Into the Mind

      The job was simple. Approve or deny entry into the government’s underground base. That’s what they had said. It was mostly people who were of high officials, so my co-worker, Harriet, would look over their stuff and let them in. She was basically my superior as she was supposed to show me the ropes, but she took most control anyway. I knew how to do the job from what she told me, but I would have never expected this. 

We get people who are Elite rankings, people who are in charge. It was only a few days that I had been there and it was only Elites coming in. I found that a little odd, but obviously it had to change sometime.

      Someone we hadn’t recognized came to the entry way. As Harriet was going to check his stuff, she called me over. 

      “There is this special procedure we do in order to check if the people who are trying to enter are who they say they are. We only do this with personnel who don’t have a ranking over E,” is what she said. The man looked nervous as he kept scanning the area for a way out, but the intimidating security guard had a reassuring look, like he had seen this many times. 

      “I’m going in with you first time, but after this you are on your own.” What the hell was she saying? What is there to go into? With a rhythm of taps, we were in darkness. Panicking, I start frantically screaming for Harriet when I feel a strong hand grasp my shoulder. I let a sigh of relief only to tense back up. 

      “Where the fuck are we?” 

      “Don’t soil your panties. It’s just protocol.”

      “You that like this is normal!” I yell. “What about this is normal?”

      Ignoring what I said she speaks, “like you know you signed a contract which had listed that anything you witness is confidential. That contract was also attached to a waiver meaning we are not responsible for your death.” She paused. 

      “That’s enough with the stupid legality. This is the Hub. Boring name, not my choice; this is where we have access to the memories of each personnel. This one we can tell goes by the name Yuri Roldöf, a G ranking. By the tell of this place, this man is boring with no creativity.” I stared blankly. 

      She clicks her tongue, “I can read basic information from him. His mind eye isn’t well closed. He’s a general in the 79th guard.”

      “How can you tell that? Are you...” I lower my voice. “Are you a government experiment?” 

      “No, creep. You’ll learn how to do this too. You see, this is a system we, the government, were use by compressing a chip in every member’s brain, and yes you have one too. There is a certain pattern and you have to be in range that causes the chip to react with our own, sending us into their Hub. 

      “It’s lodged into the hippocampus, the part of your brain that lets you remember shit. We were able to trigger an electrical shock to send his brainwaves to ours or something. 

      “You would be dumb to think that it was OUR scientists who came up with this. I don’t know the details, but it’s either another nation is using some weird mumbo jumbo or alien shit. I vote alien shit.” She took a deep breath. “I’m no scientist, that’s all I know, now can we please get started?” She completely lost me, and I stood there dumbfounded with so many different questions. 

      “What are we even looking for?”

      “We have to go into the deepest part of his memories to find anything that is locked away that he could be hiding.” Marching along, the darkness cleared up. It was bland and there was no way to keep track on where we were going, so I blindly followed Harriet. 

      She opened up a door which changed the whole surroundings around us. There was a nice summer breeze and for a second, I really thought it was real. He heard yelling in the distance. There was Yuri, doing push-ups. 

      Harriet turned to me, “this is a basic memory, we don’t really want to spend to much time in here because—well it’s just a waste of our time. Probably something happens during his training. Not what we are looking for.” Like that, she breaks the illusion and we are back in the empty hallways. “This man is boring for his mind space.” She says picking up her speed to a speed walk. Baffled, I struggled to keep up. 

      For what seemed like forever, we reach the end of the hallway, where a gigantic metal door stands out. 

      Harriet claps her hands once, causing me to jump. “This is the bad boy!” She whispers of few things under her breath and the door swings open. I then realize that she is a terrible teacher. I’m not learning anything other than the government has HUGE secrets. I’m just traveling along the ride. 

      “Coming, snail?” I grimace in response, but I follow after her. 

      Unlike the last memory, this place feels cold and the air is tense, like a horror movie when you’re ready for the jump scare to pop at you. There’s Yuri; he walks out from a tall building and is walking into an alleyway. We follow behind him. I have the urge to sneak towards him, but Harriet marches straight behind him. 

      “It’s a memory, dumbass.” Yuri starts talking with a man in a huge trench coat. With heavy Russian accents, we listened in. 

      “The girls? They ready?” The man asks, leaning close to Yuri. Yuri snickers. 

      “All in the ship. All the letters to their families have been written, high ransoms to high families.”

      “Let’s not keep the whores waiting then.” I tried to glimpse at Harriet, but I can only see briefly what looks like a twisted face of anger. 

      I’m quickly jolted back out and into the real world. 

      “What a scumbag.” As quickly as I was brought out, Harriet unholsters her gun and shoots Yuri Roldölf straight in the head. His body generates a loud THUMP falling onto the ground and Harriet side glances at me. 

      “This is only the beginning.”