Zarik Read online

  Miri

  I stumbled through the forest in a daze, tree branches whipping my arms with every step I took. With no idea of where I was going, I didn’t even know if I was venturing out of the forest or further into it, but I didn’t even care.

  All I knew was that I had to keep walking.

  Easier said than done, of course. I was growing weaker with each passing minute, my stomach rumbling audibly: I was so hungry that I could eat the bark off a tree. I stopped for a minute then, one hand on a tree trunk as I tried to catch my breath.

  My body was soaked with sweat, locks of greasy hair plastered on my forehead, and my muscles felt as heavy as lead.

  “Yes, please,” I muttered under my breath, noticing an overgrown thorny bush just a few feet away from me. Red berries weighed down its thin branches, and I landed on my knees as I started picking them eagerly. I stopped when I had a handful, my hands shaking from how weak I was, but I hesitated before putting any of the berries into my mouth.

  Were the berries even edible? Or could they be poisonous?

  I tried to rack my brains for an answer, but there was nothing. Either I had never known about wild berries, or I simply couldn’t remember. “Great,” I groaned, opening my hand and allowing the berries to spill onto the ground.

  I watched them roll away from me with a heavy heart, and for a moment I even thought of taking the risk and eating them anyway.

  I didn’t. As hungry as I was, I didn’t want to risk poisoning myself and possibly a slow painful death in the middle of nowhere.

  Groaning, I pushed myself up to my feet and dusted my pants off. I scanned my surroundings once more, praying for my memories to return, but I found nothing but the echo of my own thoughts inside my head.

  The only thing I had was a name—Miri—but that was as useful as a good behavior badge during trench warfare. In fact, I would be much happier if I didn’t know my name and, instead, knew how to distinguish edible berries from poisonous ones.

  “Just keep walking,” I told myself, frowning at the sound of my own voice. It sounded strange and familiar at the same time, which made for a really unsettling experience.

  I decided to keep my mouth shut as I walked, knowing that it’d be of no use to obsess about who I was...or used to be. The important thing was to find a way back into civilization. If I had any luck, there’d be some kind of city or town nearby.

  Of course, I could also be stranded in the middle of nowhere, no other human being for miles in each direction.

  Thankfully, it just took me a couple of hours before I stumbled on what seemed like a small outpost. Still a few hundred feet away from its outer walls, the thick vegetation keeping me hidden from sight, I took a moment to examine it.

  The walls were small despite their sturdy appearance, and I could see a dozen squat buildings right behind them. There didn’t seem to be much activity going on, but it was better than nothing.

  Only when I started walking toward the outpost did I realize there were guards posted on the main gate. There were just two of them, and they were casually talking between themselves, their guns holstered. Even though I didn’t like the idea of talking with someone that could potentially shoot, I had no other choice but to keep on walking toward them. They had already seen me, after all, and one of them was even pointing his finger straight at me.

  “Good morning,” one of them greeted me, and I was about to reply when I noticed there was something odd about them.

  Not just odd.

  Wrong.

  They were much taller than a regular human, and their muscular bodies looked as if they had been designed to intimidate.

  They wore full body armor that almost entirely covered their skin with secondary plates.

  Wait.

  That wasn’t body armor.

  That was their skin.

  And it was green.

  These weren’t humans...they were aliens.

  I froze in place, not knowing what to think, and the two guards exchanged a confused glance. They started walking toward me and I couldn’t stop myself from panicking.

  “Stand back!” I cried out.

  Where the hell was I? And why were freaking aliens here?

  I knew there was an answer for those questions buried deep in my mind, but I couldn’t dig it out fast enough. Especially with two green and scary-looking giants making their way toward me.

  “Calm down, miss,” they continued to say, their deep voices making my heart beat even faster. Could I even trust them?

  I was still trying to calm myself down when I realized they were walking away from each other, trying to flank me. They seemed hesitant about me, and that definitely didn’t make me relax.

  Before I even knew what I was doing, I had already launched myself forward and was running past them. They called after me, but that just made me run even faster, my feet kicking dust off the ground as I went.

  I dashed into the small outpost in a panic, but I breathed out with relief as I realized there were humans inside the walls. A few threw curious glances my way, but most of them didn’t even pay me any attention and just carried on with their normal lives.

  “Come back here, miss!” The alien guards shouted from behind me. Looking back over my shoulder, I realized they were closing in on me and I decided to keep running.

  No way was I going to let those two lay their hands on me, that was for sure. I was still glancing back at them, clearly not paying enough attention to what was in front of me, when I hit something and tumbled to the ground.

  “Crap,” I groaned, wincing as pain shot up from my knee to my thigh. There was a small overturned cart in front of me, a few jars of herbs and spices littering the ground, and all of it seemed to belong to a small elderly woman that was looking at me with an expression of pure confusion.

  “What’s wrong with you?” One of the guards frowned, the two of them now looking down on me. Great, I had been caught. “Why the hell are you running away from us?”

  “Because...you’re aliens?” I tried, not sure what else they were expecting me to say.

  “So?” one of them asked.

