March 16, 2032
A few more days passed in which Cole and Dave both got discharged from the cabin. They both bade Michael farewell and wished him luck for the future. Michael too had healed in that period and stood in front of Elena thanking her.
"You've looked after me. You've given me shelter, food, medicine and clothes," said Michael looking down at the clothes he was wearing. "These are really comfortable by the way. Who do these belong to?"
"To my dad."
"Oh," Michael blurted realizing how stupid he was for not realizing that it was obvious.
Elena noticed his reaction. "So, you know about my dad?"
"Yes, the guys told me," he said sheepishly.
"It's alright. It's not like he would ever mind you having his clothes," said Elena. She then quickly changed the subject. "So, what now?"
"Is there any way I can repay you?"
"I already told you, Michael. You don't have to worry about it. You can repay me when you are able to do so."
"What if I help you around here?" he asked. "You seem so stressed out with all this work. I could help you out you know. I've got nowhere else to go anyways. I know nothing about what's going on out there with all this respawners and stuff. You've showed me kindness and it's the very least I could do."
Elena thought about it. She already had the two nurses, Diamond and Amanda, at the clinic so she did not see any reason to keep him here. She did not get along with them either and tended to keep her distance from them. She felt that anyone who got close to her would die. Her mother, her father, his assistant. Even the closest of her friends from school who had survived the initial carnage of the respawner. They all died because of you. Mom died because she saved your life. After that, all you've done is brought death to everyone close to you. Her only surviving relative was her uncle, Joey, but he was usually away and so, according to her, had not suffered from the curse that she afflicted to everyone close to her.
Maybe she could get him a job somewhere nearby. Yes, that would be perfect. "No," she said bluntly. "You can't help me around here. You don't know anything about running the clinic. You need to make an own living for yourself. I'll help you get some work in the city, perhaps in the mines or the farms."
Michael nodded. She's right, I would just be another nuisance for her. I have to face the world out there. He had noticed that she wasn't the talkative type and mostly kept to her work.
In the next few days, Elena led him to the customs office where, surprisingly, he wasn't registered which meant he had not lived in the Peak City before he lost his memory.
That is very odd, thought Elena. Is he an escaped Jew?But if he had been a Jew then he would've appeared in their records. Maybe a trader? But even traders have temporary passes. He could just be someone trying to get in from the desert towns but had failed to do so. Elena still could not understand how he had lost his memory.
Elena looked at him suspiciously but he just shrugged. He seems honest enough. I guess there's no harm in getting him registered. Elena convinced the customs officer to get him registered without any hassle. The Nazis in the city always treated her with respect and so it was easy to get him a pass. After that she led him to the coal mines where he was able to easily get a job because there always a vacancy there. It was the first time that Michael had explored the whole city and had realized how big it actually was. If you were too measure the surface area the city covered then it did not seem like much but Michael had realized that each mountain contained towns built layer upon layer with each of these naturally-occurring layers connected by roads. Each mountain was given a name based on how much close they were to the south of the city where Destroyed Denver was. The mountain on which they currently were was labelled Mountain C while the mountain to their north was labelled D. Each level on the mountain was given a number with the highest level being given the highest number. Michael noticed how different each level was from the other in terms of prosperity. The higher level you went to, the more developed and sophisticated it looked. The level at the top was where most of the Nazi commanders and richer people of the city lived while the lowest level was where the poor working class lived. Below the working-class people were the people of Destroyed Denver who were not considered to be part of the Peak City and lived illegally in identical conditions to the imprisoned Jews. Most of these people were black who lived down there to escape the ill-treatment of the Nazis.
Elena's clinic was on the third level of the mountain which meant it was in the town C3 while the mines were at the mountain face of the town of D2. Each mountain was connected by series of chair lifts whose cables created a web at the center. All these mountains were huddled around a central mountain which looked menacing with its sharp surface and formidable buildings. This was where the military base of the Peak City was and Michael shuddered when he looked at it.
There were watch towers at each town from where recons surveyed over the proceedings on the lookout for Soviet spies and escaped convicts. They were meant to keep the towns safe but in truth, they made the people feel very uncomfortable. Michael felt that if he made one wrong move, as trivial as throwing a wrapper to the ground, then the recon would gun him down.
Luckily for Michael, they ran into Cole who was exiting the mines and was happy to let him live in his cabin until Michael had earned enough so that he would be able to live on his own. Michael thanked Elena one last time and took his belongings, which only consisted of the jacket, borrowed clothes from Elena and a few preventative medicines, and moved on into Cole's cabin.
