Chapter Text
It may be the first time he's seen so much... stuff.
There aren't enough words to describe it—what he's feeling, what he's seeing—what he's experiencing. It's all new. And weird.
Behind him, behind the doors and around the yard, sirens blare to life, knocking him out of his thoughts. Truly out of his thoughts, because he doesn't even register that he's moving until he's fully running away from the sounds and the yard and the building.
The sounds follow though, more joining them as the facility comes alive, awakened by the alarm. Some of it carries further, like the sirens. Those he can hear even when the building disappears from his view. He glances back behind himself anyway, just to check.
There is no building or yard to be seen anymore. Instead, he finds himself in the middle of the abyss.
He used to stare at it for long stretches of time. Whenever he was by a window, anyway. Or outside at all. He thought it'd be wonderful to see up close, to be out here and explore what was always out of reach, beyond the fences and the walls.
Everywhere around him looks the same. Colourful. Lush. Wild.
He finds it is a lot less fun now that he is here. The alarm digs into his mind and he doesn't stop moving to explore, like he always wanted. The dreams he had of breaking free, just for a moment are becoming a reality, but it feels nothing like it did in his dreams.
His chest hurts and his vision blurs as he looks around again. He doesn't know where he's headed, but he keeps moving all the same. The sounds from the building and the yard are still there and new sounds are emerging from around him. Sounds he's never heard before. Some high pitched, almost shrieking. Some weird knocking, but it seems too similar to the screeches to be anything like when they'd knock on his door every morning.
And there's some whistling too.
One of the men in the building would whistle. He'd heard it, though he'd only ever caught glimpses of the man through the doorway when someone had left it open. Before he'd ever seen the man, he'd always wondered what could make such a weird and wonderful sound. And when he saw the man, he'd wondered if he could make those same sounds too.
They'd quickly told the man to stop, when they'd caught him.
He thinks it may be his fault they'd told the man to stop. To leave. At least it feels like his fault.
He'd never heard the sound after that.
This is different though. It's seemingly coming from the air around him. Whizzing around the skies.
His chest is burning up and he can barely see around himself anymore with how blurry his vision has gotten. He tries to focus on the whistling, but it's difficult. There's another new sound, a humming in his ears that doesn't change or stop no matter what he does, not even when he covers his ears from it. Instead it seems to be getting worse.
This feels horrible, he decides. He thinks maybe he should return, that maybe not leaving would have been better. The dreams of leaving were just that, dreams.
The humming is invasive and all consuming and the burning in his chest is just as difficult to ignore.
But as he looks around, he realizes he doesn't even know what direction he came from. The sounds are bouncing around, as if they're coming from every direction now. He can't tell what used to be from the building and the yard from the new sounds anymore. Can't tell where he took his last steps from, which direction he was headed to. Everything looks the same and so different, so unfamiliar.
The plain hallways were easy to navigate, just simple turns and twists, predictable in that way.
This is not predictable. This is open grounds, where he can pick any direction to go to at any moment.
He keeps moving. Or he tries.
Before he knows it, something hurts his leg in a wicked way and just as suddenly the ground rises up to meet his face.
Pain he is familiar with. Pain he knows. At least he thought he knew.
This pain is new. It's different.
He pushes himself off the ground, but the ground stays on his hands.
He stares down at himself. It's on his chest and knees and legs too. He is covered in... something. Stuff. Ground.
Earth.
His vision blurs again and it feels like someone put one of those arm cuff things around his chest, like it's squeezing the life out of him like it usually would squeeze his arm.
Except his arm he can deal without. His arm doesn't stop him from moving or speaking or doing anything else. And the cuff always came off pretty quickly, the squeezing only passing.
His chest, it seems, is not so good with getting squeezed with such force. And the squeezing doesn't stop. It too gets worse, along with the sounds and sights and the pain.
He tries to get back on his feet, but there is so much of everything now that he finds himself struggling to do it.
He used to wonder what the limit to the pain he could feel was. He finds, he may be approaching that limit. His feet are unsteady beneath him, but he manages to stand.
His hands are shaking now, too. Like they would sometimes, after, when he'd been let back in his room and he would be too out of it to stand, to walk, to do anything except lie down and breathe.
But this time there is only ground and sounds and pain around him and he can't lie down here.
He can't breathe.
He finds himself on the ground again and this time it seems his body has given up on getting back up, as everything around him blurs for a final time before going blissfully quiet and dark.
"If we end up getting chased down by someone with a rifle because we wondered too close to their yard, I'm blaming you."
Jonttu rolls his eyes. "Right to roam. There's no signs or fences, anyway."
