Mind/Unknown

What am I supposed to do with this? 

I stared at the loose threads that held this book of paper together as I sat on the train, thinking of what to make of it.

"Nolan-50 arrived, Nolan-50 arrived, departing Nolan-51, departing Nolan-51..." 

"C'mon, let's go," Daiya said, holding her hand out. I tucked the tattered book into my jacket and put my hands in my pocket and buried them deep in there. I still wasn't ready to feel her warmth. 

 I didn't have time to think about it all before we jumped off the platform and watched as the doors to the train slid back and vanished off into the distance. This feeling never seems to get old. Something in me wants to explore, to see more. Wants to see her again. 

"Woah..." Daiya muttered underneath her breath as we all took in the sight.

"This," Dr. Vex started as he opened his arms up wide, "is Nolan-50. The place where I was born, or so I think. Or so they've told me in my registry."

Magnificent. I had never seen anything like this. The ground beneath us spread out in an endless sea of red, stretching for what seemed like forever. Each step you took rippled against the surface, almost like a holographic mirror. There were no tall buildings like before, but rather small, compact structures, both square and rectangular, evenly spaced out. All of the weird-shaped buildings were red as well, only revealing bright yellow windows that ran across each one, the same as the sky above us.  Gaps sat in between each one with one large opening of walkway that divided them. 

"You think? How do you not know where you were born?" Daiya asked.

"Do you?" 

"Well, yeah. I was in a lab. It was a white room behind a translucent screen. There was a hallway that you could see if you tilted you head-"

"But do you know where it is?" Dr. Vex interrupted, "If I asked you to take to me to the place you were born, could you tell me? The province? Which Nolan it was? How many are there? Do you even know?"

Daiya sat there rather dumbfounded, and it hit me. Where was I from?

"What about you Experience II? Where were you born?"

"I...I-I don't know," I responded despondently, thinking back to some of my earliest memories. 

"A place of education? People who spoke to you? Anybody, anything?" He continued to probe, "Daiya? Anything?"

"So what? What are you getting at? Are you upset because I questioned you?" 

"It's simply that you are not questioning, that is the issue! Questions, questions, questions! Many questions very few answers, it's how it goes, eh?" He paused to look around, "There should be a tube that leads to below ground, let us commence!"

"Wait-"

He dashed off and claimed he would look for an exit to below ground, but I didn't want to leave. I am always brought to that field of flowers or that red liquid of which melted down the side of a mountain. People here were not any livelier than the ones of below ground, but that silence of before started to murmur to me. They walked, jumped and floated like before but they looked...different. Or maybe I saw them in a new light. I fidgeted with the notebook in my inside pocket and ruffled my fingers through a few of the pages. Why did he give that book to me? What would it change? Wouldn't Daiya be better off with it? I was hopeless, yet he said it would help me when I needed it. 

"That idiot, Vex. Irresponsible as ever. He's lucky I owe him my life," Daiya snarked, "What are you doing?" 

"Oh-uh, nothing," I took my hand out of my pocket and let go of the book. I don't know why, but for some reason, I didn't feel the need to tell her about it. 

Unlike the last district, there were a lot of people in the street. It was clearly marked by the divide between the houses, I presumed they were houses because people keep going in an out, and it resembled the windows of below ground. I can't believe all this time things like these existed. 

"Do you feel that?"

"What?" 

I felt nothing out of the ordinary, however, that feeling of unease kept growing and growing. The stares of the people around here were intensified as we walked through the crowd of people. It made me wonder why so many people were walking when they could fly? And why so many were here, at this time? 

"I don't know, it's, huhhh, it's, I guess it's just a feeling. Something's off,"

"Yeah..." I muttered. Something Dr. Vex had said a moment ago intrigued me. "Do you-"

"How many me-"

Daiya chuckled. "No, you first."

"No, it's okay, what were you saying?"

"No, seriously. You, first. It's not often you ask me something. I think this is a good sign that you're manifesting." She smiled as we continued to swim amongst the pile. 

Everyone was wearing suits, per usual but some people wore coverings on their heads with a red emblem on it. I couldn't make out what they said. "Do you truly not remember where you were born?"

She put her hand on her chin and thought for a second or two. "No. I always thought I knew. That white room with a translucent screen was where I was born. I had never left. Never really spoke to anyone of those weird doctors. Out of the four that I had seen, Dr. Vex was the only one who ever spoke to me. It was a cycle. Tests, back to the room, tests, back inside that room. It was..." she trailed off, rubbing her shoulders. I noticed she did that when saying certain things. 

"Anyways, how about you?"

Something about that question. Where was I from? All I remember were those days back in schools. There were a bunch of kids, all of them like me. We laughed, and joked, played around the glitched halls of the below ground. I remember that I spoke to a few, but I always knew I was different than them. A couple of the kids made fun of me because I couldn't fly or jump like them. The fondest memories I had were of me walking, looking up to the sky wondering if I could ever reach it like the rest of them. Then one day, they all changed and became another face on the street. Unable to talk and stop staring at me.

"I don't know. I've been below ground for my entire life until I met Dr. Vex. This place," I looked around at the trim of red that painted the buildings and the ground. My reflection bounced back at me when I stared into it beneath me. I was reminded of her essence; and those confusing words she told me. I wondered who she was, if she was really me.

"I want to see more," It was the honest truth. 

We kept walking through the city around the curve of the street until I noticed Daiya turn her head as she started to wrap her fingers together with a darkened expression. Two of the people with red emblems on their caps stood in front of us in the midst of the crowd. As I got a closer view of them, I saw it read "Nolan-50 ". Dr. Vex was still nowhere to be found and as all the people surrounding us seemed to march along like ants, the echo of their words cut through the silence of the crowd. 

"You two are not citizens of Nolan-50. State your business here."

***