Just something that I wrote....

So, I know that this is super long, and you do not need to read it all, I also know it's not finished, not even close, but it was just an idea, so.... here you go.
Your welcome if you like it, if not, well, why did you read it? I told you that you didn't have too!

Part One: The City of Sand

Chapter One

The girl sat up, her head throbbing. Almost instantly her vision started to turn fuzzy and she was forced to lay back down.

Looking up, she saw the stars, forming patterns across the sky. There was no moon tonight. Vaguely, she was aware that her back was wet, her shirt stuck to her, and water trickled into her eyes. She brushed it away with her hand, and then looked at her fingers. They were red with blood.

Oh, she thought to herself, so that’s why it hurts so, so, and then she blacked out again.

When she opened her eyes she was feeling a little bit better. Slowly, she was able to prop herself up on one arm and look around at her surroundings. She was on the bank of a river, and past that, sand. And more sand, and more sand, and more sand. White sand, sparkling in the night, not a breeze to disturb it.

The river was slow, winding along, a few plants growing by its bank, a few dragon flies taking advantage of the cool water. Water! She dragged herself a few feet, and plunged her face into the sweet water. Gently, she washed away the blood from her hairline, and felt a tiny ridge. Stitches. She had popped open some stitches, by… by… by doing something she was sure. What was it?

“Ouch!” The girl said aloud, hand jumping away from the wound. Her head was throbbing, but as she waited, it died down. She rested there for second, letting the cool water run over her neck and head, brushing her hands against the surface.

What were you supposed to do with a head wound? She thought. Apply pressure, I think. Stop the bleeding? Glancing around, she saw nothing to tie around her head, but then realised she was wearing a jacket. No, it was a suit. She tried to tear the fabric, but it just stretched in her fingers, giving and giving, but refusing to break.

She found a zipper and unzipped it to find a shirt underneath, which she ripped a long piece of fabric off of, and used it to tie around her head, covering the wound. But where did I get the stitches from, or the wound, she thought to herself, but another stabbing pain followed this thought, and she had to lay there for another moment to get her head to stop hurting.

Finally, after what felt like hours, and probably was, she was able to stand up, and slowly turn around. To the left of her was a bridge, and under the bridge, what was that? It looked like a shack, a small shack with a window.

Slowly, she walked toward the shack, and around to the other side, where she found a door. She knocked for a while, but no one answered. To her right was a hill, following the rivers path. It was tall enough that she couldn’t see over it.

Well, she thought, It’s as good as any other chance, and she climbed up the hill.

Over the slope rose a city, Gray, and ominous, and, though she couldn’t place just how she knew this, relatively small compared to other cities. She guessed it’s tallest building would probably have been around fifteen stories, and all the roofs were flat, seeming to bake in the sun that was rising.

Turning her neck, she glanced behind her, taking in the expanse of seemingly endless desert. Then, turning her head back to the front, she surveyed the city. Not one person was walking the streets, or riding a board. Not one person seemed to live in this town that existed slightly to the left of no where, and a few streets from nothing.

The hot road burned her feet, but she saw no alternative, there were no shoes lying about, and she couldn’t stay by the river, she was starving and alone. It was probably better odds that she would find someone who could help her in this city then she would out in the middle of the desert.

Six hours later, she was running as fast as she could through a back alley of the city, her head still throbbing.

Stopping to breath, she pressed her forehead into the cold side of a tall building on the east half of the city. She tried to let her brain calm down as she focused on how she had gotten there, and what she was going to do now.

It had started out alright, if you could call it that. She had wandered into the city as the sun rose over the buildings. She had looked around, trying to see if anything had triggered a memory. Nothing had. No more than the barren expanse of sand behind her. Walking in a straight line, she had found that the city was not that wide, it had taken around thirty minutes on foot, judging from how far the sun had moved from the horizon.

Her lips were cracked and dry, and she felt roasted through and through. She had sat down, facing the nothingness, and trying not to think about the past that she couldn’t remember. It hurt when she tried to do that. And then the alarm bells had started ringing.

She jumped to her feet and whipped her head around, still, no one was in sight. She didn’t know exactly what was going on, but decided it probably wouldn’t be best to just keep sitting there. She ran around the corner, and right into six silver hoverboards, ridden by six guards carrying six taser guns.

Soon enough, she was surrounded. The guards Yellow uniforms seemed to gleam in the sun as then slowly approached her, guns pointed right at her face.

“Help,” She croaked out, her voice cracking. “Will you help me?”

“Who are you?” One of the guards asked. He seemed to be the leader of the group, or at least, he was the only one who had a black helmet, instead of a silver helmet.

“What?” She responded.

“Name, age, place of residence, and then show us your citizenship mark. In that order, now! No one is outside while the bells ring.” He hit the butt of his gun against her shoulder, hard enough to make her stumble away.

Slowly shaking her head, she opened and closed her mouth, unaware of what to say. After about ten seconds of silence, the guard motioned to his accomplice. “Check for a citizenship mark, scan it, and tell me who she is.” The guard to the left of the first one moved forward, and snatched up her left hand, staring at the back of it. “Well?” The first guard asked, obviously getting impatient.

The second guard jumped back onto his hoverboard and muttered to the first one, “I’m sorry sir, but… she doesn’t seem to have the mark at all.” After his words, the other guards stopped shifting around, and stared at the girl in front of them, their eyes seeming to bore into hers. She had no idea what this mark was, but she was starting to wish that she had one.

The first guard jumped down from his board and started walking around her slowly. “You have three seconds to tell me your name, starting now, one, two,”

The girl turned so she was facing him, “I don’t know. I’m sorry, I can’t help you, I don’t know. But I need help. Please help me find someone who knows me, who I am, where I came from. Will you help me please?”

The guard smacked her across the face, sending her to the ground. “You don’t know who you are? Ha, well my little PENNA, lets see what the government has to say about that.” He pulled her up roughly, and walked back to his board. By then, the girl knew that these people weren’t here to help her. This might be her only chance to get away.

She shoved the guard and grabbed the hoverboard, which sounded like a good idea when she said it in her head, but the second she put weight on it, the board shot upward, carrying her above the ground, and when she started to tip, lurching forward, with what felt like the momentum of a rockets take off. Ugg, she thought to herself, I don’t know how to ride this, what am I doing? But she had no choice but to cling to the hoverboard, stomach down, as it went through twists and turns that made her feel as if she was going to throw up.

It was a good thing that there were no civilians in the streets, or else she probably would have mowed them all over.

It took her a while, but she figured out that by slightly adjusting her weight, she could control which allows the board turned into, though she didn’t know how to slow down the speed, so she was stuck on a piece of metal, hurtling around tight corners at approximately forty miles an hour.

The speed of her flight left her feeling woozy, with an even bigger headache than before, but she only stopped after hitting the back of the board on the corner of a building, leaving a dent in both, and causing her to spin off, tumbling along the ground before coming to a stop by the opposite wall. Trying to steady her breathing, she got up and started to run, back into the dark ally on her right, away from the crash.

Reaching up, she felt blood coming through the material of her shirt, and pressed her hand over it, trying to stanch the flow.

Finally, she hid behind a box that was propped against a dead end, where three buildings met. Tucking her legs up so they couldn’t be seen, she ripped more material off of her shirt, and tied it around her head. Then she sat quietly, listening to the bells ring, and guards yelling in the distance.

What was that they had called her? The guard had called her something before she had escaped, Enna? She didn’t think that they had meant it as a personal name though. It was more like a label, something that she was, or, they thought that she was. But it would have to do for now. If any more people asked her what her name was, she had a feeling that the answer, I don’t know, just wasn’t going to work.

Moaning in frustration, she punched the wall next to her, but all this did was scrape up her knuckles. Rubbing them, she studied the back of her hand. What was it that the guard had been searching for? What was it that she didn’t have, and why was it unusual? Why could she not remember… anything? Nothing at all. Enna felt like there should be a face at least, someone who she could search for, a building she knew, a food she liked. But every time she tried to think of these things, all she got was a blazing pain in the back of her skull, Right around the place where she was bleeding, and rain, the feeling of rain beating down on her face, her head, her neck, but nothing else. Bleeding, and she couldn’t even remember why.

