As she laid on the pavement she felt drops of water softly falling on her skin. She slowly regained consciousness and noticed a heavy weight pressing on her torso. The pale-faced woman, not older than 25, looked at her chest and saw she was wearing a thick, black bulletproof vest. She also wore army pants and black leather boots, but she didn't understand why. Her hair was tied, and a few free strings of hair sticked to her face. The drizzle had woken her up and made her cold. The moment she sat up, she realized how exhausted she was.

But she couldn't understand why. What had happened? She looked around - she was surrounded by debris at a desolated place that looked like some sort of abandoned parking lot. But there were no cars nor people, only scattered pavement, as if there had been a fight. The weakened woman tried to stand up and slowly walked to a big boulder to rest on. 'What the hell is going on', she thought, and shorty after she heard a cracking sound behind the boulder. She checked where it came from and walked behind it, staring directly into the eyes of a seemingly bit younger man.

Alexander had his hood pulled up, in an attempt to hide. He had thick black hair and eyes that seemed to have both an incredible depth, and none at all. He stared back at the woman who had approached him like a deer caught in headlights. She was one of them. He remembered seeing her, when he had been in the facility. He hadn't had chance to save everyone, but he had gotten out, and learned very little.

He took a step back, feeling the urge to turn and run, but worried that any sudden movements would have him incinerated, or in pieces, or whatever was happening to people all over now. He still wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but something was wrong, and he intended to find out what.

The pale-faced woman stared anxiously into the wide-open eyes of the young man. He looked scared, just like her. She didn't know what to do: was he going to attack? Was he responsible for her unconsciously laying on the ground? She wanted to run off, but she couldn't, as she didn't have the slightest amount of energy left in her body. She responded the same as the man and stepped back, lifting her resting arm off the boulder. It took very much of her concentration to stand straight-up and stay that way. If she could, she would sit down, but she didn't want to show any weaknesses. Instead, she switched to a fighting position, but didn't look very convincing. A few moments passed by as the two anxiously stared in each other's eyes. She could feel the man was just as frightened as her. That gave her the encouragement to ask, as impressive as possible, "What do you want?!"

Alexander looked at the woman again. She was as scared as he was. He wondered why that would be. She looked exhausted, like she would faint at any moment, and he wondered what she was doing here. Had they left her here? Abandoned her? And if so, why?

"I want answers." Alex answered, his tone conveyed that he didn't trust her, but he wasn't going to fight. If it came to it, he would run, he wasn't sure how far he would get, but he definitely wouldn't fare any better if he tried to fight.

The word 'answers' echoed through her mind. Answers? What kind of answers? Was he just as clueless as her? No, that couldn't be. Because she truly knew nothing. She didn't know what to do. He didn't seem dangerous to her, but he couldn't be trusted. While her thoughts went into overdrive, she started to feel dizzy. The bulletproof vest was really heavy and she desperately tried to take it off. After a bit of wrestling it fell on the ground with a big smack. She felt a bit better. The man quietly stared at it, and looked as if he was surprised she'd taken it off. "W-what... what kind of answers?"

Alexander relaxed a little, she seemed completely clueless. "Answers as to what's going on. The disappearances, the battles all of it. There's something big going on here, and I'm determined to find out what." He explained. "I know there's a facility somewhere near here, because I was there once, I just can't quite figure out where it was." He looked around as he said that, as if he might find it just by looking in the immediate vicinity.

A facility? Disappearances? Battles? What the hell was going on? And why didn't she know anything about all this? And could this guy be trusted or not? As he looked around, she also took a moment to get familiar with her surroundings. There wasn't anything near she could go to for help. Her memory was gone, but she knew one thing for sure: she didn't have enough strength to continue on her own. She had to take a leap of faith and trust him - at least for the time being. "C-can you help me?"

Alexander thought for a moment. This woman, whoever she was, was obviously in bad shape. But she was wearing military grade gear, and he knew she had been in the facility. He didn't know if he could trust her, but it wasn't in his nature to leave someone stranded. He reluctantly nodded. "I have a safe house not too far from here. Can you walk?" He asked.

