by Adam Matlow
“You’ve been gone so long, won’t your people think… well, that you’re dead?”
“Perhaps,” Vana mused. “But my people are long-lived, so it’s not that great a time for us.”
Marcus was intrigued by this. “How long does the average J’Darra live then?”
She laughed. “Long enough,” she grinned at him “Let’s leave it at that shall we?”
“Wait a minute, you can’t just leave it like that! I’m curious. You know what I’m going to ask you next don’t you?”
Vana’s lips pursed in a smile. “You know, Charlie asked me the same question back in Jericho. She said I looked too young to be getting involved in this mess.”
“Did you tell her?”
Vana simply smiled.
“You’re no fun,” said Marcus, smirking. They laughed together before saying their good nights. For a few precious moments, Marcus forgot about everything happening outside the bunker. He slept a deep sleep, and for the first time in years, his dreams were happy.
◆◆◆
Marcus awoke to a loud knocking on the door, he looked across to Vana’s bunk. It had been neatly made and was empty.
“Um, come in,” he said, wiping his eyes and blinking in the light streaming in through the open door.
A figure stood in silhouette, Marcus couldn’t work out who it was, his eyes were still adjusting to the light.
“Wakey, wakey,” came the voice of Amara. “We thought you deserved a lay-in, after everything you have been through. Come on, we’re having breakfast.” Amara turned and walked away, her footsteps echoing in the empty corridor.
Marcus took a few moments to compose himself, then followed her. As he got closer to the mess hall, a delicious smell of cooked meat and bread hit him. He couldn’t remember the last time he ate properly. His mouth watering, he picked up the pace and caught up to Amara as they passed through the double doors and into the mess.
Everyone was there, all sat around a large table, which was covered in a vast array of food and drink. Amara took a seat next to Doc, and Marcus headed for a seat next to Vana. She’d saved it for him.
“Thank god you’re up,” said Kali, “I’m starving, and these guys wouldn’t let me start until you got here.”
“Where did all this come from?” said Marcus, gesturing to the table full of food and drink.
“I may have snuck out earlier this morning,” said Kali. “There’s plenty of food up top in New Hope. Nobody is eating it, So I thought why let it go to waste?”
Doc chuckled as he tucked into the food on his plate. “She took one look at the rations we had left down here and headed straight for the surface,” he said. “Apparently rehydrated oats and water were not what she fancied this morning.”
“No, I fancied food,” said Kali. “Not some boil in the bag tasteless, probably mouldy oats.”
“Well I’m with Kali on this one Doc,” said Marcus.
“Let’s eat already,” insisted Kali as she started shovelling food into her mouth. Marcus looked at the array of food on the table, not knowing where to start. He picked up several pieces of fruit, some meats and bread - which he lashed with butter, and poured himself a large glass of fresh orange juice.
“I haven’t eaten this well since, well... ever,” said Marcus, “I can’t believe all this food was laying around up there.”
“Yeah, it seems people around here like to hoard. What are they expecting? Another apocalypse? I also took the opportunity to liberate a large quantity of alcohol. So, we can celebrate properly when we get back from this suicide mission of yours.”
“She ‘liberated’ so much it took her two trips to bring it all back,” smirked Amara.
Laughter filled the room, and soon they were all talking, conversations overlapping each other, as they talked about how they had all come to this point, and where it may all lead.
Doc in particular had many questions for Vana, mainly technical or scientific, which she didn’t seem to mind answering. Marcus nodded along with Doc, and said things like ‘yes’ and ‘I see’ every so often, to give the impression he knew what was going on.
An hour passed, and most of the food was eaten. Marcus leaned back in his chair, which creaked in protest. “I hope we don’t have to go save the world just yet,” he said. “I think I need another nap after eating all that.” He let out a large belch and felt slightly better.
“Marcus,” yelled Kali, throwing an apple core at him, “manners!”
He looked around for something he could throw back at her before Doc interrupted him.
“Before we all get too carried away, I think we should discuss the plan. First, we need to know how we’re going to get into Davon’s compound, how we’re going to find his ship, so Vana can get the information she needs. Then of course there is the small matter of escaping without being detected, or killed.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” said Marcus, “I’ve spoken to Amara and she’s agreed to allow Vana to try and retrieve her missing memories. She’s been near Davon for some time, and so hopefully the answers to many of these questions are somewhere in her head.”
“I’ll join with her and should be able to view her memories as if I was there myself,” said Vana.
“Will there be any danger?” asked Doc, concern for his daughter evident in his voice.
“There will be no risk physically to her, but there’s no telling what phycological effects there could be. We would be allowing her to relive moments of her life which could be difficult for her to come to terms with.”
“It’s pretty intense,” said Marcus. “I know it’s not the same thing as what we’re doing here, but I’ve been fine. Better than fine actually since my experience.”
“Amara, it’s your choice,” said Doc. “There’s no pressure for you to do this. If you don’t want to, we will find another way of getting the information we need. Don’t feel like you have to do anything.”
