UnWhere

Many Long Days at Sea

    "Why do you call me that?" He asks and uncertainly cocks his head.
    "You quiver like a mouse, and you've got features like one." Roland justifies, "It's fitting."
    Mouse nods. "Do you think we're going to hell?"
    Roland stares at him. They're sitting on Rolands bed and conversing, much like they did all day everyday. By their count, this was day five at sea. At least, the fifth day they were awake for. Who had any idea how long they'd been sleeping?
    "What makes you ask that?" Roland asks and Mouse chuckles.
    "You've never thought you might go to hell?" Mouse asks before elaborating, "You're rude and crude and you got unwound. I can't imagine you were the best man when you were alive. Not that I deserve to go to hell."
    Mouse stops himself there and Roland tells him, "We're all sinners."
    "I have the right eye of an Unwind." Mouse confesses and Roland sees it now, his one eye was a distinct cornflower blue while the right was almost closer to teal. "They offered me pigment injections to match the colors but I preferred leaving her eye alone."
    "Her?" Roland questions, "How do you know that that eye belonged to a woman?"
    "I just know. Or at least, part of me hopes. Maybe I'll meet her wherever we're going and I can thank her." Mouse explains and Roland looks perplexed.
    "Well now there's just one thing that isn't adding up, why would your parents have you unwound if they cared enough to get you a new eye?" Roland asks.
    Mouse looks down. Roland can almost feel the way Mouse's chest tightens, because he knows how he'd feel if Mouse had asked him why he was unwound.
    "Grades, popularity, and Jenna Moscowty." Mouse explains, "My grades were shit, I was as unpopular as they come, and my delinquent best friend Jenna was getting unwound. The stars aligned in my parents eyes, they thought I'd be better off divided, like her. You know how the counselors push it, claiming we're better off divided."
    Roland stares at Mouse. "Your friend, Jenna, do you think she's aboard this boat?"
    Mouse looks at Roland with a look Roland couldn't quite place before saying, "I think she got away. She went AWOL last I heard and I was too afraid to go with."
    "Well if she's still alive and on the run, those binoculars upstairs could tell us. And if not, then she's here somewhere. Those are really the only two possibilities aside from the one where she gets caught, and in that case, she'd be here soon." Roland reasons as Mouse nods along.
    "I didn't think to check on her when I got my chance at the Observation Deck." Mouse explains and Roland nods, wondering for just a moment if it would be crossing a line to ask Mouse what he saw. Roland decides that there would be other times to ask Mouse where his bits and bobs had gone. Now, they were on a mission.
    They exit the room cautiously, as though what they were doing was illegal.
    The trip to the Observation Deck was just as each of them remembered it. Only moments later are they standing before the older gentleman, Roland's acquaintance.
    "I never asked your name, sir." Roland distracts the man while Mouse sneaks behind the reception desk, looking for the Eternims.
    "You didn't care, Mister Taggart." The man pauses, "And nor does your friend Mister Lansman."
    It was strange to hear Mouse's last name as Roland racks his brain to remember if he even knew Mouse's real name. He probably had heard it and just didn't retain it very well. Roland's brain felt a lot like his sisters in times like these; Useless and just for show.
    "Could we just get an Eternim please?" Roland begs, "Mouse- Will- is looking for a friend of his. He doesn't know if she was unwound or not."
    Roland notices the shiver that shakes the man as Roland asks him this.
    "What's his friends name? I may have seen them." The man confides and Roland smiles.
    "Jenna Moscowty." Will, as Roland remembers is his real name, says to the man.
    "What a coincidence," He states, "She's at binocular #324, same as you were, Roland."
    Thank you, Roland mouths before they rush off to see Mouse's friend.
    Only moments later things feel joyous as Mouse hugs his old friend. She wipes tears from her eyes and smiles.
    "I never thought I'd be happy being dead." Jenna confides.
    Roland stares at them gazing lovingly into each others eyes and fake coughs a little before announcing, "I don't wanna interrupt, I'm just gonna go."
    He begins to walk away when Mouse calls out, "Hey, I'll see you back at the room. Thank you for helping me."
    Roland maintains a light smile and keeps it moving, not wanting to interrupt.
    As he walks down the hallway he runs into a familiar face, someone he didn't think he'd see again. It was Mai, who he later found out became a clapper and was partially responsible for Connor Lassiter being alive. Roland stares at her before cautiously saying, "Long time no see."
    "I'm late for an appointment." Mai tells Roland and Roland puts an arm out, stopping her from rushing past.
    "I know where you're going and I'm sure I can save you the trouble by telling you all abouts it." Roland chuckles, "But you go. I'll wait here?"
    "Why would you do that?" Mai questions, squinting at Roland in suspicion.
    Roland sighs, "I don't really know anyone on this ship."
    Mai gives him a tense smile and says, "You weren't so bad to be around in Sonia's basement, I'll meet you back here in a few."
    Roland nods, "Take all your time. Take an eternity if you want."
    He internally laughs at his own wordplay, hoping Mai would get the joke after using an Eternim and seeing what's become of a world without them in it.
    That was one thing Roland did notice, the world didn't seem immediately better without him in it. In fact, it seemed to have gotten worse, almost. Things blowing up, people losing arms, and unwinding surely getting more strict.
    Mai and her crew had only perpetuated the same thing that the rest of the world already thought about Unwinds; That they were dangerous and better off in a divided state.
    Of course, at that time, Roland was blissfully unaware of what had happened to Lev Calder, the clapper who didn't clap.
    And it would stay that way, until the ship had docked, at least.
~