Michael had noticed how Elena had stopped at a jewelry vendor after a pendant at the front of the cart had caught her eye. She had asked the vendor the price and he had seen the expression of disappointment on her face knowing it was too expensive for her. The vendor had said that it would cost three hundred hitlers. That was the currency in the Nazi-occupied zones. They were officially called Reichsmarks but the people had informally named the notes hitlers, which had Hitler's face printed on it, and the coins eagles, because they had eagles notched into one side of them along with swastikas on the other side.
What if I buy the pendant for her? He thought as he walked beside the exhausted Cole. The weekly wage for working in the mines was only thirty hitlers of which a lot would have to be put into rent and food. Was it worth spending so much money on it? He didn't have to think about it twice. Of course, it was. Maybe after that she will start considering me a friend.
Michael was exhausted by the time he reached Cole's cabin. It was a very small place located in the town of D4 and contained only two rooms, a small living room, bathroom and kitchenette. Cole lived with his family which consisted of his wife and two boys aged nine and eight respectively. They sat down cross-legged for dinner on the moldy carpet in the living room. Michael could see Cole was very nervous for some reason. Has he not told her that I'm going to be staying with them? They exchanged some small talk with Cole introducing his wife to their new guest, joking about his first day at work and asking their sons how school had gone. After his son had told his mother that he gotten an A in the quiz, which had put her in a good mood, he decided to break the news to her.
"Hey, honey, I just wanted to tell you that uhh… Michael here will be staying with us for a few days." Michael watched his body shrink a bit, as if bracing himself for an explosion.
"What?" she asked a bit loudly then quietened her tone while glaring at her husband. She spoke in a quiet threatening tone. "But, honey, maybe you should have told me this sooner?"
"Oh, haha, must have slipped my mind," he said with a smile. "Looks like I seem to have caught the amnesia from you too eh? Haha," A nervous smile broke on Michael's face when he saw the desperate look on Cole's face. He had no idea how to act in the situation. The rest of the dinner was filled with an awkward silence which Cole desperately tried to break but failed miserably.
Michael was given a spot on the uncomfortable sofa in the living room and everyone settled in for the night. An hour passed and Michael was not able to sleep. He was nervous about his first day on the job tomorrow morning and also, could not stop thinking about his origins. Maybe he was from among those poor people living in the destroyed city below, the ones who lived there illegally. He probably had parents, perhaps even siblings, worrying about him and searching for him all around. He wondered what he would have been doing beyond the Perimeter when he had lost his memory. He wished he had looked around carefully for clues. Why didn't he have any injuries on his body? Even his hair had been perfectly kempt when he gained consciousness. It was very peculiar indeed.
His thoughts were interrupted by shouting. It was Cole's wife screaming at him from their room.
"Why didn't you tell me you were bringing a guest?" she demanded.
"Because I knew you were going to react like this," he said timidly. "Jessie, please, calm down."
"Well, excuse me for being a little pissed about you bringing in freeloaders to our home!"
"He's not a freeloader Jessie. He's a kid who has amnesia, he doesn't remember anything from his past. He could really use the help."
"No, Cole, we are the ones who need help," she screamed. Michael could tell she was crying now and he brought the blanket closer to his body, as if it would squeeze out all the guilt from inside him. "We have two children who we are struggling to bring up. We are barely surviving with the rent. We need help, Cole. He can get help from someone else!"
"But Jessie…"
Michael tried his best to blot out the argument and let out a sigh of relief after it had finished. He made up his mind to start searching for a cabin from tomorrow. Even if he failed to find a cheap one, he would rather sleep down in Destroyed Denver than trouble Cole who had been so kind with him. While figuring out how he would be able to live in the destroyed city, he fell asleep.
March 12, 2032
Michael was extremely nervous on the first day of the job but Cole had been very supportive with him.
"No need to be so tense, Michael. No one's going to bite you here. The work ain't that hard either, especially for someone with a strong body like you. You're just going to feel a bit sore for the first week or two but you'll get used to it."
On the way to the mines, Michael saw a large crowd gathered in front of a small stage. There were two shirtless men with their arms tied above their heads. A scary-looking Nazi soldier with a hard face had a whip in his hand and paced behind them saying stuff that Michael could not hear properly. As he got closer, the Nazi began to whip the men while screaming all sorts of obscenities in German that Michael could not understand. Michael had heard that a lot of whippings had occurred two weeks ago in order kill the talk about the blue lightning and that a respawner was on the loose inside the city.