Amara replied instantly, “No, I want to. What I may, or may not have done when under his control - I need to face up to it. I know I wasn’t responsible for my actions, but I can’t pretend this didn’t happen. I need to do this. Not for you, or for anyone in New Hope, or any of the other settlements that have been targeted, but for me.”
“Okay,” said Vana. “When you are ready we should go to the medical room. I think you should be hooked up to the monitors there, so we can follow your progress and ensure you are safe.”
“Can I have a little bit of time to prepare myself?” said Amara, “Say an hour?”
Vana nodded, and they all went back to eating. Even Marcus, who felt he could manage one more plate of food.
◆◆◆
An hour later, almost to the second, Amara walked into the infirmary. A bed had been set up ready for her, and several machines were lined up along the side. Doc and Vana were here, busy fiddling with the equipment and making last minute adjustments.
Amara was putting a brave face on, but as she paced around the room, her hands jammed tightly under her armpits, Marcus could see just how frightened she was.
As if sensing her discomfort Vana came over, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Amara replied, “I wasn’t expecting all the machines - it all looks very… serious”
“These machines are only for monitoring you. This one here will measure your heart rate,” she pointed to a machine making a soft beeping noise. “This one monitors your blood pressure, whilst the one at the end of the bed will be monitoring your brain activity. All we’re going to do is stick a few of these wires to your skin. Nothing invasive, there’s no needles or anything like that.”
“Oh, okay,” said Amara. “You didn’t need any of this equipment when you joined with Marcus though did you? So why with me?”
Vana bent down and spoke quietly to Amara. Marcus listened in, whilst trying to look like he wasn’t. “Your father insisted we take every precaution. This is different to what happened between me and Marcus. I was sharin
g something with him, which is much easier than trying to retrieve information from someone. Especially when there’s an implant specifically designed to prevent those memories from ever surfacing. Trust me you’ll be fine.”
Doc finished connecting the last few wires to the various machines in the room, then nodded to Vana. “I think we’re ready,” he said.
Vana pulled up a stool and sat next to the bed, reaching out and taking Amara by the hand.
“I’m going to need you to relax,” said Vana. “Close your eyes and try not to think of anything specific.”
Vana closed her eyes and took deep slow breaths. This continued for several minutes without anything seeming to happen. Doc, who had been busy monitoring the various machines spoke to Marcus.
“I don’t think it’s working,” he said in a hushed voice. “There’s been no change on any of the readouts. Did it take this long for you?”
“No, it seemed to happen instantly, but Vana did say this would work differently,”
Doc’s attention had been captured by one of his monitoring machines, which had started to react.
“Something’s happening,” said Doc, studying the readout.
There was a groan from Amara, who had a pained look on her face. Vana’s knuckles were white as she gripped Amara’s hands, and her eyes flickered rapidly beneath her eyelids.
“Are they okay?” asked Marcus, his voice breaking.
“Everything is still within the safety margins I established, but if these readings keep climbing then we will have to abort.”
“And how do we do that?” asked Marcus.
“Vana said all we have to do is to break the physical connection between them. However, she said we should only do that in an emergency as disconnecting that way could be dangerous.”
“I wish she had told me that before she started this,” said Marcus.
There were more groans from the pair - and this time Amara twitched and shuddered. Vana gave a yelp and released her grip.
“It’s no good,” said Vana breathlessly. “I’m not strong enough.”
“Try again,” said Amara groggily. She hadn’t opened her eyes.
“I can’t do it, we’ll have to find another way.”
Marcus reached out a hand to Vana. “Is there anything I can do to help?” he asked.
“Maybe. We’ve been joined before. I could do so again, and perhaps draw some strength from you.”
“Do it,” said Marcus, and held out his hand.
“I don’t think this is a good ide--” started Doc, before everything around Marcus became black. He felt as if he were falling and instinctively tried to steady himself before he realised he wasn’t in the medical room anymore. Instead, he was standing in total blackness. Next to him, holding his hand was Vana - and in front of them was Amara, laying on the bed.
“Where are we?” asked Marcus.
“We’re joined to Amara’s mind,” replied Vana.
“Huh. I was expecting… well, I don’t know what I was expecting to be honest.”
“This is just how your mind interprets the connection.”
“Seems I don’t have a very good imagination,” said Marcus peering into the darkness.
Ahead, he could make out a doorway, barely visible in the blackness - only a sliver of light around its edges gave it away. Vana started walking towards it, tugging on Marcus’s hand, wanting him to go with her.
“That looks like the best place to start,” she said.
They started to move but found their path blocked by Amara - who had jumped out of the bed and was now standing directly between them and the door. They tried to go around her, but she would move to block their path.
“Let us past Amara,” said Marcus. “We need to get to the door.”
Amara remained silent. In fact, now Marcus had come to look at her more closely he could see her features were off. Her hair was matted, her skin pale and there were no signs of life in her eyes. She looked like a zombie.
“It’s not really her,” said Vana. “I think this is the implant trying to prevent us from getting to the memories.
