Out of the Shell

5 - Underneath

December 6, 2404
21:00

Debating whether or not to return to the house with Harper was a hard choice. I decided not to, after all, I needed to figure out what was going on.

The air outside was crisp and cold. Luckily, I had brought a coat with me, along with a blanket Brandon gave me. Walking for about thirty minutes in the empty streets got me nowhere. I was getting very cold and exhausted. Quickly looking for a place to settle, I looked up at the dark black-grey sky, realizing that it was getting pretty late. I was rather tired.

I stumbled upon a place with tall, frozen grass. I noticed an opening in the grass. Heading closer to it, I felt a sense of warmth and happiness. There was a tree stump in the middle of the circular area, surrounded by grass, with a great view of the ocean, which looked extremely cold.

Sitting down next to the tree stump, I wrapped myself inside my blanket and tightened up my coat. I took a deep breath, watching the frozen water vapor respirate in and out of my mouth. The weather only got colder, but I was staying warm enough. I laid back, resting my head on the ground, and closed my eyes.

"Who am I?" I quietly whispered to myself. "Where do I belong?" The more important thing on my mind was "Who attacked me? Did someone really attack me?" I wouldn't call Brandon a liar, after all, he is doing the best he can to support me in my long journey of quandaries.

I relaxed my body and drifted into sleep.

-----

December 7, 2404

04:15

Suddenly awoken by an excruciating sensation of cold, I looked around me, but immediately stopped breathing once I found out where I was. Kicking my feet back and forth and flailing my arms, my heart rate quickly rose to a dangerous level - I was underwater. It was pitch black. Not knowing how to swim, I began kicking myself upward, feeling the water rush through my fingers and legs. Holding my right arm upward, I started swatting at the water to see if I could find the surface. Rising a little higher, I could feel my fingers passing through the top of the water. I swatted and kicked, now choking on the water trying to get out. I lowered my arm and gave up, thinking that was it.

Closing my eyes, I felt something grab on my arm and pull me. I opened my eyes and grabbed it, and pulled myself upward. My head escaped the water, and I inhaled very deeply, followed by a series of intense coughing. My body was pulled up onto the shore, and I laid down, still violently coughing.

"You... okay?" Someone asked. Their voice was smooth with a light accent and moderate pitch.

I looked up. It was a boy with dark skin and short black hair. "No," I said. I was shivering way too much and felt completely frozen. "What... who... what happened? How did I end up in there?"

The boy shrugged. "Rise in water level. Always happens at night 'round this shoreline." He lifted me up and put a dry blanket on me, and began to start a fire. "Mind telling me your name?" A small spark of light was emitted, and an ember began to grow.

"F-404."

He shot a surprised look at me. "You're from the Institute, too?"

"Yeah." I was still shivering violently.

"Same here," he began while watching the fire grow larger. "I'm M-263."

I felt relieved that a fellow Institute acquaintance was accompanying me. He looked at me and asked, "Why were you at the Institute?"

I stared into the fire, shivering less now, and shrugged. "I could tell you everything that could have happened."

"Do you mind?"

I shook my head. "The Institute believes I was attacked through a network, which sent strong electronic pulses directly towards me while I was backing up my IDM - well, not backing up, but..."

"But what?" He looked very interested in what I had to say.

I moved my wet hair out of my face. "The only thing I remember that night was that I was trying to give everyone my IDM. There's this girl, her name is Harper. She told me that I wanted to give my knowledge to everyone in Sunset."

M-263 slowly nodded his head. "You might think I'm lying, but that's exactly why I was in the Institute."

I looked at him. "Really?"

He nodded again. "Everyone kept trying to convince me that my memory was erased, but the Institute told me that's not true. This all happened four months ago, anyway."

I sat closer to the fire. The shivering had stopped. Not knowing what to say, I sat quietly for a few seconds.

"Do your eyes always do that?" M-263 asked.

Confused, I turned to him. "What?"

"Your eyes." He grabbed a broken shard of reflective glass. "Look."

I looked into the glass shard. My eyes were flickering a light blue. "Oh," I looked closer. "That's... I don't know what that is."

"Some marvelous eyes you've got there," he said, setting the glass back down on the ground. "Not everyone has a gift like that."

"Gift?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

"My mentor at the Institute did the same thing. His eyes would blink like that." He added more items to the fire, causing it to grow larger. "He said it happens when he's inspired. It's an indicator that your IDM is becoming mentally stronger, as well as yourself."

I froze in place, thinking about what M-263 said. "Hey," I said. He looked at me. "Do people ever call you something else? Like a nickname?"

He paused. "No."

"Can I give you one?"

He smiled. "Sure."

"I'll call you..." I looked up, thinking of a name I could call the boy who looked a little older than I did. After all, I did look like a six-year-old. I felt like it, too. "Tony."

"Tony. Tony." He said, and smiled. "I like that."

I smiled back at him. He asked "What about you, F-404? Do you have a nickname?"

I nodded. "Amielle." Thinking back to when I was talking with Harper and everyone else at that house, I remembered something. "Valentine. Amielle Valentine."

"Ami... Elle. That's a good name." Tony said. "I like it a lot."

Looking down at the water, I smiled. I could have died today, I thought. If it weren't for Tony, I would have drowned or perished from the harshly cold weather. All I could have said at this point was: I'm glad to be lucky.

But what kind of luck did I really need at this point?