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Being the first to arrive had its advantages. Nora didn’t miss anything, in fact, she was pleasantly surprised to smell coffee.

“Morning sunshine,” John said. “I found the coffee pot and coffee. Grab some.”

“What time did you get up?” she asked.

“I haven’t been to bed,” John replied, “Neither has Grant. Malcolm either. I think he finally powered up the computers. Grant and I got everything logged in storage. You wouldn’t believe the stuff in there.”

“Really?” Nora poured coffee.

“It’s like they have enough stuff for each one of us to survive longer than the three days remaining on the door.”

“What about your locker?”

“I found my key,” John lifted it. “But I was going to wait until everyone was ready. I figured we’d all do it together.”

Nora absorbed her first sip of coffee. It was an instant fix. Suddenly, that slight headache she carried with her all day long, started to fade. “I’m a caffeine junkie,” she said.

“So you got your memory back.”

“No. I don’t remember anything. Just the way this coffee is making me feel, I am betting I’m a coffee drinker.”

“I know I was.”

“Where are you from, John? New York?”

“No. Connecticut. So if we are still in New York, then I don’t have far to travel to get back home.”

“Have you given any more thought as to why we could be here?”

“I have. But all of them are just theories.”

“Hence,” The woman’s voice entered the room. “My specialty.”

It was Meredith, she pointed to the coffee. “May I?”

“Please.” Nora said.

“I’m sorry for intruding. But I know what I did. I was a teacher, a professor at Yale. That’s about where my memory stops, but I know that to be certain.”

“Theoretical physics?” John asked.

“No, A professor of Evolution Psychology and Epistemology. Which is …”

John stated, “The study of knowledge. The theory of thought process. So in a nutshell you are a people expert in how people evolve, think, and act.”

“Exactly.”

“Wow.” John stepped back. “That just adds a lot to this mess. I think knowing everyone’s field will help. I wrote science fiction. Then again, I wrote science fiction based on fact and circumstances of the now.”

Nora scratched her head. “All of this is foreign to me. I don’t know what I did.”

“I do,” Another voice entered the room. It was Amy. “I’m a scientist. More so an Astronomer, particularly the sun and the study of solar storms. . I know that. I study storms. In particular odd weather patterns brought on by the sun.”

Nora crinkled her brow. “A scientist. A writer. Malcolm says he did computers or so he thinks. Grant is a musician. Jason is a preacher. What do we all have in common?”

“Easy,” Meredith replied as she took a sip of her coffee. “We all contribute to the factors to what makes society civilized. And that my friend is a big clue as to why we are here.”

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The president was crying; sobbing more like it, at least that was the observation Jason gave when he arrived with Grant. He told how they stopped to see President Thomas and the president was distraught.

“He lifted his hand to me,” Jason said. “And told me to give him a minute. I told him where we were and what we were doing.”

Cynically, John stated. “He knows. He remembers. He probably remembers it all. My memory was good when I woke. Jason? Yours?”

“It was weird,” Jason replied. “When I woke up, I was blasted by it. Everything. Almost every detail. It now is real to me, unlike yesterday where I didn’t know if it was a dream or not.”

“Same with me,” Amy said. “Foggy yesterday. Real today.”

“But …” Meredith spoke. “Do any of us remember the events that led us to right here? Right now.  I don’t.”

No one replied.

“I didn’t think so,” Meredith said.

“But that is why we’re here,” John rebutted. “Let’s tell our stories. Let’s put them together. Maybe if each of us remember a piece of the puzzle, combined we can figure out the chain events.” He stepped away briefly, and returned with Malcolm. “We appreciate,” John said. “You taking time away to do this.”

“I’m kinda in the zone but that’s fine.” Malcolm took a seat.

“We were opening up discussion on who we are, what we did and what we remember,” John said. “Trying to piece it together. All of us …” He looked at Nora. “Most of us,” he corrected. “Woke up with clarity to about 90 percent of our lives.”

“I know I did,” Malcolm stated. “I woke up knowing a lot. My wife’s name, my children, my job. I am from New York. City. But we had just moved to Boulder. I’m an inventor. I started with computer chips and my biggest to date is … well, was, who knows, the bio cam.”

Everyone looked at him.

Using his hand to demonstrate, Malcolm explained. “It’s slightly bigger than a golf ball. It looks like one, the ribbed surface, but all those ridges, are cameras. Lasers. The bio cam is placed in a room, pretty much unnoticed. It does a three-sixty-camera camera, but while it does, it is looking for increased heart rates, out of place body temperatures and if it finds any, the camera will lock in.”