Marcus tried to push past her, but she pushed back, hard. He stumbled and fell to the ground and was about to get up when he felt the sharp prick of a sword against his neck. The facsimile of Amara stood over him, now wielding a pair of swords.
“Oh, come on,” said Marcus. “That’s hardly fair.”
Suddenly he was back in New Hope, tied to the chair in Hudson’s office. Amara was standing over him, ready to run him through with the sword.
He started to feel panicked. His heart was thumping and sweat was pouring from his brow.
“Vana? A little help?” said Marcus nervously.
Amara swung the sword through the air. Marcus flinched and closed his eyes, waiting for the killing blow. There was a clang of metal on metal. He opened one eye cautiously to see Vana, who was now also carrying a sword - which she had used to deflect Amara’s strike. She was struggling against her.
“Get me the hell out of this chair!”
“Get yourself out,” replied Vana. She saw the look of confusion on Marcus’s face. “It’s your mind. You have to get yourself out. I can only do so much, besides I’m a bit busy here,” she said straining against Amara.
What was he supposed to do? Think himself out?
Then he realised that was exactly what he needed to do. He wasn’t really tied to a chair. He was sat in a room with Doc, Amara, Vana and probably Kali - if she had bothered to turn up. Everything happening here was all in his head - that’s where the battle was being waged. Physical strength was not going to help him here. He concentrated on the thought of himself not being bound to the chair. The ropes binding him to the chair dissolved. He jumped out, kicking the chair away from him. It slid across the office and hit the wall, breaking into several pieces.
“Haha!” cried Marcus proudly. “Take that, chair.”
“That’s great,” she replied, “Whenever you’re ready Marcus,” she said as she dodged a fist and rolled away from Amara.
“I’m gonna need a weapon…”
He had barely finished the sentence before a sword of his own appeared in his hands.
“Alright, now we’re talking,” he said as he weighed into the fight with the fake Amara.
Between the both of them, they were able to fight her back, until they had her backed into a corner. However, before they could finish her off, she vanished - leaving only a faint outline, which slowly faded away.
“Did we win?” asked Marcus. “That’s gotta be it, right?”
Vana shook her head. “I think we’ve weakened her though,” she replied. “You did good Marcus.”
“Thanks, I think I’m starting to get the hang of this positive thinking business.”
“It takes a great strength of will to fight against something like this. I wouldn’t be able to do this without you.”
Marcus felt his face become flushed. He quickly looked away after realising he had been grinning at her for a full fifteen seconds.
“So… where now?”
They were still in Hudson’s office, although things seemed a little off. Certain things were bigger than they should be, the size and shape of the office was all wrong - much bigger than the real one, and there were several black gaps in the walls behind them.
“What’s going on here?” he said pointing to one of the black areas.
“This place is based off your memory of being in this room. Memories are not a perfect thing - at least not for you. You’re seeing things as you remember them. The black areas are things you never saw. I have never been here before, so everything in here comes from you.”
“Well, it looks like there is only one way out of here,” said Marcus pointing at the door. “Let’s see where it takes us.”
They went through the door and found themselves not in a corridor, as Marcus had expected, but out in the Badlands, near the truck he had been in when he was Amara’s prisoner, searching
for Vana.
“It’s like the implant is replaying all of our past encounters,” said Marcus. “It’s trying to get into my head. Well, so to speak - since we’re already in my head.”
As before, details of the scene were not perfect, and the gaps in his memory were even more prominent now. A shot rang out and ricocheted off a large rock. The same rock that he had taken cover behind before. Both Vana and Marcus dove behind it, Marcus instinctively grabbing his shoulder as they did so.
“Are you injured?” said Vana, frantically checking his clothing for blood.
“No, no, I’m fine. Last time I was here I was hit in the shoulder. I don’t fancy a repeat of that.”
“Okay,” said Vana, steadying her breathing.
“But I don’t get it,” said Marcus. “None of this is actually happening, right? So, I can’t get hurt can I?”
“To be honest Marcus I don’t know.”
Another shot pinged off the rock they were hiding behind.
“We need to fight back,” said Marcus, still holding onto his sword. “We’re going to need more than swords though.”
Marcus peered over the top of the rock. A bullet struck the top of it inches from his head, sending shards of razor-sharp stone flying towards him.
Marcus yelled in pain and clutched at his face. Vana pulled him out of the line of fire and checked his injuries.
“You’ll be okay,” she said. “Just a few cuts - nothing major.”
“You tell that to my face,” he said looking at his blood-stained hands. “Seems we can get hurt in here after all,” he stammered. “Well that takes all the fun out of it.”
“We can’t stay here. What happened before?” said Vana.
“Kali showed up with the cavalry.” He shouted into the night, “So what are you waiting for?”
Nothing happened.
“I guess we’re not going to be that lucky again,” he smirked - causing him to wince in pain.
“I have an idea,” said Vana. “Make some noise, distract her, I’m going to sneak around and try and take her by surprise.”
“Do you think it’ll work?”
“This scenario is based on your memory of events. I wasn’t there, so she can’t anticipate what I’ll do.”