Authors: L.M. McCleary
I sighed
more in defeat than anything else. “…you still don’t know who I am, do you?” My
words were colder than I had realized and I walked with a stiff gait.
“Are we really going to go through this again?” He rolled his eyes and I
scowled fiercely.
“Just answer the question: yes or no.” I was not in the mood for nonsense.
“No, I don’t.” He didn’t even hesitate.
“Then maybe you need a reminder; something to jar the memories forth.”
“There are none…” He mumbled to himself.
I cleared my throat as I tried to suppress my anger. “We grew up together.”
He scoffed.
“Yeah; me, you, and a million other women.”
“What?” I slowed my pace.
“No
offense
hun
but you’re
not the
first to come to me with claims of my past. Did you know I’m apparently married
to three different women around here? Why is it always women who seem to know
everything?” He threw his hands up in the air and shrugged.
Ugh. “What do I have to gain from telling you this?”
“My trust.”
His reply was immediate. “Sorry sweetheart
but I’d need more proof than some wild claims from a strange woman.”
“Why, exactly, do I need your trust? How would that benefit me?”
“Heh,” he shook his head, “you’re clearly still new here. You’ll find out soon
enough that I have a few connections. The Pirates didn’t bring you to me
randomly, you know; they trust me with a lot of their affairs.”
“Affairs that require them completely ignoring you, huh?”
I remembered his words from last night. “Asking you to tend to the wounded
isn’t exactly a prestigious job that no one else could do.” I saw his face
contort in irritation; oddly enough, the sight gave me a brief sense of
satisfaction. “I’m pretty sure anyone could pick up a glass of water.” I
regretted the words as soon as I said them. He may be cocky, sure, but he still
cared for me when he really had no reason to; I owed my life to the Pirates and
in turn, Kay as well.
“You’re pretty ungrateful.” His words dripped with vitriol. At least that
seemed to stay the same; you could always tell when Kay was thoroughly upset.
“Yeah…that was pretty rude of me, wasn’t it?” I stayed back and cast my glance
upon the ground, feeling my face burn hot in embarrassment. “I’m sorry; that
was uncalled for.”
“Whatever.” He grumbled.
Well…this wasn’t exactly the conversation or tone I had expected to have when I
found Kay again. I wasn’t exactly giving him much reason to try to remember me
at the moment, either. But I felt so irritated in his presence…what happened to
us? “…we grew up in a small town.” I started slowly, “…a town in the shadow of
a cliff face. You grew up with
Ponika
and
I
. He remembers you just as clearly as I do.”
“
Ponika
, huh.”
He replied
quietly. “Where did you find such a thing, anyway?”
“Our Provider gave him to my father…or so I assume.” Kay stared back at me
blankly. “I…don’t really know anything about the Provider. It could be a man,
woman, or even a group of people. We would meet with a Mediator who brings the
Provider’s gifts to us; you and I went to a meeting with them once.”
“Mediator?
Man, I have no idea what you’re talking
about. We don’t have that
kinda
stuff out here. The
Pirates are the only ones who bring stuff by. They can apparently travel quite
fast through the sandstorms and they often come by here to drop off their
supplies; this is their base of operations. It’s not their
home
, but it
is their base.” Kay suddenly pointed to the sandstorm in the distance. “See
that? It never goes away. I think the pirates conjured it up somehow. It’s
supposed to keep people out and keep us all safe.”
“A permanent sandstorm…? How do people leave, then? They’d get lost in a storm
that large!”
“Leave? Why would we leave? The Pirates can lead us out if necessary but I
don’t know why anyone would bother.”
Could this place be the reason he’s changed? Would it do the same to me? My
heart sank at the thought. “Well I, for one, don’t plan on leaving either. I’ve
found what I’m looking for and I’m not leaving until you remember.”
Kay smiled. “Staying, huh? Well I definitely wouldn’t mind another pretty face
around here.”
I groaned inwardly at his attempts to enchant me, especially after the row we
just had. Who does that? Even the
boys
back home, who
tried desperately to get a woman’s attention, would probably move on after an
altercation like that. This wasn’t the Kay I knew but I wasn’t giving up; he
had to still be in there somewhere.
We finally stopped outside of a large tent in the middle of a row of huts. “This
is it,” Kay gestured towards it and looked at me expectantly. I inhaled deeply
as I thought about what, and
who
, could possibly be waiting for me
inside. “…Ladies first,” he continued.
“Right.”
I clasped my hands onto my jeans to steady them
as I made my way inside the tent.
While it appeared rather large from the outside, it was quite small on the
inside as the place was packed with boxes and fabrics in every corner. There
was a small table in the middle of the room with a bunch of papers stacked
unevenly atop it and two small stools sat near it. An unlit lantern sat firmly
atop the stray papers, keeping them in place from the occasional gust that made
its way in and ruffled the various fabrics. I stared at the papers intently;
how did they get such a large quantity of such a rare item? A large man sat on
the opposite stool, absorbed in the sheet in his hand until Kay followed inside
after me. The sound of our footsteps made him glance up from his work and grin
at us.
“…d-dad…” I murmured it to myself so quietly that neither man heard me speak.
It had been so long; I played this moment out in my head a million times and
yet it still felt so surreal. This was finally happening; I had finally found
my father.
