Abe opened his eyes, the early morning already hot and beating down on his face. He heard the buzzing of flies close by and waved his hands in front of his face. The buzzing intensified and he became aware of a lot of flies’ legs all over his face. He gasped and stood up, swiping at the cut on his head. A ton of flies buzzed away. Abe didn’t care if his sleeve was dirty. He pressed it against his cut as he tried to gather where he was.

Lost. Completely, hopelessly lost.

Abe turned around, trying to see if any of the many trees looked familiar in any way. None of them did. The morning was hot. The sun was just peaking through the trees.

Abe’s stiff muscles groaned as he lifted his legs again and began walking. He didn’t know what else to do. He needed to find the clearing. He needed to make sure they were okay. If they weren’t…

Abe tried not to think about it. The immediate need was his own wellbeing. He was starving and thirsty and he needed to make sure his cut was taken care of. He had lost a lot of blood.

He walked, his thoughts the only thing keeping him company. They reminded him of his failures, and he tried not to let the thoughts stick. He didn’t know for sure what was going on in the clearing, but maybe Abe’s disappearance gave Sam enough of a heads up. Sam seemed like the kind of person that stayed on his toes.

You disappeared after breakfast. Sam was already working. He wouldn’t have noticed you were gone until after dinner.

Abe’s stomach groaned at the mention of breakfast. Over twenty four hours ago, he had eaten the most beautiful piece of bread with the loveliest jam on top. He should have had more.

Abe kept walking, the heat of the day trickling in through the woods, making everything around him sticky. His mouth felt dry, his saliva the only water he could drink. He needed to find water. Water was the most important thing right now.

***

Sophie sat down next to Marie’s bed, staring at her with wide eyes. It had been an hour since Sophie got the injection. Alice and Charles had been checking in on her, making sure she was okay. Sophie seemed more shocked than anything. She had a thin blanket over her.

“Hi,” Marie said. Sophie said nothing, simply staring at Marie. “You’re starting to freak me out. Are you okay?”

Sophie took a small breath, then another. Soon she was taking multiple small, shallow breaths and Marie knew this wasn’t good. She sat up, about to call for Alice, but Sophie reached out and grabbed her hand.

“No, Marie. I’m fine.”

It was like Sophie knew Marie would call for Alice. Marie’s heart began to lighten. Sophie was anticipating what Marie was going to do. More than anything, Marie realized Sophie was back.

“You almost died,” Sophie said, her eyes still wide as she stared at Marie. “Macbeth, you almost died. And it would have been all my fault.”

“I was the one that injected myself,” Marie said.

“Murphy’s law, Marie! Why did you do that? I never would have done that. Well, I might have. For you. Okay, maybe I would have done that too. But I definitely would have used it to rub it in your face that we needed to be friends. Macbeth, Marie! Macbeth, you almost died!” Sophie said.

“Okay,” Marie said, grabbing her best friend’s hands. “Sophie, I am so glad you’ve got your memories back. But you are not okay, and you need help.”

“Do you need to breathe in a paper bag again?” Charles asked from the doorway, holding up the bag.

“Fine!” Sophie said, her voice higher than usual. “Fine! I’m fine!” She burst into tears as Charles appeared next to her with the bag.

“Breathe, Sophie. Breathe in here,” Charles said.

Sophie obeyed, the crinkle of the paper the only sound for a bit. Alice glanced in as Sophie’s breathing calmed down.

“We’re going to have a double wedding, okay?”

“I thought we were going to be each others bridesmaids,” Marie said.

“That changed. We are getting married together. Tell Albert he needs to wait until I find someone,” Sophie said softly. Charles gave a twitch of a smile.

“Uh, Sophie,” Marie said.

“Yes, Albert. Macbeth, you’re so blind,” Sophie said as she took another shaking breath. “I’ll marry Charles. Sound good Charles? You have to agree to whatever your patient says, right?”

Charles gave a half smile. “I’ll stick you on the list of other people who proposed to me while doing my medical duty.”

Alice snorted from the doorway. Charles gave her a full smile.

“See? Double wedding. As soon as the government crumbles.” Sophie wiped her tears and gave a final, deep breath before letting it out. She played with the ends of her hair before she grasped a lock and brought it up to study it more. “Well this has to go.”

“Right,” Marie said, noticing her roots were growing more. “Dye?”

“Meh. I’ll just cut it,” Sophie said.

Marie again glanced up at her brown roots. “That’s a lot to cut.”

Sophie gave a shrug as she ran her fingers through her hair. “This isn’t me.” She reached over and gave Marie a hug. Sophie squeezed as hard as she dared. “I’m so glad you’re alive. I would willingly risk prison every time for you.”

“And I would risk death every time for you.”

Sophie smiled as she released Marie. “Good. Then we’ve proved it. Going to different high schools was never going to threaten our friendship.”

Marie gave a laugh. “I can’t believe we thought that was going to be the end.”

Sophie smiled as she watched Charles get up and leave. When Charles and Alice were out of the way, Sophie’s smile dropped. “I don’t know if I can forgive my parents for what they did to me.”

Marie nodded, trying to comprehend what it would be like to have your own parents be responsible for wiping your memories.