Enna sat behind the box all day. Nursing her head, and her scraped up fingers, and crunching down every time she thought she heard voices. She tried to think of a new approach to her problem. Obviously, asking the people in charge to help her was not an option. She would have to wait for a while, until she could get a better grip on where she was, and then try again. Come into the city when people were outside, walk around and try to be recognised, gather information about this town in the desert, and what she was doing here.

But the more pressing question was… where could she go until then? She had no home that she knew of, no food, no water… water! The river! There had been a house by the river!

Suddenly, she brightened. If she could find out who lived in the house by the river, if she could get them to let her in, it wasn’t in the city, she would have water, and food, and shelter, and a place away from the guards. Unless they turned her in. If they turned her in, then she would need to run, she would need to find a new place to say, where nobody was.

“Well,” Enna mumbled to herself, “It isn’t the best plan, but it’s all that I’ve got.” And slowly, she stood up, and started walking through the back alleys, hiding when ever she thought she heard voices. She was nearly spotted at least five times, but managed to make herself seem invisible. She was very skinny, and not that tall, which expanded the number of places she could hide by a lot.

After what seemed like hours, she made it to the edge of the city, and back over the hill. Buy this time, the sun was at it’s peak in the sky, bearing down with so much force that she felt her skin would start to blister from the heat.

Enna took a drink from the river, and untied the wrappings around her head, once again washing her wound with the cold water, and that was when she noticed the scar. On her right wrist, not the one the guard had grabbed when examining her for a citizenship mark.

The scar was thick, zigzagging across her wrist for about an inch, with small lines coming out of it. It probably had a great story to go along with it, except she couldn’t remember. She had absolutely no idea where it had come from. Examining her arms, she found two more scars, one on the top of her right arm, the same one as the first, was a line, slightly darker than her skin, that looked like a burn mark maybe? And the other one was on the elbow of her left arm, it was small, maybe a half an inch, maybe less, thin, but it reminded her more of the first scar, like a cut.

It wasn’t the scars themselves that bothered Enna, but the fact that she didn’t know where they had come from. She couldn’t remember what she had done to get any of them, or who had been there when she had gotten them, where ever she had gotten them.

The idea that she could just forget, that she couldn’t remember anything. That her entire past could just be stripped from her like a glove. That was what bugged her.

After she had finished retying her strips of shirt fabric around her head, she walked up to the little shack under the bridge, and again, knocked. Again, no one answered her.

The door stayed firmly closed, and no one showed up to open it while she stood there.

Finally, she decided that it must be abandoned, that was the only explanation, or else, the only explanation that would allow her to slowly turn the unlocked door knob and step inside, which is what she did.

The hinges creaked, as if to solidify her idea that the door had not been opened in quite some time. The air was musty, and the floor was coated in dust, as was everything else in the dark room. Enna searched for a light, but she found none, and so continued into the room in blackness. Cobwebs and spiderwebs hit her face every couple of steps, and her feet stirred up even more dust then she was already breathing in.

Coughing, she waved her hand in front of her face, which didn’t help that much. Finally, she stumbled out of the house, tracking dirt into the dirt outside the door. That’s backwards, aren't I supposed to track the dirt into the house, not out of the house? Enna thought to herself.

But thinking about the guards, and the silver city over the hill, she headed back in. She was going to stay in this place. She was going to stay here, and find out where she was from.

Glancing again out at the enormous desert on the east side of the river, she wondered if she even had a choice. She had no way of knowing what was out there, and no way of getting there if there even was anything worth getting too.

Her best hope was to stay by the river, at least then she wouldn’t thirst to death. She would stay and see how much she could find out. She would see if anyone recognised her besides the guards whom she had previously ran from, and she would try to make a plan.

TWO YEARS LATER

THE CITY OF MARPO

YEAR: 3011          

    

Chapter Two

Enna’s arms were shaking from holding onto the ledge for so long, but as she looked down, she was glad they had. That would be an awfully long way to fall with an awfully painful landing. Pressed to the wall with her cheek against the stone was not how Enna had planned to spend the afternoon, but as she had realised a long time ago, things rarely, if ever go as she plans them. If they did, she might just be dead.

For example, she had planned to make a quick exit from the building after retrieving what she needed, just in through the doors and out again. But if she had followed her plan, then she would have run right into the four armed security guards waiting just outside said door, and then, when they had found the stolen cash card hidden up her sleeve, she had no doubt it would have led to a quick exit from this world.

Enna groaned in frustration as her camo suit buzzed, alerting her to the fact that the sun had been beating down on it for the past hour and a half causing it to overhead. No, she thought, don’t give out now! I’m almost there, you can take it! Pealing her cheek off the side of the wall, she swung herself sideways and caught the next window ledge, biceps shuddering in protest. But she let out a quiet laugh as she let her chamo suit adjust to this part of the wall. She was at the corner of the building, which meant that somewhere there should be a pipe, yes! There it was!

There was no way she was going to be able to climb down the building, there were too many windows and surveillance cameras and such, but along the top of the window ledge was a blind spot that had allowed her to slowly make her way to the side of the building where she now grabbed the pole, preparing for her jump.

Taking a deep breath Enna thought to herself, this is the third time this week! You would think that they would have caught on by now! And then lept out over the side of the building, twisting her legs around the pole and using her hands to brace herself as she practically sent herself free falling over the corner of the building, seven floors up. Moving her body so that most of her was disguised in the shadows of the ally on the left side of the building, she clamped a small silver plate into the wall, with a thin wire connected to the belt she wore around her middle. A few seconds later she felt the reassuring tug as the wire lengthened and adjusted to her weight bringing her to a halt close to ten feet above the ground.

Then, twisting the controls on her belt Enna unstuck the silver plate and fell the remaining ten feet, rolling back into standing position and taking off into the alley, just in case she had been spotted. She doubted it though, over her two years here, Enna had realised that the GSG here, (Government Security Guards) were a joke. They had yet to catch her, even though some of the things she did were practically right under their noses. She had walked around after curfew plenty of times and never once been intercepted, or asked for her citizenship card, which was probably a good thing, seeing as she didn’t have one.

As she walked, Enna inspected the newest cash card. About the size of her palm, the thin silver card didn’t look like much, but Enna had learned that these were the key to survival here in the city. Flipping the card over to look at the screen, Enna let out a disgruntled sigh, the cash card only had fifty micro bills left. Who carries around a cash card with only fifty micro bills on it?

Flipping open the back, Enna pulled out a small copper tool, and started fiddling around with the wires, disconnecting the card from the Government Database. This would make it so she could reprogram the card, and not draw any attention to herself.

The sun had about reached the horizon when Enna finally reached her house, if you could call it that. Under Tirono Bridge was a small shack built for a maintenance worker, with tin walls in between the rooms and instead of a ceiling, the bottom of the bridge itself. Small old fashioned bulbs provided light to the three rooms that made up what Enna had come to think of as home. The only good thing about the house was the fact that the sewers ran right underneath of it, and that there happened to be a manhole right next to the back window.

Alot of people may not think of this as a good thing, but to Enna, who spent much of her time running, having a convenient way to get from basically anywhere to her house was extremely helpful. Most of the GSG here would rather just let Enna go then follow her down into the drafty stinky sewer and risk getting something gross on their perfect yellow uniforms.

Enna didn’t take the sewers today though, she prefered instead to walk around in the fresh air, looking at the buildings of the city of Marpo while the sun set. Gray stone, and patches of green grass. Large windows with steel frames, going up three or more stories, and ending in flat roofs. Steel water and drainage pipes, much like the one she had come down extending from the corners all the way to the ground. Red beeping security cameras on the front of every building and large silver doors. Vines creeped up the sides of some buildings, adding color to the dismal scene with their blossoms.

In Between each building was an alley, barely wide enough for a grown man to run through, and extending in back of all the buildings, making small dark paths from here to there, were patches of weeds fought their way through cracks in the sidewalk, and moss gathered around pools of water. The city was set in between a fork in the river, where the water branched two separate directions, breaking off into two rivers which were criss crossed with bridges, so those too young or unable to ride hoverboards could get from one place to another.

