Tears of Sane

Elena laughed a sweet childish laugh as she swung her feet on the swing set. Her small frame dangled on the swing as a younger boy pushed her with out effort. This boy was someone she didn't know, but she felt she knew him perfectly. The boy laughed as Elena laughed, two children playing in a huge park; surrounded by other children. But this was strange to Elena, she felt it to be a memory, something that had happened to her before. She knew that boy once, she knew the park, she knew the trees and the people around. She knew what the smell of fresh air smelled like, and she felt something strange. She felt the warmth of the sun, it's sweet sensation in a soft breeze, how it made every blade of grass, pedal on a flower, and every strange white cloud glimmer.

She felt the sun, saw its glorious orange shine, felt it warm her body, and light up the world outside. She never remembered something so sweet, but she knew, deep down, this was her memory.

The boy slowly stopped Elena as she sighed happily, “Was that high Ela?”

Elena had never heard that nick name, but she responded anyway, her voice soft and young, very young, “Yeah! Do it again Kilmer! Please!”

The boy nodded, “Alright Princess Ela, anything for you.” The boy smiled and gripped the warm shimmering chains.

Elena gently grasped the chains just over his soft small hands, “Why thank you Prince Kilmer.”

The two young children laughed as Elena flew, she released the chains and spread her arms. Her eyes sealed and head cocked up, she peachy skin sucked in the warmth. Her nose took in the sweet sweet summer air. And her warm dazzling hair danced with the breeze and motions of her swings! She was only five years old when her wonderful life ended...

“Prince Kilmer!” A suited man paced quickly to the boy that played with Elena. The prince turned to the man with a concerned look, “We must leave now my Prince.”

Prince Kilmer stepped back, letting Elena come to a slow stop, “Why? I'm having fun Mr. Kouza. This is the first time I've ever played with someone else! Can't I stay here a little longer? I like playing with Ela, I like playing with them all.”

“I am sorry my Prince, but we must go. Our King is ready to leave and this place-”

There was a sudden flash, much brighter than the sun itself. Kouza saw the flash and instinctively pounced on the Prince and dropped down with the prince under him. Elena had only enough time to blink before a heated wave tackled into her, flung her off the swing and into another pipe jungle gym. She felt a sharp tingling sensation in her left shoulder blade and just over her left breast. Her memory began to fade, her head lightheaded, vision blurred by the bright light that she now faced. There was one last thing that she saw before it ended, one last thing that showed the origin of their sorrow..

Off in the far distance, past the city limits, Elena could see the snakes of clouds slithering up toward the sky. Some of the deep purple, black, gray snakes were already in the sky, pulsing all other the beautiful blue sky. The snakes engulfed the sky and eventually the beautiful warm sun. She watched her beautiful park fade into a gloom of fear. Her tired head slumped down, she could see the her body lifted off the ground. Her chest pierced by a ridged metal plate... Then she faded away...

***

Mace slowly awoke after his very own wave of unremembered memories. He lay perfectly still for the longest time, his head throbbed painfully as he rubbed it gently. It was the very first time he could remember waking up. People would only can memories of running into the bunkers and waiting for the clouds to leave. No one had ever slept when the rain fell. Mace was a stranger to this feeling of waking up; but he somehow knew how he felt, knew that this strange feeling was normal. After a few moments, he tried to sit up, but stopped, “Huh?” Elena's head rested on his stomach. She was still asleep, her long lush eye lashes latched shut, but still let a soft river of tears trickle through and down her cheeks. He slowly cupped her cheek and wiped a tear, “Elena? Hey?”

“She'll wake up soon,” Kouza was sitting on his bed, stretching his back as he spoke, “I'm actually surprised you are awake already. He slowly lifted himself up and walked over to Mace, “You're head will still hurt for a few more minutes. It's not use to holding so many memories at once. Well that's a horrible way to explain it. You're brain has always had them in there, but up until now, they have been in storage. This gave your mind an idea that it only had to carry so much. Now that you have so much memories processing through you; you have more thoughts, ideas, experiences. Your mind is processing much faster that what it has been getting use to all these years.” Kouza picked up the book that he had shown the two before they took the pill, then tossed it at Mace.

