Amnesia Ch. 1--Waking Up
I gasp and claw my way to wakefulness. My cobalt-blue fur is damp with sweat, from the end of my tail to the tips of my ears. Yet as I become aware of my surroundings, I realize that the clawing sensation must have been my imagination, because I'm strapped tightly to a test table by my ankles and wrists. A leather strip is bound around my forehead. My wings are crushed beneath my body, held together by what feels like a cloth--almost like a shirt. I try to blink my eyes open, but shut them quickly again. The pure white light is blinding. The beeping of monitors is loud around me, but the loudest is the one right by my head. It's beeping in time with my heartbeat. A heart monitor.
A door somewhere off to my left opens quickly, but I don't hear the sound of it closing. "Ah, you're awake. Finally." A friendly fox face appears above me. "I'm the doctor who's taking care of you." He leans over me. "By the way, I don't approve of what they're doing to you, just between you and I."
I half close one eye and flatten an ear in confusion. He undoes my restraints and leaves without a word. "That...was weird," I comment to myself. I swing my legs over the edge of the bed, steadying myself as a head rush hits me. Once it passes, I stand on wobbly legs and examine my surroundings.
This almost looks like a room that they would test deadly animatronics. I laugh. Ridiculous._The whitewashed walls are lit brightly by the light shining from what appears to be everywhere. The only difference in the walls is a blacked-out screen. I suppose they use it as a mirror. The chill air swirls around me, causing my fur to rise. I curl my bushy tail around my chest and stomach, warming me slightly. I wrap my wings around myself. That helps a lot. I sit down on the ground and look at myself in the mirror. I look like I'm cocooned up to my neck in leather. The idea is so absurd that I laugh. _I'm like a leather caterpillar.
"Colton!" I jump, my hand going instinctively to my waist. There's nothing strapped to my belt. It feels weird, although I don't know why. "Have you found your accommodations cozy?"
"Quite the opposite," I comment. "Very cold and hostile."
"Blunt."
"Have I ever been any different?" I actually don't remember, but I'm not going to let the voice in on that. The responses were instinctive.
"I suppose not." Out of curiosity, I glance around the room. A speaker has been projected out of every corner. "You have given us quite a bit of trouble, trying to evade us. Yet it was futile. You have been quite the test subject for the serum."
"What serum?"
"It was designed to test and monitor brain activity for however long it was in the subjects' body; typically, it was between twelve and twenty-four hours." The pause is only for effect--and perhaps reading some sort of script. "Unfortunately, it has some...unforeseen...side effects."
"Which are?"
"The most prominent is amnesia." I curse under my breath. "Which, for you especially, is good. You led a rough past."
"It was the past that made me who I am. I would never want to lose that."
"You already have." The voice pauses again. I enjoy making him deviate from the script. "It also encouraged an overactive imagination. More so in some individuals than others."
I laugh. "And is that a bad thing?"
"Yes." I pause, then shrug. The voice continues. "The least of these is a slower aging process. You will likely outlive most of your relatives, and perhaps even your children. And possibly their children. Although we don't know if it's genetic, so it's possible that your kids and grandchildren will have an extended life too."
I nod. "And all of this is bad...why?"
"Because," the voice says, "we are trying to create humans that we can control. Overactive imaginations do not assist in that."
"So...you want people who obey everything you say?"
"Yes."
"Who are you?" I shout.
"Oh, but you know who I am!" The man laughs. "Why, you ran away from me when you left your old life!"
"And this is what you've become!?" I still have no idea who it is. "I can see why I ran away from you!"
"I wasn't always like this--"
"So what made you like this, me?" I shout. "Fuck that! There's no way I caused you to become this...this monster!"
He laughs nastily. "But you did! And that's why you were one of my first test subjects." The laugh echoes through the room again. "And I bet you'll be surprised at one of the other test subjects." A picture flashes up briefly on the black screen. It's of a brown cat with black stripes and blue eyes. I have no idea who it is.
"Ráhud," I curse, in a language foreign to me.
