“Kit! KIT!”

Someone’s hands were on me, shaking me. Someone with a pulped, bloody face.

I sat up, instinctively jerking away.

“Tank GOT!” The person said. “I tink I’b about to pass out…”

I squinted at the figure. It was his hair that clued me in, as messy and disheveled as it was. “Sater?”

He collapsed next to me. “I tried to...I tried…”

His eyes went shut.

I reached out, slapping the side of his face. “Sater?”

Not good. He seemed badly injured. Possibly had a concussion. Clearly needed medical attention.

Yeah, just throw that onto the pile of things you need to worry about.

Gunshots sounded, lights flashing amidst the trees.

One thing at a time. Where the hell am I.

The back of a car.

Tanya was lying on her back next to me. She was twitching slightly, eyes fluttering behind the lids. I reached out, brushing the side of her face with my fingers. For some reason I was afraid to touch or move her. I had this feeling that she was in a precarious place, right on the precipice of death.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

It would be just my luck to lose her now, after I’d somehow managed to regain my memories of her. Another cruel joke in a world that so far hadn’t much held back with it’s cruelty.

But at the same time, how cosmically fitting. To lose Tanya in virtually the same way that Oscar lost Jackie…

I shook myself, decided to get my bearings. I was in a hatch at the back of the car. There were five seats total in the car. All empty.

The keys were in the ignition.

I looked over at Sater and Tanya, lying next to each other in the hatch. I needed to get out of here, get these people to a hospital. But something was stopping me. The thing that I saw in that memory, behind the one-way mirror.

This might be my only chance…

I ran my hands around, feeling underneath the seats, across the dashboard, inside the glovebox. Then I remembered my time with Lex, and the types of places they’d used to stash firearms for safekeeping.

I opened the front passenger door and ran my hand across the metal panel where a child safety lock would be, until I came across a small hole. I stuck my finger in and pulled, opening a latch in the side of the door. I reached into the opening and pulled a glock-looking handgun, not unlike my Black Gun in Rithium. I slid out the mag, checking to make sure it was full, then shoved it back into place with a metallic SNAP.

In the hatch, I leaned down and gave Tanya a gentle kiss on the lips. Perhaps the last I would ever give her. I examined the contours of her face, trying to memorize them. Perhaps so that, no matter what, I would never forget again.

“I love you.” I said, quiet as a whisper.

The only response was the loud, intermittent gunshots behind me. With effort, I tore myself away, and headed toward the flashing lights amid the trees.