Deserted

by L. M. McCleary

  Tsvetan grew quiet. “I didn’t decide this.”

  “I know.” I replied. “You were forced to study what your dead comrades could no longer contribute, weren’t you?”

  The shock on his face was empowering. “How do you know that? Do you work for the Elders, too?” Tsvetan suddenly grew agitated. “They never tell me anything, ugh. Are you a messenger for them? A delivery girl? What, they think I can’t handle a few deliveries on my own?”

  “Deliveries?”

  “Of the vials, you git!”

  I couldn’t help but smile at his sudden influx of information. “If I wanted to deliver these vials, why would I come to you to erase my memories?”

  He lost himself in thought for a moment. “You clearly don’t work for them, then, or you wouldn’t feel the need to ask that question. I wouldn’t have been surprised.” He sighed. “But that means I’ve said far more than I should have. Keep the book; I don’t need it anymore.”

  “You can’t take back that video, though, Tsvetan.”

  He scowled. “So you found the lab, then.”

  I nodded. “Just what exactly happened out there? Strange people were living all around the place.”

  “Of course they were. Why do you think I left?” He scoffed. “I made a break for it, running wild into the desert. I was eventually found by…people. People you don’t need to concern yourself with.”

  “Those Elders you keep talking about?” I started to pace.

  “People you don’t need to concern yourself with.”

  “So what happened to your flowers then, Tsvetan? I thought you were a botanist? Had a change of heart, did we? Or do you always just do as you’re told?” I sneered at him.

  I was surprised by the sadness that seemed to encapsulate his face. I was expecting anger – or another bout of stupidity – but not sadness.

  “I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t very well scavenge for them while those things were running around. Besides, by that point I’m sure they were all dead.”

  “So why take up this, then?” I gestured around me. “Why not continue with what you know? You could save the world!” I jeered my last remark at him.

  He laughed. “Continue botany? In a deserted wasteland? Come, now; I expected more from you.” Tsvetan absently picked at invisible specks on his chair before continuing. “I knew it was over. The Reckoning had begun, and my line of work was no longer relevant. I did what was asked of me because, really, what else could I do?” He sighed deeply. “It’s unfortunate, sure – I’d love to be with my plants again – but I’d need another specimen to cultivate before I’d be able to transplant anything. And even then, I’d need a strong enough specimen to do so; you can’t magically make things grow in unfertile soil.” He shrugged with little enthusiasm. “What can you do…”

  I had stopped pacing the room as I digested his words. “You can do plenty.”

  He eyed me dubiously. “I would need a sample in order to do much of anything and again…there is no plant life in the desert.” He reiterated his words in a drawn out manner as though I was too slow to grasp it the first time around.

  I gave him a scornful smile. “There is a flower in the wasteland.”

  Tsvetan rolled his eyes at me. “I’m sure there is.”

  “Have you been out there? Have you fought for life and limb while adventuring through the desert? Huh, I thought not. Don’t tell me what is and isn’t in the wasteland, buddy; I’ve been there.”

  “Doesn’t matter if I have; the Pirates would have informed us.” Dr. Krastanov put down his cleaning supplies and studied me.

  Pirates?

  “Are you sure it was actually growing and not just…stuck somewhere?” He spoke in an annoyed tone, but I could see the glint of hopefulness on his face.

  “Oh it was growing alright; its stem wove deep into the earth and it felt sturdy in my hands. Even in the shelter of a cliff the wind still blew harshly and the flower merely billowed in its onslaught. It’s a very resilient flower.”

  “Resilient…” Tsvetan suddenly turned his back to me as he rubbed his chin. He stared with hard determination at the floor before him and I took this opportunity to inch my way back towards the vials I wanted. “Could it be…could its roots have burrowed so deep into the ground that it bypassed the Essence of Life entirely?”

  I stopped in my tracks. “And that’s another thing. What’s up with this Essence of Life stuff? What is that?”

  “It’s nothing to do with you, is what it is.” He waved me off as he continued to lose himself in thoughts.