No one ever used the bridges though, which meant that Enna’s home mostly experienced silence. Outside of the fork, across the river was nothing but desert. Hot dry desert, outside of the climate controlled city boundaries. Enna didn’t know where the next town was, and she didn’t care. There was no way that she would ever be able to get enough money to pay for a hoverboard, and stores just didn’t have Cash Cards with that much on it.

The setting sun sent waves of heat off the ground, one last hurrah before the night came to cool down the city. And it was then that Enna reached home. Opening the door, she searched for the switch with her hand, and a light flickered on. Though it was dim, she was still able to make out the inside of the room, an old brown couch, and a threadbare rug, now mostly holes, dominated one side where the ceiling sloped down to reach the floor. On the other side was a small freezer, and an even smaller cooking plate. Enna had managed to rewire the electricity her sixth month in the house, after she had realised that she probably couldn’t live forever on dried oatmeal and warm milk.

Unzipping her chamo suit Enna breathed in deeply. Sweet bathed her neck and upper body, making her blonde hair stick to her skin and cling to her forehead. “Finally,” she said, turning to bolt the door and then flopping down on her couch. Though incredibly useful, Chamo suits often gave one the highly unpleasant feeling that they were being slowly boiled to death by their own skin.

“Here boy!” Enna called, and almost immediately she heard a rustling coming from the bedroom and a few seconds later, a little white furball came scampering out, yapping happily. “Oh!” Enna said, scratching the small dogs ears, “You are so good! Good boy Oli!” Oli’s brown eyes stared up at her intently for a few seconds before Enna pulled out a small piece of jerky, and much to the puppies delight, threw it into the air for him to catch.

Enna thought back to when she had first found Oli, around a month ago. The poor dog had been starving and alone in the ditch beside her house, and she couldn’t help but bring him home. Oli had reminded Enna of herself, alone, with no one there, no one to care about, or who cared about her. Stranded. Just like Enna had been two years ago, when she had appeared by this little shack, and her life now had begun.

She thought back to that day, and found herself grimacing. It had been night time, and she had woken up with a splitting headache and wandered around for a few hours, trying to find someone to help her. Trying to remember anything at all, from her name to her birthday to her old life had made her head feel like someone was going at it with a hatchet, so she had decided not to, hoping to find someone who would recognise her, but no one had. She had wandered until the morning, when she had found herself right back where she had started, starving.

Enna shook her head, it didn’t do any good to think about the past. Trying to remember anything past when she had woken up still made her feel like the inside of her head was being stung by bees.

A few hours later, Enna finished cleaning up the dinner dishes, or, dish was more like it. Being the only one you knew had it’s ups. Less chores. She couldn’t think of any more. Suddenly, in a fit of frustration, Enna let out a scream, dropping to her knees, she felt a single tear roll down her cheek. Another day wasted. Another chance to find her past gone. She was stuck, hopelessly, endlessly stuck.

“If anyone,” she called out to no one in particular, “If anyone can hear me, if anyone cares… I want to know! I’m ready! If this is some kind of punishment, some way to get back at me for something I did, I’ve served my time!”

Oli crawled up into her lap and whimpered, licking her arm with his small wet tongue. “Yeah, yeah, I know,” Enna said, scratching him behind the ears, “It doesn’t matter. Nothing is ever going to change.” She went over and grabbed a nail off the floor by the couch, and put yet another scratch in the tin wall, another one, to match the other seven hundred and thirty two. And then she turned off the light, and headed into the other room.

Laying down to sleep, Enna pressed her eyes closed, shutting off all light that could have penetrated her mind.

Focus, she told herself, if you focus, then you will be able to remember. If you focus! Come on, you can do it… just…. focus!

But just like all the other times, the only thing that came to her mind was the rain. Nothing in the rain, just rain, wet, cold, and dark. Pouring down onto something that she couldn’t see, and couldn’t remember. It was like she was watching the world's most boring silent film. Like the director had made the first slide, a stormy day, he had called it, and then decided he was done. He would just replay that one slide for the entire movie, and hoped that someone or other would be able to pick a story out of it.

Grunting again, Enna rolled over, pulling the small, scratchy blanket up to her chin, which exposed her feet to the now cool night air. This blanket, like the couch, had been in the shack when Enna had first come there. It was small, but it still provided her with warmth, and reminded her that someone had once been here. Someone with a past, and a story, who had a family, and friends, maybe even children.

She would lie awake here some nights, coming up with the person in her head. Sometimes it was a grumpy old man, who had been outcast by the society, but in the end he would manage to find his old love, and she would love him back, and he would move out of the shack to spend the rest of his life with her. Sometimes it was a young lady, who was hiding from a cruel someone and had found shelter under the bridge, and eventually a brother or a father or a lover would come and get her, and take her off with them to another city, away from the heat and the old brown couch.

But those tales hadn’t entranced her mind recently, because she had realised that the possibility that no one would come for her was a very real one indeed. And that her time would be better spent surviving.

It was in these sad thoughts that Enna was now absorbed, as she lay on her bed in the dark. She was so close to sleep, so close to falling into sweet silence and then…

CRASH! The sound was like a gunshot, right above her head. Enna shot straight up, and smacked her head on the low roof. Muttering, and scrambling to find her shoes she raced to the door and slowly opened it, peering out.

The remains of a hoverboard lay around twenty feet away from her doorway, splintered and cracked. But this hoverboard wasn’t silver like usual, neither did it have the Governments sign, a falcon with a sword through it’s heart, engraved onto the front.

Instead it was black, with ridges all along the top, probably to help the rider grip the surface better. But it wasn’t the board itself that was so strange, it was what Enna did when she saw it. Reeling back into the room and grabbing her head, she closed her eyes, and let the scene wash over the inside of her eyelids. Her feet stuck to the surface of a hoverboard like that one, and rain pelting her face. The ground below her passed by in a blur, but it wasn’t sand or concrete or even water, it was green grass. And not a small patch, so much green, passing by her, never ending, looking up, she saw a tree ahead and swerved to the right… and it was over.

Enna sat up and looked around her shack, there was no one there but her, and Oli, who was licking her fingers. Strange, she thought to herself, grass and trees, I was riding. It was all so strangely familiar, like some sort of deja vu. Something from a dream, or… or from a memory. She stood up so fast Oli fell off her lap and onto the floor, yapping in protest.

Enna ran out the door, for once not stopping to close it behind her. The only thing that mattered was that she found who ever was on that hoverboard, but where had they gone! She raced into the city without thinking, eyes searching for something, she didn’t know what, anything to give her a sign of who the mysterious person had been.

After what seemed like an eternity, Enna heard voices up ahead, and saw the familiar silver hoverboards gliding around the corner. She quickly pressed herself against the wall of the nearest building before realising, she had left her Camo suit at her house.

“Hey,” called one of the GSG, “what are you doing out here!”

Enna stuttered, unsure of what to say, and then her mind cleared and she found her voice again. “My… my dog, it got out. And it’s scared of, of being alone. I couldn’t leave it by itself. I, that’s why I was looking for you. I thought that you could help me find my dog, Oli. He’s small, and white, and-”

One of the other guards cut her off, “You think we care about your dog? You’re out after hours, that’s against regulation. How old are you anyway?”

“Seventeen.” Enna said. She knew that to say anything else would be unbelievable. All of the sixteen year olds had went in yesterday for annual orientation, and she couldn’t pass as anything younger or much older.

The guard to the left of the first guard who had spoken jumped down from his board, and walked up to her. He smelled like rotten tomatoes and stale bread.

“If you're seventeen,” He said it he doubted she was telling the truth. Really, Enna didn’t know if she was telling the truth or not, the guard continued, “then there should be no problem with you showing us your Citizen mark.

Enna’s hand quickly moved to cover up the back of her right hand, where her citizen mark should have been, except it wasn’t, because she didn’t have one. The guard caught her movement, and grinned. A malicious grin that told her that this is what he liked doing best, catching people like her, people who didn’t belong.

“Duck!” A voice called out from the alley behind her. Enna fell instantly, flattening herself to the pavement, scraping her right elbow up in the process as a large rock hurtled over her head and pounded the guard in the chest. This sent him staggering backwards as Enna jumped to her feet.

