Rescue 02

          Adam was waking up a second time. After being left by the twins, he wasn't sure what to think; even about them, much less about the situation of his rescue. It was certainly odd that his old friend had come to an abandoned place to rescue him in the first place, much less that it was inter-spaced with a random wacky revolution endeavor. (or whatever the original reason had been for, since it certainly didn't seem likely that it would have been obvious to anyone that he was still alive after all that time. But then wasn't it a coincidence that it was someone he knew, of all the possibilities?) He wondered if those things were related somehow. And if so, why?
          He also wondered who it could be that he was left with. Most of the people he knew had lived around where he did, so probably there were few of them left among the living. He hoped it wasn't Malachi... his 'friends' were not always the most savory people in general, but some of them were more... dangerous... than others.
          Maybe it wasn't someone he knew in person at all. Over the internet, maybe? He wasn't sure why Louis would have a comprehensive list of who he even knew that way, anyways. Nor why...
          But... there was one other option...
          The door to the room he was in creaked open. He turned to look at the entrance.
         "Hello, Adam."
         "S.Sophie?"
         "It's been awhile."
          Sophie walked into the room, and next to the bed; the girl he hadn't seen since they were ten years old. The one he thought he might never be able to see in person again, because of their countries' public relations. It had been over a decade. Though they had been vaguely communicating through most of that time. Not over the internet, of course, since the distance was too far between planets, but through letters.
          ...Or had they been? He realized suddenly that she might not have known why he had stopped responding. Maybe she didn't know how long he'd been missing. Maybe she had spent these last few years thinking that he had simply... no longer cared enough to respond.
         Then again. Would he have anyways?
         They looked at eachother. Adam could tell that the last few years had not been idealistic for her either. She looked empty. Like someone who you could not even imagine smiling. Not depressed even. Just... vacant. He realized he likely looked no better.
         They sat there in silence for a few minutes, just looking. Then, she threw herself over him to give him a prolonged hug. She looked like she would have been crying if she still knew how, though had long since passed the point where it was a real possibility. Maybe he was himself, even. He certainly had done so a lot during his years of solitude in his abandoned city. Though he did not really feel like he was doing so now. After years of abandonment you too become empty.
          Then, she got up, and wiped her eyes. He looked at, her, and then she looked back once more; with the gaze of someone vaguely trying to feel something they knew was probably long dead inside them.
         But her face changed. She suddenly looked matter of fact, and sat down, to take a shot needle out of her pocket, which she began assembling. He looked quizzically at it.
         "What's that?"
         "A shot I need to give you."
         "What does it do?"
         She finished assembling it, and put it into his arm. He realized that she had specifically done so before answering, but at any rate, even feeling better, he was certainly to weak still to try fighting back, even if it was something malevolent. And he hardly wanted to show distrust to her of all things, after all this time.
         "Well..."
          She sat back, and began putting the needle away.
         "It's something that will erase your memories of the last hour."
         "What?"
         "I... I don't want you to know how much I missed you."
          He was a bit stunned, to be sure. And not sure how to respond.
          She walked out of the room.
        "See you later."
          His gaze followed her out the door, and then rested on it for a few minutes after she left. By the end of it he couldn't even remember what he was staring at it for.
          He passed out.