CHAPTER TWO

November 1st, 3000;**

Well, back again. Joyce basically forced me to put down this entry the moment she found out it was mandatory for my recovery.

Where did I stop last time? Oh right, when Joyce picked me up from the hospital. Well basically what happened next was she took me over to her place. Apparently I have to be under constant supervision.

When I got out of the hospital, she dragged me to her car - a sleek black Rolls Royce. The engine made this soft purring noise and judging from the glossy body and perfect maintenance, Joyce doesn't play around with her cars.

We both got into the back seats, Joyce placing the bag between us. I noticed her hand roaming the fabric almost like it was a bag she found familiar as she told her driver to take us to her place.

The interior was amazing. Soft, silver leather seats that made sitting down actually comfortable, the car was more spacious than it looked and there were screens attached to the front seats so backseat viewers could watch stuff on it. The AC was chilly, felt like my whole body was about to shut down from the cold. Perfect temperature though. What caught my eye the most was the dashboard - it looked so flashy and had a bunch of different lights and digital buttons. What intrigued me the most was the button that said FLIGHT MODE.

I glanced at Joyce, making sure I was discreet about it. She was loaded, that was for sure.

Despite how discreet I tried to be, I barely looked at her for half a second but she somehow noticed and asked, "What's up with you? I made sure I came with the car you loved the most, the temp is set exactly the way you like it, something wrong?" Without thinking I retorted, "Well excuse me, cause from my point of view I woke up in a hospital with almost zero memory of who I am, just to get tagged along with some hot chick I don't know, who has a driver and drives some fancy car and seems to be loaded and apparently I'm good buddies with this chick I have no memory of." I noticed how taken aback she was before I concluded, "So permit me to take a few seconds to let this all soak in."

To my surprise, Joyce hearing everything I said just giggled before saying, "Alright, alright, I'm sorry. Take it all in." She then muttered something under her breath with a smile, if my ears didn't fail me it was something along the lines of "nice to see you still sound like you." I exhaled and for some reason I felt the need to say "I heard that." That's something I'm still trying to wrap my head around - when I'm with her I feel so free to say and do whatever.

"Heard what? I don't know what you're talking about," Joyce said, feigning innocence. That got an eye roll from me as I turned to the window. The military base seemed to have been located in the heart of a busy city. There were skyscrapers everywhere, people moving around, cars, hover boards and hover bikes. Holographic advertisements on almost every street corner. One that caught my eye was about buying an android girlfriend. I was stunned to say the least when I saw it. We be buying robot partners now? That's genuinely crazy.

A thought then came to my head and with my guard completely down, while still looking out the window I asked Joyce, "So mind telling me what I was like, how we met, stuff like that. I mean I feel so lost and confused right now, I don't even know what city we are in. Heck, I don't even know the password to my damn phone."

Joyce heard what I said and paused for a second as if trying to decide what to do as she muttered, "Well as for what city, you're in New York, but as for what you were like..." She then paused before saying, "I mean... it's kinda weird having to explain to a person what they are like cause they genuinely don't remember squat, but I'll do my best." She then paused and I followed her eyes to the driver before she commented, "When we get to my place."

The rest of the ride to her house was just awkward silence. I mean Joyce seemed completely fine with the silence but me on the other hand felt completely awkward, my brain coming up with different methods to break it but that process taught me two things about myself - I may have zero people skills cause I kid you not I couldn't think of one thing to say or do throughout the ride.

We eventually pulled up at Joyce's house and when we got down I was taken aback by how huge her house is. That's what settled it for me then and there, she is definitely loaded. The house was a very nice and costly looking duplex, painted all white, had those giant windows that overlooked the compound. Now that I think about it, something I'd like.

After I got over my shock I noticed the driver came down from the car and dropped the key in Joyce's already outstretched hand and from the gap between the driver's wrist and sleeve I noticed that beneath the sleeve he didn't have skin, it was pure metal. Joyce had somehow noticed what my eyes were looking at and she said, "Yup, android drivers. Welcome to the 30th century." She then paused, noticing the shock on my face and she let out a small laugh saying, "Man, your brain must be really fried if you're shocked by that."

