Alone (8 page)

'She's...' I paused. I couldn't think of the right words to speak.

'She's what David?' Continued the man, more urgent. He grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me. 'What David? What's wrong with Anna? If there's something wrong with my wife then I want to know right now. Take me to her.'

Wife! I felt numb inside. The small niggling thoughts of why I should resist my urges towards Anna were slowly making there way to my mind's surface. So Anna was not my wife as Ian had suggested. She belonged to this stranger in front of me and she to him, if in fact his words were truer than Ian's.

'Your... wife?' I said with hollow feeling.

'Yes David! My wife Anna! Is she okay?'

'She... She's okay.' I said distant. 'She just can't remember... like me... She just can't remember.'

'Show me?' Said the man determined.

***

I remained hovering over beside the bedroom doorway as the man sat himself down upon my bed, right beside Anna who was still lying on her front side, sleeping peacefully. He began to shake her softly, trying to stir her awake. I continued to watch from the doorway as Anna gradually and wearily broke out of her sleep. She stretched and yawned out and I couldn't help but think how pretty she looked. Finally Anna turned to face who she thought was me, but looked completely horrified to find the figure of another bearded man sitting next to her, watching her, touching her. Anna screamed and quickly scrambled up onto her backside and towards the other side of the bed, cradling herself in the corner like a frightened animal and trying her best to hide her naked breasts and genitals from the strange man's view. He backed off a little though, clearly shocked and bewildered by her actions.

'Anna... it's me.' The man said softly. Anna screamed for him to get away from her. 'For Christ sake its me. It's Mark.' Said the man as he reached out to touch Anna once more, but again she screamed for him to get away.

'It's me baby, it's me! Your husband, Mark. Don't you know me? Don't you remember me baby?'

Suddenly Anna noticed me hovering over by the doorway and turned desperately to face me. She looked a little calmer now at seeing me.

'What's going on David? What's happening? Who is this man?' Said Anna anxiously. There wasn't anything beautiful or sexy about her now in this panicky state.

'It's okay Anna. He came out from one of the other sleeping pods that we came from. He says he knows us...'

'Anna!' The man interrupted me. 'I think both you and your brother are suffering from a severe form of memory loss due to your hibernation sleep, so I need for you... for both of you...'

And that was it! My mind finally clicked. My deep and dark hidden thoughts of wrongfulness finally surfaced... Brother... Sister... Wife! I was completely frozen in shock, but didn't have time to process my thoughts any further as Anna began shaking her head wildly and in a disillusioned state. We were both in a horrendous state of shock, but I choose to deal with it internally and silently. Anna on the other hand couldn't restrain herself from exploding.

'What did you say?' Anna raged. 'What did you just say?' She snarled and snapped out with venom to Mark. 'Whose brother... What brother are you talking about? ...Whose brother?' Anna had lost all control of her emotions now as she spat that last sentence out. She started shaking all over. All I could do was remain calm by the doorway and watch, but inside I felt sick, utterly and physically sick. My insides were decaying with filth. Anna glanced desperately up at me, looking for me to say something. To give her an answer or a reason for this madness, but I felt so dirty and ashamed I couldn't meet her stare and glanced quickly away. What would become of us now? How would this situation ever right itself?

'I don't...' Said Anna, whimpering out. 'I don't have... I don't have a brother. I DON'T REMEMBER ANY BROTHER.' Anna was quiet again for a brief moment, but I felt this was only the quiet calmness before the vile storm, as she too lowered her gaze downwards. Mark spoke again and how I wished he would just shut up and leave us be and not utter another single damn word, but he was more confused than any of us about what was happening here.

'David is your brother Anna. I am your husband.' He continued. 'Look, I'm not getting into your family history right now if it's just going to confuse and upset you even further. But I do need to get you into the medical bay and have a look at you.' Mark paused for a brief second and smiled out. 'Now unlike you I'm no Doctor Anna, but you did teach me a thing or two over the years, so hopefully if we can just go over some basic checks and routines, it might help you to at least remember some things.'

