Featherfall - Midnight Morning Vol. 1

Chapter 1: Old Things New Again

I woke abruptly to the sound of clanking metals. To my immediate discovery, I realised that I was surrounded by sacks of grain and wooden walls in some sort of a wooden box. A sheet of canvas in a shade of light brown hung over my head, with light glimmering through small holes on said sheet. As I sat myself upright against the coarse texture of the sacks, I found myself in an old tattered grey jumper suit, of which I found no recollection of. "Urgh- ", I groaned rubbing my eyes. "Where the heck am I?" I thought to myself silently.

Looking to my left, I found myself in the company of a young woman, perhaps no older than 20. She laid unmoving, and I thought her to be dead, if not for the constant rhythmic movement of her chest. She was also clad in a grey jumpsuit much like my own.

I looked up, and noticed shadows of trees on the canvas, indicating movement, of which, constant bumping left and right was confirmation. I could guess that I was in an old fashioned cart. The cart shacked too much for me to stand up, so I looked out a small hole in the cloth I found right beside my head.

"I thought so." I said. "We're moving." The trees above were gone by now. "Spoke too soon" I thought. We came to a stop and I could hear horses neigh. I heard another voice.
"Whoa! Steady now, easy. Easy."
I heard footsteps. Confused and scared, I remained silent, but alert. My eyes darted point to point.
"Ah your awake!" A man lifted up the cloth from one end of the cart and gazed in. He had a light smile, old, yet cheerful. This sight eased me.
"Who are you? Where am I?"
"The name's Professor Weathers. Now, I know your confused, it's understandable. I'll explain things later. First let's get you and Lena into the shack."
Before I could ask anything else, he reached in and placed his hand on my back, giving me a pat while smiling all so gently.

He left for a while but came back with 2 wheel chairs. He wrapped the girl's arm around his neck and sat her down in one of the wheel chairs. Doing the same for me, he said,
"How are you feeling? Can you remember anything?"
I felt my head pounding. My left arm was numb.
"I can remember things, math, science, all of that, but," I paused.
"Yes?"
"I don't seem to remember anything that's happened"
"Well," he looked worried.

He started pushing the wheel chair and I could see a wooden house with run-down steel fences, wires cris-crossing to form diamond patterns, completely surrounding the house, and what looked like a TV tower planted directly next to the house. A few walls scattered across the area. I looked back and noticed we were on a hill and there was a small town bellow us.
"Professor!" I heard another voice from inside house. "Your back!"

A young man whom looked younger than I was ran over and took over the professor.

"Kyler, my boy! Would you be so kind as to help your old man get his... patient back into the house?" The boy nodded before grasping the bars on my wheelchair and started at a push.
"At it chap!" He said with a smile. The professor then went back to the young lady, still unconscious.
"So" I started. "your Kyler?"
"Yeah. And you?"
"Um... I don't actually know" I notice I had a name tag on the left of my chest, but shredded. At least I know my name starts with 'A'
"Oh... your one of those, huh?" Kyler chuckled.

He tilted the chair back to get me up the steps. As I entered through the door frame, I saw pictures hanging on the walls, levers sticking out each surface. There was a TV and couch and a few chairs. It looked nice and warm. The walls were covered in a light green wallpaper and emerald stripes. Kyler turned me into a doorway left of the room, past stairs that led up to another level. It turned out to be an infirmary. Kyler stopped me there. It made me wonder where Kyler was when the professor went to get the wheel chairs. Could he, maybe, have been waiting somewhere up the stairs? Or perhaps he was sitting in the kitchen, but it wouldn't make much sense as there was nothing to do there, not a cup of tea, no food on the dining table, nothing. The dishes were all kept, he couldn't have been washing, or at least something would be out on the rack drying. Whatever the case, what could a boy have been doing to spot the professor? There wasn't much of a way to see us. From outside, I saw nothing to hint a way he spotted us. I guess I'd not find out anytime soon.

The professor entered the room with the young girl, whom, I think her name was something along the lines of Lena. "Kyler, my boy, could you help me unload the crates from the cart?"
"Alright"
As Kyler left the room, the professor moved the woman onto the bed, and kept aside the wheel chair.
"Do you know your name?" I was baffled by the question not knowing how I should phrase my desperation for the very knowledge of my own name. I felt a sharp sensation piercing through my head. I placed my hand on my head, feeling myself heat up. I seemed to not remember my name at all. My heart pounded as I opened my mouth to ask, "who am I?!"

When the professor approached me, I was still trying to remember the past. I stood by the balcony looking out at the town below.
"They called you Phoenix back then, but, well..." He slowed down and stroked his facial hairs.
"well I know my name starts with 'A', so that's a start..."

"I think Ace suits you best."
"Ace?" I thought "hmm seems nice"
"Welcome to Project ICE, or, Intense Character Escalation, because most of you cant remember shit. That's Lena, and I'm sure you've met Kyler."

He then went on to explain that we were experiments by the KSH. "From what I understood, they were" I paused "Wrong.", I muttered to myself. Kradön's Sacred House. No one knows what happened to us, and I intend to find out. Prof Weathers said that he wanted to make us human again, to enjoy life. So he took us in. Unfortunately, only 5 of us ever made it here, including myself.
"So, what's your plan?"
"I'm still thinking what to do, professor." I looked down.

I walked down the stairs hearing every crack and creek of the wooden steps to then be interfered by Kyler whom came out of a room beside the infirmary, armed with an aluminium bow and a bag full of arrows on his shoulder.
We made eye contact, but it only made things more awkward between us.
"Hey... Ace?"
"Hello... umm..." There was a second of silence but it felt like forever. Kyler saved us by walking out the back door, giving me time to breath after the awkward encounter, but what was he doing with the bow and arrows? Naturally, my curiosity carried me out, into the backyard.

There were several targets placed on the fence with wooden boards behind them. Kyler had his gear on, arm guards and all. He knocked an arrow in place, raising his bow into position, pulling back on the string and arrow. Holding his breath, he used his waist as a pivot to zero in on the bullseye, standing at about the length of 10 meters. I decided not to interrupt and watched as he released the arrow, and in a split second, the head pierced the first target and was stuck in the wood behind it. It was now that I realized he had 4 arrows in his hand with the bow, one for each target, and using that set up, he had the option of quick loading and fired the arrows on oscillation.

"Woah, nice one Kyler!" I exclaimed, clapping. I watched as dust settled down onto the grass, not too far from where the arrows had made their mark.
"Thanks." Replied Kyler, whom was focused on where the arrows hit. We began to talk about how he had skills with the bow, and how he was trained by the professor. Slowly, our conversation transitioned to me.
"Your joking? Your saying, if I have skills with any weapon, the professor would fucking train me?!"
"Yep. However, we must give good reason for why we want to learn certain styles with certain weapons, and our devotion is considered too."

[\} thanks for reading the first chapter!