His stomach was sore as he ventured deeper down the alley, and all of a sudden he had become painfully aware of the gun he had stored in his back pocket.
"You're okay." He reminded himself, shaking his fist in order to psych himself up as he walked into the warehouse. This isn't the warehouse he needed to be, but he pushed himself inside.
There was a sudden breeze, and because of that he pulled his jacket around him tighter. He continued to rub at his abdomen as he saw a mattress on the floor. The faint pain deepened, he leaned against the wall with a heavy breath.
"You're okay." He repeated, lifting his head up slowly.
--
"Evan!" Tyler wrapped his arms around his friend as soon as he entered, causing him to hiss because of the pain of his wound. "Sorry."
"It's fine, Tyler. I'm fine." He looked over at the man standing shyly away from them. "Thanks to Brock here."
Tyler looked to Brock, who was messing with his hands- locking and unlocking them constantly- as the two spoke. "Hey." Tyler caught his attention, causing Brock to jerk his head up frightfully.
"Whatever happened I'm so, so sorry. I didn't mean to ruin things please don't hurt me." He held up his hands in surrender, eyes wide open.
"Thank you for saving my friend." Tyler spoke with a chuckle as he stood up, leaving Evan lightly rubbing the wound. "Without you, he would most definitely be dead."
Once again, Brock looked down. "Oh, it was nothing really, I've always wanted to save people...sorry I tend to ramble when I'm nervous."
"It's fine, really. Tyler stuttered a lot when I first met him, remember Tyler?" Evan joked, still holding his stomach in pain.
"You two seem like really good friends. So what are you, a gang or something?" Brock took a step back in fear of saying something wrong.
"Not yet." Tyler answered as he helped Evan stand, only to have him lean against the wall for support, his head faced to the ground. "Why? You looking for a job? We'd love to have you." His eyes looked at Brock desperately as Evan still clung to his shoulder.
Hesitantly, the man nodded. "Yeah, yeah that sounds good."
"Then hurry up and grab your shit, we're relocating you out of this place."
--
Evan closed his eyes for a brief moment. "Next location." He told himself.
A warehouse, a coffee shop, Main Avenue, a rooftop, a bar.
Additional objectives: boardwalk, burnt down building, the desert.
He reached into his pocket, hoping to close his hand around a crumpled piece of paper only to find nothing.
"Shit." He cursed to himself. "I left it. Fuck, I left it." Running in the opposite direction of the door he came in, he slipped outside. He slapped himself. "Stupid." He told himself, deciding to rethink his actions.
"Bar. They won't expect you at the bar." Evan told himself. "It's fine, it's fine. They're not coming for you, and if they are, you're off checklist, it's fine. You're okay."
---
"Found something!" Jonathan called as he exited Evan's room, triumphantly holding a piece of paper.
"What is it?" Tyler demanded.
"I don't know, it's just a list of vague locations." Jonathan said as everyone gathered around him at the kitchen table.
"An alley, a warehouse, a coffee shop, Main Avenue, a rooftop, a bar." Tyler read aloud.
"Additional objectives: boardwalk, burnt down building, the desert." Jonathan finished as they continued to stare at the paper.
"What does that even mean?" Marcel asked, his eyes scanning the list.
"Me and Evan met in an alley. When he was shot." Brock looked up at Tyler. "It was while you were looking at hackers."
"And I met Evan in a warehouse, it was about a week after that!" Craig looked up at Brock as well.
"We met at a coffee shop." David and Lui said together.
"Main avenue." Jonathan said.
"Rooftop." Tyler admitted.
"Bar." Marcel finished.
"But what about the other three?" Jonathan was puzzled.
"Boardwalk. The first picture that got his attention when we brought him home. Also the first time we all hung out as a full crew." Tyler looked up and around at all his friends' faces.
"Burnt down building. Evan and I had our first kiss there. When he came in to save me."
"What about the desert? That makes zero sense." Lui said, still confused.
Tyler and Jonathan gave each other a knowing look. "Makes sense." They said together.
"What do they all have in common?" Marcel asked, searching for a pattern.
"Places of significance." Brock said. "All of these places have made a significant imprint in his mind, so by visiting them, he's triggering memories."
"Why?"
"Because once you have core memories, which I'm assuming these all are, then it's easier to place the rest of the memories together. It's like a puzzle, you piece together the border first, so it's easier to fill in the middle. Get the skeleton of it before giving it organs." Brock replied, his eyes filled with excitement.
--
"Alright, here's the plan. Evan has to be at one of these significant locations. All of you must go to the one he shared a memory of you with, minus the additional objectives." Jonathan continued to stare at the list.
--
It was nine in the morning, yet Evan could tell that he was at a bar a mile away. The air was practically alcohol itself.
There were also people stumbling around everywhere, so that really tipped him off.
Then, there was the memory that floated there.