I'm no longer the vulnerable, naïve little girl who had to be locked in a cage for her own protection. I'm hoping that today it will remind me of where I started. The first time I've been able to gather the strength to. This is the first time I've visited in over a year. As though it's physically shrinking day by day, its importance diminishing in my mind. The white cottage is smaller than I remember. I push open the heavy steel gate of what was once the Restricted Sector and slip inside. I am no longer susceptible to bewitching lies. And now that my memories have been restored and the truth has been revealed to me, my brain is stronger, my goals refortified. Promises of a life outside these barriers. How he broke into my world and corrupted my brain with impossible notions. I run my fingertips along the warm unyielding surface of the concrete, feeling the rough edges prickle my skin.

The ten-foot wall around the perimeter remains standing but the gate is no longer locked. The dry shrubs crunch beneath my feet as I approach the cottage. Their bodies and minds may not be as strong as mine, but they still think like me. Of course, there are plenty of people on this side of the wall who are unlike me, too, but they can be trusted. Now, it's as though someone has lifted a veil of deception from my eyes and I can finally see the truth. There used to be a time when the walls of the compound kept me in-when I thought of them as prison walls and tried to escape. The sleek, reflective surfaces of the Aerospace Sector were the last signs of civilization.īut I feel reassured knowing the fortifications that mark the boundaries lie beyond the hill to my left. The landscaped pathways ended a half mile back. The compound is almost unrecognizable out here. There are no buildings to thwart the desert wind, and today it seems angrier than most. The air is harsh and blistering, whipping around me as I cross the barren field.

Unchanged jessica brody