Remainers

Lost Mementos of the Past, Part 3

The sun began to disappear over the horizon, with the city quickly darkening in response. Caleb saw that and knew that he had come at a bit of an impasse: he needed to set up camp as soon as possible, but there was no way Mina would be willing to stop, not when her night vision allowed her to keep searching late into the night. Even so, he needed to broach the subject, since he certainly couldn't go without rest.

Surprisingly, she was quite understanding about his particular situation. "Sure, I don't mind taking a rest for a bit. I can't see much when it gets dark, anyway."

"Really? Even though you have night vision?"

"Night vision doesn't show you everything. Without light to reflect color, things like patterns and imagery don't show up well. I want to conserve my flashlight's batteries, too, so I'm trying not to rush in my search."

"I see. Then shall we set up camp?"

Mina nodded as she and Caleb walked over to the ruins of a nearby building, where they sent up tents and made space for a fire. Once he started up a fire, Caleb began biting into some dried fish. As he ate, he noticed Mina staring at him with a curious look on her face.

"What's wrong? Is there something on my face?"

"No, sorry. I'd heard the rumors of a human remainer going around recently, but I didn't think I'd ever meet you. Especially like this."

"Word gets around even with us spread all over the world, huh? Still, I'm surprised you didn't know about me already. Every remainer I meet tends to treat me like some kind of antique."

"I don't tend to talk much with the others. I was always a loner, and becoming a remainer didn't change that."

"You're like that even with your brother?"

Mina seemed uncomfortable. "Well, we're not that close. We've got different mothers and all. Things are complicated between us."

Caleb seemed confused. "What does that mean? If you're family, you're family right?"

Mina chuckled. "Your upbringing's a little different, huh? You might be good at remainer work, but it seems like you don't understand basic subtleties."

"What's that mean?" Caleb said with a raised eyebrow. "It sounds like you're making fun of me."

Mina laughed and gave Caleb's head a rough tousle. "I'm saying you've still got a lot of growing to do, okay?"

A little while later, Caleb decided to go to bed, but not before making Mina promise not to leave without him. As he went to sleep, he thought about Kai and what he had asked him to do. What did keeping an eye on her entail? Did he want Caleb to help Mina with her search, or did he want him to stop her before she got into trouble for going off on her own? He just didn't know what Kai wanted himself.

Unfortunately for him, morning came without him ever reaching an answer. As he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and climbed out of the tent, he noticed Mina coming out of hers as well. After eating a quick breakfast, the two set out to continue their search of the city.

With a new day, Mina decided to check out a separate part of the city she hadn't searched yet. Mina noticed Caleb take out the makeshift map he was using to navigate, and after perusing it with amusement, she pointed to a location on the map to show him where she wanted to go. With a concrete understanding of his destination, Caleb followed Mina through the ruined city streets.

After a short hour of travel, Caleb and Mina arrived at the destination in question, which looked like what used to be a large business district with the same sky-high buildings that seemed to reach into the sky. To Caleb, it looked about the same as every other part of the city he had explored so far, but Mina in particular seemed highly familiar with the area.