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.
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