“Relax, buddy.” I nudge him at the shoulder. “Good thing is we can survive out here, and are far away from that stupid tower.”
“Don’t you think they’re gonna send people looking for us?”
I haven’t got the time to think of that. But he’s right. They’re gonna come looking for us out in the forest as soon as they realize we’re out.
“That’s why we have to keep walking as far as we can.”
I didn’t think Zoey was taking notes to our conversation. She looked so bored and annoyed at us. She’s a sneaky one!
“Guys, where do you live?” I ask, when I realize that I’m the one with the amnesia, who does not remember a thing about his past.
I don’t hear them talking for a while, expect the branches cracking from beneath us.
Not the answer I was looking for.
“I don’t know that,” Andrew frowns as if he’s just coming to figure that much of a thing.
“But you said you remembered?” I’m confused.
So are they.
“Yeah, but… I mean,” he’s just trying to make sense out of it but seems to fail hard. This just keeps getting weirder. “I was under the impression I knew everything about myself and the thing is when you have a certain quantum of features that incorporates your life, you think that’s all there is to it and stop wondering if you could have more. Like you can’t scramble for concepts you’re not cognizant of. And up to this moment I haven’t given it much of a thought.” He’s looking so befuddled. And I thought I was the only one. “But I don’t remember where I live. I just know I went to school and had a nice home, but I don’t know anything for certain.” His voice raised a pitch any more he was getting horrified by it.
“What about you?” I ask Carter who’s standing to me the nearest.
“It’s the same feeling,” he tries to make sense out of something totally senseless.
“Guys, it’s the pills.” Zoey butts in. “I don’t know whatever reason they implied, but I think it might have been to modify neuroactive information on our minds.
The more we’re getting into it, more dubious the Eatonii seems.
We kept waddling around for a while longer, and millions of thoughts stuck at me. Like, how were we supposed to maintain with only limited nutritional resources? We’d probably get tired within our first mile and wanna stop. It wouldn’t surprise me that at some point we might even consider how it would’ve been like had we not left the Eatonii at all. We had all the comfort there that you could ask at a normal house. It just takes me a while to realize that this is all the cause of the horrendous feeling of unexpectedness. Like, we don’t know what to expect at this point. We don’t know what surprising thing comes our way. At this point, there’s nothing we can be certain of. But one thing I know for sure.
It just drives me nutty how Zoey is acting all stung at me for whatever reason that I don’t know of.
She’s like a pahoehoe, waiting to explode any moment.
“Zoey,” I determine I can’t just keep it on like this anymore. If I don’t interfere, we have no idea where she may lead us to. “Would you at least mind taking a look at the map? We don’t know where we’re heading to. There are a bunch of trees and bushes everywhere. This place is like a labyrinth.”
“I’m the one holding the compass.” She tells me, like that would be enough. Never mind a compass is just useless without a map, or directions.
“And where’s the compass leading us to?”
“Hmm,” it got her thinking and ceased at the moment, when she bended her head down and was looking at the magnetic needle.
I approached her. It was easy to, since she had come to a stop point.
I crooked my head towards hers and took a look at her hand. I pored through the transparent base plate at the orientation arrow and the needles. Boy, this was the weirdest thing I’ve seen until now.
The revolving compass housing rendered crazily as a hive full of bees. Both the magnetic needles were swinging crazily forrader and rearwards in a way that a compass shouldn’t.
Maybe I was wrong.
Maybe the earth wasn’t all normal as we all thought it should be.
This was obviously not decent. I’ve never seen a compass act so rumbustiously. And at this point I get struck by the dilemma that if I don’t remember anything about my life, then how could I know what a compass is supposed to look like.
It seemed like I knew everything about my surroundings and the way they were to process, but myself.
And that sucked.
“Guys, what is it?” all of them gather towards us as flies around honey and look at it soundlessly.