Aarni shakes his head but follows along anyway as they keep walking. It was a stupid idea to leave the path, but it's too late now.
Besides, what is he supposed to say to Jonttu? That getting out of the house and wandering through the woods has in fact cured their shared boredom pretty effectively?
He opts for trying to trip Jonttu, who kicks him in return.
Their squabbling comes to a stop when Jonttu suddenly frowns, looking around. Aarni looks around too, but more confused than contemplative as Jonttu seems to be.
"Do you hear that?"
Aarni strains his ears.
"No?"
Jonttu shrugs.
They keep moving.
It's a nice day out. For now. The weather reports had been promising rain all week, but it has been mostly hot and humid sunny summer days. Perhaps that's why it was a stupid idea to head into the woods.
While on the surface it seems like a great idea, the shade providing a nice break from the endless sunshine, Aarni should have known better. As a whining sound suddenly appears by his right ear right before Jonttu instinctively swats at it, hitting Aarni in the face, Aarni is starting to doubt the idea even more.
The mosquitoes are an endless swarm and apparently the two of them are the only idiots out and about at this time of day around here, so they have become the prime candidate for a meal.
Jonttu splays his fingers, peeling off the dead bug from his palm. Aarni gives him an unimpressed look.
"Thanks," he says flatly.
Jonttu just smirks back, flicking the dead bug at him, though it luckily doesn't fly very far now that it's dead, not coming anywhere close to reaching Aarni's face as Jonttu had been aiming.
"By the way, Jami invited us for midsummer."
This does get Aarni's attention. "Oh? Where?"
"Some friend's cousin's cabin not far out from Turku, I think."
Aarni nods. "Sounds good."
Jonttu pulls out his phone, tapping away quickly. "Shall I sign us up, then?"
Aarni nods again.
Aarni is just about to ask who else is coming when Jonttu stops in his tracks, making him nearly walk into him.
"What the fuck dude?"
"Shh!" Jonttu places a hand practically over his mouth to shush him.
Aarni gives him another unamused glare and is about to ask again when he hears it too.
That is definitely an alarm, somewhere in the distance.
Aarni looks at Jonttu. Jonttu raises an eyebrow. Aarni raises one back. The two shrug at each other and continue the walk.
"Probably a test."
"What building is out here that would even have an alarm to test?" Jonttu questions, "On a Sunday of all days too."
Aarni shrugs again. "Who knows dude. Our neighbourhood had one. Maybe there's houses somewhere around here or something."
"Maybe."
Aarni waves him off, but then hears another interesting sound. He throws a smirk at Jonttu. "You wanna know what's more interesting than an alarm though?"
"What?"
Aarni gestures for Jonttu to follow him, which he does. It takes only half a minute of walking before Aarni can clearly tell where the sound is coming from and at that he speeds up, a small creek coming into view.
"Ta-daa!"
Now it's Jonttu's turn to give him an unimpressed look, but Aarni isn't deterred. "Come on! You wanted to experience 'the beauty of the natural world instead of the ugliness of my four walled apartment'."
Jonttu just walks past him, but he wanders closer to the creek and inspects it.
"It is shockingly loud. Can't even hear the alarm here."
Aarni agrees. "Water's heavy, dude."
"That it is."
They decide to walk along the creek for now, hopping over it and threatening to push each other into it as they wander along, though as sweat drips down Aarni's back he considers just jumping in willingly. If only it weren't so shallow and muddy, then perhaps he would.
However, it could lead to a lake, and if it does, Aarni will 100% jump in, no questions asked. Jonttu agrees.
They don't reach a lake shortly, though, and Aarni also begins to consider the option of turning back home. He's starting to get a bit hungry.
"Woah, look at this!" Jonttu laughs as sprints a bit ahead, at a boulder that's slightly off to the side from the stream.
He immediately begins to climb it, and is soon rewarded from his efforts as he's at the top of the boulder, standing tall.
He tosses his phone at Aarni. "Take a picture!"
Aarni rolls his eyes, but does as he's told, snapping a few pictures as Jonttu poses.
"I can see surprisingly far from here."
Aarni hands him back his phone and reaches up to him. "Help me up."
Jonttu grabs his hand and pulls him up, and the two look off around into the distance. From here it's much easier to see around the twists and turns of the woods, and the way the stream is headed too, which is down a cliff. Good thing they didn't stumble into it yet.
Aarni considers snapping a photo, when something bright white flashes by at the edge of his vision. He turns to look, but there's nothing out of the ordinary there.
"Did you see that?"