The person whom she suspected had thrown the rock came racing out from behind her. The first GSG had jumped off his hoverboard, and was racing towards the man, who ducked under the guards punch, flipped him over, and then grabbed Enna’s hand and raced toward the vacated hoverboard.

“Can you go any slower?” He yelled, yanking her along behind him. Then, suddenly, he scooped her up, and raced to the hoverboard, jumping on, and making Enna scream with apprehension as he raced around corners, and over buildings.

“Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh! Put me down! What are you doing! Who are you, put me down!” Enna screamed, but the wind was so strong that the boy didn’t even seem to hear her. Actually, she wouldn’t call him a boy, he was taller than her, and strong enough to hold her while going faster than she had ever gone, or at least that she had remembered going on a hoverboard. She glanced up, deciding to judge his age by his face, and saw a flash of hazel eyes, before pain seemed to explode like a bomb in the back of her head, and black clouded her vision.

She glanced down at her feet, which were on a hoverboard much like the black one that had crashed in front of her house. Rain pelted her face, driving water into her eyes. Shaking her head, her hair whipped across her face and she glanced over her shoulder, squinting. Right behind her was another board, but this one was ridden by a man, probably in his late teens or early twenties, with brown hair, and hazel eyes. He nodded at her, and raised his left hand, two fingers raised, as if signaling her of something. And then he called out, “Don’t! It’s not worth-”

But he was becoming blurry, she couldn’t hear the rest of his sentence, and then Enna was back on the hoverboard, the real one, going much too fast for her liking, as alarm bells rang through the city, and people's voices called from the houses on either side of her, asking each other what was going on. She wished that she knew.

Chapter Three

The hoverboard zoomed into a small alley, and the man hopped off of it, setting Enna on the ground.

“It’s too dangerous to keep traveling like this, now that they sounded the alarm bells. How are we going to get away?” The man asked, turning to face her, “I don’t know this city very well, but we can leave, and it will only take about-”

“Leave,” Enna said the word like it had never occurred to her. She could go, she could go and never come back. Yes, she thought to herself, go with the stranger who is being chased by the GSG into the middle of the wilderness with no provisions, great idea, lets do it.

But what other choice did she have? She looked around frantically and her eyes settled on a round slab of stone about ten feet away. A man hole. It would lead to the sewers, she was sure of it! She had used them plenty of times, when she was being chased. Quickly, she crossed over to it, and with a grunt, lifted up the stone, scraping it against the ground until it rested beside the hole, leaving the black space open and exposed.

She didn’t notice when the man walked over beside her, “What are you doing?” He asked, bending down next to her.

“It’s safe,” she said, starting to climb in, but he grabbed her arm.

“No way am I going to let you go in there. We don’t know what’s down there, what if it’s just nothing?”

She shook her arm free of his hand, she had a feeling that he wasn’t really resisting, and could have held onto her if he had wanted too. “I’ve used it plenty of times before. And I don’t know about you, literally, but I would rather go down here then die. If you don’t want to come, fine,” At this, the man’s face twisted into a pained expression, eyebrows knotting together above his eyes, they were almost copper, and sparkling in the darkness. Enna shook her head, “Look, I’m pretty good at this survival thing.” She flipped over so her hands could grab the bars.

The man hurried over to the hover board, and grabbed it.

“There is no way that is going to fit in here,” Enna remarked, eying the hoverboards size. “It’s way to big.”

“I’ll make it fit,” The man said, bringing it over to the manhole, Enna couldn’t help but notice that he could carry a full sized military hoverboard with one arm. “We need it, mine is wrecked. If we’re going to leave-”

“Are you coming or not?” Enna asked, descending down the latter. She felt like something was being pressed against her head very hard. Leave, stay, that had never been an option. And now suddenly… she decided not to mentally count up all the things that could start with the word suddenly, that had happened in the past few hours. It would just make her head hurt more.

She hit the bottom of the shaft and felt luke warm water seep into her shoes. At least she hoped it was water, that was another thing that she didn’t want to think about. Something bumped against her leg and then floated past her, she didn’t search her mind to wonder what it was.

A few seconds later, the man dropped down into the water beside her, feet squelching as they hit the floor of the sewers. Evidently, he had given up trying to force the hoverboard down the shoot.

“You covered up the entrance before you followed me, right?” Enna asked, she wasn’t going to let her secret passageways be found just because some person she didn’t even know hadn’t closed the door.

He raised his eyebrows, “What kind of idiot do you think I am?”

Let’s see, she said, “You threw a rock at a GSG, beat up another one, stole a military hoverboard, and then made them chase you around the entire city, sending off the alarm bells, which, for your information, have only gone off once, as long as I’ve been here.”

She turned on her heel and started walking through the muck, down the tunnel that should take her to the tunnel that would lead to the bridge.

A squishing sound behind her told her that whatever his name was had decided to follow her. But she didn’t think about that now, she couldn’t concentrate on it. She had to get to her house, and out of reach of the guards, before she would, or could, admit to herself what she had first thought of after she had felt her eyes glaze over, and had seen more than the rain for the first time in two years. Because it may not be true, it could have just been all of the excitement, or the fact that she had been doing the craziest thing that she could remember ever doing.

But, said a voice in the back of her head, it’s not like you haven’t had excitement before, it’s not like you haven’t done crazy things, is it? Be quite! She told it, I can’t think about that right now. I have to get home, so I can be safe, I can’t think about that. What if I’m wrong? I can’t bring myself up that far and then feel myself drop again!

But the thought still lingered in the back of her head, pushing her onward, but every once in a while making her look to her left, where the man every once in a while glanced up, and smiled at her. Like they had a secret, like walking thru smelly sewers was fun, like she was someone… someone he knew. Or had known.

Enna climbed up the rungs of another manhole, and as quiet as she could, pushed the rock off the top, and stuck her head out.

Gasping, she stuck it back in immediately. Four guards stood, barley in view, around the spot where the broken hoverboard lay. Their uniforms gleamed in the light from their boards.

Luckily, they didn’t hear her, they just kept talking, looking at the hoverboard as if trying to gather some sort of clues as to where it came from, or it’s riders wearabouts.

The rider in question, was a few rungs below Enna, motioning at her to tell him what was going on. She ignored him, only pressing her fingers to her lips and then running one finger across her neck. The universal sign for, Don’t make a sound, or we'll die.

He nodded his head in understanding, and then motioned for her to climb back down so that he could take a look. She shook her head, no way was she going to risk him exposing them by accident. They had two choices, wait for the guards to leave, or see how quietly they could slip inside the back window. Enna liked the first choice better, without her chamo suit, she felt exposed, and too easy to spot.

She waved her hand down towards the man, motioning for him to climb back down the latter. Thankfully, he did just that, and didn’t argue.

She climbed down and stood in front of him, “There are four guards, and there is no way we can make it past without them seeing us. It will be better for us to just wait down here for them to leave, and then sneak inside.”

“Inside where?” The man muttered, “Where are we? Are we still in the city then?”

Enna rolled her eyes, “No, we’re not in the city, there just happened to be four random guards, and a house in the middle of the wilderness.” The man made no response, just glanced up at the man hole. “That was sarcasm.” Enna said, “we’re on the brink of the city, but we aren’t out.”

The man glanced down at her, “I know that was sarcasm, do you think I’m stupid?”

“I already answered that, remember? Who are you anyway?” Enna whispered to him.

He turned his eyes back up to the manhole, “Hey, it’s me, Tagert, stop joking around. We need to get out of here, my socks are already scented like permanent stink.

Oh, so that was his name. Enna racked her brain to see if she knew anyone who went by Tagert. No. Well, she might of, she didn’t know. Enna felt like screaming, why, why didn’t she remember anything? What had made her forget? Who was this person, Tagert, who had shown up, running from the law, and seeming to recognise her? Had she been some kind of felon before she had come here?

Looking at Tagert, she admitted to herself that he wasn’t exactly the kind of boy that she would be proud to say she had forgotten. He was athletic looking, probably around 6’5, with a light brown military hair cut, and those hazel eyes. They were almost more copper, like solid currency, money that wasn’t carried on a cash card. No one really used it anymore, but she would see some every once in a while.

