Piece By Piece ~ Snippet 14

Aiden

We rush down the escalator in record time. I look behind me, counting running bodies. “Clear the door!” Danger yells to me. I’m not even sure he can hear. He’s further back in the pack than I would expect, but he felt the brunt of the explosion, second only to the injured woman in his arms. “Aiden, the door!”

I nod, and take off like a shot, separating myself from the pack to reach the door first. I grab pieces of our barricade at random and throw them aside. I’m not as strong as Danger, but he’s otherwise engaged, and pulling apart the barricade is easier than putting it up. Elise joins me, yanking down pieces as fast as I am. Nearby explosions shake the store around us. Lana glances around nervously. “Can’t we just take the back door?” She’s talking about the one door we don’t have entirely blocked off.

“Are you crazy? That’s where the explosions are coming from!” Viren retorts quickly, while Elise and I work together to move the largest piece of furniture. 

“Guys, wait for a moment. Elise and Aiden are working to get us out.” Danger’s monotone voice is like a calming balm to the cacophony of explosions around us. 

As the others look to him, Lana gasps. “Savannah! She needs help!” I look over for a moment, distracted, and see drops of blood, Savannah’s blood, falling from Danger’s arm. I force my attention back to the task at hand and push with all my might. 

“It won’t matter if we help Savannah now if we all die here,” Danger reminds us. As he does, Elise and I violently shove the last obstruction out of the way. “Let’s go!” he yells over the din of another explosion. He steps up onto a toppled shelf and launches himself through the opening. I pull his pack further up onto my shoulder as I watch the others go through. I help Lana, the shortest, step up, when a blast crashes into the store. “Go!” I yell, taking off with her hand still in mine.

Elise had stopped to wait for us, but her eyes widen and she starts running just before we reach her. We feel the ground shake, all too close, and look behind us. The entire department store, A-Mart, our home, crashes to the ground. If we’d been in there a few minutes longer, we would have been entombed within it. I can’t linger on that thought though, because the explosion that brought our building to its knees was by no means the last. 

This terror filled run as we flee our home is even more frightening than the night we all woke up. The active chaos makes my heart race, and my blood pounds in my ears as loud any explosion. A-Mart isn’t the only casualty of the attack either. Buildings fall, adding to the destruction and guiding our way through the disaster. 

I swallow when I see a trail ahead of me, a trail of blood. Danger, despite carrying Savannah, remains at the head of our group thanks to his long legs. No one has seen the extent of Savannah’s wounds, which worries me. I know we have to get to safety first, but I haven’t kept track of the amount of blood Savannah’s lost. Will she even make it to safety?

I can’t imagine losing one of our own, let alone Savannah. Her fiery personality lights up our group, and there’s something contagious about her smile when she’s in a good mood. Picturing her smile from one of my recent memories sends words flying through my mind. 

Her hair, strands of ruby, catch the pure sunlight, shimmering like jewels. 
Her laugh, bright and bubbly, holds the fun and calming nature of a babbling brook.
Her temper holds a fire as fierce as her hair, strong and ferocious as a lion. 
Her smile… Her smile infects my soul and makes my heart sing. 

They’re words I’ve read. No, words I’ve written. They’re words I wrote for her, about her, Savannah. The realization stops me in my tracks as I feel the familiar blush in my cheeks. This is why I’ve been unable to recover my memories from my job when I was talking to Savannah. Most of my thoughts from that time were of her, because I was in love with her. 

“Hey!” Lana tugs my hand, pulling me along. I start running again. I shouldn’t be focused on memories while we escape from sudden explosions. Of course, now that I have, my fear for Savannah takes on an entirely new significance. 

I have to try to push past my newfound feelings and memories. I feel the emotions welling up inside me, begging for a release, but distraction could be deadly in this newly horrific situation. For now I take comfort in the fact that Savannah is in the most capable hands of our party, and the only ones strong enough to carry her through this nightmare. 

Another explosion booms from our right, an we turn left into an alley as the ground shakes. Danger leads with long, confident strides. His head stays straight, steering our group single file through the narrow alley. I try to keep my eyes just as focused, but I can’t help but see the buildings closing in from both edges of my vision. My mind is filled with the image of being trapped between the two as they crumble down overtop of us. Freedom from the narrow alleyway can’t come swift enough. 

As we pour out into the street we skid to a halt, trying not to run into one another. As our warm, sticky bodies try to cling to each other, another heat prevails. What used to be a building is now a monster in front of us, reaching out to grab us with tendrils of flame. My eyes widen in fear, but a voice provides us a direction. “Right!”

As I turn to obey, my arm pulls sharply to the left. Lana, who’s sweaty palm is still in mine, had started to go left instead. “Come on!” I yell, even as she corrects herself. 

Viren, who had also started in that direction, overshoots, but uses their hyperactive energy in a burst of speed to circle back around and pass us. “Nope, nope, nope!” Looking behind us, I watch a building crash down spectacularly onto the street. My legs ache and my throat burns, but I push forward with renewed energy. My shoulder jerks back. Lana’s shorter legs can’t match my pace. Something primal in me wants to release her and speed off alone. Something human in me sees the desperation in her eyes, and keeps my fingers interlocked with hers. 

I try to tell her that we’re okay, that we’ll be okay, but the best my hoarse throat can muster is a ragged cough. Thankfully, my words quickly become irrelevant. Sooner than I would have expected, we manage to put distance between ourselves and the ongoing explosions. As soon as Danger begins to ease up his speed, the rest of us gladly follow suit. We all pant from the exertion, but keep walking. 

I try to regain my voice as I disentangle my fingers from Lana’s and jog up to Danger. “How?” I stop and start again. “How is she?” I nod to Savannah in his arms. Her wild red hair pours over him, but I’m glad it’s that, rather than her blood. 

He looks down, his mouth a hard line. “I don’t know.” He pauses. “She’s unconscious, so hopefully she’s in less pain at least.” I nod and look down, unsure of how to respond. “Once we get a little further, we’ll go inside someplace and try to assess her condition better.” I should be used to Danger’s even tone, but it’s almost jarring compared to the earth rattling sounds of explosions still not far enough away. Viren comes up on Danger’s other side to look at Savannah. They open their mouth to say something, but for once, close it without uttering a word. The consistent silence of our entire group is a direct opposite of the erratic cacophony behind us. 

Over time, as our fatigue wears on, the distant crashes and booms start to slow, until eventually we hear the last. We don’t acknowledge it aloud, a superstitious fear holding us back. If we were to say the words, they might be disproven. At Danger’s direction, we start trying the doors of buildings until we manage to find one unlocked. We collapse inside the hallway. “Everything’s locked on the first floor,” Viren tells us. “I’ll check upstairs.” 

“No,” Danger grunts, thudding into the wall and sliding down it. He carefully lays Savannah out to his side. “We don’t know if there will be any more explosions. We should stay on the ground floor.” He exhales before turning to Savannah. 

