Icarus

Part 2

Lyr ran and ran and didn’t stop until she found a monorail station. Digging a crumpled ride pass out of her jeans pocket, she scanned it under the grimy silver Scanlamp at the terminal and jumped on the train right before the doors closed. This late at night, the train was nearly empty. The automated, self-driving monorails ran at all hours on three sets of tracks, one underground, one aboveground, and one high in the air weaving through the city’s skyscrapers. Roger had told her that. He had every single bit of engineering or tech knowledge about Port Nerona memorized. He would blush adorably and spout facts whenever he got nervous, which was a lot. And now Lyr was never going to see him again.
She pulled up the hood of her sweater to hide her face as tears stung her eyes. She’d been silly to run off like that, but she sure as hell wasn’t going back now. It was better this way. Being alone. Nobody to fight with, nobody to wait for, nobody who she had to protect from her mysterious past.
Cautiously, Lyr pulled up her sleeve, revealing the twisted, bulging network of burn scars on her forearm. Her other arm was just like it, as was her back, her neck, and her shoulders. They were completely healed now, not new and tender like a few months ago, when she’d first been taken in by Roger’s gang after they found her washed up on the coast near the city. Well, he called it a gang.
It seemed more like a family to Lyr. They’d all been worried about her, rushing to care for her as soon as she woke up, and then trying to help her get her memories back when it was clear she had none.

She still hadn’t remembered anything from before they found her. Although, since her wanted poster had started appearing all over the city’s public message screens, she wasn’t sure she wanted to remember. Lyr sighed, leaned her head back against the train’s vibrating metal wall, and closed her eyes.
It was just for a moment, she told herself. Just to have some processing time.