'I... I'm a doctor?' Whispered Anna, still trying to come to terms with everything that Mark was saying.

'Among other things, Yes.' Said Mark smiling again. Anna looked back up at me with a look of shear and utter disgust. If any look could kill a man where he stood then it was this one.

'And him... This is my...?'

'Yes... Your brother. You are twins if that means anything more to you.'

I broke my gaze away from Anna again. I could not even bare to look at her anymore. Anna glanced away from me and started to hold her stomach in great discomfort.

'I feel... I feel like I'm going to be sick again.' Said Anna as she began wincing out. Mark stood to his feet while stretching over to help her off the bed. But Anna just freaked out at Mark and began thumping him with her fists like a wild and uncontrollable animal

'DON'T TOUCH ME! DON'T YOU TOUCH ME!' She screamed. Mark, was caught off guard and found it hard to block some of her wild blows at first, but quickly he came to his senses, eventually grabbing a hold of Anna by her wrists and restraining her with his brute strength, finally pinning her struggling naked body face down upon the bed with her arms forced behind her back. Anna continued to scream and struggle wildly as I looked on horrified at the raging, rabid animal that Anna had now become. I couldn't think at all. I didn't want to think. I could only watch and listen. Mark then turned and shouted at me.

'David! I need you to run into the medical bay and get me a sedative and an injection needle from the top right hand cupboard, okay.'

'I don't, I don't know where... I don't know what any of that stuff is.' I said panicking because I had been put on the spot.

'Shit!' Raged Mark in frustration. 'Do you at least think you can hold her down while I run and get what I need then.'

I didn't want to do this either, but I nodded submissively as Anna continued to scream and rage out for Mark to let her go. She then started sobbing.

'Well come here then!' Said Mark getting even more annoyed. I quickly approached the struggling Anna beneath him.

'Now take my grip of her wrists okay, kneel on her lower back and hold her down hard for two minutes. You think you can manage that?'

Anna continued to scream and struggle out frantically, but she could hardly move for Mark's strength holding her down. I nodded and quickly took a firm hold of Anna's wrists as Mark let go of his grip. I then placed my knee upon her lower back as Mark hurriedly left the bedroom. I continued to hold Anna down as she screamed and sobbed more uncontrollably now than ever.

'I DON'T UNDERDTAND THIS! I DON'T UNDERSTAND ANY OF THIS! She screamed and sobbed. 'Why is this happening to me? Why is this happening...?'

I also couldn't help myself any longer and began sobbing too. I then lowered my face close to Anna's ear and whispered gently to her.

'I am so, so sorry Anna! I am so, so sorry...'

'GET AWAY FROM ME.' Anna exploded, spitting and snarling. 'THIS IS YOUR FAULT... THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT...'

More tears began trickling down my cheeks as Anna continued to sob with me. I wanted to tell her that everything was going to be okay, but nothing was okay... Nothing was ever going to be okay ever again for both me and Anna. For a brief moment in time we had our own little bubble together in this place. Where everything was okay and everything felt nice and good and simple... but now that bubble had burst and it was never coming back.

CHAPTER eight

Anna lay sleeping again upon my bed as both Mark and I watched from the doorway. Now she was heavily sedated thanks to a strange and curious needle Mark had injected into her arm which took barely a few moments to take effect

'Was that the first time she's been hysterical like that since you both came out of the pods?' Asked Mark without taking his eyes away from Anna, he was truly distressed by all of this.

'Yes.' I dully answered.

'Maybe it was just the shock of seeing me. I must be like some random bloody stranger to her.' Continued Mark. He then turned to me. 'How long have you both been living like this for?'

'I... I don't know!' I replied unable to meet Mark's stare. 'But it feels like a long time.'

Mark took a deep breath and touched my shoulder as he turned away, back into the corridor.

'Well let's have a look around the shuttle. See if we can find out what went wrong, and just where the hell the others are.'

***

Mark and I entered the dark computer room with the large viewing window. The room where Anna and I... a room I no longer wished to go anywhere near. But Mark was leading the way and I felt like I had to oblige with whatever he asked of me. He was our only hope to make any sense of this mad situation right now.

