Gunnar and Matt had been released into a small apartment for the week with a couple of beds so small that Gunnar had to curl into his, along with a sink and a table that stood upright most of the time. Gunnar traced some of the battle wounds on the cheap, wood table with his finger. He had asked to stay with his sister, but the higher-ups didn't think it was a good idea. It was probably for the best; otherwise, it would have been hard to keep in touch with Matt.

"Do you really think they'll let us leave?" Matt asked as he settled onto the bed. His feet didn't hang over the edge like Gunnar's did.

"Play dumb about that weird stuff ya told me about at work and they might. But I bet if we leave, they'll track us."

"They didn't track --"

Gunnar shushed him in case someone was listening in on their conversation.

"They gonna watch us real close."

A loud rap on the door caused Gunnar's shoulders to tense. Matt's eyes grew wider and he sat up straight. Maybe they'd overheard and he and Matt would both be beaten for information. When Gunnar cracked the door open, Melinda stood there with a few books and papers.

"You lost?" Gunnar asked and pressed himself between the doorframe and the scarcely open door. "I ain't Travis anymore."

"Clearly," Melinda said looking over the ratty sweater he'd carried around since his quiet cabin days and the stubble overtaking his face. The itchiness made him long for his cabin-fever beard. "I've been assigned as your tutor."

"No offense, but shouldn't I have like a teacher who went to college and all that?"

Melinda stood tall and puffed out her chest. "I just finished my first year of college and I spend a lot of time working with dyslexic students." Gunnar gave her a vacant stare. "Do you want help or not? There are plenty of other things I could be doing."

Gunnar bit the inside of his lip. She had been helpful with lying about their motivation earlier, but that was probably just to get Travis out of trouble. There was no way this reading thing was going to work anyway.

"I think I'll pass."

He took a step back and began to close the door.

"We don't have to work here. We could go to the library."

Gunnar's chest tensed and his grip on the door tightened. There was no way he'd show how dumb he was in front of all those people. He'd nearly closed the door when Melinda's small hand on his stopped him.

"Or there's a table in my apartment we could use. I imagine you'd rather start this in private." Her little smile made Gunnar think she was either genuine or making an effort not to overdo her charm.

This would be a chance to actually get out of the apartment, take a look around the part of the facility they occupied, and see what Melinda was all about. She was probably a spy, but the fact that he knew this meant that could put on a bit of a show for those watching and get that much closer to seeing Aida.

"Yeah, that'd be better."

"Great," she said.

They walked down the halls attracting a number of whispers. Gunnar still had enough bruises that people knew he was the fake Travis that got beaten up in the cafeteria. He wondered what else they'd heard, but then stopped himself. It was better to keep his head down and get through this week.

The security force duo eyed them as they passed. Melinda kept her eyes down and her shoulders slumped a little. Maybe Travis didn't know about this little project of hers, or maybe the whole thing was his idea. His eyes followed the attached hallways to see if he could figure out what lay at the end of each one, but there were no signs. Even if there were, he couldn't read them anyway. Maybe the old man had a point. To function here he needed to figure out those letters. Though when they realized he was a lost cause he and Matt might be out of here that much faster. Either way, he and Matt won, to a point as long as they could grab Aida on their way out.

A few minutes later, a couple more officers came by and gave them a passing greeting. Gunnar looked closer and realized it was Peter, his fellow trainee. The two didn't stop for another word, nor acknowledge Gunnar which was just as well with Melinda by his side. By the end of the walk, Gunnar had counted ten security cameras.

Melinda's apartment wasn't as fancy as Travis' but it at least had an area to relax in that was more than just the beds and a crappy table like his. She set up some coloured tiles on an undamaged coffee table and placed a glass of water in front of him. After reaching into a mini fridge, she popped the top off a pink fizzing drink. He chose not to touch the water since she wasn't drinking it either, though it looked clear.

Gunnar hoped this whole reading thing would fail in less than an hour as it always did and he could go back to discussing plans with Matt. They needed to meet with Aida to get this whole situation sorted.

"So we'll start with something simple. Don't get discouraged, everyone from five to ninety five has to start this way. Think of it like building a house, we need a solid foundation first."

Gunnar played with a few of the wooden squares absentmindedly.

"I'll say a word, you repeat it, then say it slowly so you can hear all the sounds. Then we'll build it with these tiles."

"They don't got any letters on 'em"

"Not yet, we need to train your ear to hear different sounds first. Ready, first word AK"

Gunnar scrunched up his nose. "That's not a word." Just because he couldn't read them didn't mean he didn't know real words from fake ones.

"It's a nonsense word; they're easier to work with at first to keep your brain from relying on memory. We'll get to real ones later."

Gunnar reluctantly followed her steps until he'd 'built' the word on two blank tiles, then they just kept doing the same thing, then changing sounds, blending them into not real words. After an hour, they took a little break. To his surprise, he was able to do most of it, though it was getting hard at the end and Melinda kept repeating herself, probably wondering how he could be so dumb.

