Remember Me

Chapter 2~ Outside of La Bastille

I wake up, light filtering in through small cracks in the casket lid, and I start to panic.

"Nilin. Are you okay?" The voice is back.

"No. I need to get out of here, get me out of here. Now!" I start banging on the lid. I can feel that I'm not on solid ground. The casket sways back and forth, and I hear water sloshing up the side of the casket. Am I in a river? I start to hyperventilate a little. I'm not good in confined spaces.

"Calm down. My name is Edge. You have to trust me, sis." He says.

"I just did, 'bro', and now I'm trapped in a coffin!" I hit the wall, expressing each of my words. I try to calm my breathing, but the rocking doesn't help.

"I MUST prepare you for what is waiting outside. The enemy is MEMORIZE, a cooperation that has digitized and commoditized memories. They call it Sensen Technology, and the world is addicted to it." He pauses. The casket rocks back and forth, and I try to focus on his words. "Do you follow?"

"Y-yes." I respond, closing my eyes.

He continues. "You were a memory hunter, Nilin. The best. Other hunters merely pillaged memories, but you can remix them! And above all, you were an Errorist, just like me."

"Why did they do this to me?" I scowl. I can't remember anything.

"You were a revolutionary fighter! And my best agent. We all fought to assure no firm could monopolize on all human memories.." he pauses again, "But I failed. We were all rounded up and imprisoned."

The casket lurches sideways, throwing me to the side wall. I hold back the thought of throwing up, and open my eyes again. "This is all very interesting, but I REALLY have to get out of this coffin. NOW!" I can't hide the panic on my voice anymore. The casket slams forward again, hitting something outside. It spins, and I can barely stomach the nausea. 

"The currents are going to take you to Slum 404. Once you've landed, I'll tell you my plan."

The current drags the coffin with it, and I almost can't wait for it stop.

~•~

It's been a couple hours, I drift peacefully and slowly, waiting to hit the shore. My panic has settled down along with the river.

The casket stops suddenly. I must have reached the shore. I try to get the lid off, banging on the lid and kicking it. I hear raspy voices from outside the casket, and one of them is close.

"Fear is lost now.. pain is shared now..." It repeats itself, multiple times until it trails off. I can hear footsteps coming closer.

I suddenly hear knocking on the lid and flinch. I knock back, hesitant. "One of us? Come out!" It shouts and rips off the lid effortlessly. "Sister!" It shouts again, stepping back slightly. What stands before me, I couldn't tell. I get out, shoving the lid aside, trying to adjust to the sudden brightness.

The person standing in front of me is definitely a man. Except he looks sickly, his skin deathly pale, veins visible behind his almost transparent skin. Bruises and cuts plague his body, scars and scabs littering his hands and face. He wore tattered clothes and had no hair, his head was almost swelled up. His back  was hunched, like it had been broken many times over, never quite healing correctly each time. And on the back of his neck, a glitch-infested Sensen.

"Tears and grins! Sister? Meat?" He asks, backing up quickly, and three others join him quietly. 

I hold my hands up, wary of them now. "How about 'friend'?" I smile a little, trying to show that I didn't mean any harm.

Suddenly deep, maddening screaming can be heard all around us. It seems to be far away, but it was still loud enough to make me wince, covering my ears. The grotesque group looks off to the distance, shrinking from it as well. I look back up to face them, eager to get out of this place. "I'm not part of your tribe, is that it?" I ask.

They growl, baring surprisingly sharp teeth. I dodge one of them as they barrel towards me as his hand shoots past my cheek, barely escaping the long, sharp nails. I gulp, a bead of sweat rolling down the back of my neck. Muscle memory? Was that a thing?

"Nilin, these guys will kill you if you dodge a second too late. You'll have to fight back." Edge speaks up. I crack my knuckles, nodding. Right. I can't end up as mincemeat before I've gotten answers to all my questions.

I wait for one to get a little closer, and swing my fist, fast. It catches his temple and he's immediately knocked out. They're surprisingly weak, considering how mean they look. I hear fast steps behind me and duck quickly as one of them fly over me, trying to tackle me from behind. I rush forward and before it gets back up, I stomp down, his neck cracking under my foot. The strange and glitching Sensen on his neck disappears.

The female screams and swipes at me, faster than the others. She was skinnier and looked deathly pale. I dodge her quicker than she can swipe, and kick low, knocking her off her feet. She gets back up quickly and circles me slowly. I wait for her to move, and sense her foot angle towards me. I back up just slightly, and she rushes forward. My foot connects with her ribcage, and she goes down hard. Eventually, her Sensen vanishes too.

I catch my breath and look at them more closely. I flip one over with my foot, and the eyes stare back up at me, lifeless.

"What are they..?" I ask, for the first time I notice they were wearing the same thing I was. An orange jumper.

"Leapers. Miserable cast-offs left to rot in the depths of Neo-Paris." He replies, his voice crackling into my head.

I squat down, studying them a bit more. "Miserable? Monstrous more like."

"They are the abandoned children of our Sensen age. Simply humans, like you or I, but cast as shadows of our shame. Something we are meant to fear. Another justification for the Errorist cause!" He raises his voice, anger starting to creep in just a little. I look around, and what he says is right. They live in the sewers, and it is dark and dirty down here. Were they just like me, once? Would I have been one of them if Edge hadn't helped me then?

A clatter catches my attention in one of the dark corners and I jump up, bracing my fists. "Who's there?" My voice wavers for only a moment. A Leaper whimpers from its hiding place and crawls away, causing a wall to fall away and a place to escape. I relax a little. Okay then, let's go.

I take the only path out of here, an abandoned subway tunnel. The walls were covered in old propaganda and graffitti. The floor was littered with trash and old panels falling from the walls. The lights were still working, although flickering.

As I reach the end of the tunnel, Edge speaks up. "Ok, you need to get out of here. Go find Headache Tommy. I told him you were back in the game."

"Who?" I crack my neck, releasing the tension on my muscles. The room opens up before me and the walls tower over me. It looks like it goes on for miles, although it's only a couple before I reach the surface. Hanging wires and broken Android parts spew across the room, looking like a battleground.

"He runs a bar at the top of Slum 404... Start by climbing out of this dump, and I'll give you directions as and when." He bleeps out and I'm by myself again. How am I supposed to get out of this pit? I sigh and kick a small Android part away from me.

The back of my neck buzzes slightly, and I can suddenly see my path. I know where to go.