"Maiden?" The younger officer thought that was a weird name. Not considering the fact that he might have heard it wrong.

'Well technically i said the first thing that associated with the variables name and nothing but im pretty sure this is my name!'

Thought mēden, her confusion somewhat elevated.

"And where are you from?" The other cop however was in the midst of interrogating the girl.

"Hmmm..." the so called mēden tried the same process once more in order to remember more about herself but she only drew blanks. Blanks maybe...nope it didn't work this time "dunno, can't remember"

She seemed quite nonchalant for someone who is suffering from amnesia. So the cops didn't believe her.

It was more likely that she was lying than her actually having amnesia

The time for mini interrogation had come to an end. Its time to take her in. For her to be interrogated again in a "comfortable" room.

"Come out of the trashcan with you hands behind your back and kneel down on the ground."

Predicting what would happen if she didn't do as the officeers said, mēden pulled herself out. However there was no sign of kneeling or putting her hands behind her.

She took one step towards the cop.

"Come any closer and i'll shoot"

Even thought he really didn't want to, if this was indeed a case of infection and they let it go the punishments worse than death.

"But I haven't done anything" mēden's voice sounded a bit sad, as if she was being framed.

"You're an unmarked, that alone gives us enough reason to take you back to the precinct. So don't resist arrest and come quickly"

Obviously the reasoning was logical however her not having PAS wasn't the main reason.

"Un...marked ? Whats that?"

"If you come with us i will explain so-"

the younger cop reached out to her but the bullet that was shot from the other officer reached faster.

As if she was shot by a cannon she was thrown back to the trashcan.

"Damn, the newly issued fire arms aren't messin' around"

"What did you just do? "Said the younger cop with a astounded face.

"We have orders to shoot anyone who shows sign of the infectionon on sight"

"But she could have been communicated with, there was no evidence that she had-"

The experienced officer let out a long sigh

"Look kid, the risk is too high and besides she's an unmarked. Its not like anyones gonna come looking for her. We'll call the AIPCC, they'll handle the clean up, for the time being let's tape this alley up and get out"

Although the young officer disagreed with his way of handling things, he couldn't retort and followed him out as they contacted to the Atlas infection prevention and control Center in order to "prevent" this case of supposed infection.

A few minutes after they left towards the end of the alleyway the trashcan started shaking.

After a few seconds of shaking, mēden blinked her eyes open. Plying dead is pretty hard.

She then looked at the place where they shot. Next to her chest lay a silver coin. It had signs of debris and a bent bullet lodged inside it.

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'is this actually a silver coin or one that looks like silver? Doubt a silver coin has the capability to stop a bullet'

Slowly the girl with crimson eyes and hair which had now been dirtied grabbed the edges of the trash can and got herself outside. For the second time.

Although she played it cool, she was actually very confused, who exactly was she? Besides the name mēden nothing else came to mind. Whenever she tried to think about the past her head felt like burning. And how did she think of doing what she did. How did she remember that coin? So many questions yet no answer.

Now what? What should she do? One of the ends of the alleyway is taped up and the officers are probably on their way to the other end. If she wanted to run now would be a good time.

She got out and ran towards the left, the pain was twisting but manageable. She needed to make sense of her situation. But didn't really know how to.

At the end of the dark alleyway she finally emerged with the street. The night sky wasn't really clear back in the alleyway but now. The starless dark blue ceiling filled the what one would call the sky which gave a feeling of nihilism greeted her eyes.

Looking around the street, There weren't many cars around, it seemed like the middle of the night. Not many people either. The city was in a weird shape, some buildings were clean and fully built while others were dirty and half finished. She decided to go right. Why? Even she didn't know. Was this intuition? Or just random guessing ?

After a few miles she reached some place that looked like a camp. 'Whats this place?'

Entering the place she was met with people in rags, some disabled and even ones with cyber prosthetic which were fully rusted. They also looked at her with wariness in their eyes.

Before the strolling girl appeared a giant,

With shorts that barely held up together this black hulk towered over mēden. After fair scrutiny she found out that his entire lower half is cybermade.

So this is what you call a cyborg...

'The man appeared quite angry. Is it because i entered without permission?'

"Why did you disappear again girl?!"

Eh? He knows me? Does this guy know me?

"Um...do you know me?"

After hearing this the mans furrowed brows loosed a bit. He let out a sigh and face palmed.

"Lost your memory again? This is the third time since you've arrived here."

Huh... then this happens a lot ?

"Come, the chief is still waiting for you, after that you can go and sleep"

The man walked towards the a larger tent within the camp. Inside a very old man drinking from some sort of alcohol was sitting on a broken chair.

"Ahh, Alice! Your here again. Did you miss your grandpa that much." The man said forming a hugging gesture with his hand, his smiling face ready to tear his jaw

"Eh?" This time her confusion was audible, was she wrong? Is her name actually Alice? Is this person her relative?

"Chief has alzheimers so he often mistakes you with her granddaughter."

He seemed to be used to this interaction. "Use him to get some info of the world around you, i won't be explaining everything for a third time. he likes telling his old stories so its a win win. Though sometimes they might be inaccurate."

After that the massive guy left, leaving mēden with the old man. The mood became somewhat awkward.

"Um hello...my name is mēden." 'Or i think so'

"Oh Alice you really shouldn't mess with your old man here, your mother would be sad"

'Uh what do ?...let's just go along with this'

"Hey...grandad, do you know who-" mēden thought about her questions, if she asks about her identity he would probably repeat Alice's name, whoever that is. 'Let's get some other info.'

"I mean where are we?"

Chief took a sip of his bottle which he really shouldn't have.

"Hahahahah, did you get lost again!? We're at the Shirakawa homeless camp. Shouldn't you be at school right now? Oh my did you get a fight with your brother again !"

Mēden decided to ignore most of the personal information regarding alice

"Uh sure, what i meant is what country or well city or uh...Continent this is"

She tried using any bordering segmentation, but decided not to go as far as planets.

"Is this for your homework? Damn that kei, he really didn't teach you all this so much for a loving father"

'There seems to be some sort of story there but hey not my problem.'

He then continued.

"We're citizens of the Atlas city, which is the capital of UNH country. UNH is also the name of our Continent"

"UNH?" What did that stand for? That doesn't seem right

"United nations of humanity of course. Its not like there are any other human owned Continent left anymore. Most of them are ruled by those god damn monsters and the rest are in control of the machines."

'Monsters? Machines? What does that mean?' before she managed to ask about them the grandpa continued

"If only the Age of Chaos hadn't come the way it did. We might have stood a chance. But now look at us. The once prosperous humans who ruled the earth are now at the mercy of their own creations."

Chief realised he had digressed so he pat mēden on the head

"Sorry sweety, I spoke too much, go ahead and rest you must've been tired"

After that he showed her the tent which was next to him and let her go.

Machines, monsters, age of chaos. These terms seem to be new to her. Technically everything is new but these terms were even more alien.

I wonder how the those uniform guys reacted to my disappearance.

After entering the tent she laid on the tattered futon however she wasn't sleepy.

So many things happened today and she couldn't make heads or tails of them.

Through the holes of the tent she could see the starless sky once more. To her it felt like it was missing something.

"Shouldn't the sky be filled with stars?"

Slowly she closed her eyes thinking about this.