Remainers

A Fractured Mind, Part 8

In the morning, Eric found himself waking up earlier than Caleb and Hope did. He didn't want to disturb their sleep, so he took the time to take another walk through the remains of his hometown. He had seen much of it last night, but only in the dark of the moon, and there was still one place he had yet to actually find.

As he traveled north towards the end of town, memories of his past life began to bubble up to the surface once again. He found old parks he played in as a child, stores he used to frequent with his family, and houses of old friends he once visited frequently. He could almost perfectly map this area by memory, but he still couldn't find his old childhood home, which he lived in until the effects of the war forced him and his family to shelter in the church.

To be honest, there was nothing in particular he wanted to find at his childhood home, but it was like a hole in his memory that he just couldn't fill in. He wondered if it was truly impossible for him to remember without having his memory backup reinstalled back at a facility. But if he went back now, who knew how long it would take to get back here? Who knew if he even wanted to come back here once he regained his memories?

As he pondered this, he suddenly heard his name being called in the distance. He turned around to see Caleb and Hope walking towards him. He waited for them to arrive before explaining what he was doing all the way out here.

"I don't suppose we could stay just a little bit longer?" Eric asked hopefully. "I won't ask for more than a day from you."

"That's fine," Caleb replied. "But do you really remember? All the places and buildings that used to be here?"

"Yeah. I mean, it's not like I'm regaining lost memories," Eric explained. "It's more that the memories that were already loaded into me during the backup are popping up again."

"You bounce back quick," Hope observed curiously. "I thought finding out you were a remainer would shock you a little more than that."

"Maybe it's because of that, but it didn't really affect me that much," Eric remarked. "Either way, there's nothing I can do by moping about it."

Hope hummed, somewhat impressed. "In any case, can you really recognize where everything used to be? It seems a little far-fetched, in my opinion."

"Sort of. It's a little hazy, but it's as if my brain is superimposing images of the past onto the present. Is that something nanomachine brains can do?"

Hope shrugged. "No idea. It's not like remainers understand the inner workings of our bodies all that much. Nanomachine brains are the biggest mystery."

"I thought we had knowledge banks installed to give us information on all kinds of subjects."

"Sure, but our information processing is still around the level of a normal human's. We can't fully absorb that information or keep it in short-term memory for long."

"That's a shame," Eric said with a sigh. "To be honest, I think the biggest reason I can't find my childhood home is that even back then it was a hazy memory for me. After all, I haven't seen it in years at this point. It might even not exist anymore."

"Of course it doesn't exist anymore. It's been hundreds of years."

"Right. ...I forgot about that."

"Don't think too much about the house itself," Caleb suggested. "Focus on the memory instead. If you can find the location of where the house used to be, your memories should fill in the gaps."

Eric nodded. Caleb was right. He didn't need to focus on the details. What was more important was being able to visualize it. He took a moment to process the area he was currently standing in. He could remember that it was an old residential area where he used to live in, and while the details were a little vague, he felt that this was the road he used to take to walk to school. He took a moment to re-orient himself towards the north, aided by the rising sun, and began walking down the road.