I kneel down in front of him. “Hey, man, stay put.” I put a hand on his chest. We’ll take care of her. You need to be looked at too.” 

Elise and Lana nod. “Don’t worry. We’ll take care of you both.” 

He lets out a long breath and nods unwillingly. His head falls back against the wall, and his breathing settles as he loses consciousness. Viren, Lana, Elise, and I look between each other. The crushing silence weighs on us as we’re left with two inured, unconscious friends, and no medical training. 

~ I hope everyone enjoys this week's snippet. I really enjoyed writing this one. A post about last week's comic convention is still forthcoming, so stay tuned for that as well as the continuation of Piece By Piece. Have a safe and fun holiday!

Piece By Piece ~ Snippet 13

Savannah 

Since that night when Danger and I went up on the roof, the store has become a fortress that we spend most of our time hiding away in. All of the exits have been reinforced, and all of the first floor windows as well. The only door we can even use to access the outside is a back exit which only opens from the inside. If a party goes out, they have to contact us using the walkie talkie in order to get back in. Not that anyone goes outside often. 

Danger leads exploratory missions every few days, occasionally bringing back resources from other stores and working on a freehand map of the area. He always takes two people with him. We don’t want to split our party into groups any smaller than three each. The only one who hasn’t gone back out at all is Lana. Finding the corpse clearly had an effect on her. Her usual confidence, if somewhat snooty, has taken a worrying backseat. On the other hand though, she’s clearly working to build it back up. 

Indoors, we aren’t idle. We found ourselves in this world without any memories or skills, but we are working hard to change that. We’ve been training with the weapons we have available, from the machetes and knives to the bows. The only weapon we don’t practice with is the guns, so that we don’t waste ammo. Knowing there may be a killer out there has pushed all of us to learn to use the weapons as best we can, and we haven’t limited ourselves to the weapons we chose. 

Despite his complete lack of memories, Danger has the best instincts when it comes to all of our weapons, with the exception of the bow and arrow. He’s taken on the role of weapons master and tries to help correct our postures when we practice. The one weapon he hasn’t mastered, Elise seems to have picked up quickly. She’s the only who’s good enough to teach him, although he frustrates easily. For being an excellent teacher, he’s a rather poor student at times. Fortunately, Elise has the patience to teach him that I in particular probably wouldn’t. 

Not that I should complain about his frustrations, he has a lot to deal with when it comes to the rest of us. He’s taken well to the roles of leadership that we, by our ineptitude, force him into. He is our weapons master, survivalist, and expedition leader all at once. We do try to help when we are able though. Elise teaches us to use the bow, Lana keeps us constantly organized, Aiden reads everything, trying to research the world, Viren keeps us active, and I try to help everyone remember their pasts. 

So far, I’ve had the most success with Elise, Aiden, and Lana. Our initial memory loss aside, Aiden seems to have a great memory for anything he’s read. I try to work with him one on one, having discussions that lead back from what he’s read here. Once in a while, I try to ask him about his job, but he blushes and then I can’t get anything else out of him. I need to ask though, because if we worked together, that may be relevant to our current situation, or even to the return of my own memories. 

Lana and Elise seem to build upon each other’s memories well, like when we found out some of the most basic information of our world. Since then, the two of them together have built a better understanding of how we lived before. Elise’s initial memory of watching the news revealed the ruling families, but Lana remembered how the few wealthy ruling families rule the supercity by their control of vital resources. Elise was able to add in that the ruling families change through political warfare between the long established families. Lana then remembered that the so called lower classes, or everyday people lived mostly separate from the upper classes. They lived pretty normal lives, and went to regular jobs. Though there were sometimes upsets from the changing ruling families, regular people didn’t mix with them much. 

Though, it also seemed like there wasn’t much for people to aspire to socially. Either you were born to the upper classes, or the lower classes. Transcending the class system sounds impossible. The best normal people could hope for was a steady job. It seems like that was Aiden’s aspiration, as well as mine, since we had what sound like stable jobs. The last thing that Elise remembered was that on very rare occasions, ruling families would select talented individuals from the lower classes to join the ranks of their companies. That may have been the ultimate, but unlikely goal of the average person. 

Unfortunately, even Aiden, Lana, and Elise couldn’t remember what happened to our supercity and our normal lives. We still don’t have any idea how we ended up here, and without our memories. I’m also having a hard time finding any of memories, despite my ability to help the others reclaim theirs. Not that I’ve had success across the board. Viren is too easily distracted and hyper active for me to help much. They don’t care much about their memories either, only about moving forward. 

My biggest failure is with Danger. Danger knows the most about anything we need him to, but I haven’t been able to help him recover any memories. I wonder if he’s harder headed, or if that’s just me. Somehow, he and I both always end up frustrated and arguing with each other. That’s the case again tonight. 

“It’s not my fault you can’t remember anything!” I yell. 

“Maybe it is!” he returns. “You’re the memory expert, so why can’t you make me remember anything?”

My eyes narrow. “I think you’re just defective!” I swing my hand over towards the rest of our party, watching from some distance. They’re used to us fighting, but this may be our worst fight yet. “I helped all of them remember things from their pasts, even Viren, who can’t sit still for two flipping seconds!”

“Hey,” Viren protests mildly, but raises their hands in surrender when faced with Danger’s glare and mine. 

“What about you?” Danger asks. “Have you remembered anything?” 

My eyes widen, and I stumble for a moment. “That isn’t what we’re talking about here!” I cross my arms over my chest. “You yell at me like it’s my fault your stupid hard head won’t remember anything!” 

His eyes pinch so narrow they’re almost closed. His voice comes out low, like a growl. “Maybe we’re too hard headed to work together.” 

“Maybe we are!” I huff and turn away. “You try to remember your past on your own. Let me know how that goes.” 

“I bet I’ll have more success than you,” he grumbles back. 

I whirl to face him, ready to explode, but I don’t. My eyes are frozen on the window. Something already has exploded, but Danger can’t see. His back is to the window. He can’t see what’s coming. “Danger, get down!” I lunge at him, knocking him down roughly to the ground and landing on top of him. I grimace as I feel a massive heat wave rush across my back. The pressure forces us down and brings huge shards of broken glass and debris with it, tearing open my shirt, and my skin. “Ahh!” I scream out in pain, unable to help myself, but my cry dies along with the blast. 

I lay on top of Danger, my body shaking, and my ears ringing. I feel what must be another explosion in the distance. I see Danger’s face in front f me. His mouth moves but I don’t know what he’s saying. I hiss as I feel something touch my raw back. Danger draws his hand back just into my field of vision. It’s covered in red. His face turns and he yells something at the others. Hopefully they can hear him. I feel another rumble through my battered body. 

