UNREMEMBERED (Unremembered Trilogy #1)

0: Awake

The water is cold and ruthless, lapping against my cheek. Slapping me awake. Filling my mouth with the taste of salty solitude.

I cough violently and open my eyes, taking in the world around me. Seeing it for the first time. It’s not a world I recog­nize. I gaze upon miles and miles of dark blue ocean. Peppered with large fl oating objects. Metal. Like the one I’m lying on.

And then there are the bodies.

I count twenty in my vicinity. Two within reach. Although I don’t dare try.

Their lifeless faces are frozen in terror. Their eyes are empty. Staring into nothing.

I press a palm to my throbbing temple. My head feels like it’s made out of stone. Everything is drab and heavy and seen through a filthy lens. I close my eyes tight.

The voices come an hour later. After night has fallen. I hear them cutting through the darkness. It takes them forever to reach me. A light breaks through the dense fog and blinds me.

No one speaks as they pull me from the water. No one has to. It’s clear from the looks on their faces they did not expect to fi nd me.

They did not expect to fi nd anyone.

Alive, that is.

I’m wrapped in a thick blue blanket and laid on a hard wooden surface. That’s when the questions start. Questions that make my brain hurt.

“What is your name?”

I wish I knew.

“Do you know where you are?”

I glance upward and find nothing but a sea of unhelpful stars.

“Do you remember boarding the plane?”

My brain twists in agony, causing my forehead to throb again.

Plane. Plane. What is a plane?

And then comes the question that awakens something deep within me. That ignites a tiny, faraway spark somewhere in the back corners of my mind.

“Do you know what year it is?”

I blink, feeling a small glimmer of hope surge from the pit of my stomach.

“1609,” I whisper with unfounded conviction. And then I pass out.