I hoist my eyes from the hands to Zoey’s face. She looks panic-struck and befuddled. Not the typical self that she enjoys to be. I just feel bad for her (as if this is not our conjoined concern to bear with) and strangely want to hold her hand. But I don’t.
I just realize how weird it’d have been if I did.
Not to mention, she’s still pissed at me for what turns out to be something I’ve totally forgotten about. How could I know, with, all things considered, these weird of events coming our way?
“Now I have to admit, this, I didn’t expect.” I say and meet her eyes. She looks rather confused and mild.
“Man, better stop looking at it. This is more than enough complicated for us to be terrified at some stupid compass that must be broken, after all.” Carter interferes. “I say we keep on with our mission and let these silly details slip through the cracks.”
“How are we supposed to do that?” Zoey is giving him that even-I-am-not-that-unhinged look. And boy, you don’t wanna be having that sorta look upon you. “Without a compass, we have no idea where we’re heading to. And this stupid map doesn’t seem to help at all.”
“It’s not like we’d be having an idea with a normal compass on spot. Can’t you see, Zoey? We’re in the middle of nowhere here. There’s nothing but trees and bushes everywhere, and I don’t know how you’re feeling, but I feel like I’m in a jungle.”
Her jaw drops. She sure wasn’t expecting that. None of us were. How could we anyway? Our minds were just befuddled by all the series of circumstances coming our way. We’ve been through enough at the Eatonii. We’ve seen more than enough horrendous events to make one ultimately shocked. I somehow grab Zoey’s hand through all that mess we’re inundated into. I was expecting her to make a fuss over it, instead she just holds and we acquiescently keep on waddling among that forest that seemed to have scared the crap out of us.
10
“I sure wouldn’t mind sharing my tent with you,” I smirk at her.
Zoey just gnarls distastefully.
Doltishly, I smile at it. I’m so conceited right now, weirdly.
Thing is, there were only three tents we’ve managed to sneak out of the tower because a) of the lack of varieties at the tower and b) there was only so much we could hold upon our backs. Brianne and Avery were sharing the tent together, which was weird ‘cause I’d be expecting Carter to drench at the first chance he got at spending the night with his honeybunch, but seemingly there were some undeclared issues there I’ve not been given a glimpse of. Andrew and Colin had come to terms to share the second pavilion together. And now it all comes down to me, Zoey and Carter. Thing is Zoey was giving us such a hard time, pretending to be hard to get. Which, damn it, was weird, since we were at survival subjunctive and didn’t have the luxury to take a notion at it.
“So it either goes down to Cody and I sharing the tent together and you get to spend the night with these two other guys, who I don’t think you’re keener on, or you have to come to grips with snuggling up with me tonight.” I keep persisting she spends the night with me. She keeps rejecting me. Which I should’ve gotten bored at by now. But weirdly, I’m not.
“I’m not gonna sleep with you at that tent.” She says it as though she’d rather embrace a temblor than me at that.
“Well then, you’ve made your choice,” I smirk, knowing that i
t doesn’t end up with that. “I gotta warn you though, Andrew is a heavy sleeper. I gotta know, I shared a room with him. It basically comes at the point where you might wanna spend the night with the bears out there than him.”
‘There are going to be bears out there?” she looks terrified. Actually, I haven’t given it much of a thought. We’re in the middle of a forest after all, everything is to be expected. But right now, I’m just so delighted in getting off with her.
“Hey, hey. Get done with it man. It’s getting darker and darker any moment and we’re still indecisive as to who should Zoey spend the night with. Make up your mind, girl, it’s just a trivia to make such a fuss at it.” Andrew tells her. Unlike me, he seems bored at her indecisiveness regarding the druthers.
“So, Zoey, where would you come at?” I raise a brow at her.
She ponders for a moment as if this is the most intricate decision she had ever made and then hoists her eyes from somewhere unlocated underneath. “You decide.” She looks at Cody.
Boy, isn’t she sneaky!
“Well, you don’t get to lay your issues at the feet of another man,” I tell her. “You gotta own up to it and come up with your own decision.”
