Chapter 4

The Apartment

Minutes passed while Leo stood on the cement walkway outside the old man's apartment ten stories above the ground.

He waited to wake up screaming in pain, being eaten. Nothing happened. He held up his arm. Focused on his implant, making it glow violet like the old man's had. The implant had somehow sunk underneath the skin of his wrist. He couldn't take it off now if he wanted to.

He pounded on the door of the apartment until his hand hurt. Nobody answered. He peered through the window. The apartment looked empty, with the old man nowhere to be seen. He sat down with his back against the door and tried to think.

What the hell? He was at the place and time he'd first put on his implant, but with a lifetime of memories?

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That old man, if that's what he was, knew far more than he'd let on. Leo really needed to talk to him.

Since there was no response to his continued knocking, he tried the doorknob. The door was unlocked. He entered the apartment for the second time.

The place was empty. The furniture, pictures, and magazines he'd remembered were gone. So was the old people smell. The place now smelled like an abandoned apartment, as if nobody had lived here in a long time.

Weird. Leo shivered.

Could the implant be messing with his mind and memories? The thing was supposed to cause brain damage after all. He quickly discarded that idea. There was no way his twelve-year-old mind, any twelve-year-old mind, could have dreamed up the nightmares he'd lived through. He remembered the first Afflicted eating pit he'd encountered. With its gnawed-on human bones cracked open for their marrow, and torn, half-digested clothes, hair, and other bodily remains. The smell of fear, death, and worse things. He shuddered. Then there was the loss of his friends. Family. The decades he'd lived frightened, alone, always on the run.

“Hi! I'm Imp,” the voice of a sprightly young girl suddenly appeared in his head, making him jump. “Short for Implant Interface. It is an honor to make your acquaintance. I am here to help you.”

“Hi Imp,” Leo said. “Haven't heard your voice for a long time.”