Over Again

Chapter Three - December 21, 2062

-Natalie-

For days and days, the only living things I see are trees - from ash to willow, and lime to birch. The wooded area between my settlement Bredon and the capital city Lullin is deserted, which happens to be why I'm spending all my time hiding out here. After all, everyone else I know is dead.

And yet by some miracle, I'm still alive. And normal.

The ancestral spirits always spoke of the 'chosen ones', the survivors of The Slow Year and Time Stop. Destined to travel the realms to discover brand new worlds. A child of the most respected ones. Which left four of us. And it happened to be me.

I jump over tree roots and fallen branches, skidding to a halt as a trunk reattaches itself to a rotting stump.

What?

Oh right.

Everything happens backwards.

It could've been Caroline or Emily or Benjamin. Instead I'm here, travelling around the border or Arkaley. Looking for the others.

It's been four days. I haven't seen anyone yet. Maybe I'm the only one.

I really hope I'm not the only one.

I keep running until I run out of trees to run amongst. Big grey buildings loom above me and I stop, startled. So this is Lullin. It's... dirtier than I expected. Not that I've ever visited a place that wasn't in the woods, on the border.

I walk aimlessly for a while. I need a place to stay until I figure out what I have to do, after all. A nearby house looks long deserted so I decide to stay there. Hopefully I'll figure out something more permanent before the owners move back in.

I stay there and use up some of the dry food in the cupboard for a few days, until Christmas Eve, when I decided to re-join the land of the living.

Not that anyone here is alive anymore. I've almost given up hope of finding survivors.

In the park a few streets away I see a crowd gathered. I figure something important might be happening, so I decide to join it and see what's happening. Carol singers. I know the songs, but I don't know them backwards. I have to try to blend in though, unsure if I can be noticed, so I sing under my breath.

Halfway through, a teenage girl pushes through the crowd and taps me on the shoulder.

That's not right.

I lead her to a quiet street that I've walked down a couple of times to stretch my legs so we can talk. Exchanging of names happens first. She's Elinor. "Natalie. Natalie Lawson." I reply.

We begin to walk the few streets between here and my 'house'. I remember a headline from a newspaper delivered yesterday morning. "The mayor held a speech on the 21st." Without words, we both agree to attend.

I enter the house. Elinor follows me. "What next?" I ask the question even though I know the answer. We have to find the others.

We stay here for another three days. Awkwardly sleeping head-to-toe in the single bed. Using whatever food doesn't need to be cooked, since the oven is broken. But I don't bother fixing it, because it'll be un-broken one day.

On the morning/evening of the 21st, we leave the house. Elinor asks me some questions about the event. "The speech is at 3pm. The mayor is Caleb Salvatore. I don't really know much more, I didn't read the paper, it was outside a shop."

I spot huge crowds walking backwards towards a square. I recognise the name as where the speech takes place. It must be just about to finish.

We join the crowd, awkwardly standing through 2 hours of a speech we don't understand. I didn't teach myself to speak backwards. I really should. It might come in handy one day.

The talking stops, and the people onstage walk backwards. Except one. He turns first and takes a couple of steps, before realising his mistake. He turns again and walks backwards.

I know that face. He's the mayor's son Jacob.

I grab Eli's hand and follow the mess of blond hair. We run past the bodyguards that don't see us. But Jacob obviously does, because he stops to speak to us.

He asks who we are. 

"Natalie Lawson of the Bredon people." He nods in recognition. He's a politician I guess, he knows all of the tribes. Elinor introduces herself after, and he appears to be familiar with her hometown, as they start talking about people I've never heard of before.

Elinor congratulates him on managing to live a normal life. He isn't running like us. I just think he came to the same conclusion we did - the speech would be a great opportunity to find the other survivors. Elinor calls them anomalies.

We weave through the crowds back to the house. Our base of operations, Jacob calls it. Where we can think of a plan of action. 

I think I like this idea.