She pores over as though she hates me.
“Okay,” it takes her a while to make up her mind and spread the news. “I’m gonna share the tent with you,” she tells me. My smirk jerks wider and wilder. “But, we’re gonna take the pavilion and have Carter sleep with us. Andrew and Colin are gonna have to share the smaller tent.”
“Ooh, naughty girl there,” I mock. She rolls her eyes. “Carter and I are gonna get cozy tonight.” I say, making Carter wanting to crack up, though strangely barely holds it, and Zoey gives me the once over.
She’s a stubborn girl I gotta say, and she was just as much when it came to pitching the tent near the lake. She didn’t even bear give us a slightly tiny hand. Though I didn’t mind. After all, I got to spend the night with her. That was way more than I could’ve ever expected, since we haven’t been on a proper date together, much less, I hadn’t confessed my liking feelings towards her (at that, I couldn’t even put it up to consent it to myself to begin with.)
~.~.~
Stars shine through the sky like a myriad bokehs on a winter night. It’s cold. Colder than erstwhile. We’ve got water outdoors, nearby the tent, though none of us had the guts to try it, given the bizarre compass events.
“Man, it’s nipping. You gotta invite her in somehow.” Carter tells me, ‘cause it turns out Zoey had this before-drowsing ritual—as she explained beforehand—where she had this serene, inner confrontation moment and she didn’t want to get bothered. I say, she’s trying to play hard to get, ‘cause she’s stubborn as a guanaco. Or, wither, it’s just her trying to avoid me. Which I highly doubt would be the case, because, why would a person wanna avoid me anyway? Nah, I’m just messing with you. Thing is, I, in a rather mystical of way, have this perception that I’ve known her way long before we actually met at the Eatonii.
But, then again, this is just a feeling.
“Why do you ask me? Why don’t you go and take down a peg?”
“’Cause you’re the one who’s got a thing for her.”
“Pffft! Me?” it’s strange how I frown, sway my head, and gnarl to ridicule it at the same time. “’I haven’t got a thing for her!” I keep frowning, emphasis on ‘thing’.
“Yeah, right! Who you’re tryna fool, me or yourself?”
Well, nobody…
At least, that I know of.
But he seems as though he’s way more prehensile to it than me. Which is strange ‘cause he has got nothing to do with this intricacy, that is me and Zoey. Carter maintains looks. I get the message. After all, it’s gonna be more fun for her if it’s me than Carter anyway.
I get on my feet and step out the tent.
It’s so quiet out there. Other than the water within the lake swishing and the chirping of the night birds snooping above the trees, everything is so celestial. Throughout that irenic embracement, I spot Zoey scrunched up amidst the bevel that split up the muddle from the lake. You could tell she was all contemplative and somehow… confused.
We all were.
But still, you didn’t catch any of us skipping sleep time and pondering throughout the coldness of the night out.
“Hey,” I approach and press both hands down to support my weight while making some place nearby her. She looks at me, but doesn’t talk. I guess that’s her way of saying the interruption was uninvited. I don’t care, anyway. She can’t just hole herself up outdoors for the rest of the night. It’s already been enough as it is. “Are you done ruminating, or whatever it is you’re doing here?”
“What do you care?” she looks at the as though I’m the bad guy. I’m just trying to help. That’s all there is to my intention.
“Well, I don’t.” I lie. I don’t know why. “It’s just that you can’t spend the whole night out here. Don’t you feel the frostiness all around?”
“Not all of us are that fragile, pussywhip.” She mocks me.
I smirk, lips swaying asquint silently.
“Well, how about we come to an agreement?”
“Why would I wanna make any sort of agreement with you?”
“You might, when you listen to what I have to say.” I suggest. “So, what do you say, I spend the rest of the night among this outdoors nip with you?” Just as I expected, she looks at me horrified, which makes me wanna crack up, but I hold myself, barely. “Or, you could just come inside and get some sleep?”
“How about, neither?”