She felt glad the guy wanted to help her. "Yes, I think I can walk... C-can I put a bit of my weight on you?" She had a look at her bulletproof vest, which still laid on the ground. "And s-should we leave that here?", she asked with a trembling voice, "or do you think we might need it?" She secretly hoped he would say that it wasn't needed because nothing dangerous was going on, but she was afraid that would not be the case.

Alexander picked up the vest. "I think it's best we take it with us. Hopefully we won't need it, but you can never be too prepared. Besides, it's military grade. If we leave it here it could fall into the wrong hands." He took a step toward the woman. "I'll help you get to the safehouse. If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a few questions on the way." He told her.

While Alexander told about the few questions he wanted to ask, the drizzle started to turn into rain and a cold wind blew through the air. The woman began to shiver, grabbed the man's arm and tightly held onto it, as she felt very shaky and weak. She felt nervous about the questions he wanted to ask and didn't want him to find out her memory was gone. She decided to take the upper hand and ignore his request: "T-thanks. What are you doing here?"

Alex smirked. "I could ask you the same question." He sighed and decided to answer the question. "I've spent the past few months searching for the facility. I can't work out where it is. I know it was somewhere in this area, but it's not easy to find. That's why I was here." He shifted the bullet proof vest in his free arm as he began walking with the woman. "First question for you, what's your name?"

The question 'What's your name?' echoed through her head and she started to feel anxious and panicky. She tried to suppress these feelings and wanted to know more about the facility he mentioned while they continued walking. "W-what facility?" she asked, again ignoring his question, while she started to shiver almost uncontrollably due to the cold weather.

Alex stopped. "Stop dodging questions." He said simply. "Asking your name isn't exactly a probing question, and I'm not going to tell you anything if you don't return the favour. I want to help you, but I'm not going to waste my time and effort on you if you can't give me a straight answer." He sighed. "Now, shall we try again?"

"I don't know my name," she replied. This was the truth and she couldn't hide from it any longer. "I don't know anything anymore..."

The woman didn't have the guts to look the man in his eyes, instead she looked at their feet while they'd stopped walking. "I don't know what happened to me or what is going on. Do you?!" she anxiously asked, now lifting her head and looking the man in his eyes. Meanwhile, it sounded as if a flying helicopter was nearing. The woman's frightened look turned in a worried one.

Alex shook his head. He knew the woman was telling the truth, he could just tell that about people. He cursed under his breath as the sound of the helicopter became louder. "Let's get out of here. We'll work things out once we're in the clear, come on." He went back to helping her move quickly toward the safe house. He wasn't sure they'd make it in time to avoid the helicopter though, and he didn't want to lead the authorities to his door...

The both of them started walking as fast as possible, but the shivering woman couldn’t bring up the energy to run. After some moments a big tree loomed out of the darkness, to which she pointed: “W-what if we hide underneath that tree, maybe the helicopter won't spot us?"

As soon as they got there, the gasping woman reached out to the tree to lean onto it. She realized she couldn’t stand anymore and let herself fall down on her hands and knees. The sound of the helicopter got louder and louder, and at one point it seemed like it was almost hovering above the duo. “I-I don’t feel good,” she said while breathing heavily.

Suddenly, for a split-second, various images of people and places filled her mind. They were memories and she knew them - she recognized them as her memories. She tried to grasp them, but they slipped through her fingers like mere fog.

The fog disappeared and what came in return was nothing but darkness. She only saw a shimmer of the man who helped her, but she couldn't reach out or speak to him. It felt like her will was locked into her mind.

Rain continued to pour out of the sky and a cold wind blew through the air, shaking the tree's leaves and branches wildly. Drops of water fell on the woman’s back, who'd stopped breathing heavily. She motionlessly stayed in her position and did nothing, while the sound of the rotating helicopter blades got louder and louder.