    It took Mai what felt like an eternity- to Roland at least-  to return from the Observation Deck. Roland stood up in a hurry when he heard the air lock disengaging from the doors being opened and he knows it's Mai when he hears crying. A woman crying.
    Her former stone facade was broken down.
    And Roland, without thinking, pulled her into a hug. He hated seeing pretty women cry.
    "Roland, it's beautiful." She wipes the tears from her eyes. "It worked. Happy Jack fell. And they repealed the max age for unwinding to 17."
    This was news to Roland. His eyebrows raise and he sighs. He wished he'd been alive just long enough to be a free man. The regret from trying to get Connor unwound runs to his bones, if it wasn't for that then maybe they would've made it back to the Graveyard.
    "So, a clapper, huh?" Roland asks and Mai nods.
    She explains, "The Golden's treatment of Vincents," She pauses, clearly choked up, "remains... It drove me over the edge."
    "That's understandable." Roland pauses, "They got theirs though, Connor showed me them dead before everything went to hell."
    Mai smirks, "I'm well aware of what happened to the Golden's." Evil glints behind Mai's eyes and chill runs down Roland's spine.
    "Do you think we're going to hell?" Roland asks Mai, the startling truth that she'd given him opening his eyes. He was an awful person. They'd raided the Graveyard because of him. He'd be responsible for countless, unnecessary deaths.
    "Please." Mai rolls her eyes, "The Golden's deserved it. Besides, you were nothing but a high school bully, not a murderer like me. You don't belong in hell. Maybe you aren't good enough for heaven, but certainly not hell."
    "So then do you think that's where we are now? An in between?" The word Roland is looking for escapes him, he was never the smartest.
    "Purgatory?" Mai suggests and Roland brushes it off.
    "Call it what you want, maybe we're lost at sea for good." Roland explains and Mai shrugs.
    "Let's find out. Ships have destinations, after all." Mai tells him and Roland nods in agreement as they get on an elevator, discouraged to see it doesn't go any higher. So instead they find a nearby staircase that does lead to the very top deck, a place where they can look down and see the observation decks from.
    As they stand at the top of what was their world as they knew it to be right now, a chill runs through them both. A blistering, salty wind roars and causes the goosebumps to surface on both of them. Roland wraps a protective arm around Mai. The weeks they spent in Sonia's basement together had forged them to be a family.
    Looking behind the ship there's a dense, dark fog. It looks like looming nighttime deep in the countryside with no light at all, nothing around for miles, only stars. Roland knew what that looked like from when his mom and he used to take trips to his grandmothers when his mom was pregnant with his little sister. They'd stay in the countryside for a few days and then they'd return to the toxic cloud that was his stepfather's abode.
    Roland had always despised living with his stepfather. He'd constantly dream about what it would be like when he moved out. Little did he know that he wouldn't get the chance; He was destined to live a life half baked.
    Yet as they looked forward towards the ship's bow, there was a sunset to behold. And, as shocking as it was to both of them, land. A sprawling city of sorts was before them, only a few hours out at the speed they were going. The passengers of this ship would awake in port and within the unknown.
    Roland was terrified. But Mai? She looked at peace as the salty sea air whipped through her fading pink locks.
    "I hope they have hair dye here." Roland remarks.
    "Why's that?" Mai asks and Roland chuckles.
    He sarcastically answers, "Cause your roots are starting to show, girlie."
    Mai punches Roland while laughing and then once that moment of bliss has cleared, Mai comments, "I hope Vincent is here. Wherever here is."
    "I doubt I'll know anyone here." Roland huffs, "No one that'll want me anyways."
    "You can move in with Vince and I." Mai smiles, her plans for the future pulling together in her head.
    Roland sighs and stares at the sunrise, thinking about how eerily similar they were to the ones on Earth, brighter, almost. A wave of calm rushes over him. Roland is at peace, for now, but the shark is never satisfied.