“What I know is that my name is piper. It used to be Sadie. That was before I wanted to be a boy. I’m still a girl though, because something got in the way, other than my parents disagreeing with me. All I know is whispering into an earpiece saying that I’d ‘caught golf’.” Hammie had to digest a lot of information. “But why the lavender?” “That was my code name. Someone addressed me as lavender in the earpiece.” “What do you think this means?” Hammie turned his back to me. He was pulling out a flower. “I don’t think it’ll work on you. I had a personal connection with it. Plus, why are we in the field? This seems so un-canonical. Like a fan fiction or something.” Hammie slowly put the flower back. “Yeah. Plus, where’s Noel?” “I don’t know, he was always the quiet type.” A lightbulb seemed to go on in Hammie’s Head. “He mentioned when we worked on the cloud thing that he thought the palm tree looked familiar.” They rushed to a pond with a palm tree nearby, where Noel was sitting in a boat. “I 🌩⬅️😷😴😵😢🤯” He seemed to be cranking the emote translator he has more than usual. Only one word this time. “Let me see... Thunder traveled back in time to when you were sick, and it made you sleepy. Then you woke up , everyone’s dead, you weep, and the... apocalypse?” Zoe sighed. “Hammie can never translate him. What he means is that he had a flashback. he used to be a doctor, then he slept, somehow died in his sleep. He thinks it’s sad and mind-blowing.” She seems to fit in well with the MIT update. “Yeah. That seems right. He did solve the focus puzzle, so it doesn’t seem too far off track.” I hated it. Every word I was saying. Because I’d just lied to someone I trust. That was a lie. The birthday was a lie. The IQ test was a lie because They don’t even exist in Remia. Noel is a lie. Being there up until the first puzzle was a lie. Hammie’s sister is a lie. Mama and papa circle is a lie. It’s like I’m living a life of lying to them using these fake memory implanters in their shoulders. Because that’s exactly what it is. I hate lying about who I am. But it’s okay. Because all I have to do is lie and gain trust until field 7. Watson hasn’t even told me his real name, though he says he will soon. Hammie has my secret in lock and key though it’s the worst lock ever made. But field 7 is where my hopes are set. Because that’s when we escape.