Remember Me (ONC2020) ✔

Chapter 1 (new)

Sixteen years later,

Where in Caldozza was she?

Messita's boat was scheduled to return an hour ago, yet the only people standing past the gates at the riverside docks were the Lower guards with their navy-blue uniforms. Pawns of the Uppers.

An onlooker elbowed Runan in the side as she squeezed through the crowd toward the locked gates. The throng of sweaty bodies surrounding him exacerbated the early summer heat. Usually, he'd wait away from this madness, but the boat rarely arrived this late, and he was desperate for any shred of information.

"Have you heard from them?" A woman yelled at the guards.

One approached, placing his hand over the holster of his pistol. "No ma'am. Step back from the gates, all of you!"

People barged into Runan, driving him to retreat to the rocks by the river with the fishermen.

Had something happened to a crew member?

It wouldn't be Messita. She was water-savvy and clever, but her colleagues could be reckless. They pulled more dangerous and thrilling stunts each time to earn the most for the memories they sold from these adventures to the greedy Uppers, who craved the adrenaline rush without endangerment. Maybe a newbie got injured.

Heavy footsteps approached. "Waiting for Ita?" A man whose muscled arms and torso could swallow a wolf whole stood clutching a bouquet of pink Rewa flowers, dwarfed by his hands.

"Yeah, heard anything from Leora?"

Kendros pulled a phone from his pocket to check and shook his head. "It's not like her."

The muscles in Runan's stomach tightened, but he calmed them with a deep breath.

It's nothing.

"They're probably fine. You know, Ita, just 'one' more time, so it was perfect."

Ita had said this was a big job, with a generous enough payment to end their financial hardship after last year's drought hit the farm hard. They were supposed to celebrate it; otherwise, he'd be spraying crops. He had gritted his teeth not to talk her out of the excursion. Hopefully, she was right and this would be the last time those Mem-Stem leeches touched her memories.

"Every time Lee goes, I risk raising a daughter without a mother." Kendos' voice lowered to a whisper as he scanned the crowd. "Haven't the Uppers taken enough? Is there nothing we can keep for ourselves?"

Narrowing his eyes at the Lower guards parading as superiors, Runan spat on the ground. "We support the effort to protect Caldozza from the Ferron with our water, minerals, power, and food." His lip curled. "Until our bones break through our skin." Each year, the slimming Lowers' hunger grew, making his words more of an eventuality than an exaggeration.

Kendros eyed the guard on their side of the gates, who'd taken interest in their conversation, and his lips remained pressed together. A heavy fine and weeks of unpaid labour punished any radicals—Ferron sympathizers, the Uppers and guards called them. If Runan didn't have Messita or the family farm to jeopardize, it would be worth the risk.

Whispers travelled through the crowd as the river sputtered out a bright red raft from the bend. Cheering overpowered the guards' shouts.

"We love you, Jurah!" cried a group of teen girls.

They were out of luck. The man only had eyes for Messita. He had roped her into this mess of memory snatching by filling her head with dreams of a wealthy life together, by Lower-Caldozza's standards. Runan still hadn't forgiven his long-time friend for endangering his sister for this nonsense.