“Hmm, you see? That’s not an option. Did you hear me mention such clause to our arrangement? Mm-mm, I don’t think so.”
Her lips stich and I can’t tell whether it’s of how she’s all nettled off at me, or if there’s a slight, secretive concitation here. I mean, I do somehow perceive this is all taking along to my agenda, but that’s how good a pretender she is.
“Do you ever wonder what our real lives have been like out there?” she totally switches the atmosphere, and I have to admit, that, I didn’t expect.
“Out there?” I ask, though am not sure whether I didn’t really follow up, or that my mind is just so befuddled from the frostiness and I can’t really take up.
“I mean, wherever that is we don’t remember of. We might have had an amazing life there. I wouldn’t complain even if it’d been just as casual as one could be. I think that anything might be better than spending the night across shivering, cold forests we don’t recognize.”
Oh, now that I’m being given a glimpse at what she’s been pondering out here all along, I get why she doesn’t wanna get inside the tent. This is her hideaway (even though it’s weird, ‘cause this is out in the open;) her escape. No wonder she doesn’t wanna take a crack at drowsing off.
Meanwhile, I hoist myself off to my own feet and jet off. She doesn’t ask. Though I’m sure she’s probably wondering. It’s just that she’s too stubborn to give a wee hoot about me. I rush off to the tent and grab what I came there for and after that make it off outside to where I just escaped a minute ago.
“Here, this will help,” I lend over the blanket I grabbed from within the tent. She gets hold of it and gives an appreciative look. “I can have a glint at how it feels.”
She looks at me confused.
“Not knowing much about yourself.” I proceed. “It can get pretty tough. But not unless you put a cease at it and decide to keep going on. I mean, we’re way past over the scariest part, that is the conspirational agenda of the Eatonii. Now all we have to do is find who we are, and where we belong in this world.”
She doesn’t say a word. Not at least for the next couple of minutes which follow up on a couple hours when she’s in the fence of drowsing off. I try to keep quiet. I don’t want to disturb her anymore, as I’d enjoyed doing all day; not after knowing the clutter which she’s been inconveniencing herself with while at contemplation. I don’t know if she’s
conscious when her head slides off onto my shoulders and finds comfort in it. But I do not complain.
This is our first night out of the Eatonii. And never in a million years would I have thought I’d rather pick up the outdoors frostiness over the limited comfort that the tent had to offer, so that I could spend the night at. But I did. And boy was I delighted!
11
A year ago
“Aww, this place hasn’t changed a bit,” Zoey looks astonished all around.
We perceive the nice blueberry cupcakes fragrance indulgently pestering our snuffing abilities. I have booked up the same exact table we had our first date on. I can recall every moment of that day, clear as crystal, being that it was hands down, the best pinnacle of my casual life, which had been nothing but awesome, since then.
I arrange the seat for her and then make myself comfortable on the adjacent one. I look at her. She’s just as mesmerizing as she’s always been. The only thing different is how she’d determined to dye her hair red in tendency of some gothic-y style that was all the rage nowadays. I think, on the other hand, that it looks nothing on her like it was intended to. Don’t get me wrong, she’s just adorable, but gothic—meh, it just does seem a little out of keeping with her.
“This is so nice, Greyson, I can’t believe it’s been a year.” She tells me, looking at how arrantly commemorable everything around is.
“Yeah, that’s what it’s like to smuggle me into your life. Every day is an awesome day.” I glint with my eyes at something out of proportion in the air, knowing that I’m just messing with her. “I mean, that’s what you’d have missed out on had you not given me a whirl.”
I’ve been going steady with Zoey for a year now, but with her it never gets boring. I mean, sometimes, I wonder, am I so obsessed with her because of the fact that literally everybody who gets across Zoey instantly gets obsessed? But then I realize that it’s just her being so versatile that gets everybody fuzzled, me included, and not everybody loving her that makes me appreciate her precious presence even more.
Faking Apocalypse (The Apocalyptic Games Book 1) Page 8