"Vulgar," the man chides.
"I don't care." A flicker of motion catches my eye. I ignore it for time being.
"Did you see something?" he asks.
I shake my head. "No, nothing. Why?"
He pauses. "It looked like you were distracted. Your visual cortex was activated."
"Then there's a glitch in the system." I laugh sardonically. "It should always show activity, at least when my eyes are open."
The man chuckles, but his laughter quickly turns into coughs. "Then perhaps we should look into that."
The motion catches my attention again, and this time, I watch for it out of the corner of my eye. My reflection is waving at me.
I stumble away from the black screen, tripping over my tail and falling to the ground. I don't remember standing up before. "Okay, now you saw something."
"Maybe I saw you," I retort snidely, but the shaking in my voice betrays my surprise.
"Perhaps." My reflection's hands start to fly around, making shapes that I recognize as sign language. I start attempting to make out the message.
--OCRITE. DON'T TRUST HIM. HE IS A LIAR AND A HYPOCRITE. DON'T TRUST...
He's repeating the same thing over and over again. Then I realize that the black screen must be a one way window! I sign at the mirror: Fuck you!
My reflection laughs, and I grin. "What are you doing with your hands?" the man asks. It's obviously a fake question--he understands sign language.
Damn it, I think.
I know, right? my reflection signs.
I grin again. You can read my thoughts?
_I am you,_he responds.
Very true. What should I do? I can't get out of here on my own. "You know perfectly well what I am doing." I sign it again. "Don't even pretend you don't understand it."
"Well, fuck you too," the man responds.
"Vulgar," I mimic.
"Still have the same wit," he says.
My reflection gets my attention again. You have to get out of here.
How?! I think at him. I may have the same wit, but I don't have the same logic, apparently.
That door looks like it's made of wood. Very flimsy wood.
_ _ I laugh and flip my reflection off. Shut up."Hey, thanks for the door, by the way."
"It's locked."
"I'm not planning on unlocking it, either," I say. I give him the double bird. "And you, cousin, can fuck yourself, for all I care." I sprint at the door, lowering my shoulder as I near it.
Just before I hit it, the alarm starts to ring. Then I'm crashing through the wood. Aspen, it looks like. Red lights blare along the length of the corridor. I glance down left, then right, then back left. A squad of soldiers marches around the corner of the hall to the left, and I start sprinting down the right corridor. Would rather take my chances running away from the bullets that towards them.
"Open fire!" I hear the command ring out behind me. Damn. I double my pace, but I hear gunshots start rapid-firing from behind me. A few bullets zip past my head, but then they stop. In their place I hear the crackling of some sort of shield.
I glance back. There's some sort of white-and-blue spirit with his back to me, holding his hands out. Sure enough, there's an energy shield projecting from them. Before I can take in any more, he glances over his shoulder at me and shouts, "Go!"
Spinning back around, I take of around a corner, to the right. I hear screams and shouts of pain from behind me, then the sound of paws slapping the floor. I glance back over my shoulder but see nothing. I glance back ahead.
"Looking for someone?" I snap my head to the left. Shit! A gun barrel is plummeting towards me. I do a dive roll, ducking under the barrel, and pop back to my feet, sliding to a stop. The fur opposite me levels his gun. I dive to the side, rolling again, and sprint at him. He takes a shot at me, but it's wild and flies off past my right ear. Then I'm at him. I knock the barrel of the gun up and knee him in the stomach, making him double over in pain and drop his rifle. I grab it before it hits the ground and snap it back up, slamming the butt of it into his face. He reels back up, holding his nose. I spin around behind him and hit the crook of his neck and shoulder with the edge of my hand. He falls to the ground, unconscious. I flick on the safety of the gun, then shuck the clip and drop the gun and magazine on either side of the hallway.
There's a small handgun on the man's belt. There's a familiar-looking knife strapped on to the other side. Without a second thought, I slide the belt off of his waist and buckle it on my own, drawing the handgun and checking the clip. One. He didn't have any extra magazines on his belt. Fuck. One clip?
