Retrospect

Twenty-three

   Miles joined the others and went straight to sleep as soon as we got back. I, however, opened the bathroom door and stepped inside, the white lights on the ceiling almost burning my eyes out. I made sure to lock the door just before I turned to examine the shower. It was never too late to take one.

It looked to be the same model as the shower at my apartment. I didn't even know if I could still call it my apartment anymore. The voice of the shower brought me back to reality. "You are 23% clean," it informed, "would you like to take a refreshing shower?"

I didn't answer right away. A slot in the wall opened up, revealing several different shampoos and conditioners. The shower continued. "These are part of the endless supply of bathroom products Sera Apartment Building Two receives, generously providing each room with only the most wonderful scents for—"

"I'll take the shower," I interrupted, the shower immediately beeping as it processed my command.

The shower buzzed then and waited a few seconds before responding. "Okay, the water is heating up to a reasonable temperature. In the meantime, I would like to suggest a few scents for you to try," it suggested. "There are three scents: cookies and cream, cinnamon, and raspberries."

The last shampoo scent immediately reminded me of Miles and although raspberries smelled great, it felt weird to me to use it after Miles had said he liked them so much. "I'll take the cinnamon shampoo," I decided finally, the shower ringing again to confirm my choice.

The shower's glass door whooshed open and warm water rained down inside. I let my bag drop to the ground from my shoulder, my eyes never leaving the sparkling, clear water tempting me. I was a little wary of getting in, but like it had said, I was 23% percent clean and I definitely felt like it. The shower had told me it would go through with the "full showering experience" (whatever that meant) but to me this was just a chance to forget everything that was happening while taking in the smell of cinnamon and feeling fresh water. It was really all I could ask for.

• • •

After around fifteen minutes of washing my hair, enveloped in the steam rising up around me, the water shut off and the shower handed me a towel. I wrapped it around myself and stepped out, cool air greeting me at once. Shivering, I stared at my reflection in the mirror. The shower's programmed voice announced, "You are now 99% clean!"

I had kind of hoped I was just 1% more than that, but I didn't get back in to try to change that. Instead, I thought about what Miles and I had witnessed tonight. What were the officers doing to the dead bodies of those people from the skyscraper? Maybe they were in the process of taking them to Hale to extract their memories. But what were the officers doing to that person in the alleyway, sticking something into their head?

I rubbed my eyes, my hair dripping water onto the floor. I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was go to sleep and forget everything that I'd seen. I knew whatever the workers and officers were doing was far from good. We had to stop them, before they did anything else.

I huffed out a breath and changed into my dirty clothes again, the only ones I had. It felt terrible to be clean, then put on something that I'd been wearing for four days now that had been soaked in the unclean water of the city. But I couldn't argue since I had nothing else to wear. I didn't bother brushing my hair out, so I left the bathroom as the light clicked off automatically and I slung my bag over my shoulder.

Again, only one dim lamp in the room was left on, a tiny circle of light in the corner amidst the grainy darkness. I retreated to where I'd slept last night and slid down the wall, hugging my knees pulled close to me.