Jonttu looks at him, then to where his eyes are currently fixed.
"No."
Aarni is about to shrug it off when he sees the bushes there rustling oddly. There's no wind around, so almost all rustling is odd.
"I think there's something over here," Aarni says as he jumps down from the boulder.
He can hear Jonttu following him. "Probably just a bird or rabbit you're about to scare the shit out of."
"Or a moose that's about to gore us both to death."
Jonttu shrugs. "If a moose managed to sneak by us while we were up there then it's on us for getting killed by it."
"Fair."
Aarni ducks under some lower hanging branches, past a few shorter pines. There's not exactly a clearing, but a moss covered spot that at the very least isn't covered by blueberries or ferns, instead framed by some bare rock and uncovered roots from some of the bigger trees around.
And a man.
"What is it?" Jonttu comes up to his side and also freezes.
The man is breathing. Aarni doesn't know if that's relieving or more dread inducing.
"What the fuck."
The man begins to stir and Aarni holds his breath. He can feel Jonttu tensing beside him too.
Wide eyes look around, coming to a stop at his hands, that he inspects with far too much intensity for someone who has passed out in the middle of the woods.
Aarni can hear Jonttu draw in a sharp breath and then Aarni too sees the blood dripping down the guy's arm. As he looks him over a bit more carefully. He looks pretty bad. Incredibly pale, quite well covered in dirt, eyes red and tear tracks only visible because they've carved their way down his face through the dirt that's there, leaving very visible tracks in their wake. There's a few scratches along his arms and his clothes are a bit torn up. As Aarni looks closer, he realizes the guy isn't even wearing shoes.
This prompts Aarni to look at his clothes a bit more closely too. They look like scrubs, like something you'd be given at a hospital. Plain white, nothing notable like a logo or a nametag or anything that'd give clues as to how he ended up here.
And then he's looking at them, his eyes going very wide, almost fearful. He begins scrambling up but his movements are uncoordinated and he almost falls over again.
"Hey, take it easy." Jonttu puts up his hands, his voice sounding surprisingly calm. Aarni backs away a step, letting him take the lead.
"Is everything okay?"
The man doesn't answer immediately, instead still looking between the two of them, backing away slowly.
Jonttu gives Aarni a glance. Aarni doesn't know what to do or say.
Jonttu slowly lowers his hands. "Do you know how you got here?"
The man is no longer backing away, though he still looks ready to run.
Slowly, very carefully the man nods his head.
Jonttu smiles slightly, trying to appear calm. "Good."
The man opens his mouth as if to say something, then closes it again. He looks more scared than Aarni thinks he's ever seen anyone look.
"What's your name?" Aarni asks when it becomes apparent he's not going to say anything.
He doesn't answer this time either, so Jonttu jumps in. "My name is Jonttu. This is Aarni."
Aarni gives the man a smile. He doesn't respond, just nodding again.
He doesn't look too old, maybe around their age. It's difficult to tell with the dirt on his face.
"Do you want some help with that?" Jonttu asks, gesturing at his arm.
The man looks down at it like he hadn't even noticed it is bleeding. Aarni can almost see the gears turning in his head as he inspects it again, this time focusing more closely on the blood and whatever wound it's coming from.
He looks at them again and seems to come to some kind of decision.
He holds up the arm at them and nods, before looking down at the ground.
Jonttu gives Aarni another look, before stepping forwards. Aarni wonders if they should be calling the rescue department as he too takes a step forwards, pulling off his backpack to check what he has.
Unsurprisingly he doesn't have a first aid kit on hand, but Aarni does have a water bottle that he silently hands to Jonttu, who promptly pours quite a bit to wash away the mud and dirt on the guy's arm.
Jonttu doesn't notice, because he's focused on the arm, but Aarni does notice.
The man is shaking, and every time Jonttu touches him, he flinches. But he doesn't say anything.
"Nothing too bad, just some cuts," Jonttu says to no one in particular.
Aarni hands him a pack of tissues he apparently also had in his backpack.
Jonttu grabs a few to wipe off the water and the last of the dirt, before grabbing a few more to press on the cuts.
The man takes a sharp breath, but yet again, doesn't say anything.
"How did you get here?" Jonttu asks absently as he's checking to see how much the cuts are actually bleeding now.
"I ran away."
Jonttu whips his head up to look at him, as does Aarni. Jonttu blinks a few times, the man looking at him intently. Then Jonttu glances at Aarni who feels just as bewildered as he looks.
"Okay..."
Jonttu hands the used bunch of tissues to Aarni before grabbing fresh ones to press on the wound again.
