My eyes opened, the ceiling wasn’t on fire. I still shot up; Axel was watching me and immediately stood, “Whoa, what’s wrong, Ash? Did you have a nightmare?” Axel asked.

            I couldn’t slow my breathing; I thought I was having some kind of asthma attack. I took my module and typed on it, “It was pretty horrifying; I don’t know how to explain it.” The module said.

            “Well, there’s breakfast on the table from what I smell. Here, let me help you up.” Axel helped me out of bed and gave me a cane. “We couldn’t find you any crutches or a chair, but we did find this!” Axel smiled.

            “You got me a cane?” the module asked.

            “We’re just trying to help you get better, it’s the least we could do.”

            “Thank you, I really appreciate it.”

            “No thanks needed, we want to help you.” Axel told me.

            I smiled and walked out of the room. Axel led me to the dining room of the bunker, it was metal and the carpet was still matted, but it still managed to look homey. A girl with blonde hair and blue eyes walked out of the kitchen with a plate full of waffles on it. She looked up at me and smiled.

            “Well, good mornin’, Ash! I thought you were goin’ to sleep through breakfast; we’ve got a day full of chores.” The girl told me. She had a southern accent; something about it seemed very comforting.

            “Ash, this is Lori. She patched your wounds yesterday; you kind of owe her your life.” Axel told me.

            “Axel you know she don’t owe me nothin’! Come on and sit Ash, I’ll tell you about your injuries, it’s nothin’ bad.” Lori smiled at me and hurried back in the kitchen. Axel sat next to me and I looked at him

            “How old is she?” the module asked.

            “The same age as you and I, I’d have to guess. I’m about sixteen, but she never tells us how old she is. I’ve been guessing for years and she still hasn’t told me. She’s really stubborn about it.”

            Lori stepped out of the kitchen with a couple of plates and a gravy boat full of syrup on top of it; she had a bowl of fruit in the other hand. Axel hurried up to help her with her mountain of things, “Why thank you, Axel! You’re a good boy. Did John and Damien go on another supply run?” Lori asked.

            “Actually,” Axel sat down, “Damien is still asleep, and John and Desmond are not on a supply run. They’re out getting parts for Ash’s voice module.”

            “Lord have mercy, I’m goin’ to beat those boys!” Lori sighed.

            Axel stood, looking at Lori offended, “If there was a Lord, he would have already given mercy.” Axel then walked out of the room, Lori looked at him surprised and then looked down at me. I shrugged; she sighed again and sat down across from me.

“I keep forgettin’ that, that boy is just so sensitive!” Lori folded a napkin on the table. “He’s an atheist, not a man of the Lord. He don’t like talk of the Lord, he don’t want to hear it. It slips my mind sometimes and I let my country come out…” Lori sighed.

I stared at Lori; she seemed disappointed but genuinely sorry for Axel. Her long, slender fingers tapped on the white, stained tablecloth worriedly. She wore a light blue dress; her blonde hair fell onto it and made the dress seem even bluer. Her head rested on her hand, long strands of blonde ran in between her fingers and down to her elbow but never touching the raggedy table cloth below her. I looked down at my hands, they were small and scrawny and dirty. My hair was mangled and knotted and a musty brown. My shirt was a little torn and stained and my pants were ashy. It didn’t take long for my mind to process that Lori looked like a goddess compared to me, she probably didn’t even take showers.

“Hey Lori.” A boy with blonde hair and blue eyes entered the living room; he didn’t even look at me.

“Good mornin’ Carl, did you sleep well?” Lori asked happily.

“Yeah, I’m not going to eat breakfast I have some stuff to do around the bunker. I’ll meet you for dinner though!” Carl smiled, “See you then!” he hopped down the hall happily.

Lori sighed and then looked over at me and smiled, “You’re a shy girl, ain’t you?” I jumped as her words forced me out of my thoughts. I stared at her wide eyed and she giggled, “Come on now, get your communicatin’ thing-a-ma-doo and talk to me!”

My eyes wandered the table looking for my module; I found it and picked it up, “I just don’t have a voice right now, I don’t think I’m shy.”

“You are darlin’. You sit around all day with that thing-a-ma-jig in your lap and twiddle your toes! You’ve got to start speakin’ up like a lady!”

“Apologies, how long is my voice going to be this way?”

“Well it’s hard to tell, darlin’. It could be a couple of months; something got real deep in there and cut you! Don’t worry about it sweetie.”

I nodded and sat up a little more, “What about my ankle?”

“Well that’s just a sprain, kiddo! I promise you, you’ve got nothin’ to worry about, Hun!”

I smiled a bit and nodded as Desmond and a boy with light brown hair and glasses walked into the room and put down a box full of mechanical what’s-its and thing-a-ma-doo’s. Lori stood and whapped them both on the back of the head. The boy with the glasses rubbed the back of his head, “Lori, what the hell?”

“Y’all are late! If I’ve told you once I’ve told you a thousand times to always be home in time for breakfast! All y’all do is ignore me, so I’ve got to whoop your butts to get you over here in time!” Lori lectured.

“Alright Lori, we get it, you’re mad. No need to yell.” Desmond said.

