Diary of the Displaced Box Set

by Glynn James

  "You've been talking to me all along, haven't you?"

  "Yes, but I don't think you always heard me."

  "Why did you help me? Why did you help us?"

  "Because I'm your friend."

  "My friend? I don't remember."

  "I know. It was after you fell, after we found Nua'lath's device. I didn't understand why you weren't breaking it. That was why we went there. That was what we came here for."

  "Nua'lath?"

  "CutterJack. He goes by many names. That's what you always said."

  "So I've known you all along, right from the beginning? That's why you came to me in the junkyard?"

  "Yes. I came here with you, to destroy the device. I'm your guard, your companion. But you became something different, something I couldn't understand. After you looked into the device, you changed. You weren't you. There was someone else there. I was frightened."

  "You've always been with me, haven't you? I just can't remember why?"

  "Yes. You raised me from when I was a puppy."

  "I raised you? I wish I could remember."

  "Ever since I can remember, I've followed you."

  "But the other Maw, where are they from?"

  "I'd never seen another one of my kind. They were trapped in there, in Nua'lath's prison. I found them. They didn't like me at the start, but they became my friends, and I told them that if they helped me, if they helped you, you would help them escape that place forever."

  "Do you have a name, other than DogThing?"

  "No. That's what you always called me."

  I stood up and looked around at the world we had returned to. Somehow I knew that although we had escaped back to where we had started, this place was no more my home than the prison we had left behind. It should be familiar, but my memories still haven't returned.

  We found a building, not far down the street, to camp up in for the night that still had windows and a door that could be shut.

  Day 39

  I slept well for the first time in weeks, and I woke up to a sound that in my memory, I'd never even heard before. I looked through the dirt-crusted window and saw that outside, Rudy and Adler were listening, smiling, so I opened the door and joined them.

  A grin crossed my face as I felt the warmth of the sun. High up on the top of the building across the street was a single nest of birds. I didn't know what sort of bird they were. One of them was perched on a ledge, just below the nest, singing.

  This is the last page in this journal. I've run out of space to write for now, until I find another book. I'm sure I will soon.

  So much still to discover and so many questions still unanswered, all locked away in my own mind.

  There is a whole new place here for me to explore. Even as I look round, there are things that are somehow familiar, yet my own mind has locked it all away. I should be afraid, like I was when I first came round in the dark, in The Corridor. But I'm not alone this time. I've got Rudy and Adler, and I've got DogThing. It's amazing how much fear is lessened when you have friends to look out for you.

  Book 2

  The Broken lands

  My memories have not completely gone...

  It's strange. It seems as though memories that are built in, the sort of memories that you learn so well that they are instinct, have remained. But any knowledge of who I am or where I came from is still missing. I'm not sure how I can describe it. Anything about my past prior to waking up in The Corridor that I have to think about to remember, is gone.

  The device must have damaged me in some way, but how, I don't know. I look at Adler and Rudy, and although they are technically dead, they still know who they are, or who they were when they were alive. They have complete recollection of most of the things that happened in their lives. I seem to have none.

  I'd hoped to get answers from DogThing, and I think I pushed him too far with the barrage of questions, to no avail, though. My conversation with him was not as clear as I had first hoped. After first speaking to him when we had just escaped from The Corridor, his answers had been clear in my mind, but I soon discovered that his understanding of my questions was very vague. He wasn't even able to grasp some concepts that I considered simple.

  "How did we get into The Corridor in the first place?" I had asked him.

  "We just went in."

  That was all he could muster, and he seemed confused at even that.

  "But we got in there somehow," I pressed. "Was it a door, like the one that we escaped through?

  "Door is confusing."

  "But you told me to close it."

  "I knew it must be closed."

  "How?"

  "He must not come through."

  "But how did you know that it was the right escape route?"

  "You knew."

  "What do you mean, I knew?"

  "You knew to escape through the door and you knew he would follow, and that it must be closed. I only know what you know."

  "You really only understand what I understand?"

  "Yes."

  "So do you know who I am?"

  "You are James."

  "But what am I? Where do I come from?"

  "From where we have been."

  I could tell that he was as confused as I was, and that he didn't really understand most of what I was asking him. I stopped asking questions when he began scratching at the floor and making a low whining noise. He was uncomfortable.

  "Have I angered you?"

  "No, of course you haven't. I just hoped that you might be able to help me find out who I am. I was hoping to learn more."

  "Did I not? You are James."

  "Yes. Thank you."

  I let him be and sat there quietly, staring at the wall, wondering where to go next.

  It didn't take long to find another journal to write in, not even hours, let alone days. DogThing took me to a place where there was one.

  "You will want your things."

  I turned to him. He was sitting in the doorway of the run-down building that I had just slept in. He looked like he was frowning at me. I thought he meant the pack and the few belongings that still lay at the back of the room.

  "Yes, I'll get them in a bit. I'm not sure where we are heading yet. Kind of a bit lost."