Mace quickly caught it, and glanced at it; he flipped it open a few pages, and actually understood that words. He effortlessly understood the words, sentences, everything, and he was amazed. He quickly turned to Kouza, “I can read it!”

“That's good, you were old enough to know how to read, Elena would have been old enough to read simple books.”

“I can't believe this.. So.. You were right?”

“You can say that..Hey Elena.”

Mace quickly turned to Elena, to see her rubbering her eyes for the first time in a long time. She yawned and sat up. She was also estranged to feel herself wake up and yawn, but she knew exactly what to do. She stumbled to her feet and shook her head, “What the hell happened Doc.” Her fingers compressed her forehead as she whimpered, “My head is killing me.”

“That's simply your mind is expanding because of the memories it's letting out.” Kouza walked over to his bunker entrance, “The pain will go away soon, I promise. But first, we must see it..”

Elena watched Kouza, Mace stumbled to his feet after Elena did. They both tried to calm their weak throbbing bodies. They knew they had been sleeping, but they didn't know how to feel about it, they yawned and stretched themselves, but they didn't know why. Their memories had told them what to do; they were learning from things they had done before.

Eventually Elena pushed away her grogginess as she stepped toward Kouza, “We have to see what?” Mace followed close behind.

“The sun child.”

“Th-The actual sun?” Mace coughed, “How do you know it's even out there!? We wouldn't be aware if it is! Maybe there isn't a sun anymore, no one has ever seen it since that day.”

“If the sun wasn't there, we would be dead.”

“What do you mean Doc?”

“According to the books, the sun is what gives us life; no sun, no life.” He slowly unlocked his windowless bunker. He took a deep breath, “Are you two ready to see?”

Elena and Mace both stepped closer to Kouza and the door. This would be the first time they would remembered seeing the sun, besides their just recent visions. They were excited, they were nervous and scared, but most of all, they were glad they were about to see it. Kouza released the air lock and let the door zing open! The three of them were greeted by a blinding light; one that caused them all to shutter and shield their eyes with their palms. Elena was the very first one to recover from the sudden introduction to light; and she was the first one to pace out of the bunker.

“Wow!” The sun light hugged her with a sweet warm embrace, not even her vision of the sweet sunlight was so great. She saw the world around her, sniffed the amazing fresh air, and spun around with arms wide open, eyes closed, face up, letting the sun kiss her cheeks once again, “This is...”

“Creppy..” Mace walked past her, gazing out to the fresh new world.

“What!?” Elena dropped her arms and turned to Mace, ready to yell a protest, but even she stopped in her place, glancing around, “What the hell?”

All around them, people walked, no one conversed now, no one laughed, no one even made a sound of life. Everyone walked a straight path without ever crossing paths, they were people, but they weren't human. She didn't show the excitement of being in the sun, they weren't jumping in joy to see the rain and the clouds were gone. Some carried boxes, others worked with plants, some pushed dollies of food, and others carried away bags of trash.

Kouza cleared his throat as one person walked right on by, never straying from its course, “They seem to be, possessed or something.”

Elena gasped, “L-Like someone's controlling them?” She watched the people mindlessly continue on with their duties; some just walked, doing nothing.

“More like robots programmed to do different things.” Kouza stepped out of one person's path, “This would explain how we are always well supplied despite the fact that we never seem to produce anything in the bunkers. But who is telling them what to do? How do they do it?”

“I don't care about any of that.” Elena quickly pounced into one of the person's path, “Hey you!” The person didn't cut from it's path, “Did you notice you're out side in the sun!? Aren't you happy!?” The person came right to her face and suddenly stopped. Elena stood in the person's way long enough to gasp and scream in terror before she stumbled onto her butt and out of the person's way; it kept walking without emotion.

“Elena!” Mace ran to the frightened princess and dropped to her side, “What happened? Are you okay?”

“H-His face..” Elena gasped for air as she shivered, “Th-That was..Scary..”

Mace glanced around at the people, and now that he was focusing on them, he could see what had frightened the poor girl. Everyone's faces were gray and wrinkled; as if they had been dunked in water for months, “They won't hurt you.”

Elena shivered once again, “I know that. Just the fact that I looked like that..Ugh.”

“They are not programmed to attack..”

