I awoke later that day with the single-minded purpose of preparing for the camp to come for us. As I opened the door to leave, I was stopped in my tracks by Sarah’s presence standing in the hallway right in front of me. She looked subdued, almost scared as she stood there, rubbing her arms and looking at the floor without acknowledging me.

“Is everything okay?” I asked. I knew it wasn’t because in all the years I had known her, I never saw her like that before.

She gave a furtive glance down the hallway, and then seemed to make up her mind as she lifted her head up and looked me in the eyes. “I need you to help me with something,” she said.

“Okay, what is it?” I replied, raising my eyebrows.

“Can we go inside?”

“Sure,” I ushered her in. “Come on in, take a seat. Can I get you some refreshments?” I joked, trying to lighten the mood.

“This is serious,” she said, sitting at a small black chair at the desk my room offered. As she sat, a small dust cloud erupted from its cushion, causing her to cough a little.

“I know. It’s just my way to make things a little more bearable.” I said as I sat down on the edge of the bed. “So, what’s up?”

“You said the scout for the liberation group cleared up your memories?” I nodded in affirmation. “Do you think you could do that? To me? You said you have the same abilities, and I can’t remember how I got to the camp and after your story, I just need to know.” She blurted out quickly with a single breath before trailing off at the end.

I didn’t know if I could, but I did think it was possible. As we were all talking a few hours before, I occasionally used my ability while I looked at everyone. I noticed that within the aura around their heads, there was a black spot that contrasted with all the other natural colors of their bodies. I thought it was normal, but when I looked at Melody, she didn’t have the spot. I was willing to bet that Melody’s brother didn’t have it either and that this spot was caused by a memory wipe.

“If you can’t, it’s okay-”

“Shh,” I cut her off. I got off the bed and perched in front of her. I could see the color in her face redden, but I ignored it. I changed the focus of my eyes to bring out the glow of her aura. Unlike inanimate objects, the color of living things change and flow like water. Everyone has a basic color that flows in them, but those are comprised of different shades. Even the trees have this ability, which was why it was always difficult for me to manipulate them. All I could do was choose a color and shade, and hope that it would do what I wanted. A human body was much more nuanced and multi-colored.

I remembered what the scout had done to me. He just seemed to brush my forehead, and my memories came flooding back. If it was something as simple as a brush of the brow, either the scout’s skill was far above my own, or he just erased the dark blemish. I placed my hand against Sarah’s forehead. I then began to change the aura of my hand to match the dark blemish and concentrated on brushing it away. Once the colors matched, I flicked my hand to the side in a swift, sweeping motion and watched as the blemish on Sarah’s head dissipated.

I thought I did something wrong. Sarah just sat there with her eyes closed and occasionally flinching. Then her eyes flew open, and I barely had enough time to jump back as she sprang to her feet.

“ASSHOLES!” She yelled. “I can’t believe it-” She cut off her sentence and just screamed in rage at the wall. Her breathing was deep and laborious as if she had just finished a race. Her eyes were filled with hate, but they quickly filled with tears that spilled down her face.

“Sarah?” I asked tentatively, afraid that I messed something up.

“I’m fine,” she said. “It worked, thank you,” she added before rushing toward the room’s exit.

“What’s going on? What happened?” I heard Melody ask loudly as Sarah flung the door open. Without giving and answer, Sarah, rushed past her in tears.

“Great,” I mumbled to myself as I saw the look of seething hatred on Melody’s face. She didn’t enter the room, so I waved for her to come in. She grudgingly obliged, but only walked in a few steps before stopping and crossing her arms.

I ignored her glare and questioning stance and sat down on the chair where Sarah had been sitting. I knew that Melody wanted to know why a crying girl had just run from my room. I was struggling with the desire to tell her to mind her own business. I liked her and I thought she liked me, but we still hadn’t known each other that long. Plus, I had just been betrayed by and lost Claire, so another relationship wasn’t something I wanted to deal with. So, I just sat there for a moment and shook my head.

“They really messed us up at the camp,” I finally said. Melody didn’t move. “She wanted me to bring her memories back. Like the scout did for me.” I looked at Melody to let her know I was sincere and so I could see if that changed her mind about what just happened. It did, and her arms fell, and a sad look crossed her face. “I managed to clear up the memory loss, but you saw what remembering did to her.”

“What did she remember?” Melody asked as she sat down next to me.

“Nothing good,” I replied.

We sat there silently for a few more minutes. Before Melody got up and informed me that she had to go check on her brother. She and her brother were in the room right next to mine, and when she heard Sarah yelling, she jumped up and ran out of the room. I nodded and told her I would meet her in the lobby when she was done. I took a few more minutes to myself, I had to refocus and get back on track.

After a small breakfast of looted snacks from the convenience store, I was outside, and I realized that I was completely wrong about the time. It wasn’t the morning, it was actually late afternoon. My breakfast had been an early dinner, and shadows were growing long on the ground as I looked over the little town.

Sarah walked out of the hotel, looking as if nothing had happened. “How are we going to defend this place?” She asked.

I looked at the lay of the land. “We need to find a defensible position on top of that hill,” I said while pointing to the hill we had been standing on when we first spotted the town. “Or at least something similar; somewhere we have the high ground. If they were to attack right now, we wouldn’t make it. They could all be right on the other side of the hill right now, and we wouldn’t even know.”

“Okay, I’ll take a few others, and we will scout out a better place for us-”

“No,” I interrupted her. “I will take a few people to look for a good place. You need to stay and coordinate everyone.” I looked at Sarah seriously. “Everyone trusts and respects you. It’s been you that has looked out for everyone since day one, so you need to lead. As soon as we find a better place, we need to move. I know that the hotel is nice, but we don’t know when the camp is going to come for us, so we need to move quickly.” Sarah nodded, and I left.