  "No I mean the things you left here."

  My turn to frown.

  "What do you mean?"

  "The things that you hid near here, long before we went into The Corridor. You knew you might want them. If you came back this way."

  "I left things here?"

  Now I was curious.

  "Yes. It was long before we came into The Corridor. I think. Come. This way."

  How could he remember that I hid something here, but he couldn't tell me who I really was? It had to be something to do with the complexity of the memory. I was sure of it. Was he also suffering from some kind of memory loss?

  "Did you lose your memory too?"

  "No. I don't have a good memory like you. Things go."

  A good memory? I could barely remember yesterday.

  I quickly packed away my stuff and stepped back out into the street. Across the road, some of the Maw that had been sleeping out on the pavement, stirred and began to wake up.

  "Are we leaving already?" asked Rudy.

  "DogThing wants to show me something."

  Rudy and Adler looked puzzled, but didn't question me. I'd forgotten that they didn't even know that DogThing and I could talk to each other now.

  I followed DogThing along the side of the road, skirting around burned out cars and piles of rubble. We turned left at a crossroads after a hundred yards or so. Across the street I could see a boarded up building, with the front door wedged closed by a plank of wood. That was where DogThing led me. I forced the plank away, drew my blade and stepped into the dim light of the shop entrance. My eyes were more comfortable in that room than they were in the bright sunlight outside. Spending so much time in the dark had left me a little sun-blind.

  Dog
Thing shuffled past me and headed to the back of the shop. He scratched at a door that was at the side of what would probably have been some sort of small storage space or staff room at one time.

  "In there."

  I tried the door but it was jammed shut and I eventually just kicked it in.

  Dogthing hadn't been joking about a stash.

  "I left this here a long time ago, you say? Not recently."

  "Yes and no. We haven't been this way in a while. I don't really remember."

  A rucksack was perched against the back of the small closet, next to a long brown jacket that looked like it was made of some sort of tough leather. The shoulders were reinforced with armour plates of some kind, as was one side of the chest panels and the elbows. It looked and felt like some kind of hard plastic. I didn't recognise it, but I somehow knew that it was mine, and wasn't at all surprised when it fitted me perfectly. Underneath the jacket was a pair of trousers made of the same leathery material, and some loose armour that looked as though it should strap around my lower legs.

  Why had I left all this stuff behind? Why leave a stash?

  It didn't end there. There were boots, long ones with toe-caps that were studded at the end. In the rucksack was a treasure trove of tools and food supplies, and lying behind the rucksack was a utility belt that made the one that I was wearing look like a kiddie's toy.

  And then there were the guns.

  I hadn't a clue why I would have left these behind anywhere, let alone before I went into The Corridor. Why would I have gone in there and left guns behind? Maybe there was a good reason, maybe I knew before I went in there what was likely to happen. It puzzled me.

  Handguns. Four of them. Yes, four. That's too many handguns isn't it? Why did I need so many? There was even a holster for each of them, with a strap to hold them in place. Two of them attached neatly to the sides of the utility belt, but it took me a lot of messing around to figure out where the other two were supposed to go. I finally settled on strapping them around my thighs so that they sat just below the two on my belt. There were worn marks on the trousers that suggested I had chosen correctly.

  I picked up each of the guns and felt very strange as I did my best to check that each of them was in working order.

  How did I know? Instinct. Had to be. There was no other way to explain it.

  Not one of the guns had an ammunition clip, just some kind of built in mechanism and a clip-in battery no bigger than a cigarette lighter. These guns didn't need ammunition and they didn't fire solid bullets. It didn't make sense to me but I knew that it was correct. I couldn't even remember ever holding a gun, but they felt comfortable in my hands, as though they had been worn away by my using them over time, or maybe they were made for me.

  After ten minutes or so, I left the shop and stepped back out into the road with all of my new found gear, which had apparently been put here by me.

  Adler was standing a few feet away and looked bemused as I walked back out into the sunlight. Then he saw the guns and frowned. Rudy caught up with us. I don't think he wanted to leave the birds nest behind.

  "Where did all that lot come from?"

  I nodded my head at the door to the shop.

  "In there. It would seem that I left all this behind when I went into The Corridor."

  "Oh...but how did you know? I thought you couldn't remember anything. Are your memories coming back?"

  "No." I smiled and looked down at DogThing. He was sitting on the pavement a few feet away.

  "He told me."

  Adler looked surprised.

  "DogThing told you? You can talk to him?"

  "I can now, yes. It would appear that he was with me all along. I couldn't hear him or understand him very clearly at the time, when we were in The Corridor. Not until we destroyed the mirror. I occasionally used to hear a voice talking to me in my head, but it never occurred to me that it was him. Out here we can talk to each other. Sort of."

  "That's incredible," said Adler, with a smile. "You can actually communicate with the Maw! Or is it just him? What about the rest of them?"

  "Only with DogThing. He is different to the rest. We're connected in some way. He says that I raised him from when he was a puppy."