Danger sits up, pulling me with him and managing to cradle me in his arms. The weight of my own body presses my wounds down onto his arms. He starts to move, running with me. My vision is blurry because of the water in my eyes, but I see the others running alongside of us. There’s at least one thing we can all agree on. We need to get out of here. 

~ Hi,there, everybody. I apologize for being late this week, but I was extremely busy both with work and then a convention this weekend. (I'm also working on a post about my experience at the con, so that should be out soon.) After preparing for possible threats, how ready is our group of heroes to face them? Find out in next week's snippet. 

Piece By Piece ~ Snippet 12

Danger

The tension in the store is palpable. After Aiden and Lana’s discovery, we decided to call off the exploration and return to A-Mart. Now that we have a real, known danger out there, the mood has turned somber, fearful even. The group stays clustered together. No one wants to leave our base in the mattress section. Lana and Viren even moved some of our food stocks closer. If anyone needs to leave the group, they take a partner with them, and someone has a hand on a weapon at all times. 

I want to go around the store to check for weaknesses and points of entry, but I don’t think I should leave the group yet. They all seem terrified. I know that, for better or worse, they look to me as a protector or leader. Once they settle, maybe I can take one of them with me and sneak away to check the perimeter. 

“Hey,” Lana interrupts my thoughts. 

I look up to her, and straighten, realizing how far I’ve slumped over. “Can I help you with something?”

“You were awfully quiet.” She sits next to me. “I thought maybe you needed someone to share your thoughts with.”

I shake my head. “No, I’m fine.” I couldn’t show her what I had inside my head, even if I wanted to. Lana was the most shaken by the discovery she made with Aiden. Looking into her dark, nearly black eyes now, I can see the terror she’s trying to contain. I sigh and avert my gaze, not wanting to stare. Without looking, I wrap my arm around her. She jumps a little when she first feels my touch, but then she settles into it. I fall back into my own thoughts and she slowly falls into my side. 

Awhile later, Savannah walks by. “She asleep?” I nod. “You ready to go? You seem like you need to move.”

I shrug with my unhindered right side. Actually I’ve become pretty comfortable, but I do still want to check on our defenses, however little they may be. “How could you tell?” I ask. Gently I lay Lana down on the bed. She curls up into a ball until I throw a spare blanket over her. 

“You’re curious because you’re basically expressionless?” Savannah asks. I turn to her, eyes narrowed. “You just seem alert, like there’s something keeping you up.” 

“There is,” I confirm. “Do you have your gun?” 

“Of course,” Savannah tells me. “And a flashlight. What are we exploring?”

“Just the store.” I shoulder my pack, and pull out my flashlight. “I want to check the perimeter, maybe reinforce it a little.” 

Savannah nods. “Makes sense, since, you know...” She fidgets and looks away. Though she usually seems more resilient, it’s obvious she was affected too. I wonder if something’s wrong with me. Should I feel more afraid than I do? I feel less secure, knowing there’s someone out there, but I don’t feel quite as disturbed by that as the others do. 

“You guys going somewhere?” Aiden walks over with his hands in his pockets. 

I nod. “Yeah, are you going to be up for a bit?” 

“Mhm. I’ll keep watch while you’re gone, since the others are asleep,” he quickly agrees to what I would have asked. 

“Good.” I look over at Viren, sprawled across a bed. “Hm. I didn’t think the kid ever ran out of energy.” 

“Viren must have been busy pestering you today,” Aiden says. 

“They were certainly active,” I agree. “You don’t have limitless energy though. Are you going to be alright until we get back?” 

“Haha, I’m fine.” He pulls a rolled up magazine from his back pocket. “Yeah, I’ve got plenty to read. I’ll stay awake.” 

“Hey,” Savannah points at him. “Don’t lose focus, bookworm. I’ve seen you fall into those magazines of yours.” 

Aiden smiles guiltily and fixes his glasses. “I won’t. I’m far too on edge for that. The magazines are just to help keep me up.”

“Okay, someone will switch with you when we get back,” I tell him. “Come on, Savannah.” I want to get this done; it’s been eating at me since we came back. Maybe I am as scared as everybody else. 

Savannah follows my lead in silence, down the immobile escalator to the first floor. Immediately, we head to the front entrance. We locked the door earlier with the interior locks, but since it’s a rotating door, Aiden and I also moved a piece of furniture into it, to keep the door from spinning. We didn’t trust the locks on their own. “I’m not fond of these large windows,” I say quietly, pointing to the floor to ceiling windows providing a view of the unused first floor. 

“At least it doesn’t really look like anyone’s in here,” Savannah tries to reassure me. 

“Still,” I hold my chin in my hand thoughtfully. “I’d like to block them somehow tomorrow.” 

Savannah nods, not disagreeing with me. Even though she was bothered by finding out about the killer, and the body left in their wake, her instincts push her to be more defensive now, rather than blindly frightened. Savannah was the first to take control of the group, to give them direction. Leading is clearly in her nature, and a heavy weight of responsibility comes with it. 

I break the pensive silence with a question. “Can you show me where any other entrances or exits are in the store? I believe you all explored indoors a bit more while I was sleeping.”

She nods, and a sly smile creeps onto her face. “It wasn’t hard, since you were out for so long.” My eyes narrow and she laughs. 

Savannah does show me what I need to see with more precision than if I’d just stumbled around on my own in the dark. As we move further back, the light from the street lights fades and we resort to our flashlights. There are two other doors on the first floor, intended for emergencies only. I’m pretty certain that they’re intended to remain locked from the outside, but we bar them anyway, for added protection. The sublevel of the building doesn’t have any possibility of outside access, neither do the upper floors. Savannah does know where we can get up the roof, however, so I follow her there. 

“We should block this off too,” I tell her. “Just in case.”

“Okay,’ she agrees quietly. “But before we do, do you want to go up there?”

One of my eyebrows rises. “Why?”

She shrugs. “It’s just intriguing to me. Who knows what we could see from up there?”

That’s strange. “You haven’t been up yet?”

“No,” she answers as she looks down. “The others weren’t particularly interested in the roof, so I felt kind of silly.” For her strong personality, and sometimes stronger words, Savannah still has her own weaknesses. 

I take her hand. “Come on, let’s go up.”

Her face lights up. “Okay.” I push the door open and lead her up the stairs. The stairwell is enclosed, and dark. The air is stale and musty. Two beams of light guide the quiet steps of our ascent. Our shoes make the smallest of noises, tiny thuds, as they touch down on the concrete stairs. The door at the top of the staircase is metal, heavy, with a narrow reinforced window. 

“Seems pretty secure,” I mutter, and turn to look at Savannah, a step below me. “Are you ready?” She nods, a smile reappearing on her face. I find my face trying to mimic hers. With some effort, I push open the stiff old door. The fresh outside air rushes in and I take a deep breath. Suddenly it feels like I can breathe again. I hadn’t realized exactly how stifling the climb up was. 