"What were you running from?"
The man looks down. Aarni, from his crouched position can see the man's face better, can see the searching, almost lost look on his face.
"I... I didn't- I wasn't..."
He doesn't finish the sentence, just opting to stare at the ground. New tears begin to well up in his eyes.
Jonttu and Aarni exchange another concerned look.
In the distance, thunder rumbles, making the trio jump. The man, notably, starts looking around frantically.
"We should get going," Aarni suggest, catching Jonttu's eye, who nods, "Shouldn't be caught out in the rain."
They turn to the man, who is still looking around as if trying to locate the thunder storm despite how the trees block most of the view of the sky.
Jonttu takes a deep breath. "How about we get you out of here?"
The man looks at them before nodding. "Okay."
Aarni is packing up his things when his eyes catch sight of the man's bare feet again. He sighs internally, before sitting back down and taking off his shoes and socks. Jonttu is giving him a confused look, but Aarni ignores him, tossing his socks at the man who stares at them dumbly.
"Put those on. Don't want to get more scratches."
The man hesitates surprisingly little now, sitting down to pull on the socks as Aarni pulls his shoes back on.
Aarni stands up as Jonttu pulls the man back to his feet. He sways a little, but is overall steady. Jonttu hands him Aarni's water bottle.
"Drink that."
The man does and they start the walk back home.
It is a silent affair for a bit, making it through the shrubbery and back to the stream. At least they won't get lost with the stranger as they can just follow the stream.
"So, you were running away?" Jonttu starts again after they've made it to the stream.
"Yes," the man says, but he isn't looking at either of them, instead looking around at practically everything.
"From something bad I presume?"
The man shrugs, focusing for a moment to find the words.
"I'm not sure."
"You're not sure if the thing you were running from was bad?" Aarni asks, raising an eyebrow.
The man looks at his feet again, almost as if ashamed.
"I... I think..."
He doesn't finish that sentence, instead shaking his head to himself.
Jonttu decides to change tactics to keep the man talking. "You weren't running for long, were you?"
Aarni furrows his brow. They aren't too deep into the woods, but they aren't exactly close to anything either. Not to mention that getting from anywhere—where scrubs are the primary choice of outfit anyways—to here would automatically be a very long way to go.
"I... I'm not sure."
Jonttu gives Aarni another discreet concerned glance. Aarni matches it with one of his own.
"How old are you?"
The man furrows his brow further, like he really has to think about it. Aarni and Jonttu exchange another, now alarmed look.
"Depends on what you meant, I think."
"Like what year were you born in," Jonttu says slowly, giving the man now a very concerned look.
The man shrugs. "This year, I guess."
Jonttu stops. So does Aarni. They stare at each other. Jonttu looks at the man. The man looks back.
"What?"
"What? This year?" Jonttu repeats in disbelief. "What do you mean by that?"
The man looks between the two of them, seeming just as confused as Aarni feels at the moment.
"I- I don't- That's just what they told me. What was on the paper."
Jonttu looks at Aarni again.
"You said it depends," Aarni jumps in, "What other answer could you have given?"
"Roughly 25."
Jonttu's phone buzzes, but he ignores it in favour of giving the guy a deep look. "Roughly?"
The man looks a bit helpless, cowering under Jonttu's gaze.
"They- They said there wasn't- they didn't know either."
Aarni felt the dread that had been receding return with force.
"Who 'they'?"
"The... They were... My handlers?"
"Your handlers?"
The man looks down again. "Maybe. I wasn't told. Who they were."
Aarni looks at Jonttu then, the puzzle pieces falling into place and then away again.
Handlers. Who has handlers? Where do they have handlers? And scrubs. A mental institution? But why wouldn't a mental institution tell him his own age, or lie about his birth year? Or not give him shoes or socks?
Jonttu looks at the man again. "And your handlers. They weren't nice to you?"
The man shrugs. "Sometimes they were."
Aarni catches on. "Is that why you were running?"
The man doesn't respond for a moment.
"I was running because of the other people."
Jonttu nods. "The ones who told you were born this year?"
He nods.
Aarni takes a deep breath, as does Jonttu.
Another rumble of thunder roars by. The man seems just as shaken by it this time, whipping his head up to look around again. Aarni can see fresh tear tracks on his face now.
He looks at Jonttu, who looks back. Jonttu tilts his head. Aarni shrugs, points to his head. Jonttu shakes his head, then shrugs.
"We should keep moving," Aarni says.
They keep walking, though it takes a moment for the man to follow now, seemingly very distracted by the sights and the sounds again.
