Johnny leans back in his chair, feeling the full effects of the IV. He looks around his pod, a bare room with only a few bio monitors hooked up to the electrodes on his chest and forehead. With each passing second the room starts blur around him. His heart rate pounds in his chest as he clenches to the arm rests of the chair. Why does he still get anxious? He’s been through this more than just a few times. He takes a deep breathe to relax and stares forward at the blank cold wall across from him, watching it melt away with his fading vision. Then his eyes close.

He opens them again to a rusty wire gate creaking in the breeze.

Johnny stands in front of the ruins. The end of his long black trench coat swinging just above the ground. He slightly adjusts the brim of his matching black hat to the position he prefers and walks into the yard. The grassy hill in front of him is littered with the remains of collapsed farm houses. He bends down by some leftover boards and places his hand flat on the dirt. A briefcase begins to materialize from the ground beneath his fingers. Today he decides to make it out of black leather to match his outfit. He undoes the clasps and counts all the inventory inside to make sure he’s ready for today’s session. Eleven syringes, eleven memory cards and the tapes. Perfect.

There’s really no point in wasting time walking the long distance so Johnny pictures the two-story clubhouse in his mind and in a second is transported in front of the clubhouse doorway. One of the boys, Winwin, stumbles back in surprise when Johnny suddenly appears.

The door to the clubhouse is open as usual, but Johnny knocks on the doorframe anyway because he is a man of good manners.

Nine boys cautiously emerge from their rooms, all of them standing slightly behind the boy they call their leader. It looks like they’re still suspicious of him. Maybe in the next few months they’ll get more used to his appearances.

“Good evening, guys. I’m here for your fifth dream session. I hope you have all been well since last time.” Johnny moves into the living room as the boys split to make way for him.

“Taeil.” He points to the eldest who is shocked that his name was called. “Can you bring all the camcorders that I left here and begin setting them up?”

He flips out a cassette tape from the briefcase, sliding it into the tape player on their fireplace mantle.

“For this session we’ll start by playing the tape from headquarters, then log your recent experiences, and finally, as you’ve all have probably been waiting for, we’ll enter the dream state.” He spreads his arms dramatically, but none of the boys respond. They just keep staring wide-eyed. One of them breaks the silence with a dry cough.

Johnny tries not to let his smile drop. He really hopes that as they keep doing sessions they’ll start getting a little more... intelligent.

Though out of the corner of his eye he sees one boy with a twisted expression. Was it anger?  This dark-haired boy wasn’t there at the last session, but he was the one subject that Johnny specifically wanted to keep an eye on. Ten.

What was so special about him? Why him out of everyone?

“Umm, experimenter” Taeil pokes Johnny’s shoulder, shaking him from his thoughts. “I finished setting up.”
“Good. Good.” Johnny mutters and turns his attention back toward the whole crew.

“This tape comes directly from Headquarters. The people I work for and thus the people you all work for too. They provide specific instructions and key information about your situation. I know that I haven’t done the best job at explaining why I’m here, but like I said on the first day I met you all, the best explanation is for you all to simply figure it out as we go along. These tapes should help a little bit though.”

He settles in the corner by Jaehyun waiting for the tape to roll.

Screeching static fills the room for a few seconds before the tape clicks and a happy tune starts to play. Johnny could quote the following slogan word for word. “One of the collective, a member of family, an employee at Force Co.”

Each memo, computer message and simulation that he’s been raised on always started with that phrase.

The tune stops, and the narrators voice begins

“Reality is a world with limits. This dream lab breaks limits in reality. Sleep consists of five stages. Stages 1-4 are called REM sleep. Stage 5 is called non-REM sleep. Most dreams are experienced in REM sleep…”

After ten minutes of playing the cassette clicks to a stop. Johnny pops it out and slips it back into his briefcase.

“I hope that helps some of you understand.” Though he can obviously tell that they seem even more confused than before. But no time to dwell on that. “Now let’s get started with the logs.”

***

“Very nice.” The red-light flashes on the camera as the experimenter places it just in front of Yuta. “Can you explain again what has been going on.

Yuta picks up his playing cards and lifts them to the camera, giving the details of his disappearing trick.