Kay shook my dad’s hand and clapped him on the shoulder, smiling as old friends
do. Chester returned the look and then turned his attention towards me. He
tried to stand to greet me but he was too tall for the tent to properly
accommodate him, leaving him hunched over in greeting.
“So you’re the one looking for somebody? The one they found at the crater?”
I knew it would happen; he didn’t recognize me either. I had refused to be
hopeful that he would. So what do I do now? Do I admit he’s my dad? Should I
lie? What would make things easier on everyone…? I swallowed hard and merely
stared at him as I lost myself in my thoughts. I felt tears well up in my eyes.
“Aw sweetheart; don’t get upset. We can help you find whoever you’re looking
for. Chances are good that they’re still alive and well.” He gestured for me to
take a seat in the empty stool as he sat back down on his own.
“I…” I didn’t even know where to begin. I stumbled on my words and my thoughts
were a jumble as I took my father’s advice.
“She might still be out of it,” Kay started, “she keeps thinking I’m someone
else.”
“Ah,” my father replied, looking up to Kay as he stood nearby, “well, she was
awfully close to that crater; it’s doubtful she would have made it out
unscathed.” Chester turned his attention to me. “What exactly
were
you doing out there, sweetheart?”
“…crater?” I squeaked out a response.
“We’re not sure what exactly is there but it’s very dangerous all the same; it
messes with your mind and mutates the skin. It’s a very volatile aura and you
got closer than most would be willing to go; it has to be why you fainted.
Which begs the question; what were you doing out there?”
“I don’t know…” I replied slowly, “…I was passed out for most of the trip. My
horse brought me near there and I thought I saw people within it.”
“If you saw anything, it most certainly wasn’t people,” Chester responded,
“some kind of abomination caused by the crater and most likely a dangerous one
to boot, but definitely not people.”
“I had to be sure…”
“…you risked life and limb just to find out?” My father looked at me
incredulously.
“There’s no way to find who I’m looking for if I never try.”
“…interesting.”
He seemed to be at a loss for words.
“If that’s true, well, I’d like to know who you are before I lend any help.”
How rich; they want to know who I am when they don’t even know themselves.
“What’s to know?” I said at last. “I’m just a girl looking for people.”
“And I’m apparently one of them.” Kay scoffed.
“One?”
My father looked at him in confusion. “Oh…you
were looking for multiple people?
Hm
…that’s strange;
Kay never mentioned you and he’s been here as long as I have. How do you know
him?”
His words hurt more than I anticipated. “We’re from the same town…” I noticed
Kay smile and shrug as my father gave him a sideways glance. “I’m not crazy.” I
blurted, irritated by their expressions.
“Well…maybe not; your mind may have been fiddled with without your knowledge.
Now, what you claim about Kay is none of my business; that’s between the two of
you. The other person you’re looking for, however…they may be at a facility
nearby; one that probably had its claws on you, too.”
“…Facility?”
“There’s this place nearby…a place of metal and fear. It’s just to the south of
us, embedded into the side of a cliff. There’s a man there named Dr.
Krastanov
who performs mind-altering experiments on his
prisoners. I’ve been trying to recruit a team to go there and free everyone but
it has been a slow-going process; we don’t even know how to get the doors open
yet as they are made with a very thick metal that none of
us
can seem to pry open.” I tried my hardest not to light up at the name as the
two men already seemed skeptical of me. “We get refugees from the Facility all
the time and I think you may be one of them; he’s muddled with your memories to
the point that you no longer know who’s what. Perhaps your friend would
recognize you, though…” Chester stroked his chin in thought. “I could help you
find out, if you would be interested in joining the cause?”
A mind-altering facility…and Dr.
Krastanov
?
Tsvetan
Krastanov
?
“How exactly do you know that people have been altered? How do you know they’re
refugees?”
“Well, they show up here much like you,” Chester lifted the lantern from the
pile of papers and fiddled with the sheets, clearly looking for one in
particular. “They arrive with forgotten memories or confused thoughts. It’s
pretty easy to tell that they’re a victim of
Krastanov
and I’m afraid that it’s only a matter of time before this entire Outpost is targeted;
we need to strike first and free the prisoners.”
“…what if someone here was altered by this Dr.
Krastanov
guy? How do you save them?”
My father hesitated. “Well…you don’t.” He looked at me in disappointment. “You may
never get your memories back, my dear; I’m sorry to say so. There’s nothing we
can do for those affected; they can make their own decision on how to continue
their life.”
“And is there any way to know if someone has been altered?” My questions seemed
to be coming out in rapid succession, confusing my father in my interest.
“Besides the obvious memory loss?
Like, a scar or
something?” He tilted his head slightly. “No…there’s no other way to know if
someone has been affected.”
“Hmm.”
I replied sharply, giving Kay a quick glance.
“Like I said, I’m currently working on getting a group together for the
infiltration mission. Once I have a sufficient group I’ll notify you and we can
move forward from there.” Chester picked up a sheet of paper with various names
scrawled across it in a sporadic manner. “You can stay at the medical tent for
now, until we find a suitable home for you. If you have any other questions,
just ask; I’m usually here,” my father glanced at Kay, “Kay, escort her back,
will you?”
Kay agreed and turned to leave with me. I was still gazing at my father,
desperate for him to suddenly realize his little girl was standing before him.
My father didn’t even look at me once he found his paper, however, and he
pulled a stack of pristine-looking books out of a box beside him. I was shocked
at the sight but Kay ushered me outside before I could ask about them.