Ralphie coughed a couple of times as he woke up. The air was thick and soupy, filled with dusk particles. His face was covered, but he could see the speckled sunlight shine through the bandage covering his face. He was moving as he could hear the hum of the car's motor and feel the vibrations through his back. He was upside down, strung up, as he could feel gravity pull him towards the ground that would end in death.

  Ralphie could feel the blood rushing towards his face as the car didn't seem to be changing course. What had happened, he knew that this was real; it was no longer the melt. Everything was way too pungent for this not to be real, Ralphie thought. But this was the plan that they had set up for themselves. But it begged the question of how he had ended up there, and where was Leon? Ralphie felt something nudge his leg.

  “Stay still,” Ralphie heard Leon’s muffled voice. After a couple more minutes, the car finally began to slow down before coming to a halt. The break allowed Ralphie to nudge his blind fold with his shoulder just enough so that he could peek through it. He was staring at the reddish dirt on the ground. When he tilted his head to the side, he could make out a fence on one side with two pairs of feet around twenty feet away. Based on the boots, they must be guards. On his other side was Leon, hooked to the bottom of the car by the same chains that held up Ralphie.

  The truck began moving again until the dirt that Ralphie was looking at turned to cement, and the bright sunlight turned into an iridescent white. The truck screeched to a halt before the door of the car opened up. A pair of boots hopped out of the car, and a hand reached underneath the truck and pulled on a latch connected to the chains. Leon and Ralphie both fell to the floor.

  They groaned as they slid out from underneath the truck.

  They were inside a large room filled to the brim with identical trucks that all had the landmark white and gold paint job. The room was completely deserted, with not a single soul in sight. There were also almost a hundred lockers, all filled with guns.

  “Hey Ralphie, your uncle's pretty sweet,” Leon said from across the truck. Each of them was covered from head to toe in a guard outfit with their faces covered in slick black masks.

  The man walked up to Ralphie and stuck out his hand, chuckling to himself softly, “Uncle Jedd, nice to meet you again. Hopefully this time you won’t run off on me again.” his voice was still cold and wispy. “Why didn’t you just start off with that?” Ralphie asked in disbelief.

  “I had to make sure I could trust you; you were raised by puppets. It's been a long, long time since I was able to come out of hiding. And it's good that I did.” Uncle Jedd said.

  Leon pat Ralphie on the back, “It's true. I saw the whole thing unravel in the Melt last night.”

  Jedd looked over at Ralphie, “You know the truth, but your subconscious has been hiding it from you.

  Ralphie realized that he had been out much longer than Leon had. He swung his attention back to Jedd. “After all these years, you just let me live in a lie.” Ralphie pushed Jedd, but he hardly moved. “I’ve been living with Puppets my entire life?”

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  Jedd looked sad as he saw Ralphie's aggression, “I couldn’t come back, Chuck Thorne. In some ways, he wasn’t wrong; you deserved a good childhood. I did come back once to see my sister, but she didn’t recognize me and didn't know who I was. I realized that I had lost her. But you were young enough to still believe she was your mother. I couldn’t take you. To Chuck Thorne's credit, he did keep some of his promises. He made them still sceptical of The Minds. But he made it so that they would trust him regardless of anything. So I thought you would turn out the same. That's why I led you to discover the truth for yourself.”

  “You should have just told me,” Ralphie said, snarling at Jedd.

  “Would you have believed me?” Ralphie thought for a second before coming to the conclusion that he would probably not.

  Leon motioned for Ralphie to follow him. They walked to the back of the truck, pulling out the guns from the back of the car, and handing one to Ralphie. Leon also pulled out the blue pistol that Kerney had given to him, handing it to Ralphie.

  “You take this as how you will get into the building. There’s a tracker in the Handel, Jedd, and I already have trackers in our suits.”

  Ralphie gripped the gun, and it felt good in his hands. Ralphie pulled out his father's gun from his pocket. “Here, take this then, you can only load one bullet at a time, but it packs a punch.”

  Uncle Jedd took a peek at the gun as Ralphie handed it to Leon, raising his eyebrow at the bleeding black handle.

  “I can’t believe that's still around. You have to be careful with that gun. Only use it in the last-ditch situation.” Uncle Jedd grabbed a gun for himself out of the back of the truck. “We have to hurry, there's a light rail that connects this warehouse to the main building. We have to be quiet and remain undetected. Follow me.”

  There was an elevator in the back of the room. Jedd walked up to the door, and it opened in front of him automatically.

  “It was a good thing that I found you that morning, Leon was just coming out of the Melt, and Ralphie was still in it. Raiders came in the morning and tore up the hotel.”

  Just then, Ralphie remembered what had happened on the Melt; the whole thing was fuzzy, a dream that was slipping away. He recalled the shock of Dullahan plunging the knife into his chest.

  Ralphie looked at Leon, concerned, “He stabbed me here. He said, pointing to a spot in his chest.”

  Jedd looked at Ralphie, “What do you mean you saw Dullahan while you were on melt?”

  Ralphie nodded and explained the chip in Leon's head. Hesitating before telling it would kill Leon if they didn’t take it out. But it could also kill him regardless.

  Uncle Jedd looked concerned. He reached over and grabbed the back of Leon’s head. There was a small bump.

  “Can you feel that?” Uncle Jedd asked. Leon shook his head. “It’s an implant in your head, it's been allowing a version of Dullahan to seep into your subconscious.” The elevator door opened to what looked like a workshop. People were walking around, all wearing the same uniforms and the same masks.

  Jedd lowered his voice, “Leon, have you noticed anything different lately?”

  Leon scratches the back of his head. The implant was very subtle, and he wouldn’t have noticed it if he had not been told. “I’ve been having nightmares.” Leon admitted rather sheepishly.

  ”We need to get the implant removed; we're likely walking into a trap,” Jedd said. “But it's too late now, there's no going back,”

  Jedd took a step out of the elevator, motioning Ralphie and Leon to follow him. The lights above were a mix of yellow and orange tint, lighting up everything with an eerie shine. Ralphie took a step out and immediately bumped into one of the CelTec workers who was in a hurry. The worker shrugged it off and kept on walking. It was impossible to tell who was who as everyone looked identical.”

  Leon leaned in close to Ralphie, “Stay close to me, I can guide us through with The Minds.” They weaved in and out of people traveling in all directions until Jedd motioned towards a room. The Room was labeled, Medical Bay, in bright gold letters. Jedd turned towards them, “Follow my lead.”

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