UNCHANGED (Unremembered #3) - Excerpt

1: Updated

One year later...

The air is harsh and blistering, whipping around me as I cross the barren field. There are no buildings to thwart the desert wind, and today it seems angrier than most. I could outrun it. I’m certainly capable. But I keep my current pace.

I’m in no rush to get there.

The compound is almost unrecognizable out here. The landscaped pathways ended a half mile back. The sleek, reflective surfaces of the Aerospace Sector were the last signs of civilization.

Now it’s just...

Nothingness.

But I feel reassured knowing the fortifications that mark the boundaries lie beyond the hill to my left.

There used to be a time when the walls of the compound kept me in—when I thought of them as prison walls and tried to escape. Now, it’s as though someone lifted a veil of deception from my eyes and I can finally see the truth.

The walls are there to keep others out.

Those who don’t understand me. Those who want to hurt me. Those who are unlike me.

Of course, there are plenty of people on this side of the wall who are unlike me, too, but they can be trusted. Their bodies and minds may not be as strong as mine, but they still think like me. They still serve the Objective.

The dry shrubs crunch beneath my feet as I approach the cottage. The ten-foot wall around the perimeter remains standing but the gate is no longer locked.

I run my fingertips along the warm unyielding surface of the concrete, feeling the rough edges prickle my skin.

He used to climb these walls.

The boy from my memories.

That’s how he got to me. How he broke into my world and corrupted my brain with impossible notions. Impossible dreams. Promises of a life outside these barriers.

As if Icould ever live anywhere else.

This is where I belong. Where I’ve always belonged. And now that my memories have been restored and the truth has been revealed to me, my brain is stronger, my goals refortified. I am no longer susceptible to bewitching lies.

I am no longer swayable.

They fixed me. They introduced me to my true purpose. And I am grateful.

I push open the heavy steel gate of what was once the Restricted Sector and slip inside. The white cottage is smaller than I remember. As though it’s physically shrinking day by day, its importance diminishing in my mind. This is the first time I’ve visited in over a year. The first time I’ve been able to garner the strength to.

I’m hoping that today it will remind me of where I started. Who I was. How far I’ve come.

A fully-functioning member of the Objective.

A soldier.

Even if he were here, even if he found his way back, it wouldn’t matter. I would be able to resist him now. I will never fall prey to his charms again.

That stupid girl is gone.

I am the better version.

The grass surrounding the cottage is overgrown and burnt to a brown crisp by the desert sun. No one comes here anymore. There is no reason to. The Restricted Sector of the compound was originally built to shield me from the world. But ever since the announcement of the Unveiling three months ago, I no longer have to be shielded.