"What did they do?" he asked Cole with a glum expression, his eyes fixated on the sight. He felt sorry for the men being whipped although they could be criminals. It looked painful and Michael cringed at the thought of getting whipped.
"Because they're gay," he answered in a quiet voice. "Come on, let's go. We're getting late."
They reached the mines where Michael was part of Cole's group who showed him how to work in the mines. He led him to a cavern that was full of people with helmets already at work picking away at the rocks while standing on the ground or standing on wooden platforms while being tied to safety beams. The sounds of the drilling filled the whole cavern. Cole showed him the various equipment that they used such as the pneumatic drills and picks while explaining to him the various safety procedures and so on. He showed him how to use the pick to cut off at the rocks in the mines and the way to pick up the coal and put it into the pile inside mine carts which were driven out when they were full. Michael was surprised by how heavy the pickaxe was and had an awful time in the beginning as he picked away at the rock. The coal dust that hung in the air was making breathing difficult and the way it stuck to his sweat was making him feel uncomfortable. By the end of the day, Michael was feeling very sore and tired.
The whole week went by like this and Michael was glad that Saturday had finally arrived and he could have a break. He looked forward to getting his hard-earned pay the next day.
Things at Cole's cabin were getting worse with the couple's arguments at night worsening.
"They're spiking up the price of the rations again! You have to tell Michael to leave!"
"Just for a few more days, Jessie. Please…"
Michael could not sleep and so decided to shave off the beard that had grown out ever since he had regained consciousness. But he constantly nicking himself with the blade because the arguments were not helping him focus. After he was done, he sat down on the couch with a sigh and jerked up when he heard the soft creak of a door. He thought that maybe Jessie was coming out to kick him out. Instead it was their son, Andy, who was rubbing his eyes and yawning. He made his way to the kitchenette and poured himself a glass of water. He saw the look of guilt on Michael's face.
"Mom doesn't like you. I sometimes think that she doesn't like dad anymore either. But don't worry," he smiled. "She's just grumpy nowadays. She's always arguing with dad about something."
With the little boy slowly walked back to his room and closed the door. I'm leaving tomorrow, he thought. Can't rely on other people when they've got bigger problems than me. I need to fix my problems by myself. Michael decided he would tell Cole after work tomorrow that he was leaving their cabin. He would get his weekly wages tomorrow and he would try to rent out a cabin somewhere in the lower levels of the city. If not, he would find some place in the destroyed city.
Tomorrow came and Michael was busy cutting away at the rocks, standing upon a jutting out rock platform, with a pickaxe. He was rapt in thought about how he was going to get the cabin and the more he thought about it the more paranoid he became about it. What if I don't get a cabin? He looked up to see two more people who had tied their bodies with ropes on supports on the ceilings while standing on wooden platforms. They were all cutting away at the rocks like him too. Michael was already beginning to feel tired. Boy, this is hard work.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of something snapping followed by a scream from above. He looked up to see the guy above him falling down. He had slipped off the platform and the support beam had snapped and bits of the wood fell down.
Michael reacted quickly. He grabbed at the rope as the guy fell away from his platform and braced himself by planting his feet behind one of the rocks at the edge. The rope went taut and the full weight of the fallen guy pushed him forward. He held on with his muscles straining hard to handle the force. He heard the guy shout out in pain she he collided against the platform wall. Michael moved away from the rocks and approached the edge of the platform. Michael could see that the guy was hurt but not hurt as badly as he would have if he had continued to fall down.
Michael lowered him down and the other miners at the bottom examined him. They called him down and praised him for his quick thinking.
"First week on the job and you're already a hero," said Cole patting him on the back. "Told you he was a great guy. He may have lost his memory but boy, he hasn't lost his bravery."
Michael noticed that guy who had fallen was a teenage boy like him. He was a tall, strong guy with straight, dark-brown hair and a moustache. He had a cut on the side of his head which glistened and had scraped his arms and legs badly against the wall when he had braced for impact. He looked up at Michael with a smile.
"Hey, thanks for the save. I could've been seriously injured if you hadn't saved me."
"And not for the first time," cut in Cole. "You could've broken your leg again. Or worse. You've got to be more careful, Chuck."
"Yeah, yeah. Hey, what's your name amnesia boy?" he asked referring to the nickname the miners in his group had given him. "Michael? My name's Chuck."
"You can do all this later, boys," said Cole. "We've got to get back to work. The boss is going to cut our weekly wages if we slack off."