I see my reflection in a window to my right. He's urging me on. The spirit that had protected me earlier is approaching in my peripheral. "Why'd you stop? Go, go, go!"
Damn. I start back off down the hallway. In the window at the end, I see my reflection urging me left. I take the left and find that it dead-ends at another window. My reflection mimes jumping through it. Fucking really? He nods. _Here goes nothing,_I think, as I approach the window. Just before I hit it, I leap and curl myself so that I hit shoulder-first and not head-first.
The window shatters, and in an instant, I'm suspended in thin air. Just before my trajectory falls into a downward spiral, I snap my wings open and hover. The city looks beautiful from this high up. Just then, I hear another window shatter. And then a scream of terror.
I look back and up. There's a figure falling. As it nears me to drop past me, I see that it's the brown cat from the picture. "Fuck!" I shout, divebombing to get underneath him and catch him. The ground rushes up to meet me, and it's only my willpower that keeps me from opening my wings to save myself. I hold my arms out as the cat nears me. I feel him settle into my arms and snap my wings open, straining against the air. "God damn it!" I cry out in a strained voice as the ground continues to rush up. I get close enough to see the terror in the eyes of the furs below--and the air catches. My wing sockets feel like they're about to tear out of my back as we curve into a gentle swoop back into the air. I barely avoid smashing into a tree before clearing all of the obstacles. I spot a roof well away from the building we just jumped out of and settle on it. The cat collapses and curls into a ball while I bend over, hands on my knees, and pant.
I lick my lips after recovering my breath. "Come on," I say to the cat. "We need to get moving. Guaranteed, they're gonna be after us."
He nods and wraps his arms around my neck. I leap off the roof and flap hard to gain a little altitude, then level out and start flying straight. Once we're well on our way, I ask him, "What's your name?"
"Alex," he responds.
"Alex," I repeat, committing it to memory. "I'm Colton."
"Nice to meet you, Colton," he says. "I'd shake your hand, but..."
I laugh. "Yeah." I curve around a building. "Do you remember any more than I do?"
"If you mean a single memory about the past...no." I curse. "I know. This isn't good."
"Couldn't be worse," I say. "We're trapped in a wholly unfamiliar world with no experience or memories of it. Yet...we still have our facilities about us, so we must have some way to recover our memories."
"What?"
"I mean, we didn't forget how to talk, did we?" I say. Alex slowly shakes his head. "That means that the amnesia can't be permanent, or all-encompassing. So if we remember one thing from out past, it's possible that we could remember, over time, all of the stuff that we've forgotten."
Alex blinks. "I didn't think of that."
"I didn't think you would." I grin at him. "I wish I knew how to navigate...I have no idea where I'm going."
"Your body probably remembers. Let it guide you."
"Good idea," I say. I close my eyes and let instincts take over--after all, they have served me well in the recent past...and something tells me in my former past. I shake the thought out of my head, focusing on keeping us steady. Alex's weight seems familiar, although I can't place why...
"This looks familiar," Alex comments. I open my eyes.
Below us is a beautiful natural landscape. I'm flying right over the divide of a glittering, pure-blue lake and a deep green forest. The sun sparkles off of the low waves of the lake, and the soft wind provides a whisper of the music of leaves brushing against each other. "It's beautiful," I say, breathlessly.
"It is," Alex responds, equally quietly. A flash of something hits me--a memory, maybe. I always flew over this for the scenery.
I gasp. "I--I think I remembered something!"
"What, what is it?" Alex asks, excited.
"Only that I used to fly over this specifically because I liked the beauty." I shake my head. "Not much, but it's something."
"Yeah, it is," Alex says. "Do you know where we're going?"
"Not a clue," I respond with a grin. "But so far, my instincts haven't been wrong, so I'm going to go with it."
Alex nods. I concentrate on flying again. At some point, I remember landing and leading Alex into a room. It looks exactly how we left it. "Wait...It looks exactly like how we left it!" I exclaim.
"What?"
