Remainers

The Things We Lost, Part 5

Caleb and Hope sat uneasily across from Aislinn. They had just learned a surprising fact: that Aislinn had been destroyed and restored from a backup. It was a sobering thought, knowing that, though the person herself seemed unbothered by this revelation.

"It's not a secret, you know," Aislinn said with a chuckle. "Course, it happened a long time ago, so I doubt anyone else knows much about it. Still, it was a pretty bad situation. A huge landslide basically left me buried alive under a sea of rocks for nearly a week. If they found me any later, it was highly possible that they wouldn't have been able to restore me at all.

"Well, things ended up working out somehow, but in truth, they sort of didn't. I had this sort of feeling, you know? That I wasn't the same person as the Aislinn who had died. Her memories and her life were logged into my head, but in truth, they never felt like my life. I didn't experience them the way she did, and when I remember her memories, I remember them like a movie, rather than something that happened to me."

The camp fell silent as Caleb and Hope absorbed Aislinn's words. Once she felt a decent amount of time had passed, Aislinn addressed Caleb again. "I hope you understand that Tia's feelings are a little more complex than just anger."

Caleb did understand. Essentially, Kyle and Ella, even with all their memories back, would never be the same people that she had met so very long ago. They would remember her, yes, but that would be it. There would not be the same sense of camaraderie and companionship that would have been there had they not been destroyed, and she either knew it instinctively, or she found out the hard way – by meeting them herself. It was to avoid such a thing happening that Caleb had distanced himself from the new Kyle and Ella, after all.

"I see," Caleb sighed as he stood up. "So that's what it's all about, is it?"

"You going somewhere?" Hope asked curiously.

"To bed. It's getting late after all."

"Caleb," Aislinn asked worriedly. "About what I've told you... did it make you understand a little bit more about Tia?"

"I suppose. But I have to be honest."

"What is it?"

"I may respect her work ethic and experience as a remainer, but she's acting far more immaturely than I could ever have expected."

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Morning came again, and Caleb and Hope began their morning as they always did. Well, to be honest, that wasn't exactly the case. Hope seemed a little cagier than she usually was, as if she was trying to give him space.

Well, it was true that he wasn't really himself that night. Normally, he'd have tried to be a bit more diplomatic, especially with people he wasn't more acquainted with. Many remainers had approached him with irritation and derision before, but he had always kept himself from losing his patience.

For some reason, things were different with Tia. Maybe it was her attitude, or maybe it was her strongly expressed youth, but for some reason, he could feel his emotions roused more easily when she was brought up. He didn't dislike her – or at the very least, he didn't think he disliked her – but even thinking about her made his mood sour.

If he thought about it, the last time he was this grumpy was when he was working with Hope. Back then, she was incredibly uncooperative, and her lack of concern for his general well-being definitely got on Caleb's nerves. That was a long time ago, however, and nowadays he got along with Hope fairly well, even if she was still fairly prickly. If he was honest, he doubted he ever got as frustrated with her as he was feeling with Tia.