The Places We Come From

Ved has never really been in this part of The City before. He vaguely remembers rolling through it in a vehicle when they first arrived, but he hasn't spent much time in some of the outlying sectors. The buildings were much older and a bunch of them were crumbling. It was a lot quieter out here than anywhere else. When he asks Cloe about it, she casually mentions not a lot of kids stayed out because there were still a lot of bodies of victims of the virus about. He tries not to look on edge, but he would much prefer not to run into any corpses. Cloe is incredibly blasé about the whole thing and the ruins don't seem to bug her so he doesn't question it. She seems distracted anyway, so they travel in silence.

When he had asked her to take him to where she grew up, she had given him an odd look but agreed. As she leads him by the hand down an alley towards a small inlet with even more dilapidated apartment buildings and side streets, he is beginning to understand why. Ved knows that he has never asked her much about her life before the virus. He was expecting to see a small home or condo not unlike the ones in the suburb he grew up in.

It never occurred to him that her history could differ from his own.

This is cemented when Cloe leads him to a barren lot. The entire block is blackened wood and ashes with litter here and there. She stops in front of the outline of what must have been a small apartment building and just stands there. Ved's eyes go from her to the destruction back to her. If he hadn't figured out before that this would not be a pleasant walk through memory lane for her, he realized it now.

"This is where you grew up?" He asks uneasily.

Cloe nods solemnly. "Home sweet home." She answers, more sarcastic than not. She wanders over and picks up an old beer bottle and a small but bitter smile comes to her face. "This was probably my Dad's." She says quietly. "It was his favorite. He spent most of his time drinking."

Ved's eyes go wide and he has nothing to say to that. He watches as Cloe gathers some wildflowers and puts them down in the bottle in front of what was the main entrance. She steps back and puts her head down for a moment in silence.

He fidgets around awkwardly as Cloe sits on what use to be a curb. Her hair is down today in a single braid (Ved wonders what it looks like untied, as he has never seen it undone. It has to go pass her waist). He joins her and clears his throat. "What happened to the building?"

"Burnt down. There were a lot of dead bodies after the virus, so I guess at some point someone decided to just set the whole place on fire. It was all old, moldy wood and falling apart anyway. I didn't know it had burnt down until I came back up this way after being captured."

"Captured? By who?"

"This cult called The Chosen. Long story." Cloe leaves it at that. Ved can't believe what he is hearing. He was aware, of course, that there were some crazy Virt tribes out there, but a cult? He fidgets more next to her as he tries to remember the whole point of this was to try and get to know her better this time around.

"Do you want to leave? I didn't mean to upset you."

She shrugs her shoulders. "No, it's fine. It's been a while since I've thought about my family. It was me, my mom, my dad, and my aunt." She sighs as she looks around guiltily. "Sometimes I can't remember what they looked like." She says sadly. Ved puts an arm around her and they sit together quietly. He notices her eyes keep going to the building still standing across from her former home. He nudges her.

"What're you looking at?"

Cloe points at a window on the third story. "My best friend used to live there." She smiles. "We used to send each other messages from our windows since we lived on the same story. Her name was Sylvia."

"Where is she now? Did she get out of the city when the virus happened?"

Cloe shakes her head. "Kinda. She left on the Children's train. It..." She trails off.

"It crashed." He finishes for her glumly. "Jay's first girlfriend was on there, too. From when he was in middle school."

They go quiet again after that. Ved sighs. This had all gone a lot differently in his head. What he thought would be a fun little afternoon now seems too morose for the both of them. He looks around and notices that even though the apartment has a heavy metal gate in front, her friend's window is adjacent to one above a fire escape.

"Does that fire escape lead to your friend's apartment?" He asks as he points up. Cloe nods. "We should go up and check it out."

"How? The ladder is pulled up and the gate is pretty solid still."

Ved gets up and walks over to the building. He studies the ladder for a minute before he raises his arm and uses his laser to hit something. The ladder comes sliding down with a loud crash. Cloe gets up and joins him.

"Nice shot."

Ved smirks, quite pleased with himself. Even Java might be impressed with that one. He climbs on the ladder and tests his weight on it before heading up. Cloe follows close behind. When he reaches the window, he does his best to pull it up or move it to no avail. He tells Cloe to move to the side as he takes his jacket off and wraps his hand in it. He then breaks a hole in the window large enough for him to reach through and unlock the thing. He uses his jacket to brush off any glass before the two of them climb through.