  I raised my eyebrow at him. “Look, if you’re going to just erase my memories anyway…” I gestured to his chair, “then why not just tell me?”

  He looked at me and laughed. “If I’m going to erase your memories, then why should I bother telling you anything at all?”

  He, unfortunately, had a point. “…Touche.”

  “Tell me…” Krastanov’s hand was still meticulously rubbing his chin, “do you know where the flower is?”

  “Maybe…” I started, hoping to use it to my advantage. I looked the scientist up and down, remembering his time at the lab in the desert, and started to question myself. He was a botanist…maybe he could save this wasteland.

  “Well what do you know?” He replied in a huff.

  I contemplated if I should tell him. His earnest demeanor caused my distrust to falter momentarily but I wasn’t about to let him cause any more harm. “What’s it to you?” I asked. “What do you plan on doing with that?”

  “Exactly what you said,” he smiled and his eyes glistened with excitement, “a flower that can withstand the wasteland is…is a miracle! Think of everything I could do with that! I don’t need to try to reprogram an old plant if I can just redistribute the seeds from a resilient strain! I could study its chemistry…maybe such resistance could be transferred into medicine. The opportunities are endless!” I was taken aback at his enthusiasm…but could I trust him? “Please…you must tell me what you know.” I scrutinized his words and body language for any sign of dishonesty but found none. I decided to take a chance on him; if anyone could save this world, it would be him. But what could I really do? I hadn’t the slightest idea where this flower was.

  “It won’t do you any good, unless you know the whereabouts of all the cliff faces in the wasteland. All I remember was that it was tucked into the very corner of a cliff wall. It was in the shade at the time but depending on the time of day it would have gotten plenty of sunlight.” A sudden thought burst into my head. “Maybe the vial can show you.”

  Dr. Krastanov’s face lit up at the idea and he rushed to my side as I retrieved my Memory Vial. Holding it as firmly as Tsvetan had told me to, I concentrated on the flower – and was surprised to see it actually show up!

  “There it is,” I said. “That’s the flower I saw. See? I told you it was sturdy.”

  It was as beautiful as I remembered, but the vision showed little else. Shadowed sand and a rocky wall; how was that going to be of any use?

  Dr. Krastanov was lost in the swirling mist, his eyes bulging at the mist’s image. “You…you were completely right. That is most definitely growing. How does it survive? Where is its water source?”

  I handed the vial to the scientist and the liquid turned stagnant. “Like I said, I can’t be of much help. Unless you know that specific cliff…”

  “No, no…it’s fine. Maybe I could get the Pirates to…” He trailed off, biting his lip harshly in thought.

  I furrowed my brow at him. “Again with the Pirates? Why would they help you?”

  “Oh, we work very closely together, the Pirates and I, whether they know it or not.”

  I stared him down. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means exactly that. But forget about it; you probably shouldn’t know that, either.”

  “Of course…” I huffed. “Always with the secretive bull.”

  “Telling you would be inconsequential, so w
hy bother? Things are proceeding at a set pace and we don’t want people trying to meddle in things that they would never understand. We’re not secretive; we’re quite open to the right people.”

  “Right people, huh? You mean Yes Men?”

  “Well that’s a rather degrading term for scientific geniuses.” He crinkled his nose at me.

  “Yeah? Well, do you have any dissenting scientific geniuses?” Krastanov scowled at me and headed back towards his machinery, placing my Memory Vial with the utmost care upon the chair’s footing. “Mhm…didn’t think so.”

  “I’m not here to argue with you. If you want the procedure done again, let me know. Otherwise, my dear – you’re wasting my time.” He huffed at me and returned to wiping down whatever invisible particles seemed to be bothering him on his precious chair.

  I turned my attention back to the shelves at my side, readying myself for my first foray into theft when the now two empty spaces near the bottom drew me away. “Krastanov…” The scientist mumbled something in response. “Do you remember a woman named Samantha Morgansen?”

  He stopped and stared off for a moment. “No. Should I?”