He looked serious, and well, slightly brooding, though his eyes gleamed. Enna didn’t know exactly how he could manage to pull off the mad and excited look and still manage not to look like he was going to kill her, but he did it anyway.

She realised that she was staring, and quickly averted her own eyes. Tagert obviously had some sort of connection to her, and that was what made him important. She needed him to tell her where she was from, where he had wanted to go, and why she had lost her memory. And for him to do that, Enna needed Tagert to trust her. Which, for now, meant getting him out of this sewer and to safety.

Tagert’s voice broke her train of thought. “I’m done waiting, plus, we need one of their boards. What do you say we go up and just see if we can get them? We have the element of surprise.”

“What! No!” Enna shot back, “We are not going to go up there. They have guns.” She stressed the word guns, so it sounded important, which it was. “We have to wait down here until they go away, I don’t want them knowing that I use the sewers to travel around.”

Tagert huffed an exasperated sigh, “What if they never leave? What if they just rope of the area to examine the hoverboard? This isn’t like you at all, since when do you want to hide from the GSG?”

Enna didn’t answer, but her mind was buzzing like a swarm of hornets was trying to come out of her ears. He did know her, or, he had, whenever it was he was talking about. He knew what was like her, and what wasn’t like her. Or, what had been like her, and what hadn't been like her.

For the first time, she felt the corners of her lips crack into a smile. Tagert started grinning too, though she didn’t think it was for quite the same reason. “I know,” he said, “I know. I really want to, yeah, talk too. I can’t believe, of all the cities! Marpo, this place, I didn’t even think, why didn’t you, you know what, I should probably wait until we’re somewhere safe.” He glanced up again at the man hole. “Do you think we should check?”

“Let's wait,” Enna said, “Just for a few minutes. We want to be very sure they’re gone before we go up.”

“Oh,” Tagert responded, a little less enthusiastically, “Wait. Um, alright. That’s alright, we can wait for a few more minutes.”

They waited for around forty five minutes, with Tagert asking every five or so if they should go check, and Enna barely restraining him. Again, she got the feeling that if he had really wanted to go up, she wouldn’t have been able to stop him. But he seemed willing, if not excited, to follow what she said.

Finally, they headed up the ladder, and when they got to the top the guards were gone. Enna led Tagert around to the front of her house, where she opened the door, and almost instantly heard Oli’s yapping.

“Oh, here!” She said kneeling down and scratching the dog’s ears, “ You are so good! Yes you are!” But Oli had stopped yapping as soon as Tagert had walked through the door. “Oh yes,” Enna glanced up at him, “Tagert this is Oli, he’s never bitten me, but I don’t know if he will bite you.”

“Wow,” Tagert says, “That’s nice. Here’s my dog Tagert, he probably won’t bite your hand off, but he might, I’m just not sure.”

Oli started growling, and Enna pulled him onto your lap, “What he meant to say was, nice to meet you. At Least he didn’t throw a rock at you.”

“I told you to duck before I threw it!” Tagert exclaimed, and walked past Enna, looking around. “What is this place?”

“This is where I live,” Enna said, and then muttered under her breath, “Please come in.” Tagert plopped down on the couch, legs stretched out, “And make yourself at home.” She added. She had to admit that the shack wasn’t much to look at. The last time she had cleaned it… well, alright, she admitted to herself, I don’t know when I last cleaned it. But that doesn’t mean it’s not clean. I never really do anything in here but cook and sleep anyway.

She stood up and set Oli on the ground, where he sat, still growling at Tagert.

“Can you tell that thing to be quiet?” Tagert asked, “I still can’t believe that you have a dog. Don’t you hate animals? You told me that you hated animals, and now you have a dog, that’s just like you.”

“No, I can’t tell him to be quiet,” Enna said offensively, “He deserves to be heard just as much as you do. Of Course I don’t hate animals, just horses and cows, and cats, and birds, and… well I don’t hate Oli!”

Tagert Rolled his eyes, “I at least have something useful to say, I don’t just- he pantomimed Oli, and made growling noises.

“You have something useful to say?” Enna asked, “Well then you better say it then, because I’ve felt my IQ drop at least three points since I met you.”

“Well,” Tagert said, “Aren't you just a little ray of sunshine.” Then he seemed to take in what Enna had said, “Met me? Since you met me?”

“Yes, this morning… when you dragged me onto a hoverboard and-” but Tagert stood up, and started running his fingers through his hair.

“Oh no. No, no! I’m so stupid! No, no, no!” He turned to her, and to her surprise, he saw that he looked mad. “You mean to say, you… met me this morning? You don’t know me?” He said each breath like it was labored.

Enna decided that it was a bad time to mention the strange scene that she had seemed to see in her mind that morning, where he was riding the hoverboard behind her. “Tagert I, I’m sorry if I’m supposed to… know you or something. Trust me, I wish I did. I-”

He cut her off again, “No! You don’t remember me, or anything? Can you remember anything? At all?” Enna shook her head, Oli was growling even more than ever, and came to stand between Tagert and Enna. “That… you… you wanted to hide from the guards, you didn’t like being on the hoverboard, you didn’t contact us, you never reported… you, or not you? Or… How would you know anything? But how could you know nothing?”

Enna got tired of waiting for him to stop ranting, “Look, I’m sorry! But it’s done, I’ve been here for two years! And no one ever came looking for me! How was I supposed to find anything out? I don’t have any money, I couldn’t just take off into the desert!”

Tagert looked at her, “I was looking for you! I was, but of course you had to be here, the place farthest away from anything, literally anything! Of course you couldn’t contact us! Or give us a clue, or, or something!”

“Ugg! What was I supposed to do?” Enna shouted back at him. “It’s not going to do any good to get mad at me-”

“I’m not mad at you-”

“Funny, you seem pretty mad to me!” Enna tried to quiet her voice, “Just tell me something. Something that I should know, and I should remember. Tell me where I’m from, how I met you. Who else do I know, and where are they, how do I get there?”

Tagert sat back down on the couch, but he looked defeated, his hands flopped uselessly at his side. He sat in silence for a few minutes, and Enna decided to sit down by him. His bright eyes had darkened, and his scowl was deeper than ever. He stared at his fingers, as if trying to light them on fire with his mind.

“Please,” Enna whispered, but he ignored her. Oli curled up on the floor at Enna’s feet, his eyes fixed on Tagert.

Suddenly he shook his head, and fixed a smile on her, “It’s alright, I’m going to fix it. Just, just let me alright! Hold on a second, I’m going to go see if they left my board there, or took it with them, I’ll be back soon.” He walked out the door and around to the back, and Enna peered out of the back window. His board wasn’t there, but he was screaming to the sky. Not loud enough for anyone from the city to hear him though. Enna thought about how he had smiled, and how many expressions he had gone through since she had met him. So light hearted, to this. But she reminded herself, expression is not feeling. They are two very separate things, even though people have grouped them into one big pile of words. Smiling is not the same thing as being happy, and crying isn't the same thing as being sad. Screaming doesn't always mean pain... Sometimes it means anguish.

Chapter Four

This whole thing is backwards, it all makes sense in some twisted way, but you've got to contort your mind into ideas that are sure to hurt. The beginning becomes the end and the end becomes the beginning. Even if the thing that's ending was never started. That’s what Enna was thinking as she went to bed. Nothing made sense, and yet it all did.

Tagert was sleeping on the couch in the other room, having come in, and refusing to tell her anything. He had said that if she didn’t remember anything, then it wasn’t his place to tell her. She had argued that of course it was his place to tell her, he was the only one she knew of who knew anything. But he had said that it was all for the best. That in the end, telling her everything to early could be bad.

Enna understood that, but, ugg that boy! Hadn’t she just saved him by leading him down into the sewers, offering him her house to stay in, sharing what little food she had with him? Didn’t she deserve to know who she was? Or… had been? She didn’t know what to think now.

She knew that life as she had known it was ending, but had it really been a life? No, she thought to herself, it hadn’t. This isn’t living, what I’ve got. This is surviving in the least. This is scrapping your way past every meal. Not knowing if your going to die the next morning or not. Not knowing if you’re ever safe.

