They have been, they are, they will be

What I've learned:

The NWRF is spearheaded by a man named Edgar Whyms, and is a grave threat to humanity. It’s fashioned after the most incorrigible criminal masterminds that have lived throughout the centuries. The list is comprised of historical figures known for their legendary evil deeds, people such as Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Vlad Tepes, H.H. Holmes, Idi Amin, and Genghis Khan; they were all Remmies. Abuse of power is rampant within the Remmie world, however there has always been those who work against the corrupt faction among us. It seems asthough fate has dealt an even hand of good and bad, for every malevolent Remmie there is an equal portion of honorable Remmies.
Noteable people such as the Dalai Lama, Moses, Mother Teresa, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Joan of Arc and John F. Kennedy.

The NWRF has grown in number over the past ten years, and the battle between Remmies factions can be traced back to the days of the pharaohs. Today the war waged is more lethal than ever due to modern technology.

Bad Association

Luke walks over and begins to talk " The NWRF disregards law and order for their own personal gain, and obviously their remmie abilities enable them to get away with greed, murder and destruction of whatever they want whenever they want to. You know every big disaster you’ve ever read about has been Remmie-related.

Hess, leaned forward straddling his chair explains "The explosion of the Hindenburg, the Challenger disaster, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and JFK were also works of the NWRF and more recently the sniper shootings their victims... Omni's.
"So they really want to kill me?" I ask
"Yeah and they have to be stopped." Luke adds

"That’s where we come in" says Grey "Once we discovered what was happening around us we agreed to take action. That’s been our cause for the past five years.

Safety in Numbers

“You’re a Remmie. We all are.” he says.

“What the hell is a Remmie?”

“Rapid eye movement, known as REM, signifies deep sleep. When in REM state, you’re dreaming; but in our case there’s more to it than that. We dream differently than normal people or "Joes" as we call them. Our dreams aren’t just impressions of past encounters or fantasy, they're very detailed and tend to repeat just about every night.”

I listen, amazed as his statement has a ring of truth.
“You see, for some a little more is added to the dream as the nights progress, for others its all at once, but it’s always the same thing night after night until the cycle is complete. The dreams are visions of what you'll do, in other cases what you have done on a previous walk."

"Walk?" I ask...

"What I mean by that is for twenty-seven nights it’s the same thing over and over, but on the twenty-eighth night you walk. Whenever you close your eyes to sleep another part of you leaves your body. Think of it as astral projection if you will, only it's more than that. When you walk you can see, hear, smell, taste, touch, mingle with other people, live two entirely different lives. Walking is not sleep walking, your consciousness takes form and you can be in two places at once. There are differences about us when we walk, for instance Remmies don’t leave fingerprints, cast reflection, sweat, bleed, procreate, most importantly we can't die but only when we’re walking.

"Ahhhh, man you're good" I say with a laugh "If ever I was looking for something to do on a Wednesday night"

"Phoe, you never noticed that something's just not right sometimes when you wake up?" Hess asks

I think back to finding my sneakers muddy and wet this morning, knowing I hadn't worn them the day before. I don't comment but my silence speaks for itself.

Grey comes closer..."You know you’ve walked when you wake in the morning and don't remember dreaming."

"How long...is this constantly?"

"until the cycle begins again on the first of the new month. Other than that every day and as long as we’re awake we’re just like every other Joe." he answers

"With the exception of ESP.” Hess adds.
Luke enters the room again after having been gone for some time now. I look at him and wonder if he feels as lost as I do.

"Can you finish the damn story?" TK asks laid back in a chair with her feet propped up on a near by desk.

"I'm working on it!" Grey continues, “All Remmies have ESP, extrasensory perception. Now don’t look at me like that, you have it, and eventually, when you remember who you are, you’ll feel pretty stupid for having sat through all of this."

"I know who I am"

"ANYWAY..." TK calls across the room abruptly stifling my words.
"Dude!" Hess says staring at TK

"Yeah, anyway there are two kinds of Remmies: Uni and Omni. Uni's have telepathy; Omni have telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition and telekinesis. Those are just a few types of ESP displayed by any Remmie so far and omni's can sense uni but not vice versa. The detection of another remmie manifests itself in the form of vertigo which is more severe when another Omni is present, that’s why you completely lost it when you got here.” Hess confirms his Omni status with a raised hand and a smile.

“Not all Remmies are at the same level with their abilities but everyone here is pretty sharp.”
“Say I accept this as truth, why can’t I remember any of it and why were those people after me?” I ask.