“Holy cow,” Nora sat back, amazed. “That’s unreal.”

“Yeah, it was my contribution to stopping terrorism. The main frame is not on site, so even if the cam is destroyed the footage can be retrieved. Maybe the monitors can pick up a threat before it happens,” Malcolm said. “I remember everything up to being at the Astoria. An event, a big one, and my camera was making its debut. Actually three of them were placed throughout the hotel. I was asked to bring it and monitor it on site, but my onsite computers weren’t their only hub. Footage is somewhere in Cleveland. Anyhow, things were going. Someone was speaking, I wasn’t paying attention to that. I was focused more on the two men in the back of the room. The bio cam picked up their heart rate, body temperature, they were abnormal readings. I wasn’t watching the speaker and when they left, the ground shook. Things fell, there was panic.”

Nora said, “The explosion you mentioned.”

“Yes,” Malcolm nodded. “It happened fast, just as I registered something had happened outside the ball room, they were escorting people out. I remember thinking, ‘oh, yeah, bet bio cam B caught the culprit’, then I got dizzy. I started to pass out. I noticed a lot of people were falling. Gas leak. Gas attack. Those were my thoughts and that was the last I recall.”

Grant spoke up. “The passing out, I remember. The explosion is … faint. I was in the ballroom. That is clear. I play with the New York Symphony. I was asked to play with my strongest string quartet. We received a lot of money to do so. I don’t do shows such as that, but my father coordinated the event so I did it for him. Everything else before that, I recall.”

Amy lifted her hand to speak. “I remember the explosion. Well, I didn’t feel it.  I was at the Astoria as well.” Her eyes shifted about as she spoke. “I wasn’t at an event. I was actually at a conference. My room at a much cheaper hotel had a problem and the management put me up at the Astoria. I remember thinking how I lucked out. How I was going to embrace every moment in this plush hotel away from my children. I was asleep. Two men pounded on my door, they were wearing masks. I don’t know anything after that.”

Jason spoke. “I don’t remember the explosion. I know I was nervous. I got a call to do the prayer and introduction at a big awards ceremony. The whole thing is sketchy. My life before that isn’t. But the event is.”

“That would have been my event,” John said. “I was there for a prestigious writing award. My vision of the future from reality based science fiction. It is up there with the Pulitzer, the event was at the Astoria. So at least four of us remember being there.”

“Five,” Meredith said. “I was there. I was at the awards. My current lecture tour dealt with where the human race would be in fifty years if it follows the current path of economy, population, and so forth. It was frightening and I, too, had just won an award and that’s why I was invited to attend. So that leaves you …” She turned to Nora.

Nora tossed up her hands. “I’m blank. I know my name and that I am from Ohio. I am certain I have a husband and kids. But I don’t remember them any more than if I dreamt them. I don’t feel them. A part of me knows I was in New York, but again, it’s like a dream. Real? Not real? That’s how it feels. It’s frustrating because I was one of the first ones awake. Here’s something odd …” She shuffled in her chair. “I keep thinking I’m funny. Like …” she crinkled her brow. “Like I am a really funny person. I’m remembering myself being full of life … funny.”

John cleared his throat. “Don’t take this as an insult. Based on how you are now, that may be the dream portion of your memory.”

“No,” Malcolm snapped his finger. “No, it’s not. It’s not. You are. You are funny. I knew you looked familiar. You do a feature once a week on Late Night with Johnny Cramer. You do insane dares. That portion is a huge part of your life. You are funny.”

Unexpectedly, Nora heard John’s voice in her head.

“
Aren’t you just funny,” John said.

Nora looked over to John and she saw him, not at that moment, but in the ballroom, wearing a tuxedo.

She heard her own laughter.

“
Pretending not to know the guest of honor,”
he said, reaching out, grabbing her arm in a flirtatious way.

Nora stood, her heart raced.

“Nora?” Jason called out.

Instantly, her mind was filled with images, a fast moving pictorial slideshow that played in her head quickly. With each fast beat of her heart, came that sensation of ‘knowing’ and ‘feeling’ that Nora fought to gain.

It was there. She had it. She got it.

Not only was she mentally barreled over, it physically caused her to stumble back and fall to the ground.

Suddenly Nora remembered, she remembered everything.

“You’re crazy, you know that, right?” It was Liza. Her friend of twenty years. Liza always went with Nora when she had her appearance on the late night show.

“This is perfect,” Nora said, placing her outfit neatly on the bed. “I mean, seriously, how often is it that we stay here?”