"You heard me!" I start getting excited. "I'm remembering things." I point to a desk with a green screen set up behind it. "That's where we would record videos! And--and--this is where we would sit together and just cuddle!" I giggle, then stop. "Wait...I've been saying 'we'. Who is we?"
"We is...us?" Alex asks, unsure of his own statement.
"Is it us?"
"I think it is," Alex decides, heading over to the couch. "But I still have no idea as to how we know each other, or what we were to the other."
"Hmmm." I mutter quietly to myself as I ponder. Before I can finish thinking, there's a soft knock at the door. "I'll check," I say softly, padding silently over to the door. I glance through the peephole and curse under my breath. "They're here already," I mouth at Alex.
He gestures at the bathroom. I follow him in there and glance around. Spotting a window, I point it out to him, then lead the way through it. We drop onto a little slanted section of roof above the apartment below us. I lead the way, walking quickly and silently to the roof of the building beside ours. It's shorter, and thankfully, the roof is right on a level with our ledge. I jump across first, flaring my wings slightly to give myself a little extra lift. Alex jumps across right after me, tripping on the edge but still making it over. I turn and lead him along the complex rooftop, avoiding obstacles along the way. I silently thank my past parkour training--another memory!--as I slide under a pipe.
Finally, we reach the edge of the building. I glance down. It's right on the edge of the forest from earlier. "We're gonna have to drop down," I whisper to Alex. He hesitates, then nods. "Aim for the stacked cardboard boxes if you're nervous," I add. "They won't do much, but it'll cushion your fall." With that, I jump off.
For a few heart stopping seconds, I fall through the air. Then comes the paralyzing shock of hitting the ground. I bend my knees to absorb some of the momentum, then roll to dispel the rest of it. Alex crashes into the boxes a split second later. I turn and rush to him. He sits up quickly, rubbing his shoulder. "I'm all right." He winces. "Couldn't roll from the boxes."
I acknowledge his point with a tilt of my head. Then we start moving swiftly into the forest. The cold air chills me, even through my thick fur, and I shiver slightly. The sunlight shining through the trees sends green shadows dancing around the forest floor and Alex and I. Alex leads the way now, dodging around trees and over fallen logs. It seems he is more indigenous to this area than I originally thought.
Several times during our flight, Alex backtracks and loops back around to our previous trail--all to distract our pursuers. When the sun is almost touching the horizon, we break out of the cover of the trees into the openness of the beach and lake. Alex bends over and pants, as do I. We're not quite ready to let down our guard and sit--yet. As the sun sets and the sky grows dark, my heartbeat gradually slows. The noise of the forest quiets until it's only the quiet lapping of waves against the shore and the occasional gust of wind through the leaves.
I sit down, exhausted. "That...now that was a flight."
Alex nods, sitting next to me. "I think we should wait a while before going back there."
"Agreed...now what?"
"We can't do much else besides wait, can we?"
I shake my head. Then, realizing he can't see me, I add, "No...I mean, we could close on that one and try to rent a new apartment--"
"With what money?" Alex snaps.
"Jesus, I'm sorry!" I exclaim, raising my hands in a calming gesture. "I'm just throwing out ideas."
Alex sighs. "No, I'm sorry. I'm just...I'm a little on edge right now. Y'know?"
I nod. "I'm the same way. Let's just try not to me too vocal about it, okay?"
"Okay," Alex responds. Without a word, he snuggles up close to my side, and I wrap an arm around him, drawing him closer.
"Looks like we'll have to spend at least a month on the run from these freaks," I say quietly some time later, gazing up at the sparkling sky.
"I really hope it turns out not to be that long." Alex sighs next to me. "We should probably get some sleep."
"We should." I turn my head and smile at him. "We should keep a watch rotation. I'll go first. Every four hours we do a rotation?"
Alex smiles back. "Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow." I kiss him softly on his forehead as he settles back down. He smiles as he drifts off into the land of sleep.
Glancing around, I scout for a suitable location. Then I climb a tree, sitting on one of the more comfortable branches. I sigh, resigning myself to a long series of nights coming up.