It doesn't take too long until they make it back to where Jonttu and Aarni found the creek, and Jonttu leads the way back to where Aarni assumes they came from.
"So," Aarni clears his throat, "What else did they tell you about yourself?"
Jonttu gives him a disapproving glance but Aarni waves him off. The man mulls over his words for a moment.
"That I was their biggest success."
Aarni frowns. "Do you know what they meant by that?"
The man shakes his head. "I think that it has something to do with my age. Or the things they were doing."
"You're making them out to be some big group of villains, saying ominous stuff like that." Jonttu chuckled.
"A villain?"
Jonttu rolls with the man's confusion with surprising ease. Aarni's mind is still reeling over everything about the situation and conversation.
"Someone who does bad things. Hurts people, intentionally."
The man nods. Then he shrugs. "Then I guess they were villains."
Jonttu stumbles over the next step, and Aarni can hear the note of concern and surprise in his tone again, the relaxed demeanour gone as fast as it came. "Oh yeah?"
"I mean, at least they hurt me, sometimes."
Aarni closes his eyes and takes another deep breath. He is sure he won't like the answer to the question he's about to ask. "How- uhm- How did they... hurt you?"
Aarni can see how tense Jonttu's shoulders are, waiting for the answer.
"They had these- these machines. And they did things with them."
Aarni decides he doesn't want more clarification. He can live without knowing. So he doesn't ask further.
Jonttu mutters a quiet, "I'm sorry to hear that," but if the sympathy means anything to the man, he doesn't show it.
They finally make it out of the woods, to the edge of the field Aarni and Jonttu had come from. Beyond the field they can see dark clouds rolling in.
Jonttu turns to Aarni. "I think we should take the bus."
Aarni looks back at the man who is taking in the view and the clouds, still looking around at anything and everything.
"What about..." Aarni turns back to Jonttu.
Jonttu shrugs, for a moment looking a bit lost. He shakes his head to himself before looking back at Aarni. "He seems okay enough to not warrant immediate medical attention."
Aarni is about to protest, but Jonttu gives him a serious look. For a moment Aarni racks his brain for why, before he connects the dots too.
"You don't think they would..."
Jonttu shrugs again, this time more defeated. "They totally would. Let's figure this out before we make any stupid decisions, y'know?"
Aarni agrees.
They continue the treck, now around the field and back to civilization.
"Do you know what the place you were staying at was?" Jonttu asks.
The man shrugs. "They called it the facility, mostly. Or the institute."
Jonttu looks at Aarni. Aarni shrugs.
It's then that Jonttu pauses tilting his head and Aarni immediately turns to him.
"It's the alarm again," Jonttu explains, listening to it.
The man seems to hear it too, as his face goes from confused to mildly panicked in a second.
"We need to leave."
He begins hurrying the way they were going and Jonttu quickly falls in step at his side.
"Why? Do you know what the alarm means?"
"I think it's because I ran away."
Jonttu and Aarni share a look. They're doing that an awful lot, Aarni thinks. But there is so much to say, so much that they probably don't want to say in front of this stranger. So, dubious, concerned and confused looks shall tide them over until they can get a break.
"It's coming from the facility?"
The man nods, determined to keep moving. Aarni doesn't object to the sudden change of pace, as the clouds are almost over them by now.
Another thunderous boom splits the skies, now much louder and closer than before, and the man almost falls over with how startled he seems.
Jonttu puts a hand on his shoulder, which earns him a confused, dubious look from the man, but he allows the contact.
"Are you scared of storms?"
The man shrugs. "If they're always that loud, then yes."
They continue walking, hurrying as Jonttu sets the pace.
"You've never been in a storm?"
The man shakes his head.
Aarni focuses on their destination. "Let's try not to make this a first."
Jonttu agrees and the man follows along.
As they make it finally from the field and into the neighbourhood near it, the first raindrops start to fall. The man looks at his hands, at the pavement, at the skies, his face surprisingly blank.
Aarni would consider it odd if everything about the situation on its own already wasn't just that.
As soon as Jonttu spots the bus stop, he sprints over to it, Aarni and the man soon following. They all squeeze onto the bench, and it doesn't take long thereafter for the rain to really start. The pavement seems to flood within seconds.
The man stares at the road before them, face still blank.
"I think we should put you in the rain just to wash off all the dirt." Jonttu smirks, gesturing to the man's general appearance.
The man looks at the rain, at Jonttu again before getting up and walking out from under their mediocre shelter.