"It's almost like you've done this before." Cloe says as she ducks under.

"I have." He says with his usual smirk as he follows her.

The apartment smells musty and is covered in dust. Cloe is immediately drawn to a shelf and begins picking up picture frames. She blows a cloud of dust off a small frame before flipping it around to show Ved. "This was Sylvie." She tells him. The picture shows a young girl about nine years old with long brown hair. He's noticed the apartment is filled with photos, most of them tall skyscrapers or bridges, but plenty of family shots.

"I thought my parents liked to take pictures."

"Sylvie's mom was a photographer in her spare time." Cloe explains as she wanders over to a door with faded flower stickers on it.

"Is that her room?" He asks. Cloe nods and then hesitantly puts her hand on the door. She stays still as if deciding what to do. "Go on." Ved encourages. "We're already here."

Cloe takes a deep breath and opens the door. The room is quiet and dark with only light from the single window illuminating it. Ved watches as Cloe slowly walks in and takes a look around. She walks over to a little white dresser and looks through a small album that was laying on top. He sees her gasp and then laugh as she peels something from the book.

"What's that?"

"A picture from our last Halloween." She says as she hands the picture over. He sees a much younger Cloe in a blue checkered dress with very short pigtails and a basket. Her friend is dressed up as a green witch and is carrying a stuffed monkey. He hands the photo back. Cloe folds it and shoves it in her side pocket before she sits on the dusty bed and quietly takes in her surroundings.

Ved moves back out to the front room and begins looking around. He walks towards the bedroom on the opposite side of the apartment but stops midway down the small hallway. Besides dust and age he can also clearly smell the familiar scent of dead bodies. He immediately turns around and decides to check out the computer in the corner by the window.

Ved looks through their set up, takes a couple of wires he knows he needs back at base, and is deciding if he wants to open the tower for salvage when he notices a small box tucked besides it. He recognizes it immediately as a storage device. He picks it up gingerly and shoves it into his back pocket. He also notices a rather pricey looking camera and picks it up. On a hunch he opens up the side and retrieves a memory card. He shoves that in his pocket as well. Cloe returns from the bedroom and motions towards the window.

"We should head back. It's almost sun down. I told Salene I would be back before it got too dark." She says quietly. Her eyes are red like she's been crying so Ved doesn't argue (he was going to try and talk her into sleeping over but the mood for that is shot). He helps her back out the window and they make their way back towards the mall.

It's almost been a week before he sees Cloe again. Ram has had him working a project non-stop, but he was able to get a message to his girlfriend via a reluctant Dee (She of course had taken the opportunity to remind him how breakable his head was if Cloe came home in tears again). He is up to his neck in coding when he hears her let herself in. "Hey Clo." He calls over his shoulder as he begins to save his progress.

Cloe comes over and gives him a peck on the cheek before looking around and scrunching her nose. "How long have you been holed up in here?"

"Uh, when was the last time I saw you?"

"That was a week ago!" She exclaims.

Ved shrugs. "Ram needs this done by tomorrow." He swivels in his chair to face her. "I was putting everything in manually before I figured it would be easier to make a program do it for me. I'll have free time again soon."

"Clever." She says with a smirk. "So what was so urgent you risked Dee's wrath to get me here?"

Ved holds up a small metal box. "I found this at your friend's apartment. It's an external hard drive." He explains as he plugs it into his tower and begins opening folders. "You weren't kidding when you said her Mom was a photographer. It took me forever to go through it, but I found this."

Ved turns his monitor towards her. He opens up a video and lets it play. On screen there is a small party taking place in a park. Cloe gasps as she recognizes it, hand over her mouth.

"That's Sylvie's last birthday!" She mumbles out. A younger Cloe is on screen helping Sylvie try to swing at a piñata. She eggs her friend to aim higher and higher until Sylvie over swings and falls on the floor with a grunt. Little Cloe helps her friend up and Sylvie begins swinging again. Cloe laughs as she watches herself and Sylvie both take turns trying to destroy the swinging princess with wings.

"That was one tough fairy." Cloe says with a smile.

"Do you mind if I skip ahead a little? There's one part I want to ask about." Ved asks. She nods and he moves the video forward until there is cake and singing. Sylvie and Cloe frame the shot, little Cloe singing so enthusiastically she is louder than the adults. The camera moves as the person behind it gathers a wide shot of everyone present. As it flips across from the girls, Ved pauses the video as he looks up at Cloe.