“Ok, this is important the ‘who’ that you want to know about is the NWRF, short for New World Rulers Faction. The NWRF’s aim is to eliminate all other Remmies unwilling to join them in their quest to secretly wield power over unsuspecting society. Since most of us can’t detect one another they don’t know who we are, without the help of an Omni or unless we identify ourselves. Until now we’ve been relatively safe but unfortunately they’ve identified you which is why Luke has been watching you so closely this month.”

He stares at me from the across the room, his eyes are filled with deep concern.

Resistance is Futile

“Why did you come with me?” he asks with sincere eyes.
“I… I didn't have a choice”
“You did, but you came anyway, if you didn't know me then why did you run with me?”
“You grabbed me, I was scared, There were people after me I don't know!" I answer,
“That’s not why. You trusted me, god Phoenix how can you not know who I am?” he asks continuing to hold on to me.
“Because I don’t! I'm sorry but for the last time I'm not who ever you think I am I don't know any of you!" At that he takes my hand and places it over his heart. I feel his heart beating rapidly, he leans forward and kisses me. I don’t know what to do so I do nothing.
"Well that got us absolutely nowhere Luke, what next roses?" TK adds from across the room.

Until tonight my life was basic, boring at best. Everyday I live with the fact that I have no family, romance or any real human connections. Outside of my clients I have no one, so maybe I want to know, maybe I want to remember who he is, who they are if only for a little while.
I do feel him, I feel the connection between us, possibly because I long for one. Should believe the four people standing around me? Something within tells me that I should, intuition perhaps? I won't pretend to know what’s happening to me but the truth is, it's a fact that someone wanted me dead tonight.
Luke releases me and takes a step back, “I’m sorry” he says, and then walks away
“wait!” I call out to him after some hesitation but it too late he's already gone.

After having observed my reaction to Luke's departure TK begins formal introductions. “Look phoenix I don't know what this is about but since you claim to have amnesia or something I'm TK, this is Grey, this one’s Hess and that guy who’s heart you just broke is Luke, Your boyfriend." “Come on TK, lay off she’ll remember us in no time, won’t you Phoe? You could never forget me could ya luv?” says Grey
I look at them, and solidly place faces with names. I rub my forearm as it begins to burn.
“I gave you a cocktail” Hess says unexpectedly “A shot, a little something to stop the room from spinning and a little something to wake you up. It worked right?”
“Um yeah, thanks”
“Hurts like hell, doesn’t it?” Grey asks with a laugh.
“Funny" I reply flatly
I look around curious about the goings on in this equipment filled room. "Ok, say I believe you people and that I do know you, will somebody please tell me what’s going on ?”
“Oh, this is gonna be good, dude I promise this will blow your mind!” Hess says as he goes on to demonstrate my head exploding.
I no longer think I want to know but unfortunately I've already asked.
“Let me tell her, let me tell her!” Grey says with extreme excitement. I can’t help but notice their behavior and to be honest it disturbs me.
“Go on then tell her, go on tell her!” Hess says as he taps Grey’s arm anxiously.
"You should sit down" Grey says and TK slides a stool toward me with her foot.
“What I’m about to tell you is going to sound unbelievable, ridiculous even but I beg you to believe it because it’s true and because it may save your life. In fact it already has”
After a deep breath I respond...“Ok what is it?”

A Curious Connection

I look at them and a vaguely familiar sense comes over me.
One of the three men moves toward me in a curious fashion, his head tilted, eyes squinted and he utters “I think she’s coming around,” .
The female,tall, thin and blonde replies “Why Grey, because she's looking at you?”
“Mmm...no, see that's where you're wrong, it's not because, it's how she's looking at me"

Something else I have to remember upon my escape a guy named Grey: speaks with an Irish accent, has blue eyes, light brown hair.

A dark-haired male moves closer now, he waves his hand in front of my face, and snaps his fingers at me as if testing my response time. I sit there quietly watching them watching me.
“Wow, you're out of it" he says with a truly mystified look on his face.
“What did you do to me?” I ask as I raise my hand to put and end to Luke's gentle head-dabbing. “What the hell’s wrong with her?” the woman asks, clearly frustrated with my behavior. “I don’t know TK, give her a minute!”

Three down one to go, TK, Grey, Luke three men one woman, Irish accent, I turn over in my head repeatedly.
"Can you stand?" Luke ask while helping me up from the floor. I feel an attachment to him, but I don’t know why. He seems to be fixated on me, and he begins to stroke my hair.
“It’s ok, you’ll be fine in a minute.”

