Retrospect

Fifty-one

Two officers willingly ushered Murl, Miles, Ana, Malachi, and I out of the heavily guarded Hale main entrance, into the glaring sunlight blanketing the city streets. People were everywhere, packed tightly on the street and crowding around outside of the building, all conversing and pointing at us emerging. They went crazy and started pushing forwards desperately, questions upon questions flying from their mouths.

What were they all doing here? I wondered, gaze wandering over the mob of people.

"Quiet!" an officer shouted into a megaphone, his voice crackling over the commotion. "Please! Be quiet!"

All of the talking fizzled out and a hush fell over the street as the people listened, thousands of pairs of eyes blinking and waiting impatiently. A few air taxis honked in the distance, but other than that, Laurier Section was completely quiet. "Alright," the officer said, "who has a question?"

Every person's hand shot up. What were they going to ask? Why were they all here? Did they know what was going on? I looked to the officer and he frowned, unsure about how to handle the situation.

Ana took it upon herself to point to a man at the front of the sea of citizens. "Yes, you?"

"What's really inside Hale?" the man asked, though it sounded more like a demand.

It was hard to tell whose side the civilians were on. On all of the broadcasts in the city, I was painted out to be a criminal, someone who shouldn't be trusted and had an appealing bounty on her head, and the others were experienced thieves.

"Inside Hale," Murl was the one to answer, "there's this cube." Everyone seemed to lean in closer, eyes wide with anticipation. "It's this giant cube," he corrected, "and it has these chips. Not just the ones from the people that have already passed on but...well..." Murl struggled to go on. The people were fully aware that Hale extracted memories from the dead, however, they knew nothing about the stealing of memories from the living.

"But what?" the man pressed.

I breathed in then and forced the words from my mouth this time. "Hale's been removing memories from innocent people. People who are alive," I told them. A collective gasp escaped the crowd and the street broke out in chaos once again.

"I knew it! Didn't I tell you?! None of you believed me!" Someone shouted aggressively. "Hey! Whose memories do they have down there?!"

"We're not sure, but there are a lot. Each chip has a number," Ana replied.

A group of officers (all with numbers on their uniforms) who clearly hadn't had their memories restored approached on the other side of the crowd, pushing to split up the mass of people. "What's going on here? Move it!" they barked. One of them turned and their mask faced my direction, spotting me.

"Cory Cavey! It's her! And the others too! Get them!" the officer ordered, storming through the ocean of people and even knocked down a woman with her child. My heart skipped a beat as they neared us, holding up handcuffs lined with blades around the inside.

However, the two officers that had brought us outside stepped forward and pointed their guns at the opposing side. "Stop right there! Now!" they commanded.

This made the three Hale officers do just that, halting where they were. One of them drew their weapon and growled, "Are you stupid? What are you doing?"

There was a long silence between the two sides until the officers beside me removed their masks. "030," one of them addressed a shorter Hale officer, "it's me, 044."

"I see that," Officer 044 hissed, "but again, what are you doing? You're supposed to help us bring them," they gestured to the five of us, "in."