  “I…I think she came through here once upon a time. Probably not long after the Reckoning.”

  “Well the last name is certainly familiar; a relative of you and Chester, I presume.”

  “My mother.”

  “Hah, well now; that’s the first I’ve heard of providing work to an entire family.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him but he didn’t seem to notice. “She has a bottle just like this at home. I don’t remember seeing a name on it, though.”

  “Well, was it glowing? Did it move at all?” Tsvetan asked and I nodded. “Then it was hers, for sure. The Vials won’t react to the wrong person.”

  “And it’s most definitely your handiwork?”

  “Well I’m the only crazed doctor in the wasteland, so I should think so.”

  I ran my hands along the fine wood of the shelf with a morose feeling deep in my gut. “The correct term is mad scientist, by the way. Nobody says ‘crazed doctor’.” I scoffed but my mind was elsewhere as Tsvetan responded. My thoughts were hard to control - my mother was here? Why? And did my dad know about it? Did he come here on purpose? Did he want to forget about us?

  “What happened to them…” I murmured but in the still air of the facility, Tsvetan heard it quite clearly.

  “I don’t know, my dear. The Reckoning was many years ago, now, and I’ve had many patients. She was probably lost and found me, like most people do.”

  “Then how did she get her vial?” I asked. “That would require her to be somewhat self-aware and you don’t exactly encourage that, do you?”

  “I prefer not to let my patients know they’re patients, if that’s what you’re asking.” Dr. Krastanov looked down towards the shelf that I had been staring at. “So Samantha is the missing vial, is she?” I nodded in response. “I don’t remember her that well, but I remember the man who took that vial from me.”

  “Man?” I couldn’t hide my surprise. “I assumed she picked it up herself.”

  “Oh, no. A Pirate wanted it. Knew her real well, apparently.”

  “A Pirate?” My head was starting to hurt. “My dad is not a Pirate. Who would want some random woman’s Memory Vial?”

  “She was no ‘random woman’, I can assure you; they knew each other, though I don’t know how. First time a Pirate’s ever been in here.”

  I sighed in frustration. Why would a Pirate want my mother’s vial? Why would she even know a Pirate? Just who were these people…and who was my mother, for that matter? “Did my father know about this?”

  Dr. Krastanov shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m a scientist, not a mind-reader.”

  I rubbed my forehead and tried to will away the jumbled thoughts of my mother; she was not the reason I was out here. I took another glance at the vials I wanted and contemplated just how I expected to leave here with them. I can’t just ask him to open the doors, now can I? I looked over my shoulder in quick bursts, ensuring Dr. Krastanov was not looking my way as I took Kay and Chester’s vials carefully from the shelf. Their names glowed brightly in a golden calligraphy upon the glass and I was afraid that their aura would give me away as I tried to hold them to my chest, hoping they would not clink together when I made my escape. I turned around and inched my way towards the door, my heart starting to pound as I grew closer to my escape.

  I was only steps away from the entrance now when I heard the shuffling of feet behind me. “Have you made up your…hey, where are you going with those?” Dr. Krastanov called after me and I bolted at his voice.

  I barely touched a stair as I charged down them and onto the landing area in the hallway. I quickly looked to the right of the scientist’s door and pressed the invisible button I had seen earlier, causing the door to immediately close just as I saw Tsvetan’s face appear at the top of the stairs. I cradled the vials in my jacket and glanced towards the stairs at the far end; they felt so far away now. I looked at the edge of the landing before me and down to the main floor below and made a hasty decision. I jumped down from the upper platform, landing right in front of my room below me. I didn’t hear Dr. Krastanov anywhere behind me but I didn’t want to risk it all the same. I rushed into my room and searched frantically for a backpack of any kind, finding a small brown satchel stuffed into a corner. I wrapped the glowing vials tightly with my jacket and shoved them inside the backpack and turned my attention to my journal that still lay upon my bed. I snatched it up and instantly realized that it would be far too big to fit in the small bag I had available.