I've observed that they are all carrying firearms, and I slowly backaway from him. "Um, Luke right? Look I'm sorry, I know you keep saying I'll be alright like something's wrong with me and I’m supposed to know who you guys are but you have the wrong person. Unfortunately you have me confused with someone else. Which is ok, I mean no one got hurt right ...no harm no foul, but I just really want to get home now."
"We don't have time for this Luke!" TK says angrily. At that he takes hold of me by the arms and looks into my eyes, flashes of images coupled with an array of emotions well up inside me, suddenly I find it hard to breathe. The others stand in the distance looking, wondering if this will be my moment of clarity...

Further Into the Unknown and A Revelation

The stranger pushes me to the floor. “It’s them, stay down!” Their bullets pierce the walls and miss us by inches. “I’ll get you out of here,” he says, carefully looking for a way out. I hear them enter the building, “take my hand!” he urges, reaching for me. A window with a fire escape provides us our get away and we run until we reach a train yard. Cautiously he takes me to one of the freight cars; without warning he slips in through a trap door. I inspect it, touching and looking beneath it to see where he has gone, a second later he helps me inside. Upon my entrance suddenly I'm unconscious, overwhelmed I collapse to the floor. ..

Moments later I'm roused from my unexpected slumber, confused I scurry backward into a corner. With blurred vision my eyes search the room and now finds four strangers staring at me. I look at them one by one. "three men one woman, three men one woman" I repeat over and over in my head incase I make it out of here. The man that brought me here moves close to me, he begins to wipe my face with a cool damp cloth. The others wear perplexity on their faces.
“What's wrong with her?” The woman asks...

Oblivious to her the stranger continues to dab my forehead with his cloth, agitated she addresses him ..."Luke! What's wrong with her?" He stops and responds, looking at me tenderly..... “I don't know, just give her a minute, she’ll be fine.”

From what I’ve gathered, my protector’s name is Luke.

Into the Unknown

I am hardly able to speak, I feel so ill. “I can’t, I can’t make it…” I tell him.
He looks at me, he sees that I don’t understand anything that’s happening, but he has no choice we have to keep moving. Our brisk pace soon breaks into a full run. I'm barely keeping up even though he holds me by the hand. Where we’re going is unknown, all of the streets look the same. It’s dark , I’m scared and very sick. It feels as though we've been running for hours.
Finally we duck into a doorway I catch my breath and again I ask... who are you?
He looks bewildered and solemnly replies “Don’t you know?” touching my cheek softly. The sound of irate voices in the distance break the moment. The words “Find them!” said in a harsh and urgent tone ring through the air.

"They’re right behind us, "Come on!” he says, and quietly maneuvers us through the streets.
“Who’s behind us?” I ask. Still no answer to my questions but he leads me until we find refuge, temporary sanctuary inside an old building that's been abandoned for some time . Once settled, I struggle against the urge to pass out.
“We can’t stay here long."
"What's happening to me?" I ask through labored breath but before he answers pieces of the brick wall begin to chip away as bullets penetrate the room.

Everything Changes

Inside the store I see him, that man, he's a couple of aisles over. He looks at me the moment I notice him, for a moment I’m paralyzed by fear. (Mental note) I’m being silly... besides I’ll kick his ass if he bothers me. I shop and then leave the store. I step outside, look around first (the usual precautions.) I can fight but I’m not stupid. I hate to admit it but there’s something about him. He’s mysteriously attractive to me: tall, dark hair, dark eyes and very handsome. I feel fear when I see him, but I also feel drawn to him. I walk....
It’s unusually quiet; not many people out tonight but I enjoy silence, and I’ll need it if I’m going to get some rest.

As I approach my street the stranger steps from the shadows and draws close to my left side. He takes me by the arm but before I can scream a feeling of faintness comes over me. I want to cry for help but I can’t, a massive case of vertigo overwhelms me and when I look into his eyes something within prevents me. He grasps my arm tightly, telling me “We have to go.” He walks me at a brisk pace looking behind us as we move through the streets. I lose my balance but he holds me, he cares, I have to ask....

Who are you?

Dr. Bader's visit

Surprisingly I've checked out alright, the dizzy spells, insomnia and forgetfulness will pass once (as my doctor put it) I close my "wandering eyes" and get some sleep. Sleep being the ever so illusive verb of his suggestion prompts a trip to the nearest drug store. Halloween, is only days away and gives a feel of mystery and excitement to the air. The costumes on display have always been a major attraction for me. I think I'll walk.....

Strange things

As I drove to work today I saw that man from the other night, I’m sure it was him by the way he watched me as I passed. It scared me; he had a penetrating stare that made me feel vulnerable. However, the most frightening event thus far was finding my sneakers muddied and laying in the corner when I awoke; Seeing them made me wonder about many things I’d been experiencing lately. Is my mind slipping away from me or is it simply fatigue causing my sleepless nights and increasing paranoia? Perhaps my doctor visit will lay my fears to rest.