I remember feeling the urge to roll my eyes as I muttered, "I wasn't shocked." Joyce in response just smirked and nudged me saying, "Sure you weren't." She then grabbed my arm and dragged me along to her house, dismissing the driver with a "Go and recharge your batteries, Gerald, I'll call you when you're needed." The driver just nodded and walked off into the distance of the large compound, while she just kept on basically dragging me to the house. This dragging me along thing is becoming quite common, guess it's something she did a lot with me, I don't know yet.

The moment we entered the house I noticed that the walls on both sides of the corridors were filled with neatly arranged picture frames hung in a deliberate pattern. Some were group pictures, some were pictures of her with some old guy, probably her dad, some were pictures of her in a uniform and it dawned on me. I felt kinda stupid not drawing the conclusion earlier - she's a soldier too. She said we met in fucking military academy for Christ's sake, how did I miss that.

One thing I did notice for sure is that for some reason in roughly seventy percent of the pictures, I was there. Even in most of the group pictures. Guessing we may have been on the same squad.

She led me to the living room, a nice cozy place with a large flat screen TV and two speakers beside it. Beneath the television was a wide white drawer desk that had a bunch of what looked like gaming consoles on it. Didn't know she was a gamer.

Joyce basically flopped down on the newest couch, yanking me down with her. The couch was comfy, and in black, the rug was a kind of dark blue color and when I looked around I noticed the aesthetic of the living room was dark blue and black, dark colors.

Before I could dwell on it for too long Joyce cleared her throat, her arm still in mine as she turned to me and asked, "So where am I beginning from, am I doing the whole 'your name is Arthur Eobard Blackfield and you're 33, American' or something more specific like 'your favourite drink is Four Cousins and you can down a giant bottle of Captain Jack without getting drunk'?"

I smirked, part of me surprised as I asked her, "So I don't get drunk?" Joyce when she heard that laughed, a genuine laugh as she said, "Come on, everyone gets drunk, it just takes a while for you to get drunk. I remember you saying it's cause your parents always gave you small shots of alcohol when you were a kid to build your alcohol tolerance." She paused as if reminiscing, saying with a smirk, "But when you did get drunk, it was so funny. All of a sudden you're sleepy and you are complaining about your head and then I'd have to take you home and deal with the whole 'I can barely move from this bed' attitude the next morning."

When she said it, her body immediately went rigid and she paused, giving a small awkward laugh as she quickly explained, "When you were drunk I usually stayed over in the guest room to keep an eye on you."

In response I gave a simple nod, a small smile breaking out despite myself. Seemed like I may have been a very interesting person, but I took note of her sudden pause and over-explanation to justify why she stayed behind.

As if remembering something, Joyce broke into a laugh as she said between giggles, "There was this time when you were playing a video game right here, some game that was your current obsession and I came in from the kitchen kinda mad cause I was like 'dude, what's your dirty laundry doing all over the place' and then you give me this surprised look and was like 'oh shit, I literally left them all over her place so when I walk around I'd wonder why I got dirty clothes everywhere and that would make me want to do my laundry, damn... that didn't work.' It was the craziest thing I'd ever seen." She kept on giggling when she said it and I was over there wondering to myself "damn, am I really that disorganized?" Then a part of me asks myself a question, why was my dirty laundry in her house? I don't know if my face gave me away or she realized how it sounded without context, she quickly explained that it was a period where my area had a bug problem so they were fumigating the entire place. I just gave a simple nod with a small smile, meanwhile my brain had categorized some things that felt off but I shoved them aside as me leaning too much on context.

The whole couple of hours was her talking about different stories, some ranging from when we were in the military academy, some ranging from missions we worked together which confirmed my theory we were on the same squad. Eventually my body started to feel heavy and she noticed instantly, cutting off the story she was telling me about a time I got into a big eating contest with the other soldiers as she asked, "Hey, you've had quite a long day and I can't even imagine how waking up without your memories must feel, if you wanna turn in I can show you to the guest room." I took her up on her offer cause although I wanted to hear more about the me I don't know, I was kinda beat.

She took me upstairs and showed me to the guest room. It was nice, had a big bed, a desk and a mirror, also had a door that led to the bathroom but apart from that it was bland. Then again I'm guessing no normal person would spend time decorating a guest room.

So that's basically how yesterday ended. I fell asleep and woke up around 7:30 am today. I think I'm getting the hang of this whole diary thing - oh shit, meant journal. Anyways, I'll try my best to write later today, Joyce is about to drag me somewhere, we are gonna go watch a movie apparently.