We step out onto the flat roof, looking out over the city. “Wow.” Savannah turns, looking around us. “It’s so big.” 

We look out over the unevenness of flat rectangular roofs, some indistinguishable from each other. Street lamps cast light upon the streets below. Lights don’t reach us from the streets beyond our view, so it’s hard to tell how far the working lights extend. “Elise did say this is a super city.”

Savannah gives me a look. “Well, am I supposed to remember how massive a supercity is?” 

I shrug. “Yes, actually.” 

She sticks her tongue out at me. She looks away from me, and stops, exhaling. “Wow.” I follow her gaze. In this direction, not far off, the street lights are toppled and most nonfunctional. Buildings crumble and we can see the absence of many blocky silhouettes. The remaining pillars of civilization stand tall against the shimmering dark blue background. Separated from their comrades, they’re mere inky blots against the starry night. 

“That’s where we came from,” I say, taking in the destruction. 

“The explosion.” Savannah’s eyes are distant. Her vacant expression shows her mind’s journey back to when we woke up. I can almost see the flames in her green eyes, almost feel the heat coming off of her skin. She shivers and wraps her arms around herself. 

I take my jacket off and place it over her shoulders. “Maybe we should go back inside.” She looks up at me and nods.  Her eyes harden, returning to the present, as she leads us back inside.

Piece By Piece ~ Snippet 11

Lana

I bend over, breathing heavily. My eyes are still wide, my lungs and legs burning from the exertion. Aiden finishes relaying our location to the other two teams while I try to catch my breath. He comes over and rests a hand gently on my shoulder. “Are you alright?” 

I nod. “Yeah, I’m fine.” I look back towards the building. “I think.” 

Aiden follows my gaze. “Yeah, I know what you mean.” 

I shake my head. “I’m not sure I want to go back in there.” 

As I straighten, Aiden wraps an arm around me. Despite the fact that he’s only seventeen, his muscles are large and well-toned. “I understand. What we saw in there, it isn’t easy to see.”

I look up at his face. It isn’t surprising that he could pass himself off as older than he actually is. “You don’t seem very phased by it.”

He forces a grin. “Oh, I am, trust me.” His eyes return to the building. “I’m just not sure if we should be more concerned about what we found inside, or about what could be outside.” I look around us and my grip tightens on the bow in my hands. It’s a weapon I don’t know how to use, but it’s all I have. I notice Aiden has his other hand on the gun at his side. For all we know, he’s just as clueless about how to use it. Hopefully it takes less skill than mine does. “I won’t let anything happen to you, you know.” 

I feel a blush rise into my cheeks, and I look down. “I know.” Suddenly we hear a noise from the street to our right and we both jump. We release a sigh of relief in unison when we see that it’s only Savannah and Elise coming to join us. 

“What did we miss, lovebirds?” Savannah strides in with her confidence fully intact. Aiden and I quickly take a step away from each other. Elise titters behind a raised hand. Aiden’s cheeks redden, and I cross my arms over my chest. “Oh, I’m only kidding,” Savannah adds, waving her hand at us dismissively. 

“What is it that we needed to see?” Elise refocuses us. “You sounded pretty shaken up over the radio.”

Aiden nods. “I was. It isn’t a pretty picture in there.” He points to the building. 

“Huh,” Savannah muses. “Seems like a normal residential building to me.” She readjusts, cocking her hip out to the side a little. “Wanna clue us in as to what's waiting for us?”

Aiden shakes his head. “No, it’s easier just to show you. But I will say, you should brace yourselves.” We lapse into an uneasy silence. 

Danger is the next to join us, his long strides easily beating out Viren’s shorter ones. “Slow down, you giant,” they complain. “Hey, wait up. We can see them, and they already told you they’re fine.” 

Danger’s fast pace doesn’t change, and it allows him to reach us quickly. “You guys are okay, right?” Viren comes up behind him, basically panting. 

I nod. “We’re safe, just shaken is all.”

“Good.” He looks over me to Aiden. “What’s in there?” 

“Already asked that,” Savannah chimes in. “They said we need to see for ourselves.”

“We’ll show you,” I tell them. “Just, prepare yourselves.” 

Danger leads the group into the building. Aiden waits up a moment. “Hey, I can show them. You don’t have to go back in there.”

I shake my head. “No, I can do this. Besides, I probably shouldn’t stay out here by myself.” 

He nods, but I see the reassurance in his face. “You’re probably right.” I walk with him into the building. 

“Hey, what are you trying to pull?” As soon as we enter, Viren is right in my face. “This whole floor is empty. There’s nothing in here.”

I sigh. “Well, that’s what tipped us off that something was different about this building.” 

Elise walks over to us, stepping through a framed wall made of bare wooden studs. “This building was never finished. It’s like someone gave up on it.” She puts her hand up against one of the beams. 

“Well, we didn’t.” Aiden steps forward. “We wanted to figure out why this building was so empty, so we kept looking.” Aiden leads the way up the lone set of stairs. We follow him up, and I trail the group. Even though I’ve prepared myself for what we’re going to see, I’m not looking forward to it. Aiden stops just below the seventh floor, and I hear his voice filtering down through our posse, an extra warning. Of course, there really isn’t enough warning. 

“Oh my gosh!” I hear Savannah’s exclamation and Elise’s gasp. Danger doesn’t say anything, but that isn’t unusual for him. 

Viren, the last to reach the floor before me, yells, “Ew, gross!” 

I step up onto the floor and immediately slide myself up against the back wall of the building, trying to stay as far from the gruesome scene as possible. As the others move around, examining and talking, I only see glimpses of the object of their focus. I see a bony hand, a shrunken foot, aged clothes. I know what they all see, a human body. 

“This is how we found them,” Aiden tells the group. 

“That’s horrible,” Elise says. 

“This is the most recent sign of activity we’ve found so far,” Savannah adds. 

Danger nods. “Viren and I found some looting, but that clearly happened some time ago. This corpse is much newer than that.” 

“Ugh, I know.” Viren makes a show of pinching their nose. “I can smell that.” 

“It’s from the decomposition,” Aiden tells them. 

“No, actually I think it’s from the vomit in the corner.” Viren points to it, and looks back at me. 

I throw my hands up. “Okay, so when I first saw it, I was startled. Can you blame me?” Aiden shrugs. Clearly he was trying to cover for me. He ran out almost as fast as I did earlier, so I know he empathizes. 

“No offense, guys, but that isn’t really what’s important here.” Elise redirects our attention, back to the dead body in the room. I can see it clearly now, and it sends a shiver down my spine. I avert my eyes, preferring  to look at a blank wall. Even so, I feel the bile trying to rise up my throat. 

“Guys, what does it mean that the most recent sign of human activity is a corpse?” Savannah poses the question.

“It means that whatever scenario we’ve found ourselves in,” Danger starts, but pauses for a moment. “It can be deadly.”

