Agent 23

Standing on the sidewalk with nothing but a name wasn't the most ideal way to start the first afternoon of her new life. The Doctors had been kind during her final appointment, offering platitudes of how the last seven years of her memories ought to come back one day - 'just give it time'. As if there was anything else they could say. She had given it time. Three months of in and out patient care. All for naught. Her life was a novel with half the chapters torn out. And there wasn't so much as a Post-It note stuck on the back cover to give her a hint of that missing time.

 Here is what she knew for certain: her name was Joanna Collins, she was twenty-five years old, and according to the business card in her purse (who even used business cards anymore? It was the twenty first century for God's sake - how pretentious was she?) she worked for the Atlas Corporation. What was the Atlas Corporation? She had no clue. And if she was honest, she didn't particularly care. Three months (or more - amnesia, how was she supposed to know the exact time frame) she had been away from that place, and not so much as a Get Well Soon card, nor a single visitor claiming to be a colleague or an old friend from work. Clearly she was well rid of them. Soulless bastards. If they didn't care about her, then she could care less about them. Frankly, working at one of many faceless corporations hadn't been her plan for herself when she'd entered University. Like every eighteen year old, she was going to get her degree then travel the world. She had wanted to see Paris and Rome, New York and LA. Being stuck riding a desk until she retired was not going to do it for her. 

At least not then. 

What exactly had happened between then and now, Joanna literally had no idea, but maybe this amnesia lark was just the thing she needed to get her life back on track. Or, at least that was what she told herself at night, when the weight of everything she couldn't remember weighed heavily upon her heart. When those niggling questions came whispering into her ears. Was there truly no one left in her life who cared about her? Had she still managed to drive off every single decent man who showed a flickering interest in her? And when had she become boring? Because she had to be pretty darn boring not to have even a single friend crawling out of the woodwork to give her a hint of her past.

Joanna pushed those depressing thoughts aside. Now really was not the time to dwell on the stuff she could not remember. She had a plan. Go grocery shopping, go home, and sort out her life. Simple, manageable goals. She already had amnesia. Her parents had died when she was five. She had no siblings, and clearly no significant other to speak of (unless he was the biggest jerk in the world and had blown her off when she lost her memory). Surely nothing else could possibly go wrong in her life right now. All she needed was a taxi, that had to be an easy thing to get in this day and age.

Great. Just great. Rush hour traffic, and no taxi in sight. Not even an Uber driver prepared to brave the congestion. It was at times like this that Joanna really hated living in the city. Ugh. Joanna growled under her breath. Since becoming an amnesiac, things had really not been going well in her life. Although, she supposed things had never really been tickety-boo, but now it just felt like the universe was just kicking her when she was down. If she believed in God (which unless she had had a change of heart in the last seven years, she did not), she would think the Big Guy had it out for her. Then again, this might just be the shitty hand life had dealt her. And wasn't that just her luck?

Joanna had just determined to try and find a bus somewhere in this godforsaken congestion, when a shockingly loud chime sounded from her handbag. Joanna frowned in confusion. The only person who had texted her in the last three months was a persistent nurse named Kelly, who had taken it upon herself to get Joanna up to speed with the trials of modern life. But Kelly had personalised her text alert tone after their second week of texting, so it definitely wasn't her that had caused that jarring sound. A faint flicker of hope kindled to life in her heart. Could this be someone from her past? Was she possibly going to find something to hold onto? Might this be the key to unlocking what she had forgotten?

At heart, Joanna had always been a realist, and didn't really believe that one text message could change her life forever. Oh, but that didn't stop that tenacious flicker of hope from bursting into life. Slowly, oh so tentatively, Joanna pulled her phone from her bag. A press of her thumb cleared the lock-screen. And there it was. Her message. Eyelids closed over suddenly misty olive eyes, Joanna allowing herself that single moment of hope before her practical side pushed it away. It was only a text message. A text message would not change her life.

"What the hell?" Joanna opened her eyes and realised just how wrong she was.

There they were. Those six simple but oh so complicated words staring up at her from the screen. Mocking her naivety. Taunting her with all the things she didn't remember and could not now be expected to know.

Agent 23, you have been activated.

Strange though it may seem, only one thought sprang into Joanna's head as she stared at those words. This was a really awful time to have amnesia.