Gas Masks

Disoriented

The grayish hazy-brown sky drives to my attention of sight, also the rapid noises of gun shots that are like fireworks bursting into the air. The sound of tanks exploding, poeple yelling in agony, and blood splattering occur around me.

Am I in hell? I ask myself. To be completely honest, I have no clue where I am. I look to my right and see a store which is all destroyed with glass parts shattered around it.

Another loud boom of a gunshots roar through the surface, and then a million of them all at once. I'm on what seems to be concrete floor, not being able to getting up.

I don't remember the day before yesterday, or the day before that. I don't even remember what I did the last couple of years. Blood is leaking down to the side of my head. Ringing noises begin to fill my ears.

Have I been in a coma? Dreaming?

No, this was all real, I could feel the burning sensation of the cut on my head once again. I flinch and groan. I look at my wrists, they have been dirtied, also having a rare glowing device attached to my hand.

Still in a lying postion, I see an upside-down boy with a gas mask, talking to me, I can't hear him at all. My ears are still ringing.

"AMAYA CHIYOKO, GET UP NOW." The boy says exclaiming, "DO YOU WANT TO DIE?!"

Amaya...Amaya... sounds roughly familiar, that's my name, isn't it? How does he know me? Who is he?

I sit up, I stare at him for a couple of seconds. His features, handsome and completely clean.

He harshly grabbed my arms and forced me to run with him. I feel a horrible sprain down in my left knee and a bleeding cut on one of my thighs. I stumble when I first walked but then minded myself what to do when running. It's an ongoing pattern.

I sprinted where ever he sprinted to as a rocket launcher almost hits us. I darted my eyes to the side of me and saw another shop, but this time it still had a surviving glass pane stuck to it.

I examine myself at the window's reflection and I see myself with a gask mask, pulled up hair and torn up jeans. Gadgets were all around my waste and arms. I take another glance and see a shadowy, black gas figure swallowing a person whole with blood being spurrted out. My eyes grew big with dread.

We head to what looks like an organized office building, the only construction that hasn't been demolished. The architecture is gaurded with many individuals that wore gas masks. On top of the building were also snipers shooting poeple from afar.

"Nice to see you again Mrs. Chiyoko." A person bows to me. Poeple wearing gas masks, all of them. All of them unique.

A man with a lab coat took my finger and pricked it with a futuristic device. I flinched.

"This way." The boy says shoving me harshly to the direction to a door.

I looked back at him. Why is he like this? Personality? His expression was filled with sorrows, and sad emotions.

I steped over the threshold of the door he leaded me to. Everything was white, the chairs, the floors, the ceiling. Everything. Chairs were centered in the middle of the room that surrounded a white coffee table.

A woman was waiting in the middle of the room sitting on one of the chairs. She gave me a symbol as an invitation to sit on the one infront of her. I did what she wanted me to do and sat down, cautious that I might smudge the chair with my dirtiness. Then the woman speaks.

"Nice to see you again, Amaya Chiyoko." She says with a grin across her face.

Another man with a lab coat was at my side with various tools set aside on a tray. He grasped the tweezers and attempts to yank an object from an open wound on my shoulder blade.

I screamed in pain from the incredible burning sensation as he drove the tool into my flesh. Then he pulls a silver bullet out.

As the man wiped the bloody bullet with a handkerchief, he hands it to the woman.

"This bullet that had infected your shoulder," she says as she examines it looking amused, "is the type of bullet that can wipe your memories out in an instant."

I panicked, that was something that I didn't want to hear.

"A-about that young man over there that just took me in..." I stammered a bit, "why is he so... frustrated?"

First he had saved me but then made rude actions towards me like he wanted to kill me for sure.

"Kiyoshi?" She laughs, "You knew him, and he knew you best, he's feeling unfortunate because he saw you got shot, he knew what was going to happen to you."

I daze out the window behind me in the back of the room and I see him looking away.

"Now more about that bullet that had infected your arm." She inquires.