The rain gets a lot more intense quite quickly, the storm really rolling in, and it doesn't take a minute for the man to be completely soaked. He spreads out his arms and looks at the sky again. While the worst of the dirt runs off him, there is no getting rid of the stains all over his clothes or the scratches up his arms with just some rainwater.
After a moment, he seems to be done, stumbling back over to the cover the bus stop provides and over to the bench, Jonttu and Aarni scooting over so he doesn't drip all over them.
It is also suddenly very apparent that man has all white clothing, as his shirt and pants cling to his skin as if glued. Jonttu tries to suppress a laugh, but fails.
"What?" The man looks between them, very confused.
Aarni can't help but laugh at his dumfounded expression, his eyes so wide and sincere.
The two go on laughing, and after a moment, the man joins them. There is something ever so slightly insane about the whole situation.
They calm down quickly when a flash of lightning clears the skies, followed by an ear splittingly loud crack of thunder.
The man jumps again, closing his eyes for a moment.
"When's the bus coming?" Aarni asks to distract them.
Jonttu pulls out his phone, looking through it.
"10-ish minutes."
Aarni nods.
"Wait, shit."
Aarni turns back to Jonttu. "What?"
"I need to get him a ticket as well, right?"
"Oh yeah."
"A ticket for me?" the man repeats.
"Yeah. So they'll let you on the bus with us."
The man nods.
As the man stares off, seemingly focusing on comprehending that piece of information and staring at the rain, Aarni takes another look at him.
His face isn't as dirty anymore, cleared by the rainwater, and Aarni agrees with the estimate of 'roughly 25'. He also looks to be in a better state, eyes no longer bloodshot and fearful like they were when they found him.
Instead, he looks calm. His face is surprisingly blank, and his eyes wander the surrounding area like it's the most beautiful painting he's ever seen. Aarni looks at the rainy view, then back to the man.
He doesn't seem bothered by his hair falling to his face or water dripping everywhere or how his clothes must be clinging uncomfortably. He's not even shivering, despite the cold.
"What the fuck?"
Aarni turns back to Jonttu who is still intently staring at his phone. Aarni leans over to see the screen and Jonttu moves it so he can.
It's open on the emergency services app. The page is an active notice, a warning for the area. Something about a gas leak from a local factory, that is spreading into the surrounding area.
The surrounding area where they just were.
"Good thing we left when we did."
"No." Jonttu replies automatically.
"What?" Aarni frowns.
"I didn't mean that. Look at where they've marked the factory on the map."
Aarni looks. It's closer to the edge of the zone.
"Yeah. So what?"
"Look at this." Jonttu gestures around them.
Aarni doesn't get it. The man, who is following along to the conversation, seems confused too.
"Explain," Aarni says, and Jonttu sighs.
"The wind is moving the storm that way, right?"
Aarni nods, slowly. The man looks at the sky and the rain again.
"And the factory is supposedly on the opposite side of the gas leak zone?"
Aarni grabs Jonttu's phone, looks at the storm again and then back at the phone.
He then opens the weather app. Indeed, the wind direction listed there is from them towards the factory, across the leak zone.
Aarni frowns deeper, handing Jonttu his phone again.
"Weird."
"Right?"
"What's the name of the factory?"
Jonttu and Aarni both turn towards the man, who looks at Jonttu.
"Uhm," Jonttu scrolls through the notice again, "Doesn't say."
The man looks thoughtful, but doesn't ask further.
Soon enough, their bus comes to their rescue through the wind and the rain. The driver barely gives them a glance, despite the guy's very odd choice of clothing considering the weather.
The heating is wonderful though, as is being away from the rain and the wind. The way the man leans closer to the heater instinctually definitely answers Aarni's earlier question about him being cold.
Aarni doesn't even think about it when Jonttu shepards them off the bus and into his apartment.
"Step one, change of clothes," Jonttu leads the way to his bedroom, throwing a random shirt and pants at Aarni and tossing another set onto his bed.
Aarni begins immediately changing, while Jonttu seizes up the man that is still dripping water everywhere. Jonttu pulls out a hoodie and sweats, dumping them onto the man's arms before digging through another part of the closet and summoning a clean towel.
"The shower's right through there," Jonttu points and the man nods, going where directed, though quite slowly as he's looking around wildly still, like he was when they were outside.
Once he's out of the room, Jonttu falls back onto his bed and takes a deep breath.
A moment passes and they can hear the shower turn on.
"You really don't think we should call anyone?" Aarni asks as Jonttu begins to change clothes as well.
"Not yet," he responds with a lot of conviction for someone who's given a stranger a place to stay and a fresh set of clothes already.
"If you get axe murdered by him, don't blame me," Aarni shrugs and Jonttu rolls his eyes.
