Read Online Someone to Remember Me: The Anniversary Edition by Brendan Mancilla - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Brendan Mancilla
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occupied?”
“Yes. Wasn’t yours?” inquired Eight.
“No. My memory is from before the city even stood. I think I was helping to build it.”
“That’s not possible,” Twenty scoffed. “I mean, how would you have survived that long? You just said this city is hundreds and hundreds of years old. If you were there when they were building it, wouldn’t that make you incredibly old?”
“I’m not claiming that I can make sense of the situation,” Null defended herself, shrugging with indifference. “I’m telling you what I remember.”
“There!” Seven pointed, interrupting the conversation.
A web of railway lines and elevated roads began to converge. Pressing on, their path joined with dozens of other rail platforms until they merged into one elaborate transit station, with multitiered platforms and complicated stairwells. They wandered the darkened station, too hesitant to touch anything, until Null discovered the route to the main concourse. It was in ruins, in worse condition than anything she’d encountered yet. Whole sections of the ceiling were gone, the windows were blown out, and she deduced that the black smears on the floor were burns.
Narrating this aloud helped to ease the nerves of her traveling companions. Null suspected that Eight could piece the clues together well enough on her own, but Seven and Twenty were not as talented. Seven nodded, respectfully accepting the information. Twenty rolled his eyes and snorted, discarding the fate suffered by the building for weak assurances that they weren’t in mortal peril.
“I guess that’s what caused it,” Eight declared, having reached the entryway before the rest of the group. “This is the city center.”
Null regretted her decision to come to the city’s heart. For every untouched, neglected, and abandoned building across Haven she had managed to bring herself and three others to the only place that showed intense signs of warfare. A civic complex, largely demolished by an explosion from its center, greeted the visitors. The central building, visibly similar to an enormous disc, had crashed into the complex below.
“It looks like that building fell out of the sky,” Eight gestured at the lopsided building, petulantly sticking out of the ground.
“Fell from the sky?” Seven insisted. “None of the other buildings fly. How did that one do it?”
“Flying buildings, angry monsters, abandoned city...please, can’t we go see more of it?” Twenty drawled.
“What did the sign call this place?” Eight asked Null.
“The Voice. I assumed that it was their representative assembly. Their democratic stadium,” she conjectured, burdened by disappointment.
“I don’t think we’re going to find any records in there,” an embittered Seven rightly observed.
Overwhelmed by her failure, Null lamented, “I’m so sorry. I thought we might find answers here. I didn’t know about the monster, I didn’t know that it would look like this.”
Her voice cracked and her eyes reddened as the seriousness of their plight devoured her. Without records, they lacked information. That meant that they didn’t have any idea where to begin searching for food, shelter, or an escape from Haven. Their deaths, she concluded, were reasonably assured.
“We could always try the Great Library.”
Null, Eight, and Seven turned to face Twenty. He had begrudgingly issued the statement and from his defiant glare he regretted it.
“The Great Library?” Eight challenged him.
“It was on that big glowing sign you and Seven turned on, remember? I saw it,” he pointed at his eyes. “There’s a library due west of here.”
“You saw that and you didn’t bother mentioning it?”
“Would you have listened if I had?” Twenty challenged Eight.
A speechless Eight gestured for Twenty to lead the way. Gladly putting a healthy distance between himself and the three people that he, for once, held in his power, Twenty led them towards a western transit
“Yes. Wasn’t yours?” inquired Eight.
“No. My memory is from before the city even stood. I think I was helping to build it.”
“That’s not possible,” Twenty scoffed. “I mean, how would you have survived that long? You just said this city is hundreds and hundreds of years old. If you were there when they were building it, wouldn’t that make you incredibly old?”
“I’m not claiming that I can make sense of the situation,” Null defended herself, shrugging with indifference. “I’m telling you what I remember.”
“There!” Seven pointed, interrupting the conversation.
A web of railway lines and elevated roads began to converge. Pressing on, their path joined with dozens of other rail platforms until they merged into one elaborate transit station, with multitiered platforms and complicated stairwells. They wandered the darkened station, too hesitant to touch anything, until Null discovered the route to the main concourse. It was in ruins, in worse condition than anything she’d encountered yet. Whole sections of the ceiling were gone, the windows were blown out, and she deduced that the black smears on the floor were burns.
Narrating this aloud helped to ease the nerves of her traveling companions. Null suspected that Eight could piece the clues together well enough on her own, but Seven and Twenty were not as talented. Seven nodded, respectfully accepting the information. Twenty rolled his eyes and snorted, discarding the fate suffered by the building for weak assurances that they weren’t in mortal peril.
“I guess that’s what caused it,” Eight declared, having reached the entryway before the rest of the group. “This is the city center.”
Null regretted her decision to come to the city’s heart. For every untouched, neglected, and abandoned building across Haven she had managed to bring herself and three others to the only place that showed intense signs of warfare. A civic complex, largely demolished by an explosion from its center, greeted the visitors. The central building, visibly similar to an enormous disc, had crashed into the complex below.
“It looks like that building fell out of the sky,” Eight gestured at the lopsided building, petulantly sticking out of the ground.
“Fell from the sky?” Seven insisted. “None of the other buildings fly. How did that one do it?”
“Flying buildings, angry monsters, abandoned city...please, can’t we go see more of it?” Twenty drawled.
“What did the sign call this place?” Eight asked Null.
“The Voice. I assumed that it was their representative assembly. Their democratic stadium,” she conjectured, burdened by disappointment.
“I don’t think we’re going to find any records in there,” an embittered Seven rightly observed.
Overwhelmed by her failure, Null lamented, “I’m so sorry. I thought we might find answers here. I didn’t know about the monster, I didn’t know that it would look like this.”
Her voice cracked and her eyes reddened as the seriousness of their plight devoured her. Without records, they lacked information. That meant that they didn’t have any idea where to begin searching for food, shelter, or an escape from Haven. Their deaths, she concluded, were reasonably assured.
“We could always try the Great Library.”
Null, Eight, and Seven turned to face Twenty. He had begrudgingly issued the statement and from his defiant glare he regretted it.
“The Great Library?” Eight challenged him.
“It was on that big glowing sign you and Seven turned on, remember? I saw it,” he pointed at his eyes. “There’s a library due west of here.”
“You saw that and you didn’t bother mentioning it?”
“Would you have listened if I had?” Twenty challenged Eight.
A speechless Eight gestured for Twenty to lead the way. Gladly putting a healthy distance between himself and the three people that he, for once, held in his power, Twenty led them towards a western transit
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