She hadn’t slept all night, but instead, had tried to concentrate more than ever on the rain, but the only thing that was brought up was what she had seen before and, surprisingly, what she had seen when she had blacked out this morning. She first time she had seen Tagert’s face.

But thinking about him made her feel mad again, so she rolled over and tried to close her eyes, blocking out all of the non existent light in her pitch black room.

“Your mad!” Enna threw up her hands in exasperation, and started to storm out of the room, before she heard Tagert retaliate.

“And you’re crazy, I thought we already established this. Or do I have to go over it all again for you. Well for one, you live under a bridge.” He was still flopped onto the couch where she had left him last night, his hair as messed up as a military cut can get, but his eyes were still sparkling.

“You don't say?” She said sarcastically, “I hadn't noticed.”

“What else is new?”

“You really like insulting me don't you?” She said, crossing her arms and trying to stare him down, which was significantly easier to do when he was sitting down, since he was approximately a foot taller than her.

“No” That was all he responded with.

“Well for someone who doesn't like it, you do it an awful lot.” Enna grunted. She had meant it to be serious, but he just laughed like she was funny.

“What ever gave you that impression?” Ugg, he was so annoying! Why had Enna ever even let him into her house in the first place!

Tagert’s eyes flicked up to look at Enna’s. A small smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. He looked amused and confused at the same time.

“Enna, you really don't remember me. At all?” He whispered.

Enna thought about the flash that had went thru her mind when she had first saw him, the rain, the thunder, him pleading with her not to... Not to... She shook her head trying to remember whatever it was that she had forgotten. “Sorry. It would probably help if you would tell me where you’re from.”

Tagert’s smile disappeared, he muttered something and then stood up, “I’m going to go into the city and-”

“I already told you!” Enna said exasperatedly, “You are completely mad if you think you can just waltz around the city after what happened last night. The guards are on alert now! They may not be the smartest ones in the bunch-”

Tagert laughed again, “Oh, trust me, they’re not! I’ve seen much worse!”

“Alright,” Enna continued, “So what happens if it’s twenty of them, against one of you? What happens then?”

“What you mean to say, is twenty of them, against the two of us.”

Enna growled, “I, most definitely, will not be going into the city, any time soon, with you. That’s like trying to commit suicide two days in a row.”

Tagert shook his head, “If Jade were here, she would do it.” He whispered this, but Enna heard it anyway.

“Who’s Jade?” She asked. A look of sadness entered his eyes, and she almost regretted asking, but she really wanted to know. He had mentioned her at least twenty times since she had woken up this morning, but he had always muttered it, not like he meant to say it to her.

“She… She was my friend. From where I came from. You remind me of her… with some things.” He gazed at her, his eyes soft.

“So,” Enna probed, trying to be gentle, “Where is she?”

Tagert stood up, and walked over to the side of the room that was supposed to represent the kitchen. “There was an accident. I don’t know exactly how it happened. But she died. I don’t think you’ll ever see her, I’m sorry.” Then he shook his head and seemed to regain his air of absolute control.

She tried probing a little bit more, “So… where was Jade from?”

“Ahhhh you're impossible!” He rolls his eyes and walks over to the door, opening it to let Oli out. The two of them had seemed to come to some kind of mutual agreement during the night to just ignore each other as much as possible.

Enna yells after him, “I could probably be less impossible if you told me what was going on.”

“Not a chance”, he yelled over his shoulder.

“Well why not? Sorry to remind you, but I saved your butt by showing you that sewer!” She failed to point out the fact that he had saved her butt first.

“And I'm sure  grateful, where's your olives?”

“Why would I have olives?”

He walks out of the kitchen and looks at her, eyebrows raised, “well they are only the best food in the entire world!”

“Oh yes, because my first thought when I woke up here with no money, and no memory was, I know I think I'll buy some olives! In case you hadn't noticed, I don't exactly have that much money!” Enna held up the mostly empty cash card for emphasis.

“I'm going to go buy some olives,” Tagert says and walks toward the door.

“Yeah”, Enna rolled her eyes, “you do that, whatever, and when the guards see you walking down the street, don't come here again! Your sarcasm doesn't exactly pay rent.”

“Who would want to rent a place like this? No one in there right minds would ever want to be here.” He says, shaking his head.

“Ahh,” Enna smiles, “so that explains why you're here Mr. Sunshine!”

“Haha very funny!”

“I thought so to. Glad you agree.”

“Where I'm from,” Tagert says, choosing his words carefully, “we have olives galore! And no little blonde ninnies!” He made a shooing gesture with his hands, and rested his hand on the door knob.

“Well I wouldn't say you were little and blonde, but you got the ninny part right.” Enna walked over and removed Tagert’s hand from the door knob. She couldn’t let him get captured, no matter how much she wanted to! He was the only one who could help her. She had to make him stay.

Tagert didn't answer. After a while Enna decided to ask her question again, even though she knew it would probably get the same response,“so where exactly are you from?”

He looked at her and shrugged, “same place you are.”

“Ahhhh, the top secret facility located right in between nowhere and lost.” Inside her head, Enna growled. Why not, she thought, just throw him out into the desert, and refuse to let him come back until he decides to be useful. But she knew that would never work. If she tried to toss him into the desert, it would be like a rag doll trying to keep a sumo wrestler from doing what he wanted.

“That's the one.” Tagert winked at her, “Look... Enna I'm sorry I can't tell you, but I do have reasons. You've got to believe me, I would tell you everything you wanted to know, but if someone found out... Someone,  who shouldn't know.”

“The government.”

Tagert doesn’t answer, but Enna can see in his eyes that she’s right. He had been running from the GSG’s, but there was something else. He actually had information he was hiding. He was a danger to them. And Tagert wouldn’t tell her what it was, because he thought that Enna would tell them.

Enna almost laughs, and flops onto the ground in front of the cooking plate, “they've never given me anything. Why would I give them anything back?”

Tagert shrugs and sits down in front of her, so his knees almost touched her’s, and his eyes held Enna’s attention.

“I can take you there.” He said, his voice low, “but it has to be your choice. You have to choose to trust me, to leave.”

Enna thought about this. Marpo city, this bridge, this was everything she had ever known. Everything she could remember. The idea of leaving it all. Forever. But, like Tagert had said, it wasn't much. “I'll think about it,” she said, and he seemed to understand.

“I won’t leave then. But we will have to eventually, we need a hoverboard. Unless you want to try to walk across the desert?”

“So, what’s it like to… not remember?” Tagert looked at her hastily. “Is that to personal?” They sat in front of the freezer, eating a lunch of small green apples, and bread.

“No,” Enna responded, “It’s not. Weird though… I’ve never really had anyone ask me that before.”

He smiled, “Guess that’s what happens when you live in a shack, under a bridge, with only an annoying little white furball for company!”

“Well, you and Oli, don’t forget him.” It seemed to take Tagert a moment to get what she was saying, but he did eventually.

“Whatever… So, are you going to answer my question?”

Enna sighed, trying to think of a way to explain it,“Give or take, every day is basically the same, extraordinarily ordinary, but every once in a while there’s a moment. And it's not the days that we have to watch out for, it's the moments. The moments that build us and change us, reshaping us to turn us into the person we are going to become, the people, the places, and the whispers let out in the darkness: in misery or happiness, the path of life goes on, and we choose where it goes, you choose, I choose. And everyone else gets a choice to.”

“Alright,” Tagert leaned back, “That was deep. But I don’t get how that relates to losing your memory.”

Enna stared at him, “Just imagine. Just imagine waking up one day with none of that. It’s all been stripped away. All the moments, every last one has been taken from you, and you’re left with an empty slate. But… I- you know that there has to be more.”

He nodded, seeming to mull over what she had said in his mind. “Ouch. That sounds-”

“Horrible.” She finished. “It was horrible.”

“Listen,” He leaned in close to her, “I don’t think that you will tell the Government anything that I tell you… but there are rules. Things that you don’t do, and telling someone who isn’t involved is one of them. And I don’t want to break it by telling you anything, but I will… eventually I will tell you. I just need two more people from my top secret facility located between no where and lost to trust you first. After three people trust you, then I can explain things.”

