Jack doesn’t open his eyes for a moment as she pulls back. He’s too busy trying to catch his breath, to sort out the jumble of emotions inside him, many of which he hasn’t felt in a long, long time. Emotions he didn’t think he was capable of feeling any more, or at least not that intensely. Maybe it’s this place, this dream-but-not-a-dream place.
But in that moment before he opens his eyes he realizes that something about that place has changed, and his eyes snap open, subconsciously realizing what’s different before the active part of his brain can sort out what it means.
They aren’t in CTU any longer: the air is colder, the scent of mildew and damp and something else (blood, fear) in the air. His heart thudding in his chest, Jack turns around, pushing Audrey behind him protectively without even thinking of it.
The walls and floor are concrete, like the CTU interrogation room, but the only light is from a few naked fluorescent tubes on the ceiling. The one-way window is gone, replaced with more concrete, nothing in the room to give any hint about whether it’s day or night, summer or winter. Time doesn’t exist in this place, and neither does the outside world. The entire world is this room, the hallway Jack knows is outside the single door, and a smaller concrete box down the hall
It had been Jack’s entire world for almost two years.
The door to the hall is open, and as he stares at it, part of him expects to see Cheng walk in with that cold, cruel smile of his, and tell him that everything he’s known for the past year--more than a year--had been a hallucination. That this isn’t a dream, the bar was.
That as firmly as Jack had believed he’d escaped Hell, that in reality, he’s never left it.
no subject
But in that moment before he opens his eyes he realizes that something about that place has changed, and his eyes snap open, subconsciously realizing what’s different before the active part of his brain can sort out what it means.
They aren’t in CTU any longer: the air is colder, the scent of mildew and damp and something else (blood, fear) in the air. His heart thudding in his chest, Jack turns around, pushing Audrey behind him protectively without even thinking of it.
The walls and floor are concrete, like the CTU interrogation room, but the only light is from a few naked fluorescent tubes on the ceiling. The one-way window is gone, replaced with more concrete, nothing in the room to give any hint about whether it’s day or night, summer or winter. Time doesn’t exist in this place, and neither does the outside world. The entire world is this room, the hallway Jack knows is outside the single door, and a smaller concrete box down the hall
It had been Jack’s entire world for almost two years.
The door to the hall is open, and as he stares at it, part of him expects to see Cheng walk in with that cold, cruel smile of his, and tell him that everything he’s known for the past year--more than a year--had been a hallucination. That this isn’t a dream, the bar was.
That as firmly as Jack had believed he’d escaped Hell, that in reality, he’s never left it.