"Who, Bambi, over there? No way. Did you see him coming out of the rain? That man is as threatening as a went kitten."
Aarni chuckles. "True. That's how he's gonna get you though. Lures you into a false sense of security."
The two make their way back into the living room, the shower still running in the background. Jonttu tosses a charger at Aarni, who catches it and immediately flops onto the couch to charge his phone.
"Order some food while you're at it." Jonttu says and digs up his laptop from under the coffee table.
They spend a moment in silence, Jonttu scrolling through something on his laptop while Aarni orders them food, trying to make a guess on what would be safe to order for the stranger. Luckily he doesn't have to guess, as the bathroom door soon unlocks and the man comes in, now dressed in Jonttu's clothes and looking a million times better, or at the very least more comfortable than he did back in the woods.
The man hesitates by the door and Jonttu turns to look.
His arms are full with his soaked scrubs and the towel.
"There's a basket in the other room, filled with clothes. Toss it in there."
The man does as he's told and joins them soon enough, standing around awkwardly until Jonttu pats the spot on the couch beside himself. The man comes over and sits down, if a little stiffly.
It is almost adorable, how unsure he suddenly looks. Covered in dirt and grime, wearing nothing but some plain, torn white clothes in the middle of the woods, having just passed out? Nothing to worry about. Comfortable in proper clothes and having showered, now in a climate controlled appartment? Anxious as fuck.
"Do you have preference on pizza?" Aarni asks.
The man shrugs.
"Okay, I'm ordering you pepperoni," Aarni informs him and the man just nods.
Once Aarni is done ordering, he turns to look at what Jonttu is doing on his laptop.
Apparently, he is scrolling through the news. More particularly, the news covering that gas leak.
Aarni finds himself surprised to see there's already some amount of coverage on the matter. Particularly what Jonttu is currently looking at, which is an expert stating that the gas leak zone given in the notice does in fact seem a bit odd, as does the fact that the area has already been struck by lightning and there are no insane warnings of explosions or forest fires or anything that you could expect from a lightning strike in a gas leak.
"Wait, what was that?" the man suddenly calls out.
Jonttu glances at him, then back at the screen. "What was what?"
The man gestures, and Jonttu scrolls back a bit.
"There, that."
The man is pointing at a picture. It is of the supposed factory.
"That's the building I ran from."
It does look like the plain factory building it is claimed to be. Or like a bigger storage hall. Plain, concrete, nothing that screams evil villain lair.
"You sure?" Aarni asks, now also taking interest.
The man nods.
Jonttu and Aarni look at each other, then back at the man.
"Fuck it." Aarni sighs and takes out his phone, opening Jodel.
Some more time is spent in silence. Jonttu and the man look through various articles and things about the company while Aarni is scrolling through whatever people in the area are saying.
And they are saying a lot.
"Apparently we weren't the only ones who heard the alarm. People are really confused."
"Yeah?" Jonttu prompts.
"Yeah. Also, there have apparently been sightings of police search and rescue dogs in the surrounding area."
Aarni and Jonttu share a look. Something here doesn't add up, and Aarni is starting to lean more towards Jonttu's assessment that maybe they shouldn't call help for the man sitting on the couch with them.
Aarni's eyes drift to the man. He's staring at the wall, blank as ever.
Jonttu turns too.
"Everything okay?"
"What kind of a sound does a dog make?" The man says, furrowing his brow.
Jonttu glances at Aarni. Aarni shrugs. Jonttu pulls up a new tab and is soon enough playing a video of a dog barking.
The man flinches at the sound slightly, before nodding.
"That's one of the things I heard. When I started running."
"You heard dogs in the woods?"
The man nods.
Jonttu and Aarni share another look.
Jonttu takes a deep breath, before turning fully back to the man, who is still staring at the wall, eyebrows still furrowed.
"They were looking for you because you ran, right?"
The man nods, carefully.
"Do you know why they were keeping you there? Why they didn't want you to leave?"
The silence feels like an eternity. Aarni can't take his eyes off of the man, who looks down at his hands again, at the cuts that have just barely started to scab over, no longer bleeding.
"Because I'm different."
The man looks from his hands to Jonttu, to the laptop screen and then back at his hands. They're shaking now.
"I was their biggest success."
"Success at what?" Aarni asks, voice barely above a whisper.
The man looks at them.
"I don't know. But I don't think I'm like you."
There is a long stretch of silence, where Jonttu and Aarni wrap their heads around it.