She nodded, “So, you trust me?”

Tagert shrugged, “I don’t really know you Enna. You saved me… well, after I saved you anyway. You haven’t done anything that would make it so I wouldn’t trust you. Lets just leave it at this, when I trust you, you’ll know.”

Enna nodded again, “I guess that works for me, but what’s your plan? How long are you planning on staying here?”

“That depends on how long you’re planning on staying here… If you want to come that is. But I can’t leave until I have a hoverboard, and some supplies, and stuff like that. So, it could be next week, or in a month, we’ll see.” He smiled, and took another bite of his apple, wiping the juice off of his chin.

Then he picked up one of the cookies that she had made, and scrutinized it, “Wow, you really have had a lot of practice since the deep fried frozen pickles incident haven't you?”

“The what?” Enna said, she had no idea what he was talking about. But then again, she hardly ever knew what he was talking about anyway. “That is probably the grossest thing I have ever heard.”

“No it's not,” He smiled that same self satisfied smile that he had worn when she had told him that he could stay. Like he was saying, yeah, I know I’m amazing, don’t try and deny it, because we both know that you won’t be able too.

“What in the world could be grosser than deep fried frozen pickles?”

“You don't want to know,” He laughed.

Enna rolled her eyes, why had Tagert even brought it up if he didn’t want to tell her about it? “I already do... Or I should, I just need you to remind me.”

“You said I was never allowed to bring it up again”

She rolled her eyes again, how was she supposed to know that she had said that? “Oh did I?”

“Yes,”

“Well,” she responded, “tell me anyway.”

He grinned at her, showing all of his perfectly white teeth, that sat in perfectly straight rows, “I'll tell you later.”

“I could force it out of you.” She balled her hands into fists and flexed, showing off her invisible muscles, before laughing.

Tagert’s grin widened, “Do you really think you could take me?”

“No”

“Good, because for a second there, I thought that you were being serious, and it was really awkward, because if you thought, from looking at me, that you could take me, that would be really self esteem crushing.” Then he flexed, and she frowned, did he just spend his entire life working out?

“What’s that supposed to mean? You don’t think that I could ever take you?” She asked. Tagert raised his eyebrows, “Fine, yeah, I guess so, but that has nothing to do with when you’re going to leave, Prince Charming.”

He leaned back on his elbows, his apple was almost gone, “Are you really so anxious to get rid of me? And don’t call me Prince Charming, I don’t like fairy tales.”

“No, I’m not, but like I said earlier, your sarcasm doesn’t exactly pay rent. Why don’t you?” Enna asked him.

He stood up “There unrealistic, nothing in them is the same as real life it's all different, and most of it could never happen.”

Enna couldn't help but laugh, “says the boy who shows up and tells me that- ahhhhh!”

Tagert lunges at her, covering her mouth with his hand and almost knocking Enna to the ground. And then she heard it, outside, where voices, muffled by the door, but most definitely there. They stayed quiet until they couldn’t hear them any more, until they had probably left.

“Why,” Enna asked, “Did you have to do that?”

He shrugged, “If it had been guards, and they had realised that somebody was in here? I thought that you would be used to having to be quiet by now.”

She responded, “Guards don’t usually come around here.”

He turned to walk away, and then looked back at her, “Oh, and that's another thing that's different about fairy tales.... I would have kissed you to make you be quiet.”

Chapter Five

Why did he have to be so… so… obscure? Annoying? Positively, utterly, what? Enna couldn’t think of a word to describe Tagert. He just left her speechless at the way he could turn so suddenly. He could be the most charming, though sarcastic person you’ve ever met, saving you from guards, and helping fix your house up, and the next second, he was an annoying little brat who was absolutely no help at all! Of course, Enna had only known him for about a week and a half, but she already thought he needed to work on being nice.

As she rolled over in her bed, trying to go to sleep, she thought to herself, but then again, I don’t really have anyone to compare him to, do I? All people, all boys, could be like this, and I would have no idea?

But Tagert wasn’t like the people that Enna saw walking the streets of Marpo, they all seemed carefree, like they didn’t have a worry in the world. Well, except for the sixteen year olds, they were getting ready for the Auditions, and that left them no time to do anything but practice what ever their chosen skill was going to be.

The Auditions were when all of the sixteen year olds would gather in the Colosseum Building, a large iron and cement structure on the north end of the city. On July first, every one who had turned sixteen the previous year was taken to the Colosseum and tested physically, mentally, emotionally, and probably a thousand other ways, to see where they would best fit in the world. Some became GSG, trained by the Government and sent to patrol cities. The list was endless. In the end, you got to choose what you became, mostly that is. If you had broken any laws, your choices were significantly decreased. You couldn’t choose to be a GSG as far as Enna knew. The government leaders, The Counselors, or the Governor, had to choose you specifically.

Enna didn’t know that much about them either, just that there were fifteen counselors, two high  and one Governor, and from what she had caught, he had never visited Marpo.

One Counselor was at every Audition Ceremony, Enna had seen them come in. She didn’t know exactly what happened during the ceremony, because she couldn’t remember her own, and only the sixteen year olds, the Counselor, and the Instructors were allowed inside the Colosseum Building. But hey, she could just add that to the list of things that she didn’t know anything about, couldn’t she?

Oh, why couldn’t she sleep? She needed rest, it was quiet and dark, and perfect but for some reason, her brain refused to shut down! The calm blank would not slip over her mind, which was buzzing with thoughts, and feelings.

Tagert was planning to leave as soon as possible, and he had told her that he would take her with him. But how could she trust him? He refused to tell her anything about her past, which he supposedly knew about. What if he didn’t know her at all, but was only using that to get her to give him food, and comfort. Well, less comfort, and more shelter, she wouldn’t exactly call this shack a five star building. But what if he took her away, somewhere she didn’t know? Somewhere where she would have to rely on him as much as he relied on her now, somewhere that she didn’t remember. How would she be able to tell?

She didn’t know if heading out into the desert was wiser than staying here, by herself, in her shack, with no one for company but Oli. She didn’t seem to have any good options here, but at least she had time to make a decision. She could decide which one contained the least amount of stupid, and would lead to the smallest possible amount of pain.

Or at least that’s what she thought.

The hand was pressed roughly against her mouth as Enna’s eyes shot open. Of Course, right when she had been falling asleep, someone had to go and wake her.

She kicked off her covers, and threw Tagert’s fingers away from her face. He gestured for her to be quite, holding up a finger to his lips. She nodded, understanding the gesture, but not the reasoning behind it.

Tagert pointed to the door, and then leaned in close to her, his mouth brushing the hairs by her ear. “They are right outside the door. They have been for about ten minutes. I think they know that we’re in here, they’re watching the shack.” He didn’t say who he was talking about, but Enna knew, the GSG. “I thought I had better wake you. I think we need to go right now, if we wait until morning, it may be too late.

Enna shook her head and motioned to the door as if to say, with the guards right outside, try to sneak away? That’s a brilliant idea.

What? She thought to herself. Her mind was abuzz. She had thought that she would have time to think about this, to make an informed decision, to get Tagert to tell her more about this place that he was planning on going. But obviously, all of her time was out, she would have to decide now or never if she was going to stay or leave.

Tagert knew this too, he motioned to himself, and then pointed to the door. Enna gestured that she didn’t get what he was trying to say. He whispered into her ear again, “There are only two right now. I can probably take them if I surprise them, and then we could head around back, and go down through the sewers, but the only problem is that we still need hoverboards. I stashed some supplies on the north side of the city if we can get to it. It should be enough for two people, alright?”

Here it was, Tagert was asking her if she was going to go with him. If she was then they needed to act fast, and if she wasn’t… well, he would need to act alone.

Enna made her decision, she nodded and then pointed around as if to say, should I gather some stuff?

Tagert shook his head, and then mimed carrying a heavy pack. Enna had to admit that he was right, anything she decided to take would slow them down. She would have to leave everything that she knew behind. Tagert walked over to the door and she followed him, making sure to keep her footsteps as quiet as possible.