“How do you know that Kouza?”

“Look at them, they never cross paths, never speak, Elena stood in one of their way and only waited for her to get out of their way.”

Elena brushed off the dirt, “I thought I would like this more.. I thought things would be different, but not like this..” Elena turned to Kouza, “Would you be able to save them all with your cure Doc?”

“I don't think so...”

“Why not? They need it.”

“That container along took me fourteen years to make.”

“What!?” Elena huffed, “Y-You spent this entire time making a cure for only three of us!? What was the point of that? What can we do!?”

Kouza slowly signaled the two of them to follow him. They quickly followed him around the bunker and stopped when he did, “We can stop that..”

Off in the distance, the three of them could see the origin of the rain; just like Elena did in her vision. Out of the city, far away, they could see the snakes slithering in place on the earth; waiting for their moment to blast out of their routs and once again take over the sky.

Elena reached into her tightened blouse and felt just above her left breast; there she felt the scar. She slowly turned to Kouza, “I.. I had this.. What's the word.. I saw that thing when I was...” She sighed as her mind lapped around her brain trying to think of the words to say.

“You had a dream while you slept..”

The words registered in her mind and she quickly agreed, “Yes! I had a dream! That could.. There.. It was in my dream.. I watched it come out..” That was when she remembered that that boy had said Kouza's name. She was about to ask, but she instead shook the idea out of her head, “So we have to go there?”

“Yes, that is where the clouds come from, that is where we will go.”

Mace quickly walked past them and turned to face the two, “Are you two fucking crazy!? Look, I haven't been out here long enough, but I know that it will take more than a few hours to get there, maybe even days! What do we do when the rain comes?”

“Relax boy,” Kouza walked around his bunker, “I have everything we need.”

“What?” Mace followed close behind, “You planned this?”

“Yes I did, I knew I could never make enough to save us all, but I could make enough to do this.”

“I don't like this at all old man! There is no way I'm letting you take Elena over there!”

Elena quickly walked around, gripped Mace's shirt, slammed him against the wall, “Damn it Mace! Are you my body guard or a wussy!? You don't make the choices around here, I do. You either come with me and do your job, or stay behind and let me do your job; but you will NOT stand in my way, are we clear?” Her emerald orbs shined with more determination than ever before now that the sun was in her body.

Mace couldn't argue with Elena on this one, she was too stubborn to convince, and he wasn't about to let her walk off unprotected. He sighed as he nodded, “Alright Elena, you win.. Let's go.”

Elena's anger almost instantly vanished as her lips curved to a sweet smile, she loved to have things her way, “I am glad you agree Mace, Doc, lets get ready, what do we need?”

Kouza was already heading inside, “A few simple supplies, come.” He walked into his bunker and scuffled through the mess he created over years of work. Once Elena and Mace were inside, began packing food, water, and a tent package into a huge duffel bag. He turned to Mace, “You, come here.” Kouza dropped the bag and pushed his desk out of the way and found a loose floor board in the floor covered with concrete, “Pull that up.”

Mace did just that. He knelt down and pulled the wood board and pulled out a heavy metallic box. He put the box down and opened it, “Wow.. Kouza..” Mace pulled out a rifle, scoped, double barreled, automatic. There was also a double barreled Revolver with a stock at the end of it. Plus a few clips for the rifle, speed reloaders for the revolver, a couple of grenades, and a combat knife, “You expecting to run into an army or something?”

Kouza laughed as he shrugged, “You never know what is out there. Maybe the rain killed anything hostile, but I rather not risk it. We need to get Princess Elena to the clouds, and we will protect her.”

Mace and Elena turned to Kouza, both confused. Mace only held the polished, high caliber, rifle; Elena could only gaze at Kouza before she nervously spoke, “Wh-What? What do you mean?”

Kouza slowly picked up the duffel bag and signaled to Mace, “Take everything in the box, there should be a vest to carry everything.” He then turned to Elena, “Don't you worry princess, we have a prince to save..”

Elena slowly muttered, “Prince Kilmer?”

“Yeah,” Kouza slowly nodded, “What did you see in your dreams?”

“I saw you trying to save him... Then I woke up..”

“That's good, lets go.” With that Kouza walked out, the other two followed.