What am I doing?
I'm traveling through an unknown place with complete strangers. These girls could be killers for all I know.
The voice was right. I'm going nuts.
"You okay there, Chrix?" Marta asks.
"Yeah." I answer. I've been with them for what felt like hours and I don't know the first thing about them. "So... What is "the headquarters"?"
I decide I have to know more things about the place they're taking me to.
"What?"
"The headquarters," I repeat. "You said something about a place called The Headquarters earlier."
"Oh!" Marta says. "You mean Stolen HQ. That's how we call them. I don't know why, but yeah, Olympia calls it 'the headquarters'."
"Stolen HQ?" I say, scrunching my nose. "Why do you call the place 'Stolen HQ'? Are you robbers or something?"
Marta laughs. "¡Claro que no!" she says in Spanish. "Of course not! It's... kinda hard to understand, especially with your amnesia and all..."
I refuse to tell her I haven't got amnesia. Something tells me it's better if she doesn't know.
"Okay, so you're just going to take me to a place I don't know without even trying to explain why?" I ask.
Marta stares at me for a few seconds. “I would like to explain, Chrix. But I meant it when I said it; it really is hard to understand.”
I open my mouth to speak, but Ségolène doesn’t let me. “Chrix, you need to go with Olympia to the Classification Area.”
“What?” I ask and look around me. The bumpy ride is over. We have apparently arrived at our destination.
If this can be called a destination.
We’re in the middle of nowhere. Well, not exactly. There is a sign that says “Danger ahead”, but that’s the only thing in sight.
“Why are we stopping?” I ask.
Olympia looks at me. “Can you get up?”
I frown. “Yeah, I think so but what does that have to do with anything?”
“Then get up.” Olympia says, still not answering my question.
“I won’t get up unless you answer my question.”
“I won’t answer your question unless you get up.”
Marta rolls her eyes. “Look, I’ll help Chrix up while you answer her question. It’ll be a win-win.”
Olympia shrugs. I nod. Marta lifts me slowly, helping me from the back. It’s weird, getting up. I feel like I haven’t walked in ages.
“So,” Olympia says, “think that our technology is really advanced. We can trick you into seeing things that aren’t really there, and we can as well hide things that we don’t want you to see.”
I don’t understand a thing. Olympia must notice it because she smiles and explains it again.
“You think you’re standing in another normal part of this endless desert, right?” She says, gesturing to our surroundings. I nod. “Well you aren’t.”
She taps three times on the “Danger ahead” sign and the ground shakes.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
Ségolène smiles. “You’ll get used to it.”
Used to what, I want to ask. But I don’t, because I see that the ground isn’t just shaking. The part we’re standing on is elevating. Sand is falling at the edges, and I’m afraid I will trip and fall too.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
“You’re going to find out what Stolen HQ is.” Marta says.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Stolen HQ is… wow.
It looks like a city. There are tall, shiny buildings, and clean, long streets. Everything looks flawless. There are four walls surrounding it, one per side. There aren’t any openings on the walls.
It’s a closed city. The sky isn’t the sky. It looks like the sky, but if you look closely, you can see it actually is a panel. Olympia says they can control the climate inside the HQ.
There are lots of people in this place. The streets are filled with people, people who speak different languages. I don’t recognize most of the languages. In the ship, we had one main language, English, and everyone talked in English.
“Olympia,” I say.
“Yeah?” She says, turning around to face me.
“What’s going to happen in Classification?”
“No idea.” She answers. “This is my first time taking anyone to Classification. We don’t find people like you often.”
“People like me?”
“People that survived the so called ‘explosion’ and forgot their past.” Olympia explains.
With all the things that have happened in the past hours, I have forgotten that these people should be dead. According to what I learnt when I was nine, every single person left on the Earth would die the day of the explosion.
But all the people at the HQ survived.
How could they? It is impossible! The Earth exploded! There were earthquakes, volcano eruptions, tsunamis! It was the freaking end of the world!
There is only one possible answer.
I’m not in the Earth. I have reached a different planet.
