Chapter 6

Save Me, Chad (6)
:Five Needles

“Wait, by what you said just now, does that mean we’re paired together here?”

“I’m not sure, the higher-ups are in charge of making those decisions and where you live.”

“Then why are you doing this?”
“What do you mean?”

“When you said that you’d help me with whatever I wanted, even if it puts your life in danger. Honestly there’s no need for you to do any of that.”

“You could’ve chosen to kill me, but you saved me.”

“I almost killed you.”
“Well, whatever.”
Sarah spoke again before leaving the room.

“You’re free to believe me, and free to take your chances. Regardless, McBride has no intention of letting you get considering knowing how to handle a firearm.”

“What do you-”

As Jane was about to ask what Sarah meant by that, she had already left through the iron door. Jane could only ruffle her hair as she stared at the thick door which firmly stayed shut.

***

Time passed and eventually her tanned skin gradually returned to her natural light tone and the white patch of skin on her wrist, presumably from a wristwatch, was now impossible to point out.

“McBride has no intention of letting you get considering knowing how to handle a firearm.”

Sarah Stula’s words were like a catalyst.

“Are you going to leave?”
Sarah looked down curiously as she asked. There on the concrete floor, Jane was practising pushups.

“Yes.”

Jane pushed upwards for the hundredth time and pulled herself up. Clearing her throat, she spoke in a deeper voice.
“You said it last time.”
“Said what.”
“As if knowing how to handle a gun is such an impressive thing.”

“Did something cross your mind?”
“Yeah.”

A constitutional right that is enjoyed by all citizens of the United States. It has been a century since the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms was repealed.

After Sarah left that day, Jane had scoured her memory, she felt as though she was chewing on a piece of incredibly tough meat with her teeth yet failing to leave a dent. Fortunately, she managed to recover a small fragmented piece of her memory that was buried in her memory.

When the 35th President came to power, the appointed judges of the Supreme Court had a different interpretation of the Second Amendment. The phrase was previously interpreted as ‘the right of the people’ and was reinterpreted as ‘only the armed forces may keep, bear, and use arms.’ The new interpretation made it so ‘only the military can own, carry, and use weapons.’

Jane could not help but remember the grip of Chad’s pistol and the fire that had lit up inside her when handling it. A ridiculous feeling when she held a grip, and a vivid reminder of a time when gun ownership was illegal.

“I must’ve been some soldier, or a member of an organisation inhabiting a lawless zone.”

This was the conclusion Jane came to after much consideration.

A few days ago, Jane had asked Sarah for a piece of paper and a pen. Then she placed the kitchenette table she used to eat on the floor and squatted in front of it, scribbling furiously at something.

She started drawing out the outline of U.S. territory then drawing horizontal and vertical lines to divide the states before trying to recognise the memories associated with each state. Her accent was clearly American but strangely enough, she had a hard time remembering anything about the United States.

Jane continued expanding the map, just in case that would help. She started drawing the seven major sections, including Antarctica, and wrote down the names of the five great oceans in between.

“Hmm. You did a way better job than I would’ve thought.”

As she admired the map, which was drawn in a higher quality than necessary, Jane snapped back to attention. Closing her eyes she traced the seven continents with her fingertips, obsessively searching through her foggy mind.

Jane was not surprised. She could remember close to nothing, except a vague memory where as she passed north of Afghanistan and southwest of Asia, she had felt an unpleasant pounding and tingling sensation in her chest. Her finger lingered for a while as she clutched at her head, but even that only caused a small droplet of sweat, the size of an ant, to fall.

To think that she would have come to such a place and begged to be saved, only to be stuck in a room all day long, from the time she woke up in the morning till she fell asleep at night. Is such a thing called living? Will she really figure herself out even after a lot of time passes?

Time is not a cure-all miracle.

How can humans who carry illegal items like guns pose such a threat to them? At this point, she could not even tell whether her imprisoner, McBride, was an ally or a threat. Was there even a threat to her life in the very beginning? Does that threat still exist even now?
Jane could not help but grow even more frustrated at the person who had written the note in the first place. Her mind was filled with questions and there was no more information she could dredge up currently. At this point her only option was the escape, regardless of whatever outcome that action might bring about.

