Remember Me

by Kyle Robertson

  Remember Me

  The Cyberpunk Fantasy Tale of a Lost Warrior's Journey

  Copyright © 2020 by Kyle Robertson. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systems, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recorded or otherwise without written permission from the publisher.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown, living or dead to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  Published by PIMI eBooks

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  Why I wrote this book: I was watching some last year’s summer blockbusters. Then I realized many of these movies came directly from novels. It didn’t matter the year, it was just true. It was the reason for the best-adapted screenplay awards from every award show. And if you know someone who read the book before seeing it on-screen, you always hear the book’s better from them.

  The reason is that special effects and any director’s eye could never eclipse your imagination. I wrote this book to trigger your mental imagination studio.

  Why you should read this book: There are scads of entertainment medium in the world today. From actual physical activity to the digital domain (5G is here, people). Sometimes, it’s nice to just slow down from the frantic bustle and take time to read a good story. Books have been around for centuries. As antiquated as they are, there’s always a way to modernize reading a good story. It’s about time to let your mind out to play.

  Contents

  Chapter One: Where Am I? Who Am I?

  Chapter Two: An Obsidian This For That

  Chapter Three: The Stranger’s Shocked Revelation

  Chapter Four: All Dirtiness Comes Out in the Wash

  Chapter Five: Finding the Way to Defeat the Rayless One

  Chapter Six: A Splitting of the Parties

  Chapter Seven: Calamimotous Dual Journeys

  Chapter Eight: Both the Strands Intertwine to Make a Taught Rope

  Chapter Nine: Every Ending Has a New Beginning

  Chapter Ten: The Beginning of a Much More Important Purpose

  Shameless Request:

  The Temporal Half-time

  About The Author

  Chapter One: Where Am I? Who Am I?

  That ancient simile of “it’s always darkest before the dawn” has never been accurate. The saying has more so a philosophical connotation, but 2 am is darker than 5 in the morning.

  That was the time in this darkened alley in the heart of this rundown city. A man lay amongst all the refuse, graffiti, and garbage inhabiting this narrow pass between the buildings.

  This man lay unconscious on the ground. He wore an English bearskin head covering, ruffled white linen shirt with leather pants, boots, and a short close-fitting padded leather vest called a doublet. He wasn’t from this place or even time for that matter. No one wore doublets or royal guard headgear in the 22nd century. That was medieval garb.

  No one knew of him or cared about him. If anyone saw him, they would assume he was a homeless insignificant. He has a home. It was just elsewhen..

  A large rat cared nothing about who he was when it scurried down his arm to get a half-eaten pork rib from a pile of discarded garbage.

  The unconscious man felt the weight and claws from the rat through his shirt. His reflexes seemed instinctive as he flipped his hand to grab the rat to crush its life away in a surprising counter defensive action. That was when his eyes opened to see the rat squealing and being crushed to death.

  As the rat squealed its last squeal, the other rats bolted quickly away from the man and ran the other way to scavenge.

  The man discarded his bearskin headgear. It got in the way. He looked up to see a very unfamiliar environment. The buildings on either side of the alleyway towered majestically over him. Even castles weren’t as tall. He lay on a hardened stone-like surface resembling a dirt road except harder, static, level, and more compacted than dirt. He could only compare this surface texture to a cobblestone street. It was just smoother. The stone was uniform instead of individual stones. This different foreign land felt as if it was laden with magic and not the enchanted version. It held the status of incanted witchcraft in his eyes. Where was he?

  He heard a heavy door open to the alley with 5 men in strange clothing emerging from one of the buildings. They were speaking a disjointed version of the king’s English.

  “Hey, you guys wanna get scragged? ‘Nessa’s holding a wring-out game tonight.”

  “I’ll do the scraggin’, Beck. Ain’t nobody chokin’ me.”

  They finally saw the man getting up from the alley and Beck pointed at him.

  “Hey, Goze. We got us one of the wrecked in the alley, look.”

  Goze saw the man in what looked like a Halloween costume.

  “I ain’t neva seen any clan wearin’ that before. Yo! What clan you wit’?!” Goze called out to the man.

  “What you are speaking is atrocious, Young Scallywag. The prose of your confusing words is causing the sweat upon my bewildered brow to glisten. For the sake of my sanity, cease your innate immanations.”

  Goze became dumbfounded immediately. Their leader Fischer talked to Goze.

  “Leave him be. He sounds like one of those junk Scripters wired on Adon. Let’s go. Have him talk to himself for the rest of the day. He’s not with a clan, he’s a harmless Renegade.”

  That means he ain’t got no re-enforcements, I want that vest. My girl needs some armor to scavenge.” Goze walked toward the stranger. Fischer took out his vidcorder to record this event.

  “You talk funny, Scripter. Give up the vest and I won’t beat you until even you don’t know what you're sayin’ anymore.”

  “Oh, I suffer fools gladly. If you accost me, you will become the boisterous motley fool I would suffer,” the man warned Goze.