With his hand on the doorknob, he mouthed, one, two… Enna took one last look around what had been her home for the past two years, before they burst out into the night, and Tagert punched one of the GSG’s in the nose.

Enna had to admit that he was good, in a second both of the guards were out, and they had two hoverboards. Tagert flipped them over, and, using a tiny screw from his boot, flipped open the control panel, and rearranged some of the switches, pulling others out.

“Won’t that break it?” Enna asked quietly.

He shook his head, “The boards run off of light, gravity, magnetism, stuff like that. If you broke the core… well, you saw what happened to my board. But none of this stuff can hurt it’s flying ability, this just makes it so we can’t be tracked.

Standing up, after slipping the screw back into his boot, he motioned to the boards. Carefully, Enna stepped on and automatically the board lifted into the air.

She fell off.

Tagert slapped his palm to his head, and then looked at her, “You have never ridden a hoverboard before, have you?”

Enna started to recount the first day she had woken up, which was the first, and only time she could remember ever riding a hoverboard until she had met Tagert, and ridden one with him, but he shushed her.

“It’s alright, just ride with me, teaching you would take to long.” He stepped onto the hoverboard himself, and it lifted into the air. He managed to keep his balance while reaching down to offer her his hand. “Come on, we have to leave now! If they wake up and sound the alarm, then it will be too late.”

She hesitated, “what if they weren’t looking at the house? What if they were just sitting there, and we really have more time to plan, and they didn’t find you-”

Tagert interrupted her, “Enna, we have to leave now. I saw them looking at the shack, and they walked around it a few times. It’s the middle of the night, and they are sitting outside the door. They probably just wanted to wait until morning, instead of waking up possible reinforcements in the middle of the night! We have a board, this could be our only chance!”

Enna had to admit that Tagert was right, she couldn’t think of a single reason that two GSG would be outside of the shack in the middle of the night, unless they had known that Tagert was there.

He reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her up onto the board, and twisting Enna around so she was facing away from him. She started to fall, but Tagert put his hands on her shoulders, steadying her.

And then they were off, flying around the edge of the city, through the blackness of the night.

Enna had never seen this view of Marpo before, she had always climbed buildings in the daytime, because her chamo suit, like the board was charged by sunlight, and she didn’t want to risk it suddenly running out of energy, and leaving her exposed five floors in the air.

The buildings were spread out before them, the street lights shining like an array of fireflies in a dark forest. Dew glistened, shining wet on the silver metal and made everything seem like it was sparkling.

But we weren't in the city, we were right on the edge, in the desert. Enna gasped as sand forces itself between her eyelids, up her nostrils and into her mouth.

“Hold steady!” Tagert calls as his hands tightened around Enna’s waist.

She had decided that it probably was the best idea for her not to ride on her own board, seeing as she had no memory of how to do it, but still, it was awkward. Enna felt so small next to him, but not insignificant. She could feel the power in every move he made, the rhythm of his breathing against the hairs on top of her head, and his strong hands above her hips, stopping her from falling off.

Enna had objected at first, after they had been riding for about a minute, saying that she was perfectly capable of learning how to ride a hoverboard, but after she had almost fallen off around three times Tagert’s fingers had clasped around her waist and he had whispered into Enna’s ear, “hey, I've got you alright?”

It was... Odd, Enna thought, how comforting it was to feel him holding her. She had been alone for so long, she couldn't remember the last time that she had even shook hands with somebody. Ha, couldn't remember, that's funny. But here I am, said the voice in her head, riding across the desert to who knows where, with someone who, two weeks ago, I hadn't even known had existed. And though she tried not to think it, the last part of her thought slipped out, And finding myself trusting him to keep me from falling.

But the sand clogging up her air pipe kind of dimmed the nice feeling of having someone there to support her.

Enna adjusted her weight slightly, and glanced sideways, back the way they had come, back towards what she remembered. Then she shook her head, no turning back now, she couldn’t go back to the old couch, and the small freezer and…

“Ahh! We have to go back!” Enna screamed, tapping Tagert’s leg, hard. “Now, now! Turn around!”

“What are you going on about? The place is probably swarming with guards by now!”

“We forgot Oli!” She felt Tagert breath out against her ear, and she could almost feel him rolling his eyes at her. “This is serious! We have to go back right now! Tagert, listed to me, turn around, right now!”

They stopped, hovering in the air, and he bent down to look at her. Enna was reminded of the first time that she had seen him, his eyes. “We, can’t, go, back.” He said quietly. “Do you understand?”

Silence pressed in around them, and Enna knew that he was right. It was too dangerous now, they had to keep going. But that didn’t stop tears from welling up in her eyes as she thought about the little white companion she was leaving behind.

She nodded.

They continued along the edge of the city. And Enna reached up to brush a tear off of her cheek. This whole thing had been exciting, something new, but it had never struck her until now that it was also something real. She knew that it probably should have before, but she wasn’t used to having to think about long term consequences.

After all, she thought, I live day by day. I don’t have any commitments, or relationships. Well, I do, but it’s not like I remember them, I’m just me, and no one else. But, she glanced at Tagert, according to him I didn’t used to be.

She hadn’t allowed herself to think about that for such a long time. The chance that there could be people out there who were Enna’s family, friends, and acquaintances. But she had remembered Tagert, when he had come. She was sure that it was a memory, a real solid memory. She could feel it in her bones that she had really been there, flying in the rain, with Tagert behind her, asking her not to do… something. She would sort that out later, once he became less conservative, more willing to tell her the things that she wanted to know.

Enna closed her eyes and focused hard, on the rain, on Tagert’s face, the memory. The black hover board with grooves in the top, the green blur that she was flying over, grass or whatever it was. She focused on his eyes, his hands, his face, how it felt to ride, on her own through the air. And slowly, Enna stretched out her hands. She braced her feet against the slick surface, spreading them farther apart, and turned her head to the left, watching where they were going. She balanced her weight, leaning forward and backward with the wind.

Tagert laughed in back of her, “I think you’re getting it Enna.” He said over the rushing wind, filled with sparkling sand.

She smiled to herself, “I just remembered.”

She adjusted her stance slightly and found that she was in control. She almost had to choke back a sob at the way it came so naturally, she had hardly had to think about it once she had focused. Maybe it was that way with other things too, maybe she wouldn’t need Tagert to tell her everything. Maybe she could remember on her own, like this. But she still needed him, he was going to show her where she was from, and how to get her. He was the key to remembering like this, the only person from her past that wasn’t a faded grey blur, lost with time. She could keep him around until she got where she was going, as annoying as he was, she had to admit that he had been helpful, in his own sarcastic way. Pushing her to her limits, and then some, making her see things that her brain told her weren't there, but her heart knew couldn’t be far.

The stars seemed to sparkle a little brighter that night to Enna. As if they were congratulating her on deciding that the past shouldn’t be left in the past. Well, some of it should, the bad things, the horrible decisions that she had made, she could leave that to imagination. But the good, if she worked hard enough, there wasn’t a doubt in Enna’s mind that she could bring that to the surface.

They reached the north part of the city in no time, the Colosseum building stretching up into the night.

Tagert jumped off of the board and headed over to an old crate, propped up against the alley wall. He pushed himself to be calm as he took out supplies. Rope, Chamo suits and blankets, Backpacks with dried food and water pellets, a compass board, sunscreen, and a bunch of other things that he had thought that he would need.

“Just because she remembered how to ride the board doesn’t mean anything.” He whispered, “It was just muscle memory or something, she wouldn’t, no, she wouldn’t,” He shook his head, not finishing the sentence. He was being silly, this was Enna, not Jade. No matter what Jade would have done, something told him that Enna was different.

No matter how much she reminded him of his old… friend? Was that what she was? Did she deserve even to be called that, more, less? No matter how much she reminded him of Jade, Jade was gone. Stollen away from him, and Enna wasn’t the same person.

That’s what he told himself as he turned around, holding the supplies, and saw Enna standing with her hand on her cocked him, looking at him, the same way Jade had, as if she couldn’t quite read him.

He laughed to himself. But she did read me. She read me like a book, and now… lets just get the mission over with, I’m tired of this desert.