  “She’s probably a member of an anti-alien group,” the other scoffed, folding his arms over his chest as he eyed me disapprovingly.

  “I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” I said meekly, looking at the elderly woman beside me and hoping for some support.

  Her eyes jumped from me to the aliens, and then went back to me again. She seemed as confused as I and the aliens were.

  “Do you know this woman, Kanna?” the guard closest to me asked the old woman. She shook her head and pursed her lips, her eyes never leaving mine. Slowly, she went down on one knee and offered me a smile, locks of white hair tumbling over her shoulders.

  “My name’s Kanna,” she said gently. “I’m this settlement’s herbalist. Do you have a name?”

  “Miri,” I replied.

  “Good. And how can we help you, Miri? You look a lil’ bit lost, if I may say so,” she continued, the kindness on her voice enough to make me feel more at ease. “Where have you come from?”

  “The woods,” I said, quickly glancing back to the place where I had just come from. Frowning, Kanna just eyed me for a short moment, her focus on the small cuts and bruises on my arms.

  “And before the woods?”

  “I... I don’t know,” I admitted, feeling a knot in my throat. Why couldn’t I remember anything? There were so many questions bouncing around inside my head, and I felt that the answers were there, too...but somehow, they remained beyond my grasp. “I don’t remember anything.”

  “You don’t remember?” one of the guards asked, both his eyebrows arched.

  “I don’t. I just remember running through the woods…”

  “Alright, sweetie,” Kanna said, rising to her feet and offering me her hand. I took it, allowing the old woman to help me up. “Come with me into my shop, will you? I’ll get you something to eat and drink, and these two gent
lemen will try to figure something out.”

  I was too confused to protest. The aliens didn’t seem hostile, and even Kanna seemed to trust them.

  Besides, the important thing was that she had offered me food. At that point, I was hungry enough to follow whoever promised me a handful of breadcrumbs.

  “And what are we supposed to do?” one of the guards asked Kanna, both of them looking uncomfortable. They seemed more prepared to deal with situations that required the use of a gun than with mysterious girls that didn’t remember absolutely anything.

  “Don’t you have superiors?” Kanna told them sternly. “Get one of them on those comms of yours and tell them what’s going on. There has to be someone in the city capable of helping her.”

  “Right,” one of them said, clearing his throat. “Of course.”

  “Now, let me just pick these things up and we’ll go,” she started, bending over to pick the jars of herbs I had knocked over. I helped her do it, feeling embarrassed about the whole situation, and then we were on our way.

  “Those two aren’t the smartest of them,” she said as we left the guards behind. “But they mean well.”

  “Yes, but…”

  “But?”

  “They are aliens!” I said, keeping my voice low so that no one could hear us.

  “Why, of course they are,” Kanna laughed. “Where have you been living all this time? Under a rock?”

  “I have absolutely no idea,” I said.

  And that was the truth.

  Zarik

  I was in the process of modifying a separate datapad to look even deeper into missing persons reports when I got a ping on my primary.

  There was a report of a girl that had been found, complaining of memory loss.

  If I could help this young girl, that would be a step in the right direction to redeem my honor.

  To redeem myself.

  And maybe, just maybe, I could become something other than a nameless shadow in the general’s ranks.

  Heading out of my room, I made my way straight to the general’s office. As usual, nobody paid me any heed as I strolled through the maze of corridors.

  I hesitated for a second as I stood before the general’s door, but then sucked in a deep breath and rapped my knuckles against it.

  “Come in,” he called, and I stepped inside the office, careful to keep my back straight and my posture perfect. I saluted the general and he gave me a slight nod. “At ease. What brings you here, Zarik?”

  “Sir, I was made aware of a situation in a nearby settlement, and I’d like to help out.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me, almost as if he was weighing each one of my words, and then he drummed his fingers against the desk’s surface. Pushing the stack of reports he was reading to the side, he gave me his full attention.

  “A situation, huh? What are we talking about here?”

  “Apparently a girl has been found close by, and she is suffering from memory loss. There might be a connection to a missing person case I’ve come across. I think you’re aware of it, as well, sir.”

  “I am,” he sighed. “A common occurrence these days, unfortunately. But I don’t get it. Why the sudden interest in this situation, Zarik?”

  “I want to help this girl recover her memory, and that means that I want to help her,” I explained.

  He sat back and folded his arms over his chest. He was bewildered by my offer. “Why you?”

  I threw my hands in the air and started pacing his office. “You know why, sir,” I said. “You know that I need to atone for what happened in my past, and this is a step in that direction. Please, sir. You have to let me help this woman.”

  He shook his head. “And that’s the reason why I shouldn’t let you go. You’re trying to use this for your own advantage instead of legitimately helping this young lady.”

  “No, sir,” I said. I was frustrated. How could I show him that I deserved to do this?

  “I admit that this request is a bit selfish, but I honestly wish to help her. I may not have an understanding of what life is like when you lose your memory, but I do know what it is like to have your life turned upside down. That makes me uniquely equipped to help her.”