“So, the apocalypse kills people,” Viren says dismissively. “Is that anything we didn’t already know?” They shrug. “If we were a little less lucky, we could be just as dead.”

“You mean, if we didn’t have Danger?” Elise asks.

Viren pouts, but Aiden shakes his head. “Actually, Viren has a point too. If you, I, or Savannah was closer to that explosion, we could have been killed by it. If the beams had fallen differently overtop of Lana, she could have been crushed.”

“Or if I’d let you try to rescue her.” Danger’s eyes pierce Savannah. 

“Will you drop it?” Her voice belies her frustration, as if her wild hand gestures hadn’t. “You know we were doing our best.”

He laughs quietly, and the corner of his mouth turns up. He may not be quite as instigative as Viren, but Danger clearly enjoys frustrating Savannah. “Actually my job was to not drop it.” She seethes in response to his shrewd comeback. Everyone else seems to enjoy the lighthearted bickering. For just a moment, it relieves the tension in the room. 

I realize something though. “Hey, I know the apocalypse is deadly and all, but whoever this was,” I point towards the corpse and glance towards it briefly before looking away. “They don’t seem prepared for the apocalypse.” I open my arms out to emphasize the empty space around us. “There’s nothing here. Who lives on the seventh floor of a vacant building with absolutely no supplies?” 

“An idiot,” Viren replies monotonously. 

Elise quickly punches them in the arm. “Have some respect for the dead.”

“Hey!” Viren rubs their arm. “I believe respect is a two way street, and I don’t remember this, whoever they were, showing me any respect. Why should I respect them just because their dead?” 

Danger rolls his eyes, and Savannah puts a hand over her face. “It’s called manners,” Elise grates out between clenched teeth. 

“Alright, alright,” Aiden interrupts. “So Viren is disrespectful, that’s nothing new.”

“Ouch, Aiden,” Viren pretends to be hurt. 

He shrugs in response. “You’re the one who said respect is a two way street.”

“Touché,” Viren admits defeat, so Aiden continues. 

“Now, Lana has a point. We should figure out how they died. Summing this up as death by apocalypse isn’t very insightful.” 

Viren turns to me. “Okay, Lana, do you want to examine the body?” They step out of the way, gesturing towards it. 

As they move, my carefully obscured view is cleared so I turn away, afraid to see the corpse again. My stomach churns. “No, I can’t do it!” I shake my head fervently, desperately. I hold one hand over my stomach, and one hand over my mouth. Smells of decay and my earlier weakness start to fill my nostrils, so I adjust my upper hand to cover my nose as well. 

“I know how they died.” Danger moves the corpse’s dried bangs. 

“Ack! What are you touching it for?” I cringe away as though I had touched it. 

Danger rolls his eyes. “That isn’t what we need to be concerned about. Look here.” We all crowd around, though I still hang back slightly. 

“A hole?” Elise’s voice is the first to pierce the silence. 

“A bullet hole,” Aiden notes. 

Danger nods. “We aren’t alone. Someone killed this pour soul. Somewhere out there, there’s a murderer on the loose.” 


- Sorry to be posting this a little later in the day than usual, but even writers need to get out of the house for awhile on occasion. As for this week's snippet, Aiden and Lana's discovery is the first proof of not only recent human activity in the area, but also of imminent danger. Find out next week how the group will respond to their newest threat.

Piece By Piece ~ Snippet 10

Viren

Last night, Elise was the first of us to actually recover a full memory. I mean, it was just some moment she had with her father rubbing her hair when she was a kid, but I guess that means Savannah’s plan did work eventually. As far as I’m concerned though, this is a much better use of our time. Overnight the storm cleared away, leaving a myriad of puddles in its wake, but no longer keeping us trapped indoors. Originally most of the group was pretty opposed to splitting up at all, but Danger was convinced that we can cover more ground by splitting up. So we grabbed our survival packs, Lana grabbed one of her too large collection of hats, and we split up in pairs. 

How exactly did I end up with the most boring partner though? Danger finishes his monotone hourly check-in via our walkie-talkies with the other two pairs. He looks at his compass to confirm the direction as we continue on. I kick random pebbles and trash in passing. Danger seems perfectly comfortable walking in silence, but it is absolutely driving me crazy. I sigh loudly, and he doesn’t even flinch. My eyes narrow and I walk faster to catch up with his gangly legs. 

I sigh again dramatically and one of his eyes shifts over to me. “Can I help you with something?”

“No. I just thought this whole exploration thing was going to be a lot more interesting.” I kick another rock. “This is pretty boring.” A follow-up kick accidentally sends the pebble flying into the side of Danger’s leg. My eyes widen as his narrow. 

“Maybe if you were paying an ounce of attention to your surroundings, like you’re supposed to be doing, instead of trying to bruise me with stones, you’d be less bored.” His eyes face forward again. 

“Okay, the rock was an accident, sorry about that,” I admit. “It’s still boring out here though. What am I going to pay attention to though?” I point to a vacant building. “Look, a boring, blocky, building.” I point to another. “Look, another boring, blocky, building.” 

Danger rolls his eyes and comes to a stop. I walk past him by mistake. “Well, maybe if you payed attention to this boring, blocky building, you would have noticed that this is a pharmacy. We should go in to look for medicine.” He strides past me and into the building. 

“He’s lucky we just happened to stumble across something useful,” I grumble as I follow him inside. “Whoa, what happened to this place?” Danger’s stopped just within the entrance, his eyes roving over the same scene mine are. Shelves are toppled on their sides, the few upright are barren. Empty containers litter the floor, some squashed by obvious footprints. 

“This store was looted.” Danger takes a long step into the mess, eyes scanning, hunting for traces of useful items. I pick up an empty carton and see that it’s for a fever reducer, before I toss it aside. 

“Well, that’s pretty obvious,” I remark. “But why loot the pharmacy and not the department store? We found some medicine in there too.”

Danger shakes his head, and his ponytail swishes across his back. “I don’t know. We’ll have to look at the store when we get back. Maybe it has some type of protection we didn’t notice before.”

I snort. “Clearly it wasn’t very effective. We just walked in through the front door.”

Danger takes a moment to look back at me. “Whatever defenses that building had clearly worked at the time. They kept the looters at bay then. This obviously took place awhile ago, there’s even dust covering the wreckage.” 

“Oh,” I say. “I hadn’t thought of that.” 

Danger continues to weave his way through the mess towards a window. He grabs one of the bars over the window and shakes it. “Solid. I guess they were there to protect the pharmacists.” 

I climb over the piles with a little less agility. I reach the window where Danger is and peer through the next one. “Doesn’t look like it worked in the end.” The glass behind the bars is shattered in this window, and beyond it I can see the back room in complete disarray. 

Danger sees the same catastrophe that I do. “You’re right.” 

I turn back around to face the devastated store. “You know, we haven’t seen any other people outside of our group, but clearly people were here.”