“Yeah, well there’s that UN Conference in town, so everything affordable is booked, but this is not your excuse to take advantage.”

“Um, hello, yeah it is. Johnny will love it if I pull it off.”

“He knows?” Liza asked.

“Yep. Where do you think I got the dress? Network props.” One arm crossed over her waist, Nora stared at the long black evening dress. It wasn’t what she normally would wear for one of her outrageous dares. Usually she wore everyday clothing.  In fact the dare wasn’t even a ‘dare’ submitted to her, Nora thought of it herself, inspired by the sign when she walked into the Astoria lobby.

The Galloway Award Dinner and Ceremony.

She was going to crash it.

“I just have to figure out where to put the camera,” Nora said. “The dress is kind of  ...”

“Skimpy?”

“Yes.”

“Go. Go make a final pass through, I’ll figure it out and then you need to get dressed.”

It was a good idea. Typically Nora had her ‘dares’ set up in advance, but seeing how it was last minute, she wanted to make another rehearsal pass.

She took the elevator down to the lobby, found her way to the grand ballroom, and did a slow inconspicuous walk by of the table.

Perfect gold name cards were being placed out. Hundreds of them. Nora was certain one of those people wouldn’t up. She just hoped it wasn’t Wallace Hinstrom, one of the names on the cards. Not that she couldn’t pull it off, but it would be tough.

“Are you attending?” A male voice asked.

Busted.

“Yes,” Nora smiled. “I am. I was curious though, what time do they close the doors. I have meeting and I am going to be cutting it close.”

“Doors close at eight PM. That’s when cocktail hours begins.”

“Thank you, I should be here long before that.” In actuality, Nora wouldn’t be there too long before that. To successfully sneak in, she’d have to cut it close.

Her plan was to be some sort of writer, telling a different tale of who she was, to each person she met. See how far she could take it and their reactions to what she said. If it didn’t work or it failed she still had the library prostitute dare she could do.

She got dressed, and planned to arrive their fifteen minutes before the doors closed. She would do a quick scan of the place cards, claim one and go in. However the elevator was taking far too long. When it finally arrived, the doors opened and she was greeted with the loudest yawn she ever heard.

“Oh my Goodness, I’m sorry.” The woman said, stepping off.

Nora giggled.  “That was funny. Get some sleep.”

“I will.”

The woman was … an African American woman, still wearing a ‘Hello my name is Amy’ name tag.

No sooner did Nora make it to the first floor, she stepped off and was stopped before she could even get across the lobby.

“Ma’am, just stand here. Please. Thank you.” The man wore a black suit and held out his arm.

“But I need to …”

“One moment,” he said.

Nora looked around. There were many men in suits securing the lobby. Just as she wondered who the ‘big wig’ was, an entourage of people made their way to the exit.

The entourage surrounded the president.

She registered that it was the president, made a mental note of how cool that was and nearly ran across the lobby to the ballroom.

When she arrived they were cleaning up the check in table.

“Miss Rosewood?” The gentleman from early approached her. “Thought you weren’t gonna make it. Talk about cutting it close. You weren’t kidding.”

Nora smiled and accepted the nameplate. “Thank you. I got held up in the lobby.”

He motioned toward the door, “They’ll seat you inside.”

“Thank you again.” Nora stepped into the grand ballroom and was immediately greeted and escorted to a table.

People were mingling. It was cocktail hour and Nora decided to do the same.

As she made her way to the table the beautiful, soft music drew her attention to the stage area, where musicians played. Led by a brilliant pianist.

She placed her small handbag on her chair. There was a lone woman seated at the table fiddling with her phone.

“Meredith, would you like a drink?” a man paused behind phone woman.

The woman on the phone, shook her head, then looked again at Nora as acknowledgment.

Nora passed her a smile, said nothing, and turned. She needed to find someone to engage, and not to mention grab one of those drinks being served.

Looking as if she knew where to go and that she belonged there, she moved through the tables, eyeing a waiter.

Drink. Engage.

Just as she stepped to him, a man cut in front of her. He was preoccupied, holding an earpiece to his ear as he spoke.

“Yeah. No it’s not Charlie, it’s Malcolm.  Get your voices right. Learn who you are talking to. And check on camera B. I’m right under A and …” Malcolm said, then stepped aside, out of her way with an apology.

She nodded ‘No problem. Thank you.”

Finally salvation. The waiter. There was one last drink on his tray and Nora reached for it at the same time as someone else.

“Take it, I am so sorry,” he said. Dashing and handsome. Southern drawl. Perfect hair and smile.

