Memory Reset

Entry #1

If you are reading this, you have been reset.

Your memory has been wiped and you will have no recognition regarding anything.

Your name is Millie and you have a little brother named Sebastian. His picture is in the silver heart-shaped locket with this note. You need to find him and protect him. He may not remember anything as well and you will have to be there for him.

The reason you don’t remember is because of the Executive. A chip was planted in everyone’s heads when they were born and now he can control who gets reset and who doesn’t. There was one big reset a long time ago that affected everyone, but now he chooses who he resets. Although there’s not many of us left for him to choose from...

Once you find Sebastian, keep him close and find a group that may help you both. I heard they were somewhere near a lake where they have a camp set up. You may be safe there.

Sorry I didn’t leave more detailed notes for you. And sorry I can’t explain. Just don’t trust anyone- they could all be working for the Executive.

Entry #2

Apparently I should have left myself better notes than just the one above since I can be reset at any time. I’m hoping to leave a better paper trail this time to help myself remember, just in case.

I have not found Sebastian and I have no idea where to look. I have not even come across other people. I woke up in a shack in the woods with the first note and locket tucked into my cape’s pocket, and now I cannot find a way out of the forest. I climbed a tree but could only see other trees lining the distance. Maybe in the morning I will find him. Or someone. But until then I need to find solace in the darkness and maybe then I can fall asleep without thinking about what I don’t remember.

Entry #3

I found Sebastian.

I finally came across a small town made up of a few wooden cabins in a little wooded clearing where he was helping a muscular man by carrying the smaller twigs for the firewood while the larger man held the logs. Sebastian looked different from the picture in the locket. Bigger. Taller. Less round in the face. I still don’t remember him but my heart yearned to be near him and protect him. And his resemblance to me… the red, curly hair and freckles. It was all mine just as it was his. I wanted to go to him. But seeing him with this other burly man who had tattoos on his arms and a mustache that covered his expression made me pause.

If Sebastian didn’t remember anything, then how come he was with the man now? How come he didn’t seem confused like I was?

So I didn’t approach him.

I’ve been watching him from the shadows, trying to eavesdrop on their conversations. But they never really spoke to each other. They just went about their work of collecting lumber and giving it to others in the town- going door to door.

I’ll watch him again tomorrow. Once he breaks off from this burly man I will go to him. I need to protect Sebastian. And I need to have him with me.

Entry #4

Sebastian never got reset. He never forgot anything.

Except for me.

The Executive erased all of me from his memory.

Unless I never knew him...?

No. I had to know him. I know he’s my brother. He looks so much like me.

He didn’t believe me, even after seeing the picture in my locket of him. He said he had been working for Pierre for years now. He got scared and started yelling and shouting. And I was forced to run away.

I’m back in the woods now. Should I try to go back for Sebastian? My first note told me to keep him safe. To find him and keep him close. But what should I do now that he doesn’t want to be with me?

I asked the old breadmaker while I was in the town if there was a lake or river nearby to collect some water and clean myself off. She said there was a lake not too far, just a couple hours walk from the town that I could try. Maybe I’ll go there and see if it’s the lake where the group is supposed to be. Maybe they’ll help me or know of anything I can do. Then I’ll come back for Sebastian.

Entry #5

It took me a couple of days, but I found the camp.

It wasn’t at the first lake I thought, but there was another one further away where I finally found a bunch of tepees set up. It wasn’t the warmest of welcomes since no one would talk to me, and if I approached them, they would duck into their own tepees.

Eventually an older woman approached me. Albia. She doesn’t look familiar but she said she knew my mother and I looked just like her, so she welcomed me into her tepee. I obviously don’t remember my mother, but since she recognized me, maybe she can help me piece together my life before my reset.

I tried asking her yesterday if she had known what happened to Sebastian and why the Executive wouldn’t let him remember me. But she just asked if I wanted some of her famous tortoise soup.

She’s dodging my questions. But I’m going to keep asking her what she knows. I’m not giving up. For me or Sebastian.

Entry #6

Albia hasn’t told me anything yet, but I can tell she’s getting close.

I suggested going back out into the woods to maybe find some answers, since no one would talk to me at the camp about why I was chosen to be reset. She sharply turned toward me, pointing her wooden spoon at my chest and trembling slightly. She told me not to go further than the vicinity of this camp unless I wanted to die or get reset again. I asked her about the town Sebastian was in and she said that was fine too.

“But no further.” She left it at that and I didn’t ask more about it. I could tell I reached my limit with that topic. So I chose another.

I asked about my mother. She was a sweet woman, Albia told me as she stirred her soup around in a pot that could fit a toddler. She had died protecting Sebastian and I before the worldwide reset. I asked how she knew that if it was before the reset. Unless she was never reset. There was a long silence and she had stopped stirring. Once she started back up again she told me she had tried field mice before the tortoises “but they weren’t salty enough and had way too much attitude.”

Entry #7

Albia’s been reset.

After I talked to her the other day, the next morning I found her pacing inside her tepee mumbling to herself. When she realized I had walked in, she asked me who I was and if I had happened to know who she was. It obviously didn’t take me long after to realize what had happened.

I’m trying to take care of her now but she keeps trying to get up and wander around. I have to keep following and redirecting her. Since she’s so old, I’m afraid she’ll just trip on a small rock or twig and break every bone in her body. However she isn’t fond of being told what to do so she usually yells something intangible at me and shuffles off in the other direction. Most times back to her tepee.

I’ve even attempted to make her tortoise soup to comfort her. But for some reason, that soup is the only thing she vaguely remembers since after I gave it to her she looked at me with disdain and told me it had too much spice. She then refused to eat it and refused to make her own.

I wonder why Albia was reset? Especially if she had never been reset before. Why now? What was she about to tell me that the Executive didn’t want me to know? And how did he find out she was talking to me?

Entry #8

I don’t know how much time I have but I know everything. I know what's happening.

I know why Albia didn’t want me to wander around. When she was napping, I went out into the forest and came across a tall concrete slab that stretched as far as I could see. I climbed the nearest tree and hiked myself above the top of the slab. Nothing lay ahead. It seemed to be a forest that had been burned down recently. Smoke still rose from some spots. But there were also bones. Not many, but enough that my stomach twisted and I fell off the wall back into the forest. I don’t know if they were animal bones or human bones.

After I vomited I stumbled back to the camp. I tripped and fell and someone grabbed me from behind. I twisted out of their grasp and ran past some tepees. I’m hiding behind a wide tree now, next to a tepee at the edge of the camp. I can’t make any noise.

Wait, I hear something.

Two men. I don’t recognize their voices. If I turn around now they’ll see me.

“...lost her...saw her running… looked sick.” Can’t hear this one as much.

“....memory of her away…. brother… in case.” This one is walking closer. “...can’t save you if you don’t find her. Don’t you want to go to another planet to be saved or do you want to parish with this one?”

Parish? This planet? Did I hear that right?

Shuffling sounds. Closer. “Find her before she tells anyone else. There’ll be mass panic if she does. And I want everyone to live their final days in peace. No memory of the end of the world.” This one must be the Executive.

I want to find Sebastian. Keep him safe and be with him. I want

Entry #1

If you are reading this, you have been reset.