A New Girl

The streets of the city were dark and deserted, like any other day. The sole footsteps of a single person echoed through the littered lanes, bouncing off the walls of empty buildings. She had the strange feeling that she had been here before.

He sees her. She's tall, a teenager, like the rest of them. Her long brown hair falling over her shoulders. It is streaked with blue, mainly around her face.

His hand grabs her shoulder from behind, spinning her around. A man in a long leather trench coat stands in front of her. His shoulder length black hair is streaked with red, as well as his face. His face. She looks at him. He is so familiar, but she cannot place him in her mind. Her jacket is starts to fall off her shoulder. As she reaches up to place it again, the man lunges at her, grabbing her by the arms and slamming her into the side of the nearest building.

He is somewhat taller than her, looking down at her fear stricken eyes. She swallows and closes her eyes, her head dipping down toward the ground slightly. He has had enough; he sighs and lets go of her. He turns away and begins to walk in the direction he had come.

Lex.

The name echoes in her head. The familiar name that she has not heard in so long has greeted her once again. She must have said it out loud, for when she opened her eyes, he was staring at her, surprised.

"You know me?"

Seeing him had brought back some lost memory. She tried to remember something else, anything that would explain it everything. Again, like the first time, the only thing she could remember was a name, a name out of the darkness.

"Jack"

Lex steps closer to her. He knows the name as well. It was the name of the one Ellie had been talking about for so long. He knows that if he brings her back to the mall, she might talk more. If she knows of Jack, she might know so much more.

It's dusk and it's getting dark. He takes her hand and slowly leads her down the alley, in the direction of the mall.

Lex leads the girl up the stairs, not knowing to what would happen. The first he sees is Salene, who happens to see him first. She has short red hair and is carrying a dishtowel. She looks distraught. "Lex?" is all she manages to say. He pushes the girl in front of him, letting Salene take a look at her. Again, the girl recognizes her, but it is all so strange.

"What happened, Lex?"

Lex looks at her, then the girl.

"I found on the east side; wandering"

Salene is unsure. The girl before her is someone new; she doesn't know if she can be trusted. Salene turns around and goes into the kitchen, with Lex and the girl following her. The come to the table. The girl sits down without being instructed to, she knows it's okay. Lex sits down beside her, just in case.

Salene brings tea, setting a cup in front of the stranger before sitting down across from her. She looks uneasily at Lex when the girl pushed the tea away from her. Lex decides to say something.

"She knows my name"

Salene frowned and shook her head. "Lex, everyone around these parts knows your name," she said. Lex sits back in his chair. He shakes his head slowly, thinking.

"She said it like she knew me" he took a breath, "She knows Jack"

"Jack?" Salene asks. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "But Jack was taken" she says. Lex nods, he has proved his point. "Exactly, if she knows Jack, she might know where he is and..." he hesitates, "and she might know about the others"

Salene thinks of the Technos. Jack, many others, and possibly this girl have been taken by them and have been tortured. She looks at the girl again. She is now tracing the table with her fingers. The table has the markings of many of the tribes on it, and the one she is tracing, is the Eco-Tribe's. She studies the markings intently then closes her eyes, still following the curves, but her hand is not touching the table.

"What is it?"

Salene cannot help but ask. The girl opens her eyes and looks around. The drawings have made her remember, but it is not much. She sees his face in her mind. She knows his name, but she cannot say it. She has to try. She has to find them all again. She tries to speak, but it is difficult, as before.

"Bray"

Salene leans forward.

"I have to find Bray. I have to remember"

Her voice is but a whisper, but they all hear her. Bray had been gone for a long time, but the memory of him was still in everyone's mind. Salene smiles, but Lex frowns. Salene looks up over the girl's head, she doesn't turn around.

"She knows Bray and Jack" Salene says to the person behind the girl. Pride steps forward. The girl knows he is there, but she does not react. She can hear him breathing, the long steady breaths are oh so familiar to her. She has found one. She stands up, not turning yet. She looks at Salene and turns. Before she is facing the nameless man in front of her, she knows his name.

"Pride!"

She almost yells it as she begins to cry. Pride knows her. He has known her all his life. In the days that he was so afraid of being betrayed and hurt, she was the only one he had let get close to him. And now she was back again.

"Leigha, I thought I lost you," he whispers.

He is starting to cry now. He steps forward and hugs her as tight as he can, intending to never let her out of his sight again.

They are all sitting now, all at the table watching Leigha. The sight of Pride has brought back so many memories, but there were still so many left in darkness.

"Leigha was part of our tribe when Bray and I were still with them, when we came here, I brought her with us. She was taken by the Technos before we got here," Pride explains.

"And?" Salene asks. She is eager to know when Jack and possibly the others come into it all. Pride shrugs. He doesn't know what happened from there on. He slides his arm around Leigha's shoulders and she closes her eyes. She shakes her head.

"I can't remember"

Pride and Salene look confused, but Lex seems like he knew this was coming.

"I remember being with you and Bray, then coming here. I remember Salene, and Lex.... and Amber. But I remember Bray the most. He was with me before you were, Pride"

No one needed to tell her, she already knew. Bray was gone. No one knew where. Leigha took a breath.

"I remember being taken and being put in a big green van. Jack. Jack was there with me"
Leigha stops. Lex is getting impatient with all this talk of Bray. He stands up.

"That's it, that's all I remember," she says.

Salene and Pride nod in unison. They understand that memories can't be rushed. They just wonder about what the Technos had done to Jack. Pride just can't get the fact that she is back out of his head. He leans in again and hugs her, holding her tight. As she draws back, she kisses his cheek, and then rests her head on his shoulder, his arm still around her. Salene wonders if they had been more than just friends.