They all got back to work. It was late in the afternoon when their shift had ended. Michael made his way wearily towards the exit when he was stopped by Chuck. He had been pondering whether or not he should tell Cole that he was leaving today. His mind was tired and the thought of roaming around the city and looking for a place to stay was looking daunting. Maybe tomorrow? He thought. Maybe a few more days. But then he thought about the problems that Cole was going through with his family. No, don't be selfish. You have to look for your own place.
"Hey, amnesia boy," he called out and Michael stopped as he approached him. "Why do you look so tense?"
"Oh, it's nothing," said Michael.
"C'mon, tell me. You've been like that for the whole day today. What is it? Maybe I could help you with it?"
Should I tell him? Michael thought. Maybe he'll know a cheap place to stay in.
"Yeah, actually. I'm having some trouble with finding a place to stay in," Michael replied.
"Oh, I thought you were staying at Cole's?"
"Yes, but I can't stay there forever. I need to get a place of my own."
Michael could see Chuck considering something before a smile formed on his face. "How about you move in to my cabin? We can split the rent, 50/50. I'm in a bit of a pickle myself with all the financial stuff but if we split the cost then that would work out fine for us. We can be roommates."
Michael considered it. That means I can save up money to repay Elena back faster.
"You won't mind?" asked Michael.
"Not at all. The place is a bit cramped but nothing we can't handle. Come on, get your things from Cole, we'll head to my place."
Michael, followed by Chuck, made his way to the Cole's cabin where he told him that he was moving into Chuck's cabin.
"Michael, you don't have to," he protested which was followed by glares from his wife. "Really we don't have any problem with you. You can stay for another week so you can afford your own place."
"Thanks for the offer, Cole, but I have to refuse," Michael turned to Jessie. "Thanks for looking after me and thanks for the wonderful food Mrs. Jessie." She did not say anything and only scoffed at him as if she expected him to do much more, like kneel down in front of her.
Michael grabbed his stuff and offered him a few hitlers from the money he had received which Cole reluctantly accepted. He headed out where Chuck was waiting for him.
"That's all the stuff you got?" he asked. "Oh right, you don't remember from where you are. Well, let's get going."
"Where is your cabin?" Michael asked.
"A1," he replied looking at the time on his watch. "We better get hurrying. The last chair lift trip to A3 is in ten minutes. It's a long walk till A1 if we miss it and we don't want to be outside before curfew."
They hurriedly made their way to D3 and just about managed to reach the chair lift in time. There were two other miners alongside them in the lift.
"So, amnesia boy? What's your story?" Chuck asked putting his legs up rudely on to the chair in front of him.
Michael explained to Chuck how he had suddenly regained consciousness beyond the Perimeter and how Elena had found him. He also told him how she had taken care of him, got him a pass and job in the city. He noticed that the expression on Chuck's face had changed to one of discomfort when he had mentioned Elena. It was as if he was embarrassed by some memory.
"Yeah, I know Elena. Her dad looked after me when I broke my foot."
It seemed to Michael that everyone knew Elena. That wasn't surprising since there were not many medics in the Peak City. Also, her father had set up his own legacy among the people. They had reached A3 and walked down to A2 by the time Michael had narrated his whole story.
"What about you?" asked Michael.
"Well, I used to live in the desert towns towards the north of the city when I was a child. Moved here and been living here even since."
"You live with your family?"
"No. I live alone." Chuck did not say anything more. Something about the question had clearly bothered him but Michael did not push for a more detailed answer.
They arrived at the cabin which was basically a small compartment which belonged to the many compartments that were part of a long, narrow dwelling. He could hear loud music coming from one of them while he heard a woman moaning and a bed creaking from another.
Chuck's cabin was a complete mess. It consisted of a worn-out mattress, which was so flattened out that it looked like a blanket, that was surrounded by cigarette-butts, wrappers, used tissues and empty liquor bottles. There was a small kitchenette along with a dirty bathroom where you had to suck in your stomach to close the door from the inside.
"Not bad eh?" said Chuck. "It's just a little messy but I'm sure we can clean it all up someday."
"Yeah…" Michael said reluctantly. Sleeping in the destroyed city wasn't sounding like too bad an idea anymore.
Chuck had a spare mattress which he made space for on the ground after adjusting his mattress. He found a glass bottle that still had some liquor at the bottom of his untidy covers as they started to turn in for the night.
"You want some?" he asked but Michael politely refused. "Suit yourself bud." He said taking a deep gulp and downing the whole thing. Then he let his head fall onto the pillow and within a few minutes he was already snoring loudly.