THE HUNTERS
The Deep Warrens were a maze of tunnels and chambers, carved out of the Martian rock by the first settlers generations ago. Level Seven was the deepest, the darkest, the most dangerous. Criminals hid here. Monsters, too — not literal monsters, but the kind that wore human faces.
Remy and Juno moved through the tunnels in silence, their footsteps echoing off the stone.
Behind them, they heard footsteps that weren’t theirs.
“They found us,” Juno whispered.
“Who?”
“Who do you think? Whoever put that memory in Dorn’s head. Whoever’s been waiting for you.”
Remy pulled Juno into a side tunnel.
They pressed themselves against the wall.
The footsteps grew louder.
Three figures emerged from the darkness. They wore black suits and black masks, their faces hidden. Their movements were synchronized, robotic.
“Target acquired,” one of them said. “Proceed with extraction.”
Remy’s blood ran cold.
They weren’t here to kill her.
They were here to take the memory.
The voice inside her head screamed.
“Run!”
She ran.
THE SAFE HOUSE
The abandoned extraction lab was a small room, barely large enough for two people. Old equipment lined the walls — extraction needles, memory boxes, machines that hadn’t been used in years.
Juno locked the door behind them.
“They’ll find us here.”
“Not for a while. This place is off every map.”
Remy leaned against the wall. Her nose had stopped bleeding, but the pressure in her head was worse. The voice was whispering, murmuring, a constant buzz at the edge of her consciousness.
“Who are you?” she asked aloud.
“I am what was forgotten.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only answer I have. My memories are fragmented. Broken. I remember a place. A time. A purpose. But not my name. Not my face. Not my origin.”
“Then how do you know me?”
“Because you carry a piece of me. In your blood. In your bones. In the scars you don’t remember getting.”
Remy’s hand went to her temple. The needle mark. The extraction scar.
“You were planted in me. When?”
“Before you were born. Your mother — she was one of us. A carrier. A guardian. She passed me to you when you were still in the womb.”
“My mother died when I was three. I don’t remember her.”
“She died to protect me. To protect you. The hunters killed her. They have been looking for you ever since.”
Remy’s eyes filled with tears.
She didn’t know why.
She didn’t remember her mother.
But the grief was real.