“I don’t know what to say,” Marie said. “It would suck.”

“They’ve done a lot of horrible things,” Sophie said. “Not just this,” she pointed to her head. “But… torture. With Tom. And laws that took away science. And the hobos? I never liked my parents, but it’s like I realize exactly why I’ve hated them for so many years. My mother told me she wished I was never born. To my face. Right before I was injected.”

Marie winced. Sophie let out an annoyed laugh. “I should forgive her, right? My mother warned me it was bad. Past Sophie already did.”

“I…” Marie felt completely lost. She was glad Sophie was confiding in her again, but this level of hurt was way beyond her ability to heal. “I’m sorry, Sophie. That sucks.”

Sophie nodded. “Yeah. It does. But she did give us the stuff we needed to save your life. She must have had a change of heart, but it still hurts.”

“As it should. I can’t even imagine.”

Sophie wiped away another tear from her eyes. “My mom’s probably going to get arrested, and I should feel sad, but secretly I’m glad they’re going to arrest her. Is that wrong?”

“No, no. I mean, she did kind of save my life, but she also put it in danger at the same time,” Marie said.

“Exactly, if my parents hadn’t been so cruel and strict, this never would have happened,” Sophie said.

Marie paused as she chewed her bottom lip in thought. “But I guess if we don’t allow them to try and be better, our situation will never change, either. Not unless we go to war.”

Sophie glanced at Marie, then gave a quiet nod. “Yeah. You’re right. If my mom really wants to change, I shouldn’t stop her. And… and I guess I need to forgive her. But maybe not right now.”

Marie gave her best friend a squeeze. “You seriously have so much trauma to unpack.”

Sophie gave a giggle. “Yeah. But hey! Now your dad has to adopt me for real! There’s no way I’m going back to my parents after this.” Marie gave a laugh as Sophie stood up. “Well, I’m off to find some scissors.”

Sophie opened the door right as Marie heard a strange ticking sound. She crinkled her nose, cocking her head to one side. “What is that sound?”

She saw her dad, who had been eating lunch, stand up and run to his room.

“Vlad?” Tom asked from within. “What is going on?”

“It’s the communication device connected to the clearing,” her dad said.

Charles’ head shot up in his direction. “Serious? The clearing is contacting us?”

Her dad came out with two pieces of paper. He was using one to translate whatever was on the other. “It’s Sam. He’s used the code word.”

“What code word?” Charles asked.

Marie’s dad gave a shrug. “Sam was going to say a code word, with the full knowledge that Josef could still torture it out of him.”

Charles looked surprised, then scratched his head. “Okay, what exactly are you trying to say?”

“It’s from Sam. But there’s a possibility it might not be from Sam. It could be from Josef, pretending to be Sam, to catch us off guard and lower our defenses,” he said.

Charles gave a slow nod. “Okay. I think I get it. So… what does it say?”

Marie’s dad sat at the table, quickly writing out the translation. Everyone waited, having nothing else to do but watch. “They’ve done it. They’ve overthrown Josef.”

The knowledge settled on the group, a mixture of hope and fear.

“But it still might be Josef to throw us off,” Charles said.

Marie’s dad nodded. “It still might be Josef.”

Charles let out a sigh, before letting himself smile. “Well, I would like to hope for the best. I’m going to believe that it’s true. I’m going to believe that Sam and Abe did it.” The smile settled on his lips. “They did it.”

***

It was in the heat of the day when Abe sat against a tree, closing his eyes as he heard a dull roar. He was in bad shape. He hadn’t found anything to eat, and he could feel his swollen tongue in his mouth, searching for any water it could find. At least his graze wasn’t bleeding anymore.

Abe opened his eyes, frowning. The dull roar was there, but he thought it was something he heard in his head. But now he had a different idea. There was a river by the farmlands. What if what he was hearing was water?

His parched mouth didn’t care about safety. He stumbled to his feet and ran toward the direction of the roar. He run wasn’t nearly as strong as before. Almost two days with little food or water was too much for Abe.

The roaring grew, and his pace quickened. The desperation in his mind screamed at him to go faster. The river came into view. Abe collapsed at its bank and drank greedily. It felt so cool and fresh. He had his fill, and then drank some more. He leaned back and sighed. Food was still an issue, but now that at least one of the basic needs was taken care of, he could focus more on taking care of the other basic needs.

He thought about what to do. He leaned down and washed his face, feeling the cool water on his hot face. The water came back bloody, and he remembered his graze. Carefully he cleaned his wound. He was on his third handful of water when he decided to just take a bath in the river. He triple checked his surroundings, feeling vulnerable as he took off his clothes. He hadn’t seen anyone in days, but it would be just his luck to have someone stumble on him now.

He sank into the cool of the river, feeling it wash off the grime and the blood from his body. It had to be one of the best baths he ever had as the grime, dirt, and sweat came off. He tenderly made sure his wound got clean.

He got out of the river, letting the heat of the day dry him off before he got back in his clothes. He took a deep breath of the wooded air. Things were far from okay, but at least he would live another day. He would go in the direction of the sun to his back, the only directional knowledge he had for the directions to the clearing. Hopefully he could still help somehow.