I hovered around the doorway as Mark took an extra long moment to scan around the dark interior of the room until he finally focussed his attention upon the first row of vandalised computers and their screens.

'What the hell happened in here?' Mark mumbled almost to himself.

'It was always like this.' I replied.

Mark then sat himself down at one of the damaged computers. The screen had a large crack along the front, but when he touched the black screen it came to life with an array of different colours and seemed to be in fine working order. I moved closer towards him so that I could get a better view of what he was doing. I wanted to learn and I had a new urge growing inside me now to know things.

'Can you explain to me what you're doing?' I asked.

'Well, at the moment I'm just rebooting the system and then I'm going to run a program through the main computer which will hopefully scan for our location.'

'So where do you think we might be located?' I asked.

Mark chuckled at that and gazed over towards the viewing window. I followed his gaze also.

'We... really... could be anywhere my friend... any bloody where!'

'What is that out there?' I said focussing my attention towards the twinkling darkness outside.

'If you really can't remember David, then you really don't want to know.' Replied Mark chuckling to himself again as he returned his focus back to the computer screen.

'Does it have a name?'

'Space my friend. Just endless regions of never ending space.'

'And the lights... all those beautiful twinkling little lights?' I said.

'Homes for some people, I guess! Lots and lots of little homes dotted all over space, of which one of them, hopefully, is our own home.'

'Home.' I said softly and smiled at such a comforting thought.

Suddenly Mark began hitting his hands upon the desk in frustration. He was getting angry for some reason.

'What's wrong.' I asked.

'The program won't tell me our location because it doesn't recognise any of my commands. It's like it's been completely wiped.'

I watched over Mark's shoulder as he entered a program into the computer which seemed to be for the hibernation pods, but then a box popped up with writing inside asking for a time and date entry. Mark looked even more frustrated and confused.

'If the computer doesn't know the time and date then how am I suppose to bloody know!' Sighed Mark to himself.

He tried to access another program but another box popped up flashing 'inactive'. Mark then entered another program that I just couldn't understand.

'What are you doing now?' I asked.

'I'm trying to access another program which will hopefully tell me about the ship's power supply.'

Suddenly the screen flashed up 'MAIN POWER GENERATOR OFF LINE. EMERGENCY BACK UP 40%.'

'What the hell is going on here?' Said Mark thumping his fists upon the desk again.

'What does that mean?' I asked. Mark though quickly stood up from the computer and made his way over towards a huge, sealed and metallic looking computerised box.

'It means that if we can't get the main power back on again then we are as good as dead my friend.' Said Mark as he began to explore all around the large computerised box. It didn't seem that I could help Mark out much at all with his new duties so I made my way uncomfortably down towards the row of three chairs in front of the viewing window. Thoughts of what myself and Anna had done here flashed through my mind and I tried to shut them out immediately which was easier said than done. The reason I had really come down this far was that I wanted to show Mark the Skeleton remains on the floor beside the chairs, I wanted to get his thoughts and input.

'I think you should come down and see this.' I said glancing back up at Mark. Mark though was fully engrossed in his new work over beside the large metallic box.

'What is it David?'

'I don't know... maybe one of the missing people.'

Mark stopped what he was doing right away and glanced over at me looking very confused. 'I mean how many other people are there suppose to be?' I continued. 'How many are missing?'

Mark left what he was doing for the time being and made his way towards me.

'There are two others missing that's all. Ian and Steffi.' Said Mark. He approached the chair and glanced down in awe at the skeleton remains.

'What the hell...?' He then crouched down to take a closer look, picking up some of the scattered bones and skull before studying them with great fascination and curiosity.

'I don't understand.' He said, still confused. 'This is a female skeleton... and it looks like it's... thousands of years old! I mean what the hell.'

I remained silent as Mark continued to study the skull closer. My mind was still struggling to keep up with the recent events since Mark's arrival and still couldn't process the basic concepts of time. Ten years. One thousand years. It meant nothing to me.