Ground Terra

Chaper 1: The Man That Lost His Memory

I open my eyes to see nothing but sand. I try to move, but my joints aren't working along. My entire body hurts, but not as much as my head does. I try to remember what happened, but I can't. It's as if this fog is in my head, making me unable to remember anything.  I manage to get up and look around me. My neck hurts as it moves. Around me is nothing but desert, a wasteland of dust and ground. It doesn't exactly look sad, it's actually quite bright. When look up I see a few cumulus clouds, and of course the bright sun. I have no idea how I knew the term for those clouds. I try to remember, but with no result.

I look down at my body, without even recognizing it. I guess it's normal for someone to just take your body for granted, but it is weird not to be able to recognize it. It looks like I'm a rather masculine guy, something that I both did and didn't knew. I'm wearing some old simple clothes, a shirt and a pair of jeans that have lost their color a long time ago. There's this tattoo on the back of my left hand saying 41.1.56.0. As I look further I see I'm missing a pinky on my right hand. The wound was rather recent, but has already mostly healed.

Still no memories. I am starting to feel nauseated. I want to know who I am and I want to know it now. I look around once again and I see something in the far distance I hadn't noticed before. It looks like a city, but from where I am I can't make it out well. I try to stand up and only barely succeed. I quickly get back on my ass, as my legs give in on my weight. My throat is as dry as the sand in my mouth and I'm hungry. I know I have to move, so I stretch my legs and try to ease my muscles. I take a second try on standing up and manage to walk, though very unbalanced.

As I slowly hobble into the direction of the city, which now looks like a city of ruins, I feel the desert wind carry dust over my body, grinding my skin. This "walk" helps me get my strength back, but I really do need something to drink quickly. By the time I arrive to the city my legs have gotten used to walking again. This city however, seems to be abandoned. There is nobody in sight and my hope is draining fast. There are buildings everywhere, but none of them have had maintainance in a long time. I enter a separate house with the hope of finding something to eat or drink in there, but it was in vein. The kitchen has been robbed from anything edible and the tap only releases some dust.

When I exit the building there's suddenly a woman entering a different building across the street. She seems to be in a hurry, but I don't manage to get a good look of her. She doesn't seem to notice me. I walk over to that building when I suddenly hear a sound. Looking in the direction of the sound I see something that would be referred to as a motor gang. Five guys are riding their huge bikes in my direction. Two of them are wielding baseball bats, another seem to be wearing brass knuckles. One of the guys seems to be missing his right arm. This doesn't look like a group you want to run into, but I'm glad at least I finally see some people. If there's a chance they know where I can get some food or water, I have to take it.

I wait until they reach me, while looking at them smashing old mailboxes that are still standing and driving through yards. I can now see at least two of them are bald, one of them is wearing a bandana and one of them is missing his nose, giving his face a deformed look.

They stop right in front of me and formed a U shape around me. The one wearing the bandana speaks up as first "Look what we have here! This guy looks like he's in bad shape!"
"Yeah, what's up with you? What the fuck are you doing in our neighborhood?" the bald guy with the baseball bat asks me.
"I am sorry, I just arrived here," I reply to them, "Do you know where I can find water anywhere here?"
I had to ask. I am dying as we speak. I have no idea how long I had been lying in that desert, but it feels like years.

"Looks like we got a wise guy here," the one lacking his right arm says. Meanwhile I'm looking at the face of the man without a nose. It looks strange.
"What are you looking at!?" the guy asks. This was to be expected and I immediately turn my head away from him.
"I don't like his face," the noseless man says, "Can I hit him?"

This isn't looking good. The guy jumps off his bike and walks to me. I wouldn't stand a chance if it came to a fight. I try to get them to calm down, but I couldn't say anything more than "hey, man-" when the guy struck my leg with the baseball bat he has in his hand.

Needless to say, I fall on my knees, hoping he won't strike again. For a second I think it broke, but I realize quickly it is just bruised. "We have one question to you," the guy with the bandana and brass knuckles says, "if you're lucky we might let you go. if you give us the right answer that is."

"There was a girl running this way," the man continues, "Did you see what we she went?"
I shook my head. "You are the first ones I've seen today." These guys probably won't let me go, even if I sell that woman out and I'm not feeling like selling anyone out to these guys in the first place.

Now the bald guy with the bat also jumps off his bike. "I think we might have to beat it out of you then," he says as he walks to me and stands next to the noseless man. They were just about to beat me to pulp when suddenly there's a black shuriken sticking out of the noseless man's chest. Blood sprays out of his wound with high velocity and the guy falls down with tears in his eyes. It might not have been a lethal wound, but it did end up exactly between his ribs.

"What the fuck," the other batwielder says. All of the gang members are trying to find out where the star came from. I don't want to take my eyes off of them, but quickly take a look at the houses around me as well. I find the woman I saw earlier standing in front of the house she went in, one hand filled with shurikens, the other hidden under her robe. She throws another one at the group, which ends up in the forehead of the bald guy standing next to me in a split second. Again blood sprays out of the narrow but deep wound. It looks like the star went straight through his skull, killing him in a very painful manner.

The leader of the gang orders the two men he has left to ride to the woman and kill her. The one missing his arm doesn't get far, as  he gets two stars to his face just after he started his motor. The other guy does his best evading throwing stars by zigzagging, but after ten meters he is down on the road as well.

The man with the bandana and knuckles is the only one left, but he tries to flee the scene. He turns around and rides away. The woman runs over the road and is just about to throw another star, but I intervene, "Stop."

She surprisingly does as I said and hides the remaining stars back in her robe. "You are too nice," she says. Now I finally get a good look at her. This woman looks like she's somewhere in her early twenties, has long black hair and blue eyes. She looks rather beautiful, I think. She has a cute face, despite the fact that it's obvious that she's been through a lot in her life. The robe hides her entire body and I have no idea what might be under it. Well, I actually have lots of ideas, but that's beside the point.

"Thank you," I say as I get my concentration back. I realize I'm still on my knees and I try to stand up, but my leg hurts to much and this only results in me falling down all the way. The woman walks to me and gets on her knees. "Are you alright?" she asks.
"I might need something to drink," I answer her, "Can you give me a hand?"

The woman looks surprised and confused for a second, but then realizes she misunderstood me and helped me to get back up. I can barely walk, but I slowly manage to hobble a few feet. "What's your name?" she asks me.
"I wish I knew," I reply.
"You don't know your own name? You have memory loss or something?"
"Something like that, I think. I don't remember anything…"

I'm not exactly happy with the situation and my face shows that, but the woman only looks intrigued. You can't blame her for not really caring about your fate as she clearly has her own problems.

"You're a living John Doe then. I never seen that before. You got anywhere to stay?" she asks me. I shake my head. "In that case you can spend the night in my place. It's nothing big, but in your state you can't sleep outside."

Maybe I thought too soon. She seems rather friendly. "Thank you, I really appreciate it," I reply, but I also quickly continue to the question I had: "Who were they?"
"Those were some gang member that think they own this place. They are everywhere in the outskirts of the city. I was searching for some resources here when I ran into them."

"What happened to this city anyway?" I ask.
"The same thing as happened to every city: the war."
"What war?" I ask her. I think I would have remembered a war.
"Wait, you don't know?" she asks me with a surprised look in her eyes, "Oh boy, you must have had a big blow to your head, John. I'll tell you everything on the way to my place then…"