“Really? Thank you.” Nora took the drink. He was perfect. Victim one. “You are?”

“Jason Rudolph. And you are …”

Nora didn’t get to answer, a voice from behind her did.

“Miss Rosewood.” The male voice said.

Damn it, Nora thought. Someone knew her?

“Excuse me,” she said to Jason. Then, with her best smile, she turned.

“Are you Miss Rosewood, I was told you arrived.”

“I am. And you are.”

“Not as funny as you,” he said. “Aren’t you just funny?” He reached out and gingerly took hold of her arm. “Pretending not to know the guest of honor.”

“I am so sorry.” She laid her hand to her chest, while quickly taking a drink and remembering the name of the award winner. “John, right.”

“You got it.” He winked. “This is so interesting. How long has it been, Summer?”

“Hmm. Winter maybe.”

He laughed. “You are funny. It’s not like you to joke about your own name since you are so sensitive about it. How did you say it?” He looked to the ceiling. “I resent my parents for naming me after a season.”

“Ah, Summer. Yes.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “I didn’t think you were coming. I know you’re busy with the newest projects.”

“Busy. Busy. Busy.”

“But I told you ahead of time my wife wasn’t going to be here.”

“That’s too bad, I wanted to meet her.”

John laughed loudly and then turned serious. “Okay. Jig is up. Who are you and why are you pretending to be Summer Rosewood”

“How do you know I’m not?”

“For one, I know Summer. She has red hair. You do not. And second, I certainly would know the woman who has been my mistress for three years.”

Nora gasped. “Wait. Seriously? Or is this a joke for me crashing this event.”

“No, I’m serious.”

“You just blurt it out like that?”

“Well, if you’re gonna crash my event. Doesn’t matter. My wife filed for divorce four months ago...”

“Still. You dick.”

“What?”

“You cheated on your wife for three years.”

“Do I need to call security?”

“Um. No. How about the moral police. Good Lord, mister.”

He laughed again, “Look at you judging when you crashed my event.”

“Um, there’s a bit of a difference between crashing an event and crashing a marriage.”

“Deceit is deceit, don’t you think?”

The microphone squealed just a little and the Master of Ceremonies said, “If I can have everyone return to their seats.”

“I believe you are at my table.” John, with a gentle hand, escorted her.

“Yeah, I’m not your mistress, keep that in mind, so I’m not putting out.”

“Ah, too bad for you.”

Nora opened her mouth to gasp in shock. He had to be joking, but she never found out.

A loud and deafening ‘boom’ resonated through the ballroom and the ground shook.

The entire room erupted with chaos. People screamed and ran about. Security made their way in, yelling out they were escorting people from the hotel.

John actually took interest in holding on to Nora, grasping her arm to see her out.

But he stopped in the middle of the ballroom.

“John?” Nora called him.

His hand released her and he swayed.

“Are you okay?”

“I can’t … I can’t see…” He blinked and then without warning, he toppled to the floor.

Nora shrieked and that was when she noticed, everyone started to drop. Thump. Thump. Thump. as they hit the floor.

Knowing that she had to get out, Nora raced toward the exit, stepping over fallen bodies. She nearly made it before her vision went. Things switched from cloudy to gray to black and then Nora, like John and everyone else, dropped to the floor.

It didn’t end there for her. She woke up to being wheeled down a hall.

She remembered everything. From the moment they put her in the encasement, until they shut out the lights in her room.

It was cold, so cold. She sensed her own heart rate dropping and breathing growing shallow.

This is death, she thought, then closed her eyes. I am dead.

Nora conveyed the entire sequence of events to everyone. It brought about ‘breath holding’ silence as they listened to every detail she recounted.

She snapped out of that memory a different person than the one who woke up in the Genesis unit. Nora knew who she was. Suddenly she felt who she was, she felt changed, and she also knew the reality that she had a family and missed them horribly.

“This is unreal,” Meredith said. “But it makes sense. Complete sense. This is a tank. A survival tank. John, what did the real Summer Rosewood do?”

“She was a scientist. She …”

“Perfect.” Meredith cut him off. “All of us have something to contribute to society. All of us had to have been placed here because there was an event. It makes sense. We are here with supplies to wait out some sort of catastrophic event.”

Jason scoffed. “That’s nonsense. What do I have to contribute?”

“Spirituality,” Meredith argued. “We need to check every locker to find out who was here and let Malcolm get back to cracking that computer.”

“No need,” The president entered the room speaking in a weak voice. It was sluggish, thick with phlegm. He coughed and sniffed. “No need. I remember a lot now. I think I can explain it. Or try.”