First Memory
What is my first memory? The very first thing that I saw when I opened my eyes that night was two of the others standing or laying near, engaged in what appeared to be a conflicted discussion. Smoke filled the air in the darkness, and the reflection on the waves revealed a daunting moonlit landscape. There were pieces of what turned out to be valuable tools and weapons lying scattered on the ground. However, I could not reconcile what any of these things were, let alone my name. The softer parts of my clothing were either burned or torn, but most of my body was protected by thin metal armor. I had a few scrapes but no significant injuries. The underlying reality set in relatively quick: I was unsure of who I was, did not know where I was and had no clue about the nature of those around me.
There was a total of fifteen of us, but I noticed not everyone was awake. After gathering my thoughts for a few minutes, I concluded that this must be a group that I belong to, considering our clothes and armor all matched. I decided to speak to one of the first two I had seen when I woke up. I thought, if anything, one of them might have some idea of what was happening. The first one I talked to was a bold and enchanting woman with a strong personality. She was unmistakably born to lead. Like myself, she did not know her name or what was going on around us. That is what she and the other one were previously discussing. As I had approached, they were hoping that I remembered something that might be of use to us.
While we took stock of the situation, it became clear that none of us who were awake could remember any important details at all. Our names, where we were at, where we were from, why we were there, how we had gotten there; none of us had any idea. One of the three that remained unconscious, one was in rough shape, and we estimated he would not survive the night. It did not take long to figure out that some of the objects on the ground were weapons. When one of these "weapons" was picked up, it shot off a light beam that vaporized a small bush. After regrouping from the initial shock of the weapon’s blast, we decided to build a small shelter for those who were unconscious and reassess our situation in the morning.
When morning came, things did not become much clearer, unfortunately. It seemed those of us that were awake were working from a sort of fog and could not pull anything from our memory. We had a lengthy discussion about what we should do next. The water at the shore was too salty to drink, and our instincts led us to conclude we needed a fresher supply as soon as possible. We discussed it and decided that myself and three others, including the woman I spoke to first, would venture into the wooded area to look for water and something for us to eat. The others would stay back and take care of the unconscious ones until we returned.
We walked for the entire first day, cutting our way through the forest with the weapon we had discovered. It was the only thing we were not terrified to use at the time because it was the only thing that we had seen work, and we knew how much power it held. As early morning hours approached, we slept for a bit before heading back out as daylight broke. After another day of walking, we found ourselves tiring of the light vegetation's monotony and the barrage of animal sounds. We had discussed stopping for the night when we started to hear what sounded like singing and a sort of drum beating in the distance. Our curiosity got the better of us, so we continued forward the rest of the night, into the following day until daylight, never reaching the sound.
Once the sound died out and the day started breaking, we took a break ourselves. Waking up later that evening, with darkness beginning to set back in, we noticed the singing and drumbeats had restarted but carried an even more powerful sway. We pushed on toward them for several hours as they got louder and louder. The roar of these sounds was so great you could feel them in your bones. You could feel the earth beneath your feet rumbling, and the force of it got stronger the closer we got. As we neared the source of the sounds, an orange glow started to cover the night sky. We found a spot to gaze in from the shadows, not wanting to chance an encounter we could not manage. What we saw was both awe-inspiring and terrifying at the same time. We had found more people! But they were not like us. They were….different…