Danger’s eyes grow distant. “And clearly something happened to them.” I swallow, but try to appear strong when he looks to me. “Come on, we should check inside the other stores too. We should figure out which stores were looted. Maybe that will give us some clue as to what happened.” 

I follow him back out. It’s apparent we won’t gain anything more from the pharmacy, either in supplies, or in information. “Hey,” I call after him. “Are you going to radio the others? I think maybe they should know.” 

Danger shakes his head. “Not yet. I want to see what else we can learn first.” He looks back at me. “They shouldn’t be in any danger, if that’s what you’re worried about. Whatever happened here, it wasn’t recent.” 

“Why would I be worried about them?” I shrug. “Besides, we haven’t come across any concrete dangers. Right now, they’re just as unknown as they were before.”

“You’re right,” Danger agrees. “Although, you’d be a fool not to worry about them. In a world as uncertain as this, they’re our most valuable resource.”

“You’re the one who tried to go off on your own,” I remind him. 

“I get the feeling I’ve been a loner before,” he replies. “I probably could be again.” 

I don’t believe him for a second. “Pssht. With the way you sleep? You need us just to keep watch.” Calling the rest of us a resource may be as close as he ever gets to saying he needs us, but the honest truth is that we all need each other. 

We come to another store front, this one a clothing store. This time, when we push the doors open, we’re both more wary. Our caution seems unnecessary however, because it doesn’t take long to realize that this store wasn’t looted like the pharmacy. Just to be certain, we walk through the first floor, and even quickly take a peek up at the second floor. “Untouched,” Danger comments. 

“Just like A-Mart,” I agree. “Should we check the next store?” Wordlessly, Danger nods. He seems pensive, lost in thought. The next few buildings are locked apartment buildings, and the one that’s unlocked is blocked just inside the door by a cave-in from one of the upper floors. “What are you looking for in an apartment building, anyway?” I raise an eyebrow at Danger. 

“If there was some serious event that happened here, we should see signs of the way people reacted in their homes.” He looks away from the unlocked, but useless building. He keeps talking as we move on. “If there was some disaster, people likely either hunkered down in their homes, or they fled. Maybe we could get an idea of what they faced by seeing what they left behind.” 

I furrow my brow. “Are you sure you don’t have any memories, because you sure seem to know a lot about this.” 

“No.” He shakes his head, but his face never changes. “I don’t have any memories. This all just seems like common sense to me.” I don’t have enough memories of my own to tell him otherwise. 

“What’s this building?” I look up at a building with a design different from the others. It’s still one giant boring cube, but something about it seems older even than the others, like it was old when its neighbors were constructed. 

Danger points at the lettering above the embellished double door entrance. “It’s a bank, Viren.” 

I walk up to the door and try to push it open. It won’t budge, so I put all of my weight against it. “This one’s still locked up tight.” I peer through the glass pane of the door. A metal gate stands untouched as a secondary defense, but beyond that I can see that the bank is neat and tidy. “The looters didn’t hit the bank.” I turn around. “What kind of looters don’t go after a bank?” 

Danger shrugs. “The same ones who left food at the department store. Maybe the bank’s protection was too good.” He starts to leave, but I bend down and pick up a rock. I hurl it at the glass door and it sails through, shattering the glass so that it clatters loudly to the stone of the entryway. “Viren!” Danger’s eyes are narrowed at me. I think I startled him. “What the hell was that for?” 

“What looter wouldn’t at least try to break in?” I toss another stone up, and catch it again in my palm. “Maybe they weren’t targeting the bank at all.” 

He still seems annoyed by my test. “So, by your logic, the looters would only have targeted the pharmacy.”

I shrug. “I didn’t claim to understand it. I just don’t want to overlook any evidence.” 

“Danger, Savannah, come in.” The radio crackles with Aiden’s voice. 

“We hear you,” Danger replies. “You’re early for our check-in.”

“We hear you, too, Aiden.” Savannah’s reply comes over the walkie next. “What’s up?”

Aiden answers. “Guys, we found something.” The radio is quiet for a moment. “I think you should come see this.” 

-Thank you for reading this week's snippet, and as always, I hope you enjoyed it. This past week I know there were quite a few graduation ceremonies, so I'd like to extend congratulations to all of the graduates, as well as the friends and family who helped them get there. Piece by Piece will continue with a new snippet next week. Stay tuned to learn what Aiden found during the group's exploration. 

Piece By Piece ~ Snippet 9

Elise

“I knew you,” Aiden admits, eyes locked on Savannah. 

“You, what?” Her breathy response lacks her usual sass. Clearly she’s as shocked as Aiden. 

He nods. “I was a bartender at a restaurant, and you were a waitress there. I think that’s where we met.”

Viren interrupts. “We all woke up fairly close to each other. Should it really be that shocking that we may have known each other before?”

“We are a bit of a ragtag bunch,” I add in. “We don’t seem all that similar to each other, so maybe it is unusual for us to have known each other.” 

Viren shrugs. “Touché. I am way cooler than the rest of you guys.” I roll my eyes as everyone males some noise of disgust or disbelief. 

“Hey, we’re trying to learn useful information, remember?” Danger’s practicality cuts through the digression, redirecting our course as usual. “Aiden, do you remember anything about currency or regulations at your job? Anything relevant to our society?”

Aiden shakes his head, and then his cheeks redden. “No, the only thing I remember about my job, is Savannah.” Her eyes widen in shock, before she quickly looks away. Aiden adjusts his glasses, not that they truly needed to be fixed. 

After a moment of silence it’s clear that Savannah isn’t going to prompt the next question. “Aiden,” I start. “You answered, so that means it’s your turn to ask a question”

“Oh.” He nods. “Okay.” I see his eyes go to Danger, but they quickly dart off to his right, to Lana beside me. “Lana, what currency did we use before we lost our memories?” 

“Well,” she muses. “Let me think for a moment.” She purses her lips in thought, clearly concentrating. “It’s an old currency, paper money. They used it even in the old government. Ooh!” She raises a finger in the air as she remembers something. “Our money was in dollars, represented by paper bills.” 

“Did anyone have any of these dollars on them when they woke up?” Danger looks around at us. Everyone shrugs or shakes their heads. 

“Hey!”  Viren points at Danger. “You’re breaking the rules of the game. It isn’t your turn to ask a question.”

Danger sighs. “We only came up with this game an hour ago. I think the rules can change when they need to.”

“We came up with our names less than a day ago,” I point out. “Besides, it’s Savannah’s game, so I think she should be the referee.”

Savannah smirks. “I agree. Although, in this case, I have to agree with Danger. If someone can remember something, I think it’s a good idea to try to help them when we can.”

“Did you just side with Danger?” Viren’s mouth is wide with disbelief. 

She shrugs in response to their question. “I can, you know.” She points to herself. “I am the one who recruited him to our little gang, in the first place.”

