The Rise Of The Consortium

"They're not technically dead. At least I won't say that." the doctor's voice brought her from her train of thought. "Don't tell anyone. No one would believe since there's no proof," he said carefully. "I wish the technology…." and his voice trailed off as Rio got lost in her thoughts.

Her nose felt uncomfortable as she took a deep breath. She closed her eyes trying to remember any images of her father she might have seen. She never found a photo in her home. Neither her mother talked about it. When did it happen? And how? Who knows about it? The first time she heard about it was from Kner. Since that time she wanted to ask her mother. But who knew she would feel so traumatized to even talk about it.

If he is here, shouldn't she look for him on her own? Why bother anyone when everyone is sad? I want to see that stranger. He could tell me where my father is exactly. Just when she looked up searching around her frantically, the device on her wrist started vibrating.

"..... the case of these snatched." these were the words that she had heard from the doctor. It seemed like he talked a lot about the 'trailed' she missed when her mind went astray. She clutched her device to keep it stable. The doctor had stopped speaking."The blaring thing again." he showed distastefulness finding that notorious device in everyone's hand.

"Looks like you're running out of time." How true! Just when he spoke, the device started beeping like a typical alarm clock. Rio was beyond shocked and pressed it, to stop its sound from spilling in the silent room. But stubborn in its functioning, it rang no matter from which direction she tried to cover it. She realized that it had no sound outlet.

Her heart was uneasy finding this unexpected function of the device. She couldn't understand what to do. She got up while her eyes went towards its screen which flashed with the timer that showed it was over. She remembered that she only had fifteen minutes to stay in the hospital when there's no task for her.

"I'm sorry." she tried to say but realized it was in vain as other voices faded in front of this alarm. The doctor waved his hands as if to say, "It's ok" while trying to cover his ears from the noise. Feeling embarrassed, she ran out of the room. She felt sad as she couldn't say a simple sorry to the doctor, as this device caused enough damage. A sorry wasn't enough for such a nuisance.

Fighting everyone's stares on the way, she managed to get out of the hospital door. It stopped blaring once her feet stepped outside the hospital ground. She leaned against the wall to catch up with her breath. Passersby still stared at her, whether in amus.e.m.e.nt or suspicion, she couldn't tell.

The doctor told her enough, she can find the rest on her own, if only her memory stayed intact in her mind. She raised her hand towards her which had the device on the wrist and wrote a few important words in the notepad.