"Can I ask you something?" Melinda asked and scooted forward on the couch. Gunnar figured she was going to whether he said anything or not. Maybe she was giving up on teaching him already. "Why'd you do it, you know, break in here?"

"Ya haven't heard the rumours?"

"I'd rather hear it from you."

Gunnar ran his hand through his hair, forgetting for a moment how short they'd cut it to help him blend in, and sighed. It was common knowledge now, given that he'd both screwed up and been ambushed by Rob, so even if she was a snitch, this wouldn't help her.

"My kid sister, she disappeared during the storms. I needed to find her."

Melinda kept starring at his face. "Why did it take you so long?"

"It wasn't like she sent me a message saying 'hey I'm in Vegas'. I had to look around, ask people, check some other places."

Melinda leaned closer, her fruity shampoo reminding him of Mischa if only for a second. He scooted back. "What else did you find out there?"

Gunnar shrugged.

"C'mon, I've been locked in here for months looking at the same boring hallways and people. Give me something." The mascara made her wide eyes look even bigger.

"Lots of abandoned places. Bit of food. A few groups of people making it on their own."

She leaned back on the couch and smiled. "I can't even imagine that. Like hunting all your own meat, drinking out of God knows where." She took a sip of her fizzy pink drink.

Gunnar ran his tongue over his dry cracked lips. She was one of those people who never had to work for anything not even after the storm. Real living was some kind of novelty. "You get used to it," he muttered.

"And to get in?"

Gunnar leg twitched under the table. How could he answer this one? He stuck to her story. "I ambushed a guard when he came out. Threatened his life if he didn't help me and Matt. Wasn't sure if it would work, but it did."

"Just you two?"

She was definitely fishing for something. Gunnar nodded, and she looked down at her hands.

"We should keep working on this. Frank won't be pleased if we don't make any progress."

"I hope he's not expecting much. Nothing ever works."

"You have to stay positive." Melinda reached out and touched his hand.

Gunnar recoiled from her warm touch. But as she tucked her hands away he noticed a gold ring, with the same stars that Frank's had. Maybe it was some kind of logo for this place, for all the superstars while the rest of them rotted out in the bush. Though Travis had never mentioned or wore one and he thought he would have noticed it last week on Melinda.

"Sorry, I thought I'd be encouraging" she said and averted her eyes. "I've seen this work for a lot of people who thought it never would."

So they spent the next two hours working with the wooden tiles that eventually turned from multicolored to just blue and yellow with letters on them like she promised. After figuring out the sounds of each letter, he could even read some of the short real and fake words. Not that it would do him much good in the real world since the only words he could read had 3 letters.

His eyes were getting tired and the letters kept jumping around on the little tiles. "What about this letter, what sound does it make?"

He let out a guess and Melinda asked him to check the picture page. He massaged his forehead to try and fix his blurry vision. This was as far as Melinda's tutoring would get him. He was too dumb to make it any further.

"It's alright, I think we'll stop here for the day."

Gunnar smiled and sighed, causing Melinda to laugh. "Am I that terrible to work with?" she asked.

"Nah, you're good. It's just hard."

"Hard, but not impossible right? The most important things we do are hard, but we have to push through and get them done. Same time tomorrow?"

"Sure."

He walked toward the door but Melinda caught him before he opened it. "Did you need to go anywhere?"

Gunnar cocked his head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, because you're being well, they're being cautious with you two. So you know, if you needed to visit anywhere else before going back to your place, we could go together."

Gunnar raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying if I wanted to go to the gym, they wouldn't let me?"

"Not alone, but they'd probably let you go there. Is that where you wanted to go? The gym?"

She was acting weird again, like when she was rummaging through Travis' drawers. Was she trying to spy on him for the organization or was she up to something different entirely? Whatever it was, she was doing a terrible job. "Why are you asking me this?"

Her shoulders tensed and she looked at the ground. "Sorry, I thought I was being helpful. Don't worry about it."

Gunnar took a few steps away from the door and closer to Melinda. Maybe he was looking at this the wrong way. "Last week, did ya know it was me?"

Melinda kept looking away. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Just seems like ya were as curious then as now. Seems like ya wouda figured out I wasn't Travis pretty quick, being this smart and all."

Melinda's face paled a little and she took a step back. "If I'd known I would have reported you."

"Uh-huh, 'cuz it's the right thing to do."

Her brown eyes narrowed. "And I would have known that you kidnapped my boyfriend."

He ran his hand through his hair, thinking that he should have thought of that since she acted way different around Travis than him. "Right, well he wasn't hurt or nothing."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "I wouldn't have agreed to do this if he had been."

Gunnar wondered if she really had a choice, but thought better of asking. The sooner he could get out of her apartment, the sooner he and Matt could devise their plan. If this chick could help him read a little along the way, all the better.