Broken Memories

“We should camp here tonight. It’s already getting dark and we don’t know where we are or if there’s dangerous animals in this forest. We should set up a perimeter and… eh, are you listening?” The policeman stared at me with an annoyed expression on his face. I just shrugged and continued thinking of the events of the last few hours. I took the locket out of my pocket.

‘What happened in that house? Is Johnny alright?’ I asked myself over and over.

“Hey, I’m asking you a question!” said the GEO.

“Let him breathe Fernando,” said the other man. “He’s just been through hell, like us.”

“I’m aware of that, Nicholas” said Fernando, “but this is a life-death situation. If we don’t get our shit together we might not survive till next morning.”

“I’m sorry…”

They both looked at me at the same time and I sighed. “It’s just… I found something that belongs to someone that I care of…”

“And who’s that?” asked the blond man, Nicholas.

“He’s my little brother, John… you haven’t, by any chance, seen a little boy, around the age of eleven while you were in… that place, have you?”

They looked at each other and then at me and then they shocked their heads.

“Nope,” said Nicholas. “I’m sorry. If he was there we didn’t see him.”

“Al menos no entre los cadáveres…” muttered the Spanish policeman.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” I asked him, a little bit annoyed.

“That at least he isn't among the corpses. At least there’s still a possibility that he is still alive.”

“Still… alive…” I muttered. “ I have to go back there”

I turned around and started walking in direction of the mansion, but then a hand grabbed me. “Are you crazy?” said Fernando. “The thing that was in that house will rip the flesh from your bones! Didn’t you see the other guys?”

“Guys…”

“That’s exactly why do I have to go! My brother may be running for his life!”

“Guys…”

“Look sir, we searched in the house up and down looking for survivors and we didn’t find anything! Your brother is not there anymore!”

“But-”

“GUYS!”

We looked at Nicholas, who pointed at something that we hadn’t noticed. It had the body and the head of a lion but it also had a giant pair of wings and a tail that looked like the tail of a scorpion. “It looks like we have interrupted his nap,” said Nicholas. The beast that was sleeping only a few seconds ago raised its head and gave a large yawn. Then it looked directly at us with an angry expression on its face. He stood up and gave a loud roar and then he launched at us.

I and Fernando dodged the attack, but the psychiatrist wasn’t so lucky and the beast hit him, throwing him into the air. Nicholas hit the floor with a moan, and the beast put a paw on him, preventing him from escaping.

“Hey!” said Fernando pulling out his shotgun. “What do you think you’re doing!? Let him go!” He pulled the trigger, and the pellets impacted the animal in the wing, scarcely damaging it. The creature roared loudly and charged at Fernando who dodged the attack once again. With this, the creature had let go Nicholas, who got up.

“Run!” he shouted. “I know what it is and we don’t have a chance against it!”

The three of us started to run while the animal pursued us with a newly restored rage. I wanted to defend myself, but then I realized that Fernando still had my gun.

“Hey!” I yelled, “I think it’s time that you give me my gun back, don’t you think?”

Fernando looked at me and then at the beast, and he threw my gun back at me. But just as I caught my gun, the creature charged again against us only this time I didn't dodge the attack. I fell to the ground and while I tried to recover from the impact, I felt two paws on my back, squashing me into the ground. Fernando tried to aim at the creature with his shotgun, but it used its tail to smack him to the ground. With no one to interrupt it the animal looked down at me at then prepared to bite a chunk of my flesh out of me. I tried to struggle, but it was useless, the beast was too strong. I gave up, prepared for the pain, when a loud shot was heard.

The beast roared angrily, he had a big wound on its chest, and then it looked at the direction from where it had heard the shot, only to receive another one. The creature gave a roar of pain, and then started to retreat into the depths of the dark forest.

I stood up and I saw large trail of blood in front of me. All of the sudden I started to feel sick and begun to vomit. When I stopped vomiting I looked around me and saw Nicholas looking at the blood, a sick expression on his face.

“That was a manticore…” said Nicholas in a whisper.

“A what now?” Fernando was standing next to me, puzzled. I was perplexed too.

“A manticore… A creature from the Persian mythology… Only it normally has a human’s head instead of a lion’s…” He took a pause and then he looked again at the blood. “Just… where are we? We are not in earth anymore, that’s for-” Nicholas started to have convulsions with a sick grin on his face.

“Nicholas, are you okay?” asked Fernando.

“It’s nothing; it’s just that I have a little phobia… I suffer from Hematophobia. It means that I am afraid of blood,” he said to our puzzled expressions.

“Ha, that’s strange,” I muttered. I looked back at Fernando. “Hey, thanks for saving me back there. If you hadn’t shot him I would be dead for sure.”

“What? I didn't shoot it. He knocked the gun out of my reach. I thought you had shot it!”

“What? But I didn't- Wait a second… If I didn't shoot it, and you didn't shoot it, then who-”

“Maybe we should ask him” said Nicholas pointing at a man who was aiming a rifle at us. We hadn't heard him sneak in. “Put your hands in the air,” he said in a voice I knew too well.

A young boy walked down the road quickly, along him walked his mother, a tall and beautiful woman who carried his son’s heavy backpack, which weighted too much for the little boy. It was the boy’s first day at school and anyone could tell how nervous he looked.

“So,” asked his mother, “how are you feeling?”