“Olympia,” I say, preparing to ask my question. “This is the Earth, right?”
She stops walking. “Yeah. Why would you ask that?”
“No reason.” I answer.
I forgot I’m not supposed to remember anything about the explosion, or the ship leaving, or anything.
You’ll have to be more careful, Chrix, I think.
I don’t know why I’m hiding that I come from the ship, but I have a feeling that these people wouldn’t like it if I told them. Better to be safe than sorry.
We walk for a few minutes. Olympia seems to know everyone around here. Everyone says hi to her when she walks by.
“Hey, Olympia.”
“Olympia! How’re you doing?”
“Hey, girl, where are you going?”
And some people ask about me.
“Who is the other girl?”
“I’ve never seen her around.”
“Are you taking her to Classification, Olympia?”
Olympia always answers she’ll introduce them later, and I shrug when they tell me they can’t wait to meet me.
“They are tired of hanging out with the same people.” Olympia explains. “When someone new comes, which is like, once every two months or so, they are so excited to meet them.”
“So they’re going to want to be around me?” I ask, my unsocial self taking charge.
“Nah, don’t worry, they’ll get tired of you too… Eventually.” Olympia says. “Hey, look, Classification’s over there!”
She looks excited. Maybe it’s because she’s never entered the Classification Area. I’ve never been there either, but I’m not excited as she is, not in the very least.
We enter the building. It’s practically empty. There is a guy, who looks my age or a little older, next to the front desk. He has got a badge, similar to the ones we wore in Opportunity. His badge reads Nicolás, Head of the Classification Department and Stolen Rebels President V. ESP.
“Hey, Nico.” Olympia says.
“Hey.” He says. “Do you know anything about where Marta is?”
He has a Spanish accent, even thicker than Marta’s.
“No.” Olympia answers. “Why?”
Nico leans on the desk. “I told you why! I think my sister is coming back! Don’t you understand how serious this is?”
“Hey, calm down, let me message Marta.” Olympia says, and looks at her watch.
“Don’t you think I’ve already tried?” He says, his hands on his head. “I need Marta here, so I can leave to the Presidential Department.”
“Why don’t you just leave it to me? I can take care of it until Marta comes.” Olympia says.
Nico looks at me. “And what about her? We need to find out who she is, Olympia. She could be carrying a mortal disease right now!”
“Just tell me how to Classify her and I’ll do it.” Olympia tells him.
“No way, you’re not trained.” Nico says.
“If I can’t do it, you do it! It’s better than standing here doing nothing!” Olympia says, raising her voice.
“Yeah, I’m sorry.” Nico says, letting out a sigh. “I’m just really nervous, my sister coming back and all…” He looks at me. “What’s your name?”
“Chrix.”
"Okay, Chrix. Sit here." Nico says, pointing at a black chair. I sit, and it's really comfortable. He places two wires at the front of my forehead.
An image appears on a white screen. It's a headshot of me, and I don't remember taking it.
"Christine Vera, 367." A male voice says. "Stolen Betrayer."
My middle name is Vera? I always thought I didn't have a middle name. Weird.
And what does it mean by Stolen Betrayer? Is it bad?
Olympia looks at me. "You're a Stolen Betrayer? That's not even possible." She stares at Nico. "Nico, are you sure that thing's working right?"
"Yeah." Nico answers. "Don't look at me, I'm just as surprised as you are."
"How can this be?" Olympia asks. "We found her in the desert, Nico. If she's a Stolen Betrayer, why would she be in the desert?"
Nico opens his eyes widely. "The only possible explanation is... the Stolen Betrayers have returned, and they are in the desert."
They look scared, and they seem to be asking themselves lots of questions right now. My only question is: What are they talking about?
A/N. I bet you're asking the same question as Chrix. Don't worry, all your questions will be answered in the next chapter.
Also, OMG this is probably the longest chapter I have written yet. It's like 1540 words long. I know it doesn't seem like much, but it does for me.
Hope you enjoyed this, if you did, don't forget to vote!
Serenity.