Sarah was staring at Jane who was lost in her own thoughts when she noticed a piece of paper by the foot of the bed. It was the same paper that Jane had been hunched over and scribbling on for the past few days. Collecting the empty bowl on the table, Sarah picked up the paper as well.
“…What? Wow!”

Sarah Stula, who had held onto her calm even when held at gunpoint, could not help but exclaim when she saw the paper. She clamped her hand over her mouth and surveyed the front side of the paper before turning it 180 degrees and looking at the back.

Wondering what was wrong with Sarah,  Jane walked over, wiping away the sweat from her brow as she asked, “Why?” Sarah smiled back delightfully, as if having finally obtained a clue in a mystery that has had her on her toes for a long while.

“Huh what?”
“What?”

“Ah, uh… Did you draw this yourself?”

Jane glanced at the pen on her bedside table before turning back to Sarah, winking. As if laughing at her for asking the obvious.

Sarah paused for a moment, then called out to Jane, telling her to wait with a more excited than usual voice before she quickly scurried out the door. She returned shortly afterward, breathing heavily.

“This…!”

Sarah has printed out a picture of the world map that she found on the Internet. She had also magnified Jane’s version of the world map as they laid both out.

Noticing Jane’s still puzzled expression, Sarah pulled out five needles from her pocket and tore out their wrappers. She then spoke, “This is the United Kingdom of Great Britain” before taking the first needle and stabbing it through the paper.

“This is Korea.”
The second needle.

“The Republic of Panama.”
The third needle.

“Falkland Islands.”
The fourth needle.

“Sicily Island”
And the last needle was poked in.

“The locations that I’ve pierced are all random.”
“Alright, and so?”
“Now look, Jane.”

Sarah took out the needles and pulled out Jane’s drawing from underneath. The puncture marks represented the borders of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of Panama, the Falkland Islands, and Sicily Island.”

The map that Jane had drawn was incredibly accurate even without the help of a reference. “So you must be wondering what the big deal is.” Sarah continued as Jane slowly blinked her eyes, trying to process what was happening.

“You have an unusual knack for this.”

“I must’ve drawn this exceptionally well, huh?”
Jane said, scratching her cheek, mentioning how she was just trying to draw as best as she could. Then, as a way to organise her thoughts, she started taking note of the other small intricacies between the two maps as she spoke.

“I doubt I’d be able to hold my own against a man, but I think I can against a woman. I know how to use a gun and am pretty good at drawing. I also do not have any information in government databases, making it almost certain that I’m not an ordinary person, but at least this somewhat narrows down ‘my’ identity.”

“This all sounds too confusing for me, but are you sure you want to leave it at that?”

Sarah asked calmly.

“I can’t just keep hanging around like this. I have no way of knowing whether the outside is dangerous or not, so I’ll just have to get out just to get a chance at grasping straws.”

“Is there any way I can help?”

“Are you really going to betray your family?”

‘I don’t believe this counts as a betrayal.”

“Then, are you going to stab me in the back?”

“I’ve told you before that day, it is up to you whether you want to believe me or not, all I can tell you is-”

Sarah’s word was cut off as Jane gave her a serious look.

“Just let me get out of here. That’s all I need. I don’t care if you betray me after that or not, you want to live, right? Then I’ll beat you up. You can use the excuse of me beating you up and then making a break for it, how does that sound?”

“Don’t make it too painful.”

Sarah seemed to say it in a joking manner but she could not help but let a bit of her sincerity seep through. On her slender body, there really was nowhere Jane could hit without causing quite a bit of pain.

***

Three more days passed. By the time the turkey in Jane’s lunch sandwich had been mostly digested. The heavy iron gates quietly swung open.

From the corner of her eye, Jane noticed that Sarah had entered the room. Nonetheless, she continued holding a handstand until her hands pulsed red. Sarah raised out her index finger and brought it to her lips making a ‘shhh’ sound before saying “Hurry, take it off!”