Danger raises an eyebrow. “It certainly wasn’t because you agreed with me then.” 

Her eyes narrow. “That’s not the point.” She aims her finger at him. “Do you want me to agree with you or not? You’re irritating the ref, here.” His eyes roll. 

I sigh. “Okay, ref. I think we’re all getting a bit distracted now.” I look to Lana. “Do you remember anything else about dollars?” She shakes her head. “Okay, then ask away. It’s your turn.” 

She exhales. “Alright, Viren, what is the name of our supercity?”

“Pssh.” Viren waves a hand at her. “That’s an easy one.” 

“Oh, yeah? She smiles. “So what’s the answer?” 

Viren opens their mouth to say something, but then closes it. They exhale, and mutter, “I don’t know.”

“Haha!” Lana seems excited and I shake my head slightly. 

Aiden interrupts her celebration. “Isn’t the point of this exercise to recover our memories?”

“I believe there’s a secondary objective to this game.” We all must look confused, because she elaborates. “It’s the objective of all games, to win.” Viren’s eyes narrow and she sticks her tongue out at them. “Okay, it’s my turn to ask another question since Viren couldn’t answer.”

“I’m not sure how useful that information would’ve been anyway,” they grumble. 

Lana shrugs, before scanning the circle for her next victim. “Danger, how are the buildings powered in the supercity?” She glares across the circle at Viren. “You can’t say that wouldn’t be useful to know.” They glare back with their arms crossed over their chest. 

Danger remains silent during the exchange. It’s obvious he’s trying to remember, but despite his lack of facial expression, it’s also obvious he isn’t finding much. Eventually he shakes his head. “I really can’t remember.” 

I volunteer an idea. “I don’t know how the buildings are powered. I can’t remember anything about that either. What I have made is an observation.” I point to the window. “Even though the buildings don’t appear to have power, the streetlights still do. They must be powered differently.” 

Danger nods. “You’re right. That could be important.” 

Savannah interjects. “My turn, and I came up with a good one this time.” She rubs her hands together mischievously. “I’ll ask you, Lana, since you want to ‘win’ this game.” Lana straightens her posture, as though readying herself for the challenge. “What’s the name of the supercity?” 

Viren seems happy to have the question directed back at her, but the rest of us groan or roll our eyes. Danger literally face-palms. “Not this again. I don’t even think that’s relevant.” 

Savannah shrugs. “Tough. I’m the ref. Now,” She turns her gaze back to Lana. “Answer the question, if you can.” 

Lana concentrates so hard I can almost see the smoke coming out of her ears. Finally she huffily crosses her arms over her chest. “I don’t know, okay?” She looks away from the group pointedly. “Happy now?”

“Yes,” Savannah says, but not in an overly triumphant way. “Now, can we all agree to focus on the task at hand? We may be playing a game of sorts, but it’s with a mission. Recovering some of these memories could very well mean the difference between life and death. We have to work together, alright?” Everyone nods their agreement, even Lana, who shivers when she feels Savannah’s glare burning into the back of her head. 

Viren raises a hand. “I know we need to work together and all, but can we take a pee break?” 

I shake my head and Savannah sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Fine.” 

The circle breaks up when Viren leaves, and by the time they come back, only Savannah and I are still in our original positions in the circle. Lana’s taken Danger to show him the organization of our food stores, and Aiden’s moved to his own bed where he idly flips through an old magazine to amuse himself. 

“Hey, guys, this magazine doesn’t have a date on it, but do you think if it did, we could figure out what the current date is?” He holds it up to show us for emphasis. Savannah doesn’t respond, possibly a little miffed that her planned game has fallen apart. 

I shake my head. “Even if we knew when that magazine was printed, we don’t know how long ago that was. There’s enough dust around here that I doubt it was printed yesterday, but that’s really all we know.” Aiden nods, seeming thoughtful, before he goes back to the magazine. I notice he has a stack of them next to him. “Why do you have so many magazines?” 

He doesn’t look over at me. “It seems I like to read. Besides, I thought maybe it could give us some clues as to what happened.” 

I walk over and find him staring at a page of likely bygone celebrities in swimsuits. “Really? You look pretty interested in that page.”

He jumps, not having realized I walked up beside him. “I, um, it’s just the page I was on.” He quickly flips the page and his cheeks redden. 

I laugh. “I was just messing with you. Read, or look at, whatever you want.” 

Savannah comes over and picks up a different magazine from the pile. “I’ll help you read through the conspiracy theories.” She turns a couple pages. “Ooh, look! Hot guys in swimsuits!” She sits down on the adjacent bed. “I like this one.” Aiden blushes an even deeper shade of red, burying his nose in the magazine. 

As I shake my head, I start to see something else. It’s hazy, blurred even, but as I focus on it, it starts to clear a little. The screen on the wall is lit up with a live feed of straight haired reporter. “It’s clear that this act of ‘joint charity’ is only a ploy of the ruling families to save face in the aftermath of the recent takeover and liquidation of the Joens family assets.” 

The screen suddenly goes dark and my father steps in front of it. He tousles my fluffy hair. “Don’t believe what you hear in the news, Elise. Reporters are usually just fishing for a conspiracy.” 

“Okay, dad.” After all, why wouldn’t I trust my father? 

“Elise, Elise!” A different voice brings me back to the present. Viren stands in front of me, snapping their fingers and making all sorts of wild gestures. “Oh, good, you’re back.” 

“Back?” My brow furrows. “What do you mean?”

Lana cranes her head around to look at me. “We were worried about you for a moment there, Elise. You were completely zoned out.”

I put a hand to my head, still remembering the sensation of my father running his hand through my hair. “I’m sorry. I think I just relived a memory.” 

-Thank you for reading this week's snippet of Piece By Piece. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope everyone enjoys the holiday weekend. I'm planning to use the extra time for writing, myself, but I hope everyone stays safe and doesn't get caught in traffic this weekend. See you next week for the next snippet of Piece by Piece!

Piece By Piece ~ Snippet 8

Aiden

“You didn’t do anything,” Savannah tells me, putting a hand on my shoulder. I look over to her and she smiles reassuringly. 

“I’ll go talk to him.” Lana gets up and quietly walks after Danger. 

“I tried to give him an easy question,” I say. “I thought maybe he could remember something about that knife because he carried it with him before we all lost our memories.”

Viren shrugs. “Last night Lana tried to recall memories associated with her journal, but she couldn’t remember anything either. Maybe he’s just frustrated like she was.” 

Elise nods. “They’re the only two who had any sort of belongings tying them to their pasts. It makes sense that they’d be the most easily irritated by not being able to use those ties to remember anything.” 

“My question, it just angered him more,” I realize. I put my head in my hands. “Why am I such an idiot?”

“How are we supposed to know?” Viren raises their hands and shrugs. “We can’t remember.”