  “Fine; I’ll have to carry it then.” I swung my head around, making sure I wasn’t forgetting anything while I strained my ears for any sound of the scientist in the distance. The Facility was just as quiet as it had always been, though; I wasn’t even sure he was trying to follow me but I wasn’t going to waste time finding out. I raced from my room with a journal in one hand as I swung the small satchel on my back, running down the few steps ahead of me that led to the foyer with the large doors. It was yet another large, echoing room with nothing but a grated floor and an ominous door before me. With no way to open them myself, I looked frantically for a mechanism. I felt the walls around me, trying desperately to find a crack or a switch. I still didn’t hear anyone coming after me and there were no running footsteps but my heart was still racing. The walls continued to look flat and smooth and my stomach had started to drop as I struggled to find a button of some kind. I prodded the walls blindly until I heard something suddenly click into motion. The sound of gears turning reverberated throughout the foyer as the large doors before me shrieked and shook with the pulleys. Dust puffed out as they screeched their way open, grinding and scratching upon the metallic floor as my method of escape became wider. The bright sun soon bathed the foyer and sand poured in around me as I shielded my strained eyes from the sun. I hurried my way to the great outdoors when a sudden thought hit me hard in the gut, almost knocking me down in its intensity. Ponika…would he still be there, waiting for me? I rushed faster now, barely able to see as my eyes adjusted to the brightness of the wasteland. I staggered out into the sand, shaded by a large awning of the Facility.

  “Ponika!” I called out, turning my head wildly as I strained to hear him. My eyes burned as I continued to pry them open, desperate to see a sign of him somewhere around me. “Ponika!” I cried out his name again as I stumbled further into the wasteland.

  I shut my eyes tight and willed my heart quiet as I listened to the winds. There was nothing at first, but ever so quietly I heard a sound nearby; a huffing and whinnying from the side of the Facility. With a large grin I rushed towards it, shielding my eyes as they adjusted to the harsh light. Rounding the corner, I saw what appeared to be a makeshift stable and there was definitely a horse there alright…but it wasn’t mine. There was a small, brown horse stabled at the corral, one I had never seen before and one that was clearly a mare. I
stopped in my tracks and whirled around me, hoping to see Ponika‘s friendly face somewhere in the distance.

  “Ponika!” I called out again. My stomach was in knots and I was afraid I was going to be sick. I was greeted by the sound of the wind on the sand and the horse nearby snorting defiantly. I huffed as I stumbled on the small dunes around me, climbing their hills and scanning the horizon for my horse. This couldn’t be happening. “Where are you…” I eked out the words so quietly I had barely heard them myself. He…he couldn’t be gone. No; surely I would not have been so stupid.

  I sat on a hill of sand and continued to gaze out into the distance. “He said he removed everything that could bring the memories back.” I thought aloud, “He removed everything…” I turned my attention to the mare that was currently stabled as though she could suddenly will my horse into being. “Are you…still alive?” I sobbed quietly as I hoisted myself up. What do I do now? I can’t confront Dr. Krastanov about it; who knows what he might do to me right now. I heard the vials in my satchel clink together and I thought unto my father. “Would…he possibly know how to find him?” I continued to talk to myself as though in a serious discussion - a habit I hadn’t done since the days after Kay had left me. “He is in charge of missing people…”

  I gathered my composure and sighed heavily, willing the emotions away to at least a temporary respite and I stumbled through the sands to the brown horse that was available; perhaps she was a replacement? I attempted to pat her softly but she seemed to shrink back from my touch and her beady eyes watched me constantly. I swallowed hard as I removed her tether and lifted myself upon her back; I didn’t enjoy the idea of riding a different horse…I just wanted mine back. I shifted uncomfortably and the mare huffed at my weight as I tried to point her northward. She struggled with my direction at first, flailing her head and backing up but I held onto her tightly, speaking softly into her ears in an attempt to calm her. She eventually soothed and I dug my heels in and urged her forward. As we galloped into the wasteland I took a last glance behind me, hoping that wherever Ponika would be, he would be safe.