Who am I?

As I exited the building, I looked all around me.  I still couldn’t believe this. I was about 1,200,217,664 km away from home. Hell, I was more than 300 years away from home, if such a thing even existed now. However, in the past six months, I learned a lot.  Humans landed on mars in 2019 and colonized it by 2023. Then, probably the biggest achievement of humans, they managed to colonize the outer reaches of the solar system. I had read about some satellite finding liquid on Titan, a planet like moon of Saturn, way back in 1995, but I still could not digest the fact that I was there, standing on that very planet. What would’ve been a golden opportunity for others was a nightmare for me. Okay okay, I know I’ve been boring you (well, math always is boring... Unless you’re a rocket scientist.) These cities were almost like the ones back on earth, except you had these huge towers, that were made to purify all the methane and stuff like that from the atmosphere. Alright, I’ll stop here.

“So, how did it go? Learnt anything new?”

“All I got was a new name.” I did not feel like telling anything about the weird feeling I had when I left his office. Who would not look at someone like they’ve lost all sense of theirs if they claim that the visit to the doctor was weird?

“Wow! That’s amazing. We can now finally call you something other than Alien.” She laughed.

“Haha, one man’s pain is another’s source of joy.” I could not help but retort. I know being called by my name was something I was dearly wishing for, from the moment I was called an alien.

She must have immediately understood that because she did not joke anymore after that.

“Okay, what are you called now? James Bond?”

“Funny you should ask. No, it’s better than that. Wait, let me introduce myself to you.”

“Hello there, lady. I’m Sage. Glad to make your acquaintance. It is a pleasant day isn’t it?”

“Sage it is, huh? Nice to meet you Sage. I’m Kate. I hope you find my company enjoyable.” She started laughing.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s do all these introductions later. We should get going.” I had a bad feeling, something I could not explain and I wanted to leave as soon as possible.

“Want a ride?” she asked.

“Huh? yeah. It isn’t like I can fly.” I replied crossly.

“Got on your nerves, didn’t he?” she smirked.

“Yeah, but he sounds like he can do it.”

“Did you tell him about that?”

“No.” I stared back at the dark sky.

It was silent, except for those paws crunching on the snow. It was cold. Well, try to imagine what it would be like in Verkhoyansk, Russia in the middle of November. Hiding in the snow wasn’t exactly helping much. Then I heard a voice

“Run you moron, run! “

“As if I’d leave you, if we’re going down, we’re going together.” I heard myself say.
“Now, I understand why mother was always worried.” He laughed silently.

“Well, if we pull this off and get back home, I’m sure she’d say how proud she was of having us as her sons.”

“Yea"“

I looked at him in horror and saw blood pour out of his shoulder as if it were a river. The snow absorbed the blood and quite obviously gave us away. I heard a small step and turned back and "

“Sage, Sage! Wake up” I could hear a voice call me out faintly. I slowly drifted back into reality and... Wait. It was that dream again.

“It was that dream again, wasn’t it?” He asked. “Yeah... Wait, how did you know George?” I asked him back.

“Take a good look around you. You’re sweating like you worked out hard enough to win some championship, and oh you kept mumbling something about ‘going down’. What’s the deal? Remember something?” he asked. His eyes had that curiosity which could be seen in small kids.

“Well, I don’t know. Everything has been like a dream up to now.  I cannot separate memories from dreams anymore.”

I must have sounded depressed. He immediately offered to take me to the outskirts of the city; he told “It might help clear your mind.”

I chose to go. There was nothing else I could do. I thought maybe, just maybe I could find someone in this alien land who could possibly help me.

Sorry, I almost forgot. George is the guy who saved me from those authorities when I ended up on this planet.  That lady I was talking to: she’s Kate, George’s sister. They both are third generation Titans. Well, not the Greek Titans, but the people-living "on-Titan Titans. I was being chased by those police, I was trying to get myself to some safety, and then the exact opposite happened. I ran, tripped, fell on something, and before I understood what happened, I was in the air. Not the air exactly, but on one of those flying-car-pods I saw in movies when I was a kid. I can tell that I loved that moment. Flying like Superman is a very rare thing, but then I’d be lying. I was scared. Dead scared. The reason?

1. The driver or pilot (whatever) saw me.

2. He was angry.

3. There were cops following us in some cop-pods.

To sum it all up, I was in danger. Alarm bells and sirens were blaring, and I thought I was as good as dead. Then the driver/pilot (I’ll just stick with piver) went all Vin Diesel (I saw The Fast and the Furious at George’s place, in case you were wondering. It was amazing) with the car with all those cuts, high speed chase, whatever you call drifts in air, slowly those sirens, lights were fading out, and then everything went black.

There was a slow whisper somewhere around me...

“Looks like hypothermia. But I do not understand how he ended up like this. And I don’t even know if he understands English” said a male voice.