“I’m fine,” lied the boy, forcing a smile on his face. The woman noticed that and stopped walking. The boy stopped too, looking at his mother apprehensively. The boy’s mother sighed, knowing what was happening.

“Look Eddie,” she said warmly, “it’s going to be fine. You just have to be yourself.”

“But that’s of what I’m afraid of, mommy,” said the boy, Eddie, who was shy by nature, “What if they don’t like me?”

“Eddie, you are a wonderful child and I don’t see any reason why they wouldn’t like you. I’m sure that you’ll make many friends.”

“Yeah, I hope so…” sighed Eddie.

“Alright. We are almost there,” said the woman upon seeing the building that was the school.

They walked two minutes more and they arrived at the building. They entered the building and then the mother gave the boy his backpack.

“Are you sure that you can carry on with that backpack?” said Eddie’s mother worried.

“I can carry it, don’t worry mom.”

“Okay sweetie. Good luck in your first day of school.”

Eddie’s mother left the building and the boy was left on his own. Kids of his age where running through the hall, all of them with a mix of excitement and insecurity written on their faces. Eddie walked across the hall, barely able to carry his heavy backpack. Three kids watched him carrying the backpack struggling and laughed maliciously.

Eddie continued walking until he reached the end of the hall. His class was in the second floor, so he took the stairs at the end of the hall. But then he found that he couldn't lift his backpack, it was too heavy for him. He looked over the hall to see If someone could help him, but he only found the three kids, still laughing at his weakness. He was about to shatter when something poked his shoulder.

“Do you need any help with that?” asked another boy of his age. He was taller than Eddie and seemed stronger.

“S-sure,” answered Eddie relieved. The two kids managed to carry the heavy backpack up to the second floor, working together. When they got to the second floor, they stared at each other, not knowing what to say.

“Thank you,” said Eddie after a while. The other boy smiled and said: “Hey, no problem. It looked like you needed help with that backpack and those guys were laughing at you.”

Eddie blushed ashamed and the boy tried to make up for his mistake.

“Oh, don’t mind those kids; that backpack was heavy after all”

“Yeah, don’t worry, I won’t mind them.”

They stayed a few more moments silent, and then the other boy broke the ice.

“So… what’s your class?”

“Huh? Oh it’s 1-B, I think.”

“Really? That’s my class too!”

“Really?” said Eddie, smiling. He normally had trouble when meeting new people, but this boy was different. He was friendly and agreeable and that was something that he didn't find in a person too often.

“Yeah! Let’s go!”

He began to walk towards the class when he stopped and turned back.

“Hey, I didn't catch your name!”

“Oh… I’m Eddie.”

“Well nice to meet you Eddie. I’m Michael, but you can call me Mike,” he said enthusiastically.

A bell started to ring and all the pupils started to enter their classes.

“Okay. The class begins now, I think. Let’s go,” said Mike.

And so, Eddie entered the class with his new friend…

“Mike?” I said, confused of seeing my best friend there, in the middle of this bizarre situation. He looked terrible, he had all his clothes torn up and had scratches all over his face and body. He also had a big bruise on his left cheek.

“Eddie?” he answered, also confused. Fernando took advantage of the distraction and aimed his gun at my friend.

“Drop it!” he shouted at Mike. Instead, he aimed at Fernando, with a determined grin on his face.

“I don’t think so. Not until I find out what the hell is happening here.”

“Wait,” interrupted Nicholas, “you don’t remember how you got here either?”

Mike looked at Nicholas, surprised. “What? I’m not the only one who doesn't know what’s happening here?” He paused thinking about what he had heard. “So… you come from the mansion with the corpses too?”

Fernando nodded and put the gun down. “Well… It looks like you two know each other already.”- He looked at me and then back at him-“I’m Captain Fernando González, from the GEOS.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen that,” responded Mike. “Sergeant Michael Anderson, from the US army… More exactly ex-sergeant. I’m not in the army anymore.”

We all stared at Nicholas, who introduced himself. “Dr. Nicholas Samuels. I’m a psychiatrist.”

We stayed a moment in silent, not knowing what to do.

“Okay people,” said Fernando, “now that we know each other we should try to figure where are we going to camp this night."

“Oh, I saw a strange old house not a long time ago,” said Mike. “It had a weird symbol on the roof, like a music note or something. Maybe we should pass the night there.”

“Okay,” I said, starting to get tired. “To the house with the music note it is. I’m starting to feel tired.”

They all nodded and we started to walk, Mike taking the lead.

Three figures watched the group leave the place. They had seen how they had beaten the manticore, and they didn’t know what this could represent for their plan.

“Did you see how they beat that manticore?” said a green pegasus mare, astonished.

“Yeah, they could mean trouble,” said a big light brown earth pony in a deep voice. “We have to inform the boss.”

“Or we could eliminate them ourselves,” answered back the pegasus, wielding a wing blade.

“Don’t you even think of that, featherbrain,” said a blue unicorn with a white mane. “Didn't you see the technology that they used? We could use that in our plan, but we would have to take their weapons silently. Light Sand is right, we have to inform the boss. He’ll know what to do with the weapons.”

“Maybe… We could use their weapons in our little plan,” said the earth pony smiling slyly.

“Hmmm… Whatever. Let’s get out of this forest and inform the boss. He’ll know what to do,” said the pegasus.

They all started to walk away. The unicorn smiled devilishly.

“Ponyville… Your time is coming.”