  "Amazing. But of course that explains so much." Adler began pacing the pavement. "He has followed you ever since the two of you met in The Corridor, but what you are saying is that he was there with you right from the start. That explains why, does it not? The other Maw, they were native, or at least had lived there a long time. It explains why he even looks different."

  "He does?"

  "Have you not noticed how the other Maw have bigger eyes? They are struggling with the sunlight and always hiding in the shadows."

  Adler pointed at DogThing.

  "He isn't having any problems with it."

  "I don't like the dark."

  I laughed. I'm sure Adler thought I was laughing at his comment because he joined in.

  "It's not funny."

  "We're not laughing at you my friend," I said, giving DogThing's head a quick pat.

  Then I realised something.

  "DogThing, can you understand what the others are saying?"

  "Not really. Some. They are not as clear as you."

  "How so?"

  Adler and Rudy looked confused. To them I suppose it was a one sided conversation.

  "Can he?" asked Rudy.

  DogThing barked. I'd never heard him bark before. It sounded more like a human's hoarse cough. Nearby, some of the other Maw jumped at the noise.

  "He says he can, sort of, but not clearly. But then most of the time he can't really understand me either."

  "What do you mean?" asked Adler.

  "I've asked him all manner of questions, but he can't grasp some of what I'm asking. I asked him about the door, and our escape, but door was beyond his understanding."

  "Well, he is a dog," said Rudy.

  "What?"

  "He is a dog," he repeated. "Would a dog know what a door was?"

  "Why, yes," said Adler. "Of course, you are right, Rudy. You may be able to converse with DogThing on some telepathic level, but that doesn't mean he understands you any better than any other dog, or Maw, would. His mind is still that of a canine, of sorts. He may know what a door does, but not necessarily what it is."

  "Oh," I said, shaking my head. It was obvious really.

  The Maw had been on edge ever since we left The Corridor, always keeping to the shadows and out of the sun. Most of them had been hiding in the ruined buildings along the street. I saw movement in the ruins directly across from us, and recognised one of the bigger Maw, just edging out of the entrance. Most of the buildings didn't have doors or windows anymore, just empty concrete shells rising floor after floor. Some of them must have been ten floors high at least, and a few of the ones that I could see in the distance were easily ten times that. Huge, monstrous, empty shells that would once have been home to thousands of people were now just home to the sparse wildlife.

  I couldn't imagine how long this place had been left here, abandoned. It was probably decades or maybe even centuries. Even the tallest of the buildings had a web-like skin of overgrown creeping plants reaching nearly to the top. Just along the road, at the very bottom of a tall building, the roots of one of the creeping plants had grown to such a size that I could have mistaken it for a tree trunk. It was easily five feet thick and had broken up the pavement and even part of the road around it.

  "So where now?" asked Rudy.

  I didn't answer straight away.

  "You know, I have no idea."

  I looked either way along the street, wondering which way to go. No clues. Now that we had escaped from The Corridor I had no goals, no aims.

  Then I noticed the movement. It was a long way off, down the street that led away from the bigger buildings, but it was moving very fast towards us. DogThing must have noticed it at the same time, because his head shot round to face it and he lowered himself to the groun
d, growling. Then the other Maw reacted. I could see them taking positions in the doorways of all of the surrounding buildings.

  Adler and Rudy looked in different directions, confused.

  "A kre'esh"

  "A what?" I whispered back.

  "A kre'esh. Nua'lath's lizard pets. It must have picked up our scent, or your scent. If it sees us then Nua'lath will know where we are. We will be hunted."

  I crouched down and waited for it to get nearer, and yet again an instinct that I didn't know I had, made me draw one of the handguns and take aim.

  Crack.

  The sound was much quieter than I anticipated. I had expected a loud bang as the gun went off.

  At least a hundred yards away the creature tumbled to the ground, sliding along the road, to lie motionless. A cloud of dirt and dust rose into the air. Three Maw darted out of the building closest to it and dragged it back into their refuge in the ruins.

  I stood up, holding the gun out in front of me. I don't remember ever firing a weapon before, let alone being a good shot. As I stared at the gun, a glowing, blue indicator on the top lit up and then turned white.

  Where the hell did I learn to fire a gun?

  "We should go, there will be more. They are never alone, always a pack."

  "How many?"

  "I don't understand. There will be many."

  "Okay. You were here when we went through the door. Do you know where we came from before going to The Corridor? I mean the last place we went to. Can you lead us there?"

  "Yes, it is that way."

  DogThing turned and took a few steps towards the direction of the huge buildings, towards what I suspected was the centre of the city.

  "How far?"

  "All the way through, and out into the big sand. Many rests."

  "Then let's get going."

  I explained to Adler and Rudy and they agreed that we should get moving. As we made our way along the street heading further into the city, I wondered if the Maw would come with us. They did, pouring out of the surrounding buildings and following us along the street as we weaved our way through wreckage and fallen walls.

  "There are many minions in these dark places."