“Don’t you tell me not to yell, boy! I’ll smack you again!” Lori growled. Desmond raised his hands defensively. “Now go and get everyone else before I start throwin’ chairs.” She ordered. Desmond and the boy with glasses hurried down the hall, Lori smiled at me and smoothed her dress, “And that, little lady, is how it’s done.” I smiled a little as a pair of twins ran into the room happily. Both of them stopped and looked at me, they were identical. Both had bobbed red hair with bright blue eyes, not as blue as Desmond’s, and were skinny enough to be called healthy and not anorexic.

“Is that her?” the one on the left asked.

“I think so.” The one on the right answered.

The one on the left wore a white overall skirt with a light purple shirt under; she had a matching white Boston hat. The one on the right wore black overall shorts with a neon green shirt under it; she had a pair of headphones hanging around her neck with a black beanie snuggled onto her head. They were both leaned down with their hands on their knees and looking at me closely. I looked back at them, the one on the left held her scrawny pale hand out to me, “Hi there, Ash! I’m Poppy.” She smiled. I shook her hand and looked at who I could only assume was Daisy.

“I don’t think I like you.” Daisy told me.

“Daisy!” Poppy gasped.

“What?”

“That’s mean!”

“I don’t care.”

They fought like this for a while; I watched and said nothing to them. Lori stood and told them to go sit on opposite sides of the table and to not talk for the entirety of breakfast. I knew that having them sit on opposite ends of the table was not a good idea. We sat silently, wondering where Desmond and the other boy had gone. Lori and Poppy stood; they went into the kitchen, leaving me with Daisy.

“I know what you did.” Daisy told me. I looked up at her; she was looking me right in my eyes. I fidgeted, fumbling to get my module straight, “Don’t bother,” she sighed, “You won’t remember what you did, anyway.” She said. I was looking at her wide eyed, why was I so nervous? I had done nothing, I was sure of that, but a voice in the back of my head told me to cut and run. Run as far as I could, don’t even bother with a gas mask, just go. “All I’m saying is, is if you do that here, I will hurt you. If you try I will tell Desmond everything, he won’t like you too much after that, will he?” I kept staring at her, her blue eyes were squinting at me intensely and her muscles were tightened, her head was tilted just slightly so it gave her an intimidating look.

“You can take her.” Something told me, “She’s literally half your size; you can squish her if you must.” I looked down at my knees, I didn’t like this voice. This voice disturbed me deeply.

“Do you remember anything?” she asked. I looked back up at her, still wide eyed. She wasn’t looking at me like I was a criminal anymore, but she did still look very upset with me. I felt so bad for no reason, what had I done? “What’s the first thing you remember?” she asked.

“Just waking up under a piece of my own home.” The module answered.

“Good.” She snarled and stood, walking out of the dining room. My mouth hung open; I looked at the stained white table cloth. I had done something horrible and I had to figure out what. Not knowing who I was or what my previous life was drove me insane; I stood and limped over to Daisy. She turned and looked at me, fire emitting from her glare. “What do you want?”

“Who am I?” the module demanded.

“Excuse me?”

“Who am I? What did I do to you?”

Daisy smiled slyly and a laugh escaped her lips as she folded her arms and her glare sharpened, “Don’t you wish you knew?” she turned away from me, leaving me in the empty hallway. I wanted to scream, I wanted to throw my module at the wall and watch it shatter to the ground and pull out my hair and kick things over.

I didn’t.

I stood and I composed myself, gathering the anger that shot through my limbs and into my heart and putting it all down to deal with later. I limped back into the dining room and sat down as Lori and Poppy walked out of the kitchen, somehow Desmond and the boy with glasses had found their way into the kitchen. “Sorry,” the boy with glasses smiled at me and pulled up his pants a little, he held a hand out to me, “I didn’t have the common sense to introduce myself. I’m John, John Carter.”

“Like the movie!” Desmond pitched in jokingly.

“That was a crappy movie and you know it!” John snapped, he sat down and smiled at me again. “Now since your memory is all scrambled like this morning’s dinner, I want you to tell me what you do know.”

“What I do know?” the module asked, if it had emotion it would have mumbled it.

“Yes, like, let’s see…what color is the sky?”

“Grey.”

“See, you know that! What else do you know?”

“…There was a nuclear holocaust, it almost killed everyone.”

“Go on.”

“People take refuge in underground bunkers to get away from the radiation. The rich people live in The Garden; it’s the last place that still has living things in it. You know, like trees.”

“Do you know what color trees are?”

“Trees are…” the module was silent. Everyone looked at me, waiting for an answer. I had absolutely no idea what color trees were. I wanted to say blue, but that just didn’t seem right. The kid with the Clearwater shirt must know because Clearwater is the best school on the planet. “Trees are…the color of the grass.”

“What color is the grass?”

“Yellow.”

“What is the color of the grass in The Garden?” I felt my body temperature rise substantially. I was nervous, my fingers fumbling to get to the letters on the module. John noticed this and was watching me even more closely, Desmond was also watching me, and he looked interested yet confused. “Ash, if you don’t know it’s okay. We don’t know anymore about you than you do.” I looked up at him worriedly, why was I so nervous? Why didn’t I know that answer, it seemed so simple? He asked me because he knew it would be simple, he asked me because he knew I, of all people, would know that answer.

“Ash, are you okay? You look pale.” Lori stood, handing me a glass of cloudy water. I didn’t want to drink it, not because I didn’t want to waste their water, but because I didn’t want cloudy water.

“I’m fine, thank you.” The module said. I leaned back in my chair. For the love of god, who the hell was I?