Subject #295

Chapter 5 - (Day 1): Allies?

"What's your name?" She inquires.

"Aiden," I simply reply. She nods affirmation.

"Hello Aiden. My name is-"

'Mia," I finish for her. She appears startled, glancing at me with confusion and suspicion. Maybe I shouldn't have said that.

"How do you know my name?" She demands. I wince at her harsh tone.

"I saw a memo-" I start, before thinking the better of it. "You know what? I just guessed," I state simply, hoping that I don't sound too suspicious. So, I can remember some things, but she can't. This whole place is strange. Somewhat to my dismay, she continues to gaze at me with suspicion. I look over at her again, she is taller than me. But not by much, give-or-take an inch. Being able to study her closer, I guess that my original assumption was correct, and she is seventeen. But more than that, I notice blood slowly dripping down her forehead – originating from a long, thin scratch above her eyebrow. I take out the remnants of the bandage roll from my kit and pass it to her. As well as a few small pads of gauze. The contents of the kit are now almost depleted.

"Thanks," she states simply, accepting the supplies, appearing to still be suspicious of me. My eyes are drawn to the side of her neck again, and I see the inked markings there. On the left side of her neck is the '#296' that I remember seeing before. On the other side, however, is another line of slightly smaller ink. It says her birthdate, which is '21/03/2089.'

"Did you know you have that?" I ask Mia, pointing to the inky marks imprinted across both sides of her neck with a jet-black ink. She follows my finger, frowning slightly.

"What?" she asks, confused and trying to see what I am pointing at. I smile slightly.

"Look, it's here and here." I say, touching the spots with my finger. Mia strains her head and eyes as she cranes to try and look.

"I can't see anything there." She exclaims, frustrated. "What is supposed to be there?"

"On one side is a number. It says, Two-Nine-Six. On the other side appears to be your birthdate, which is the twenty-first day of the third month in the year two-thousand-and-eighty-nine." I reply, taking a step back having shown Mia. Mia frowns, and then looks at my neck.

"Hey! You have it too." She exclaims, surprised this time. I nod thoughtfully.

"Makes sense. What does mine say?" I query, intrigued.

"Two-hundred-and-ninety-five. Two-Nine-Five," She replies. Then she peers over at the other side of my neck. "This one says that your birthdate is the nineteenth-day, of the fourth month, in the year two-thousand-and-ninety." She exclaims in an excited sort of way. I try to strain my eyes and look at what she is pointing at. After realising it is futile, I give up.

"Okay, thanks for your help, I guess." Mia inclines her head in concurrence with my statement. Suddenly a cold draughty breeze washes over me, and I begin to shiver. I look up, studying the sky. And in the process, almost blinding myself with the sun's rays. The sun is beginning to wearily drift its way towards the horizon – signalling that this day is beginning to come to an end. I estimate that there are only a few hours of precious sunlight remaining.

"Do you have anywhere to shelter for the night?" Mia asks. Why would she need to know that? My thoughts drift to the tree-cave thing I discovered not that long ago, but then shake my head. I still don't know how much I can trust her yet. I will keep this secret to myself, at least for now.

"No, not yet at least." I point towards the stiff corpses laying on the grass. Still continuously bleeding their lifeblood out onto the grass. Staining the landscape, a nasty red colouration. "I was searching around for something like that before I noticed them." I look at Mia. "And that is when you saved my skin."