  He shook his head. “You’ve always taken that job too hard to heart. You made a mistake, and it’s something you’re going to have to live with, but it’s not something that defines who you are. Trust me, I’ve made many mistakes that have led to people’s deaths.”

  He uncrossed his arms, stood up, and walked up to me. “You can’t let it define you. If you do, you’ll end up doing something rash, like hacking into a secure system and using that information to get yourself a mission.”

  Oh.

  I put my head down. “My apologies, sir.” Then, I picked up my head and looked him in the eye. “But I don’t regret my decision. I can do this, sir.”

  He sighed. “You know, I was planning on sending one of the teams to go get her,” he said.

  “Why would you do that, sir?” I asked. “Isn’t that overkill?”

  “What do you mean?”

  I saw his grin, but answered his question nonetheless. “You would be sending five fully-armed, fully-trained commandos to go pick up one girl with memory loss. Imagine how confused she would be, how scared she would be, and how bad that would look. How long do you think it would take for her, or anyone else, to start thinking that she was some sort of criminal?”

  I had to give him credit for holding back his smile. “I hadn’t thought of it that way,” he lied. He had to have lied. There was no way my explanation actually worked. “But, what if there’s someone, or some number, of the anti-alien group around and they decide to get hostile?”

  I looked at him like he had lost his mind, if only for a brief second.

  “Sir. Really? I have had training while in your service. While I’m not as highly trained as the strike teams, you know that I can handle a weapon. Besides, look at me,” I said as I stepped back, giving him full view of the improved me. “I’m not exactly defenseless.”

  He graced me with a nod. “Okay.”

  “I’m sorry?”

  He nodded again. “I said, okay. The job is yours. I’ll give you the location and you can go get her. Make sure you’re prepared, just in case.”

  “Thank you, sir,” I said. I couldn’t believe he was letting me do this. I turned to leave.

  “Zarik?” he asked.

  “Yes, General?” I asked, swinging back around.

  “You’ll be taking the rift,” he added.

  “Yes, sir.”

  He shook his head and dismissed me. I quickly went back to my quarters, put on my body armor that I used in place of my scales, and gathered my electronics and my personal weapon, an oversized double-barreled blaster.

  I went to the armory to get some additional ammunition and a go-pack - a small pack with rations and an emergency shelter and other emergency supplies - and went outside the office, waiting for Rouhr to order the rift for me.

  He sent me the location coordinates, ordered the rift, and wished me luck.

  As the rift opened, I felt a bit of excitement that I hadn’t felt in quite some time.

  And maybe, just maybe, something like hope.

  Miri

  “I don’t know how to thank you,” I said, drinking the rest of the soup from my bowl. Now that I had a full stomach, I felt like a completely new person.

  Which was funny, since I didn’t know what my ‘old self’ would have felt like.

  My strength had returned, and I was no longer feeling dizzy and disoriented. Sure, my memories still hadn’t returned, but it was a start.

  “No need to thank me, dear,” Kanna smiled, placing a cup of tea on the table. Steam rose from it toward the ceiling, but I went for it and took a small sip anyway. It had a sweet taste, and I closed my eyes and let out a small moan. “These days, it’s important we look after each other.”

  “I wish more people were as kind as you are,” I told her
, not entirely sure if my words had anything to do with my past or if they were just a generic statement. Either way, it was still the truth—there could never be too much kindness in the world.

  Sitting by the table in Kanna’s small store, I rested my elbows on it and peered out the small bay windows. The two guards from before were just standing around in front of the store, and they threw me casual glances from time to time. I was no longer afraid of them, but I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the fact that aliens were now a reality.

  A reality that everyone else seemed comfortable with, even took for granted.

  When exactly had that happened?

  “You really don’t remember anything, do you?” Kanna asked me, sitting opposite me, watching as I studied the strange green men.

  Not little green men, that’s for sure. I choked on my tea.

  She took a sip out of her own teacup, leaning back in her chair as she waited for me to reply. When I didn’t, she offered me a small smile and decided to continue. “What about the Xathi? Does that word ring a bell?”

  “Xathi?” I echoed, looking down at my hands as I turned the word around inside my mind. The word was familiar, yes, but at the same time it was a completely meaningless one. I had no idea what a Xathi was, or why it was important for me to know that. “Is that a city?”

  “Not a city, I’m afraid,” she said patiently, shaking her head slightly. “Valorni? Skotan? Puppet Master? Do you recognize any of those words?”

  “Not a single one,” I sighed, blowing the rising steam off my tea. “It’s like...I can feel the answers to all those questions, just like you can feel your body growing hot or cold...but I just can’t seem to grab any of them. They just seem to slip away from me.”

  “Well, don’t strain yourself, dear,” she smiled. “Someone will be able to help you, you’ll see.”

  “Someone? But who?”

  “I think the answer to that has just arrived,” she smiled, jutting her chin to point toward the windows. I followed that direction with my gaze just in time to see an alien appear right in front of the store. And there was no better way to describe what had just happened than that. There was a blinding light for a moment, as if a doorway into another dimension had just opened, and then the alien materialized out of nowhere.