Young Writers Society

Elise had to glance back again to make sure Matt was okay, but he appeared to be holding up, even though he grew quiet and didn't add much to the conversation. But that was okay.

"Elliot is a lovely name," she said with a smile as she kept walking ahead. They made quite a distance away from the mouth of the cave, and although it was dark, the light above them was lighting the way. She continued to fill the silence.

"Not that it matters, but I used to go by Ellie. I'd now like to think that Elliot would be my name if I was born a boy," she said with an amused giggle. "But anyways, I don't think the others would mind if Elliot came along, although I'm sure there will be questions. Like I said, though, you're safe here."

She glanced back again, now curious.

"What's your power, by the way?"

James was convinced he was going crazy. This had to be a dream. A surreal, freakishly real dream. Maybe, in real life, he was dying again, somewhere on some shore. Taking his last breaths. This was his mind's bizarre way of escaping.

"Remembering things," he said quickly, the answer flying out of his mouth with a hint of sarcasm before he had a chance to filter it. But it didn't matter, did it? If it was a dream? If it was a dream.

"Ah," Elise said. "Like a memory power then?"

"Yeah," James said, deciding to just agree. "A memory power."

"I knew someone with a memory power," Elise said, still voicing her thoughts out loud. "Well, I guess two, technically, but they're so different. It always is, though." She glanced back at Matt again. "How does it work?"

She paused, deciding to continue guessing since she didn't think he wanted to talk.

"Erase memories? Help people remember memories? Insert memories?"

James couldn't help as a nervous laugh escaped him. He was really going crazy. The fact that after five years, this was what his subconscious chose to dig up again.

"The second one," he said.

Elise nodded slowly. She didn't want to outright tell him that he was unfortunate that his power seemed so limited, but that was what it sounded like to her. Maybe that was why he lived out here.

"Oh," she said simply. "Well, it's nice to meet another person with a memory power. I've heard not many leave the sectors. Same for people like me, really, but..."

She trailed off when she could see the walls of the corridor widening into the familiar room with a higher ceiling and more lights. All the other refugees were in the background -- eight of them, not including herself or Matt, if she remembered correctly -- and some of them were standing around or laying down on their sleeping bag. She could see Zameer being the closest to them, writing something in his notepad and then peering over when he heard Elliot's loud clomping footsteps against the rock. He started to approach them.

"Don't worry," Elise said, no longer walking and looking back at Matt to give him a look of assurance. "He probably just has a lot of questions."

James felt his eye twitch as more people came into view. All of them seemed like they were out of a dream, or something out of his imagination. Aside from looking human, nothing remotely seemed to resemble what he knew as Nye.

"Oh joy."

Zameer approached them, mostly staring at Matt with furrowed brows like he didn't recognize him.

"Elise," he called. "Is this your friend?"

"Um..." So he didn't recognize him either. That was strange. "Yes," she said without thinking. "His name is Matt."

Zameer gave Matt a long look, but then sighed, sounding tired like he didn't want to deal with Matt's origins. She didn't blame him. He had so many people to check up with anyways.

"Sector, power, and preferences?" he asked Matt, looking up after scrawling something on his notepad. He seemed to flick his eyes over at Elliot for a moment, but then drew his attention back to Matt.

James assessed the man who seemed to be one of the leaders of the refugee camp. It seemed like Elise was covering for him at this point, claiming to be his friend so that the man wouldn't ask more questions or potentially become hostile.

The man looked somewhere in his thirties, and was just a little shorter than James was. He had bronze skin and dark, thick eyebrows, and curly brown hair pulled back into a tight bun. He was stocky, but muscular. It was unclear if he knew how to fight, but he would likely put up one if threatened. James decided to keep flying by the seat of his pants to see how far this dream would take him.

"C, memory, and my preferences are to be left alone."

Elise nervously laughed and stepped in before Zameer could further narrows his eyes at him and ask more questions.

"What Matt means to say is that he's from the ungoverned lands, he has a limited memory power, and he prefers to, uh... be safe," she said, not sure what he really wanted. She barely knew him.

Zameer didn't seem bothered by that, though. "You're not from the sectors?" he asked him.

"No," James said plainly, looking over at Elise. She seemed nervous on his behalf. That made two of them.

"That's... huh," Zameer said, closing his notepad and scratching his pad. He finally looked at Elliot, clearly more confused now.

"It's a real horse," Elise said, filling in the blanks for him.

"I see that," Zameer said back, voice still wary. He sighed, then turned to her. "You're Sector 2, cell regen, and have no preference, right?"

Elise nodded. "That's right."

"Hm. Everyone else are from the outskirt sectors, or war refugees. Sector 2, and also ungoverned lands, though... Let me call someone else." He then pulled out a handheld radio from the bag slung along his chest and turned away.

"Melakae, it's Zameer," he said softly, talking to the radio after he pressed a button. "Come to the main room. There are two people I think you'd like to see."