“Why don’t you even try?” said another voice. It was a lady’s voice, and it was sweet. I opened my eyes in a daze, and it was a lady. A beautiful lady. She was fair, and had that golden hair that flowed like a waterfall. And she was looking at me, and she smiled. Since good things like these rarely happen, I thought I was dying, and that was enough to shake me to reality. I sat upright as if someone passed electricity through me. After a few seconds, I realized I was staring at that lady. I felt amazingly stupid and looked around. I was in a brightly lit room, There was a couch, a television set, (It was pretty large), something like a telephone, and a lot of other weird stuff, I did not understand. I let my gaze wander about, and saw that the wall on one side was replaced by a huge glass, more like a French window. I could see the sky was dark and there were these bright strange neon lights that looked like some sort of a science fiction movie. Then I saw it. There was one; no, many of those flying-car-pods in the sky. Then I slowly remembered what had happened.

“Whoa! What the hell was that!?” I shouted. Before I could think of anything, I heard that lady say “See, I told you to try. Looks like he understands English.”

Even though I liked it when she spoke, I was confused. All I could manage to say was “Oh, I can understand English alright, but where exactly am I?”

“Hello, I’m George and you owe me 1000 Mercs.” was all that guy told. I looked at him for the first time, and in a moment, I realized he was that mad ‘piver’ on whose pod I fell. Oh crap, what did I get myself into? Was all I could think of.

“You don’t have to be so rude George. Look at the poor man.” the lady said crossly. Yes! Look at poor me I yelled in my mind.

“What? But Kate, those scratches and dents aren’t cheap to fix!” he said indignantly. So, she was Kate. That beautiful lady was Kate. Then I remembered I was in trouble. “I don’t know what a Merc is, but 1000 sounds way too much.” I told. There was a brief pause. Both of them looked at me as if they were seeing a new animal. I really did not feel comfortable with that glance.

“You do not know what a Merc is? What are you, some alien?” George asked. I could definitely sense a hint of sarcasm in it. “Forget what a Merc is, I do not even know where I am. Could you guys just help me out a bit there?” I asked. He looked at me, and told with a smirk, “fine mate, I’ll play along too. You’re in Condor. Ring any bells?” I was confused, and now this guy was making me mad. I decided to follow suit.

“Condor? Where is that, outskirts of Russia?” That was enough to turn them both as pale as vampires. After a long and intense silent argument, Kate walked towards me slowly and asked “Isn’t Russia a country on Earth?” I had enough of this little act of theirs. They spoke as if they were from another world. “Yeah it is. You sound as if you’re not from Earth, where are you from, the magical land of baloney?” I asked.

She stared at me and slowly told, “You don’t realize where you are, do you?”

Now, stuff like this is what drives perfectly normal people like me crazy. What was she talking about?

“Who are you?” I could swear I heard a trace of suspicion in her voice.

“Who am I? I’m-- wait. Who am I? And just where the hell am I? Why am I not able to remember anything!?” I was drenched in cold sweat. I did not know who I was, where I was and I did not know anything about my past. This was stuff of nightmares.

Reviews

[Daisy Ackerman]

I was immediately hooked by the beginning, which introduced an intriguing setting. However (and this is just my opinion, take it with a grain of salt), I found myself wanting a little more description throughout, because most of it seems like dialogue and a different planet/moon is definitely a setting I don't read very many stories about. This is also an opportunity to introduce even more things that readers aren't familiar with to make the setting even more interesting so readers will want to find out more about not only the story, but the characters as well.

[Sage]

Yes thank you! I'll get to that in the coming chapters. Hope to see you read more.

[Coyote Poetry]

A very good chapter. I liked how you led to the strong ending.
"Now, stuff like this is what drives perfectly normal people like me crazy. What was she talking about?
“Who are you?” I could swear I heard a trace of suspicion in her voice."
I like the question above. I liked the open ending, making the reader want to read more. Thank you for sharing the excellent chapter.
Coyote

[TheMalady]

Oh... I like the twist of this story and as well as the flashbacks. This is just so interesting. I would be very happy to read the next chapter. The suspense is just amazing. Great story! )

[Sage]

Thanks! I'll work on the coming chapters soon!

[TheMalady]

You're welcome, looking forward to it. :)

[Brad P]

Great story! Keep it up. I agree about the parentheticals, but that is up to you.

[Sage]

Thanks! I'm working on the parantheticals and the other aspects that might need to be polished. Thanks for reading and noticing!

[pstalbot]

Aside from "“Forget what a (currency) is," get rid of the parentheticals in narration. The Narrator by itself is interesting enough to get me to read on and the story is engaging, too. My biggest criticism is mixture of praise and a challenge: take another pass at the narration to bring out the character of the narration. Your first person narrator brings humor and a friend to the reader but at times it reads like writing, not a conversation. You definitely get stronger as you write so I'm sure the cases of that happening here are early on. The most glaring instance of this is giving a long number of KM distance for the location of the main character. Yeah it's a joke that he says "around" for a precise measurement, but it doesn't seem like something someone would say aloud without being met by eyerolls... unless you call that out.

[Sage]

Thanks for the insight. I must have forgotten to change the currency part, I'll do it now. And I'll definitely work on the parentheticals. This is the first time I'm working on a piece and I believe I have a lot to learn in the process. I'd really appreciate it if you take time out to review to the coming chapters as well. I guess I should lay the dialogues and let the readers infer the mood, shouldn't I?
Anyway, thanks again.

[Elle Alley]

Love the chapter, keep going! Sage is the best character :)

[Sage]

Thank you Elle! You're the best too!