"Is this your family?" He asks.

Cloe wordlessly nods as her hand reaches out to touch the monitor. Ved winces at the thought of smudges but lets her continue. Her hand moves over a woman with long black hair in blue sweats, a man in flannel and jeans sipping a beer, and a younger woman in a green dress whose hair is in twin buns, not unlike Cloe's hair.

"My Mom, my Dad, and my Aunt." Cloe says, sniffing back tears.

"I found pictures, too. I don't have anything to print them on, but I can. I just-" Ved is cut off by Cloe kissing him.

He doesn't mind in the slightest.

When she pulls back, she has tears in her eyes, but the look she gives him is intensely happy. "Thank you." She tells him. "I thought I would never see them again."

"It's no problem." He tries to sound casual but he is still dazed. He closes the program and unplugs everything. He hands Cloe a CD. "I saved everything I found with your family to this. Even the old computers at the mall should be able to run this."

"You didn't have to do this." She says gratefully, holding CD close to her.

"Everyone should be able to remember their life from before." He says solemnly and with a seriousness that is rare for him.

Cloe looks at the CD in her hand and back at him. "Do you have pictures of your family, too? From before?" She asks carefully. The last time she had asked him about his parents he had brushed her off rather quickly and forcefully.

Ved is quiet for a moment before he gets up and grabs something he has hidden behind the painting in his room. He brings back a small black cube and plugs it in. Before she knows it, a couple pictures pop up on the screen.

"You were adorable!" Cloe exclaims as Ved rolls his eyes. There's a picture with Ved no older than five smiling with Jay, who looks about ten, and their parents, all of them in dorky holiday sweaters. Both of their parents are just as blonde as their boys. "Your brother looks a lot like your Dad."

"Yeah, everyone says that."

The other picture is one of the boys and just their mother. Ved looks about ten and is sporting a bratty pout. Jay looks their age but is already broad in his shoulders. Their mother is clearly older in this one and there is something sad about her eyes. All of their eyes, really.

"Where's your Dad?" Cloe asks. Ved goes very quiet and she can see his body go rigid. She is about to drop it when he starts talking.

"Dead. He got shot while he was working at a bank as a guard about six months before the picture was taken." He answers quietly. Cloe's mouth pops open in shock before she gathers herself and puts a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry. We don't have to talk about it." She tells him.

He sighs and pats the hand she has on his shoulder. "It's fine. My Dad was a big dork who loved video games, and miniatures, and dressing up for conventions. He introduced me to all my favorite things, including computers and programming." He pulls up another picture of his Dad and him surrounded by electronics. "After he died, nothing was ever the same."

Ved closed the pictures and swivels around to face her. "There was a time when my brother was my best friend, if you can believe that. He used to spend time with me and we told each other everything. Then one day Dad was gone and Jay just..." Ved shakes his head. "He stopped doing anything Dad loved. He became obsessed with school and charity work. No more video games, no more going to our game store, no more hanging out with me."

They are both quiet as he returns his memory drive back to its hiding spot. He goes back to his desk and brings up a box of what Cloe assumes is the program he designed. Numbers start scrolling by as he watches it idly. Cloe points at the screen. "How much longer is that gonna take?"

"An hour, if I have my math right."

"Could we hang out after it's done?" She asks slyly.

"Well, yeah, but it's gonna be dark in an hour. Isn't your tribe gonna worry?"

Cloe smirks. "They would if they knew I was gone."

Ved visually perks up, though he tries to shrug it off. "Then it's cool if you stay." He says as casually as he can manage.

Cloe just smirks and plants herself in front of his tv. "Can I play that game again?" She asks as she checks the game box to see if it was still inside.

Despite his best efforts to look cool, Ved can't help but let out a small groan. When Cloe's head snaps towards him he pretends to be yawning and stretches his arms out.

"Yeah, it's still in there. Knock yourself out." He tells her. She gleefully turns the system on and grabs a controller. He couldn't understand why of all the games he had managed to amass she had taken a shine to the only horror game he had a copy of. He had tried to get her into games where they could shoot things together or race, but of course the stupid, quiet game with its horrifying monsters was the only one she was interested in. He does his best to ignore the creepy music blasting from his television. Despite his annoyance, he does sneak a peek of her yelling at some horrible worm thing as she tries to hit it with a pipe. He decides she can honestly be into anything she liked as long as he could see her smile.

He grins despite himself and goes back to work.