When he finishes talking, the experimenter starts adding his closing statements to the recording “007, Yuta, has been showing some promise with bringing dreams into reality. A manipulation of existence is evident in the card tricks he’s been doing. He can make a card disappear by sending it to the dream world and make the card re-enter reality whenever he wills. He has reached Phase 4.”

The experimenter ends the recording, switching out the memory cards for ones that read 004. Jaehyun replaces Yuta in front of the cameras, looking confident and healthy, a big contrast from a week ago when he could hardly stand up without feeling sick. Jaehyun begins to recite his experiences just like we were instructed to. The three camcorders angled so that both his profiles and a full-frontal view are captured.

The experimenter then adds the last bit of commentary to the video. “004, Jaehyun, is not adjusting well to the immersion into the different dream levels. Side-effects include nausea, lethargy, and lack of appetite. Subject is still in Phase 3 with no solid estimate on when he will arrive at Phase 4.”

Jaehyun moves out the way for a boy wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap. “Just tell the camera what’s been happening to you after you enter the dream state, Doyoung.” The experimenter instructs

Doyoung shifts in his seat and has a moment of hesitation that Ten catches. But he quickly covers any sign of nerves up and starts sharing to the camera about his recent condition.

“002 is also a subject that has shown advanced levels of adjustment to the dream immersion stage. Though subject is not showing any sign of mixing dream and reality, yet. Increased sensitivity is one of the subject’s side-effects and is expected to calm down with time. Phase 4 is likely to be reached in the next few sessions.”

The chair sits empty for a second before Ten moves into position. All three lenses glimmer at him, waiting for him to speak up.

“I spend my days playing out in the fields or by the ruins. Nothing out of the ordinary.” Ten stops after the short account.

“You were absent from the last session, is there a reason for that?”

“I forgot” Ten answers simply.

“And are you experiencing anything strange after the dream immersions?” The experimenter prods but Ten is silent.

There’s no reason not to trust this guy but there’s no reason to trust him either. Something deep inside Ten just screams to keep those visions a secret.

He shakes his head “no” and the experimenter begins his closing commentary on Ten. “010 Has no side-effects from entering the dream states. Though he is not capable of manipulating existence yet. Phase 3.”

Ten gets up to let Taeyong sit down and takes a spot beside other boys who finished their logs. He can feel their curious stares. They all knew he’s been disappearing often and they all just watched as he didn’t say a word about it. Only one of them has to say something to the experimenter for his lies to be exposed but none of them did. They all simply stood in silence.

Though there was a part of him that wonders if he should’ve said something about his visions and disappearances. Maybe the experimenter could’ve helped him.

Taeyong left the chair after his log and the experimenter takes out the last memory card, placing them all back in his briefcase.

“Now time for the fun part.” Yuta whispers while playfully nudging Ten in his side.

Though he couldn’t see that Ten was clenching his hands together, his breathing unsteady and nervous.

Ten trails at the back of the line as the boys follow the experimenter out of house. They all gather around a metal hatch in the backyard, nestled between the bushes and the fence. Ten and the others had always known about this door, but they never had the idea to open it. It wasn’t until the experimenter had shown them, that they had first entered the basement. Today it’s damp and humid just like the first time they came down here, made out of cold concrete from floor to ceiling. There were only nine cots, two TV screens and a metal table in the middle of room. The experimenter moves toward the nine syringes laying on the table while the boys find their respective cot.

 Ten always found it strange that none of the boys, even the ones with serious side-effects, don’t hesitate to enter the dream state. But who was he to question them. As much as he’s been suspicious of this whole thing, and even after telling Doyoung and Mark that he probably won’t go on another dream session, here he is laying face up on the cot as the experimenter sticks a syringe into his arm.

He is such a weak-willed person. If he couldn’t avoid going on one dream-session how does he expect himself to figure out all the strange things going on. He doesn’t know what he should be doing, honestly. Actually, all he knows is that the room is growing darker and that it’s getting a lot harder to keep his eyes open…

 

Refer to NCTmmentaries – specifically 1 and 5 - for any headquarters tape