  That was a veiled invitation of a taunt. Goze wouldn’t be insulted by this… nobody. He grimaced and walked up to the man with a furious ire.

  “Give up the leather vest, Scripter, and I won’t hurt you.” He grabbed the vest on the man’s body.

  “Unhand me, you vile knave! I do not want to thrash you!”

  Goze took out his blade and put it to the man’s throat.

  “I ain’t no fool, but you will suffer!”

  The movements were akin to lightning. The man grabbed Goze’s bladed hand and twisted it away from his neck. Goze dropped the blade, but before it hit the ground, the man quickly ripped his throat out! As the blade clang on the ground of the alley, Goze choked to death with wide-eyed amazement at the speed before oblivion claimed him.

  As Goze’s body joined the rest of the garbage and rat’s smorgasbord, the other men were amazed. Fischer spoke.

  “Goze was our champion dredge smasher. Leave him alone. We have the Crimson Snaggerz to deal with. He’s insignificant. You don’t want or need this fight.”

  “But he just ghost-blanked Goze, Fischer! We can’t just let him go,” Rezor, another one from the group said.

  “He just dropped a dredge smasher in under five seconds. Think about it before you attack him. Going in blind with rage and no plan for his defeat is s
tupid. Let’s just go.”

  “Can’t do that, Fischer. Goze was one of us. If we go, we’d be violatin’ the clan code,” Beck said.

  Fischer warned them but acquiesced.

  “Fine, if you three wanna die going up against an unknown Scripter, be my guest. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I’m recording this for training purposes on what not to do.”

  The other 3 were filled with rage and ran to the stranger with their stun-clubs and butterfly blades out!

  “You dare engage in a siege with such a tawdry compliment?! Have at you then!” The stranger possessed confidence.

  Beck swung his stun-club at the stranger’s head. The stranger ducked and in a fluid motion, stripped Beck’s club from him to strike Rezor’s blade from his hand. He broke Beck’s arm and thrust his palm into Rezor’s nose pushing the cartilage into his brain.

  He picked up the butterfly blade, and in one fail swoop, grabbed Beck’s neck to make him fall backward onto the uprightly-held blade with the back of his skull!

  The stranger got up and saw the fright on the last attacker’s face. The last attacker didn’t want to get near him, and since he was a champion dagger-thrower, he threw his bade at the stranger’s neck.

  The stranger caught the spinning blade and returned it with a spinning back-throw. The blade embedded its 8 inches into his last attacker’s forehead too fast for him to even flinch.

  As Fischer put away his vidcorder, he spoke to the stranger.

  “I told them they didn’t know what they were going up against! What’s your name, Stranger?”

  The man had no idea who or where he was. He didn’t even know why he dispatched those miscreants so easily.

  “I do not know of my title or location. I must find my identity.”

  “You’re telling me an amnesiac just killed the leaders of my kill squad. You’re that scary, and you don’t even know who you are.”

  “This is enough of my derailment for answers. I bid you adieu, Good Sir. At least your King’s English is not the abortion these knaves spewed forth, and you were sagacious enough to not attack me. You must be the head knight. I respect thee.” The stranger bowed and walked away.

  Fischer knew he would never be convincing enough to recruit the stranger. He picked up that furry hat for more proof, and then he went to his headquarters to garner new means.

  llll

  Fischer entered the old warehouse where the BoltLayers stationed themselves. Most of them were playing stamina trials; trying to outdo one another. He didn’t need his neutralizers, he needed his stealth intelligence; spy division.

  He went upstairs to Klannis Chloe’s room. She was mapping the forbidden area to infiltrate the Crimson Snaggerz’s layer.

  “Hey, Chloe. Can you beat Goze in a spar?”

  “I’m planning a mission, Fischer. I can beat Goze any day. That idiot always attacks with a stupidity the others call boldness. One day, he’ll go after a much smarter opponent and get his stupid ass killed.”

  Fisher took out his vidcorder and showed Chloe the recent events.

  “That ‘some day’ was today. I told them not to go after an unknown.”

  Chloe saw this man kill 3 more of her clan unarmed with ease.

  Who is this guy?” she asked.

  “I don’t know because he doesn’t,” Fischer said. “Yes, an amnesiac ghost-blanked all the leaders of my kill squad. Put your map away. I have a new mission for you.”

  “That guy just killed Goze. Served him right, but you didn’t say he killed all the kill squad leasers. I’m not that battle-hardened, Fischer,” She wanted to stop him before he suggested the crazy.

  “I don’t want you to fight him. You’re an influencer, Chloe. I need your persuasion skills. I want him on the BoltLayers to beat Crimson. I know you didn’t care for Goze’s blatant sexual advances, but he was a champion dredge smasher, and that guy ghost-blanked him without even breathing heavily. I need him with us and you could get him,” Fischer explained. “You know what he looks like, and the last place I saw him was in the alley outside of Feline’s Fetish. He couldn't have gotten across the city with an outfit like that on. You can find him.”

  “And do what? Lure him with candy?” she asked sarcastically.

