect sense why he never saw her before if she was a higher level employee.
So why did the haze make him simply unable to hear it right?
"Hello Simon."
Simon didn't know how long he stood there before the deep and rough voice pulled his head to look up.
It was a grizzled man, with red and gruesome scar across his forehead and cutting his eyebrow as it curled scarily close to his bloodshot eye.
He was dressed in the same armor as the guards of the security check... the blackguard.
Simon's eyes fell onto the holster at the man's hip, the handle of a pistol clearly visible, alongside a knife strapped to his thigh.
The man laughed. "I'm not going to shoot you today Simon."
"...and yet strangely, I am not reassured." Simon muttered with a quirk to his lips as he looked at the gun.
"Don't believe me?" The man raised his undamaged eyebrow, the other apparently paralyzed by whatever cause the scar that furrowed through it.
Simon looked up, noting that his eye on the side with a still-working eyebrow wasn't bloodshot, meaning the eye that was bloodshot was probably that way due to injury. "Well the 'today' bit didn't help me feel safe." He let out a small chuckle at himself, relaxing slightly as he looked around at the camp below.
"My memories aren't all set back yet but... this was some kind of test right? I was being tested for something... so this scenario was implanted in my head to see how long it took for me to break it?"
The man shook his head. "Not quite." He turned and began walking back to the encampments-for that's what they were, now that Simon was noticing the low walls of stacked stones for cover and the watchtower built higher up the mountain.
Simon followed, looking around as he tried to remember more.
A man with purple eyes reaching to his head.
Emily smiling at him as she whispered-"We see by color... if color is sight and light, then why can't it see us?"
Simon shook his head, trying to banish the creepy voice of that dark room.
"Don't worry." The man ahead of him spoke without even looking back.
"About what?"
"We got a bichromatic who can fix whatever damage your conscious mind has taken."
He then muttered, "After all, it would be beneath Him to do it Himself..."
Simon raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out what the hell bichromatic meant. It was a person, he could assume.
'Chromatic is color, bi is two, so two-colored?'
"You know... that's a really weird way to say you have a mixed race therapist or psychiatrist."
"What?" The man turned, befuddled.
"Bichromatic... two colored, biracial, it's a weird way to say it. Are you a racist?"
"No? Wait, you think I meant-"
The man broke off as he raised a hand to cover his face.
After a moment his shoulders began to shake, and Simon could hear a sharp inhale.
"Gods boy, I know you had a mind for putting things together, but try not to make assumptions." The man turned. "Biracial... are you a racist? Pfffft... at least the kid is funny."
Simon quirked an eyebrow at the strange implications of that. "...okay... so what IS a bichromatic?" He muttered, mostly to himself, as he followed behind the man.