James was becoming more and more convinced that he was dreaming. Or hallucinating. Or something. Whatever thing Zameer had pulled out and started talking into - some box with a stick poking out of it - was more than James knew how to comprehend. Either Zameer was crazy, or he was beginning to imagine whatever different technologies existed on Earth. Though... Evaline had never told him much about how things were different. He'd never really asked. He didn't even know what to ask.

With a blank expression, he turned back to Elise. Sector 2. The sectors were named by numbers, not letters. He'd at least tried to guess. He was close. Numerical and letter names seemed to make sense. He'd just chosen the wrong one.

Elise motioned for him to follow her as she started to approach a three people standing around. He was wary of the others, but she seemed to trust them, and they did not appear aggresive. She took control of the talking, but only mentioned his name -- Matt -- to them. But they didn't seem to pay much attention to him, instead peering over at Elliot. It seemed to be a reoccuring theme that no one here had seen a horse before, and they found it intriguing. It was like the first day he'd met Evaline, but instead of one person, he was surrounded by a group of people who were all just gawking at Elliot.

Elise seemed to pick up on his discomfort, and so she said her goodbyes and walked him off to a clear edge of the wall while they waited for whoever Zameer called over. Someone named Melakae, if he heard correctly. She started to fill the silence with conversation again.

"I know the refugee camps didn't start until after the war ended," she said. "It's been a pretty different culture. I mean, we could all choose what to do for our occupations now, but things still basically remained the same. Now we all know more about the different secrets the government was hiding. I guess that's one of the reasons I decided to leave... among others."

She paused, gazing back at him. "What's it like to be at the ungoverned lands, anyways? I've heard it was dangerous."

James nodded slowly. "It is," he said, trying not to look around and look as lost as he felt. Instead, he settled on stroking Elliot's nose. Elliot seemed nervous, being in a confined space like this, in the carved out room of the mountain.

"You wouldn't like it there."

She scrunched her nose and grimaced. "You've lived there... almost your whole life, I assume?"

"As long as I can remember," he answered. Elliot leaned into his hand.

"For someone with a memory power, you seem to not remember a lot," Elise said with a forced playful smile as an attempt of a joke.

James turned to her with a deadpan expression. "Life is full of irony, isn't it?"

The sarcastic remark flew over her head as she gazed at the scar around his neck. He shifted his shoulder a little, in an attempt to lift the collar of his jacket to cover it.

"Are you hurt?" she asked gently.

"No," he said, eyes flicking out at the others around them. "Why? Are you?"

"I can heal you if you are, but unfortunately I can't heal myself," she said with a wistful smile. "I'm just worried. Did you fall off the mountain, and that was how you landed on the cliffside?"

"It's a shame you don't have memory powers. Then you could help me remember," James said, watching her closely.

"That's right, I've heard that goes one way too," she said airily, sighing. "I'm worried you hit your head."

"Sorry to hear that," he said, still watching her.

Elise kept flicking her eyes between him and the space ahead of him, like she was unnerved by his stare. "Do you mind if I... check?" she said nervously. "I am a doctor."

"I do mind," he said. "Thanks for the offer, but no thanks."

Elise sighed, offering a defeated smile. "That's okay. I've dealt with plenty of patients like you before. Just... well. Be careful."

James met her eyes again with his stare, though she didn't hold the eye contact. He wasn't going to threaten her, because he knew she was probably the only person in this camp that seemed motivated - for whatever reason - to defend him. But if she laid a finger on him, she was going to lose a finger.

"I will," he said, deciding to flash her a small smile. Peacekeeping.

Suddenly a new voice was heard, bounding down the hall from one of the few other tunnels at the other side of the room. A woman around his age came into view. She was shorter, and although she didn't look weak, she looked like she'd be able to hold her own. She had curly, bouncy brown curls and darker skin. She wore tan, baggy pants that cinched around her ankles, scuffed-up boots, a long brown cloak, and a dark gray shirt that sagged a little on one shoulder.

Elise couldn't believe her eyes. She just now put together the name.

"I'm here, sorry I'm late," Melakae said loudly as she briskly walked up to find Zameer, and the two of them talked for a bit, but Zameer pointed in their direction.

The moment Melakae looked over at them, she did a double-take at Elise with wide eyes, her face brightening up.

"Ellie!" she exclaimed, ignoring whatever Zameer was saying to her as she ran towards her, arms extended.

Elise laughed, letting her hug her, and completing the embrace herself. "Wow, it's been so long. It's so good to see you, Mel," she said as she patted her back.

"What are you even--? Gah, never mind. I'm so happy people are leaving that terrible place!" Mel said as she gave her another tight hug. She was glad to see that she was still warm and compassionate despite all these years.

She did eventually pull away, but Mel still held on to her, smiling up at her. She seemed too preoccupied to even notice Matt.

"I can't believe you're here," Mel said with bright eyes. "I haven't seen anyone new in Sector 2 for years. This is so crazy. Did you just get here? How did you even get here? Wait, it was Alistair, wasn't it? Had to be. Hah! That sneaky bastard, not even telling me that--"

Zameer then cleared his throat, and the both of them turned their heads to look at him. He was standing next to Matt.

"He's from the ungoverned lands," he said simply.