  “Do something spy-like. You were always the smart one. You always think of something savvy. Why do you think I walked passed the others to come up the stairs for you? You’re my femme fetale. I need him, Chloe. Get this done and bring him to me. I’ll make him a very persuasive offer.”

  “So, go out there, shake my ass, and snag a stranger,” She assumed again with the sarcasm.

  “Shake your ‘spycraft’, not your ass, Klannis. You’re smarter than that. He might be gay. I mean look at that flamboyant frilly outfit. We don’t have enough to know if he’d even find you appealing at all. He’s not from this area. He speaks too proper to survive in this toxic dirt. What’s a sagacious knight anyway?”

  “That’s a smart man-at-arms champion. Where’d you hear that?”

  “He called me that, bowed, and left.”

  “He called ‘you’ smart, why?”

  “Because I didn’t attack him. I was a smart champion to him.”

  “He’s obviously not from this neighborhood then; if he called you sagacious.” She joked him. “Okay, I have a plan. You last saw him at Feline’s Fetish?”

  “In the back alley.”

  “I’ll get him. Have your offer ready by ten this morning. I’m on it.”

  “Get him, Chloe.”

  Consider it done and you owe me, Fischer.”

  “I’ll get you some braze bars.”

  “Get strawberry, not that black licorice-flavored crap.” She pointed at him and left to get to the club.

  He stored the hat. Klannis didn’t need any more proof.

  llll

  “Get outa here, Little man. We kill funny-lookin’ idiots like you.”

  “I have slain dragons ten times your size, you fopdoodle. My garb is appropriate, and you are a hedge-born muck-spout!”

  The cyborg Gorgon Guard looked at the stranger with bewilderment. He stared at his cohort next to him.

  “Was that an insult? What the hell is he talkin’ about?”

  “Don’t know, Reggs. Was that Chinese?”

  “You all are fopdoodles! Chinese is a race, not a language. They speak Mandarin and Cantonese. Fopdoodle is English for dumb-ass, you sot.”

  Reggs had never been spoken to with such brashness. He was a Gorgon Guard, the guardian of the more affluent. He struck dominance and fear amongst the commoners.

  “The main problem with what you boasted fakely is there are no dragons outside of fantasy stories, and I’m three-times your size.” He swatted him across the street. “And by the way, Metal hurts!”

  The stranger land in a garbage heap on the other side of the street. He wiped the blood from his mouth and activated the shock-club he acquired from the last altercation.

  “I see the worshipping of the steel has corrupted your arrogance, yaldson! I learned from a naturalist that steel and human flesh are opposing bedfellows when they are stricken together by lightning from the heavens!” He ran toward Reggs, avoided another swipe, jumped on his chest, and stabbed the charged club into his eye! He jumped off the electrocuted Reggs to avoid the shock while all of Reggs was terminally lit-up in surprise. Reggs fell to the ground in a resounding clangy thud.

  “You have perished. No matter, you were nothing but a cumberworld anyway. You weren’t significant for my quest. The lasses may have feared your stead, but I protect any lass you wished harm upon. Your mistake was taking me for a lass; your boondoggle,”

  Chloe had seen what Fischer showed her, but this was a cybernetic Gorgon Guard being taken down right in front of her own presence. The vid showed a motion-blur. The framerate just couldn’t keep up. He was that fast. Now, she was obsessed to obtain his services. He was a fresh slice of life in this decaying world. She had to follow him to implement her plan.


  As he walked down the road to nowhere, he wanted to find a person who could direct him to somewhere. His desperation was growing. How could he remember a naturalist’s wisdom and not know his own name? During his ponder was when Chloe spod past his walking and ran into him from his front. She fell to the road with a frightening look on her face.

  She crawled away wth her hand wielding off his speculated advancer.

  “Get away from me, Skull Digger! You killed my family, but you won’t slay me!”

  “What do you waffle-on about, Lass? I know not of you and do not dig upon skulls. What is your distress?’

  “If you're not a Skull Digger, what clan are you with?!”

  “I have no kinship with any clan. I do not even know where this place is, or who I am. I will not accost any damsel, So I will bid you adieu.” He was direct and final.

  “Wait a minute,” Chloe said. “If you aren’t with a clan, you must be a Renegade. Can you fight?”

  The stranger thought it was a peculiar question.

  “Aye, I joust with the deserved. Why do you query such an abstract interrogative?”

  It was time for Chloe to utilize her acting skills.

  “I need a warrior who I can trust, and since you have no clan, can you help me? Those butchers killed my entire family and now they want to kill me. I am a small, helpless woman. They left me alive so they could rape me repeatedly, and when they grow tired of their violations of me, they will kill me. I need a protector to escort me to another place where I could get help.”

  The stranger somehow knew the tale of knights in his area not being chivalrous with the damsel in distress allegory but became the polar opposite by raping those widowed damsels and forcing them to marry to acquire land from those widows. The action was barbarous to damsels, and he wouldn’t stand for it there or here.