I narrow my eyes and stand, shrugging off Savannah’s hand. “Yeah, I got that. Thanks.” I turn. “I’m going to talk to Danger. I feel like I owe him an apology.” I walk away before they can say anything else to me. 

Though Danger’s long, anger-driven strides took him pretty far, two voices in a mostly empty department store aren’t hard to track down. I listen for Danger and Lana’s quiet conversation, letting it guide me to their location. When I start to hear what it is they’re saying, my footsteps slow until I stop just out of sight behind a shelf. 

“I shouldn’t have reacted like that,” Danger sighs. “You guys didn’t deserve that from me.”

“No, I understand,” Lana replies. She exhales. “Last night, I tried to remember my past. I really tried, and even flipped through my journal to try to spark any kind of memory. Even that wasn’t enough though. Nothing was familiar, not even my initials.”

“I’m sorry,” Danger says. 

“I didn’t say that so you would feel bad for me,” Lana quickly refutes. “I just want you to know that I understand. We all do. We’re all going through the same thing you are. It’s okay for you to be angry. This situation we’ve been thrown into, it’s frustrating. I know we can get through it though, together. We’ve already started to recall some things, like our ages and names. Even those were hard at first.”

“But what if we can’t?” Danger sounds morose. “What if we can’t remember or learn how to survive this? What if I don’t innately know enough to keep us alive?” There’s a beat of silence. “The fact that I carried this knife led you all to believe that I can lead us, that I can keep us alive. Hell, it even led me to believe that. I don’t a damn thing about it though, or anything at all. How am I supposed to protect you all from this world when I don’t understand it in the slightest?”

There’s a pause before Lana speaks. “Danger, we don’t expect you to know anything more than we do. We’re just grateful for anything you can offer. It’s already clear that you know, or knew, more than we do.” 

“I don’t know,” Danger adds. “Maybe Viren was a genius before getting their memory wiped.” 

Lana laughs once. “Even if that were true, I bet you’d still have more practical knowledge than Viren. That’s what really matters, especially now.”

“So does that mean you’re going to be my backup now, Miss Practicality?” Danger’s voice is as monotonous as ever, but he’s clearly teasing. 

Lana responds with enough sass to rival Savannah at her best. “No way. I brought an extra hat for each outfit. Just because it’s the apocalypse doesn’t mean I can’t be neat.” 

Danger exhales. “Actually Lana, I’m pretty sure that that’s exactly what it means.” 

As they both start to walk back towards the group, I tuck myself in between two displays. I hadn’t really meant to eavesdrop for so long, but I feel like it would be rude to reveal that I was. Maybe it’s just rude and I don’t want reveal that I’d been rude. I did invade their privacy. I sigh in relief when they pass without seeing me. I wait for a minute before taking an intentionally different route back to the beds. 

I take my time so that I don’t run into Lana and Danger. I walk past a large window and the wind whips rain loudly into the glass. I cross my arms over my chest and a shiver races up my spine. The spacious emptiness of the department store suddenly seems ominous, oppressive even. It seems like I shouldn’t be here, or maybe, that someone else should be. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to wake up alone, without finding Savannah or the others. 

Now uncomfortable in solitude, I quickly return to the group. My earlier thoughts make me appreciate seeing them more, even though Viren immediately questions me. “Hey, where’d you go?” 

“Yeah, I thought you were going to apologize to Danger,” Elise adds. Danger raises an eyebrow and Lana gives me a strange look. 

I rub the back of my neck. “Yeah, I couldn’t find him.”

“You couldn’t find us?” Lana asks, Danger’s eyebrow raises a little further. “I mean, we didn’t leave this floor, let alone the store.”

“Uh, big store?” I can’t even convince myself. 

Savannah rolls her eyes. “Well, regardless, your apology, though well-intended, is no longer necessary. Danger apologized for exploding at us earlier.” She turns to him. “And by the way, you could give us a warning next time. Usually people’s faces change, or something.” 

He shrugs. “I can’t force myself to emote for you, and who says I would if I could?”

She sticks her tongue out at him. “Fine, but come sit back down. We’re going to resume our game.” 

Elise looks concerned. “Because it went so well the first time?” 

“Shh!” Savannah shushes her by reaching over and putting a finger to her lips. “It will be different this time.” She crosses her arms in an x before swing them apart. “No personal questions. We weren’t really getting anywhere with that anyway. What we need is information we can use, so that’s what we’re going to try to remember.”

Viren comes up with a question. “What do you consider useful information?” 

“Anything we can use to help us survive.” She points a finger at them. “No funny business from you or I’ll kick you out of the circle.”

“Oh, yeah?” Viren crosses their arms. “Half of the circle isn’t even sitting down yet.” Savannah pierces Lana, Danger and I with a serious death glare so that we sit down. She raises her brow in challenge, but of course Viren has a retort. “But what if I have a piece of key information that is absolutely essential to our survival?”

She grins. “Then you can discover it with your other friends.” 

“Ouch.” Viren holds a hand to their chest. “You wound me.” 

Savannah smiles triumphantly. “Good. Now, behave.” She looks across our circle to Danger. “I guess it’s your turn this time.”

He nods, but waits a moment, almost seeming hesitant. “Savannah, where are we?” 

“A store,” she replies helpfully. He narrows his eyes at her and she raises her arms in innocence. “No, seriously, I know that it’s called A-Mart, but that’s all I know.” 

Elise raises a hand. “Actually, I think I know.” Everyone looks to her, and she fidgets, shrinking away from the attention. “We’re in a city, a supercity.” 

When Elise pauses, Danger asks a follow-up question. “A supercity?” 

Elise nods. “I’m trying to remember, but it’s all a little fuzzy. From what I can piece together, we all live in this supercity. Supercities came about after some type of fighting, they replaced the previous government.”

“But what happened to it?” Danger presses further. “Surely, this isn’t how we’ve all lived.” 

“I don’t know.” Elise shrugs, looking down. “All that I’ve remembered seems to come from a history lesson, just generic information.” 

Lana puts a hand on her arm. “It’s alright. You’ve given us more than we knew before.”

“Do you know how the supercity was run? Where its supplies came from?” Danger continues to ask questions. 

Lana glares past Elise to him. “Quit pestering her. She already told you what she could remember. Now it’s her turn to ask a question.”

Elise looks at the rest of the group, stumbling for a moment. “Um, Aiden, what was your job before?”

Viren lets out a noise like a buzzer. “Wrong! That’s not a question about how the world works.”

“Yes, it is,” Savannah refutes. “It could have societal implications.”

“Hey, guys,” I interject. “I remember what my job was, and you’re right, Savannah. It definitely has other implications.”

- Piece By Piece returns! Sorry for the unannounced hiatus last week. On top of being very busy at work, I was also very sick. So, I have to apologize for the skipped update, but I had neither the time nor energy to write last week. I hope you enjoyed this week's snippet!