Aarni feels that dread again. There is something deeply wrong with this situation. Sure, the gas leak and the police and the dogs could still all be legit. What does he know about gas leaks and safety protocol after all? But looking at this man, Aarni doesn't think he's lying.
Something happened to this guy, something upsetting, and somehow it is connected to that factory.
The conspiratorial part of his brain screams cover up, and while he's not one to jump to wild conclusions, he can't ignore the thought.
Jonttu is the one to break the silence.
"How did you end up in that place?"
The man looks at Jonttu, then back down at his hands.
"I woke up there."
"Where did you fall asleep then?" Jonttu asks, as if it's the most obvious thing.
The man frowns. "I didn't. I've never been outside of that place."
Aarni looks at Jonttu, whose eyes are still focused on the man.
"And you were born this year?"
The man nods.
"And you're around 25 years old?"
The man nods again, looking at Jonttu in confusion. Aarni keeps looking at Jonttu too, because he can feel in his bones where this line of questioning is headed, and beyond anything he wants it to not end up there.
"And you've never been outside of that place?"
The man looks calm, if a bit confused. Like there's nothing wrong with this. Like he just needs something repeated once, and not that-
"What do you remember of your childhood?" Aarni asks.
The man looks at them blankly.
"My childhood?"
Aarni nods. "Your parents? Siblings? Home? Growing up? Childhood."
The man stares at them, then down at his hands again.
"I don't think I had one."
Aarni doesn't know for how long he and Jonttu just sit there, staring at the man.
"Aarni, can I talk to you in the other room for a bit?"
Aarni just nods, getting up and throwing a "Wait there" over his shoulder at the man before closing the bedroom door between him and them.
Jonttu just stands there, staring at Aarni. Aarni stares back.
"What the fuck."
"I don't know."
Jonttu goes to sit on the bed again, and Aarni starts pacing.
"Do you believe him?" Jonttu asks.
"I mean, I believe that he believes it," Aarni replies, "But memories can be messed with, right? Maybe he just has amnesia or something?"
"Or he really was born... recently," Jonttu says in disbelief.
"I mean, that gas leak lined up a bit too conveniently, didn't it?" Aarni adds.
Internally, he's screaming at himself for throwing around the idea, for debating this, for entertaining this thought. Of course he wasn't born this year, of course he had a childhood. People don't just appear out of thin air, do they? It's just his imagination going wild.
"What are we gonna do with him?" Aarni asks.
Jonttu shrugs again. "Wherever he was before, I don't think it was a good place."
Aarni nods. "We can't just keep him though. What if he's mentally disabled or something? Like if he really has amnesia, wouldn't us keeping him count as kidnapping or something?"
Jonttu shrugs. "That too."
Aarni buries his face into his hands and sighs. Jonttu doesn't look to be doing much better.
Finally, Aarni lifts his face up. "Okay."
"Okay?"
"Let's not do anything for tonight."
Jonttu looks at him, then at the door, then shrugs.
"Sounds like a plan."
And with that, the two step back into the living room, where the man is still sitting quite stiffly on the couch.
"So, do you have a name?" Jonttu asks.
The man shrugs. "They just called me the subject."
Jonttu decides to skip right over that, instead walking over to his fridge where he has a calendar.
"Okay, well, we're gonna give you a name, how about that?"
"You're gonna pick his name from the calendar?" Aarni asks, laughing slightly.
"Got any better ideas?" Jonttu shoots back.
Aarni shakes his head. "Depends on the name:"
"Today's the 10th, right? So it would be Seppo."
Aarni bursts into laughter then, leaving the man whose name they're deciding confused.
"You're kidding?"
Jonttu holds up his hands in defeat. "Maybe not today's one, then."
"What's so funny about Seppo?" the man asks innocently.
"Nothing funny. Just-" Aarni still chuckles, "- you don't look like a Seppo at all."
The man accepts the answer.
"Ooh!" Aarni lights up. "What's the name on midsummer?"
"Paula, Pauliina, Liina," Jonttu lists, "Probably not those."
Aarni frowns in disappointment, but soon Jonttu humms contemplatively.
"What about Johannes?"
Aarni turns to look at the man, who is looking between the two of them with something like hope in his eyes.
"You like Johannes?" Aarni asks the man. It's only polite to give him some say in his own name.
The man shrugs. "The only things I know about names are yours. I would consider it nice to have any name at all."
"I take that as a yes." Jonttu smiles as he walks over to the couch.
"Well, Johannes, it's very nice to finally get to know you."
Johannes smiles. It lights up his whole face, like he has been given a great gift. Though, Aarni supposes, a name is one of the greater gifts anyone can receive.