“Are you okay?” Eva asked.
“I’m fine. It just makes me wonder.”
“Wonder what?”
“What else about my memory is wrong?” She had little recollection of her time on Earth and yet she had been there for possibly hundreds of years. At least one childhood memory from Terra had somehow rewired itself for Earth. Were there others?
Eva’s hand went to Zoe’s and squeezed it gently. “If everything goes according to plan you’ll be remembering an entire life. I wouldn’t expect it to be easy.”
Zoe nodded. “I know. I just wonder if I’m ready for my entire identity to change literally overnight.” She looked up at the depressing scenery of Terra as the transport catapulted them along the length of the city.
“We should be arriving soon.”
“Are you sure they won’t track us there?”
“The transport makes a route from the main Transport Station all the way to Last City and then back again. Unless they’re specifically looking for us we’ll be fine.”
“Have you ever been there before? The Forgotten Gardens?”
“No. I don’t know anyone who has. Until the King mentioned it I assumed it was just some mythical place that my parents used to tell me stories about when I was little.”
“Then how do you know it’s real?” She’d just assumed they all knew about the Forgotten Gardens. It didn’t even cross her mind that the place might not physically exist outside the realms of mythology.
“Well, supposedly it is our very own Garden of Eden, a city rich in green life and water, not at all dissimilar to your Earth. Take a look around you though,” she uttered, motioning to the view of the barren landscape around them. “Does it look like there’s a paradise anywhere?”
“So that’s what makes it mythical? That no one is sure that it even exists?”
“Not exactly. I haven’t heard the stories since my parents were alive but from what I recall, it’s where our ancestors lived before Royal City was built. I guess it’s the original Royal City. My mom used to tell me that it was the resting place for all the original families, that their spirits lived on and that’s why it’s called the Forgotten Gardens.” She let out a shallow breath of air. “For all we know it looks no different from the rest of Terra.”
A foreboding feeling weighed Zoe’s insides down. There were too many unknown variables and for all she knew they were heading into a trap, or worse. There was also the issue of the gate in Last City. From everything she’d heard from Eva and Evan, the gate was essentially a crude imitation of the gates in the Transport Station. How could they know for sure it would work the same way? The residents had supposedly used the same technology as the real gates, but there was no way to know if it was a true and working replica.
Her foot tapped rhythmically on the transport floor, the sound echoing around them. She wondered how long it had been since they left the Transport Station. It was difficult to gauge a measurement of time in Terra, what with the artificial lighting and unnatural surroundings. Even the real landscape of Terra gave no indication of the time of day. She vaguely recalled Evan telling her that time worked differently, that it wasn’t measured in minutes, hours, days and years like on Earth but in generations, which could last hundreds of years in Earth time.
However hard she tried she just could not understand the idea of timelessness. She was used to sunrises, high noons, and sunsets, where the position of the sun and the moon in the sky told her brain when to do what. She wasn’t even sure how long it had been since she left home. Was it merely hours or could it have been days? She had only slept once and barely enough to satisfy her mind’s need for unconsciousness. If not for the constant visual stimulation of Terra her mind might give into the lack of REM sleep and render her utterly exhausted.
It wasn’t until she felt Eva’s hands on hers that she realized she had been fidgeting in her lap.
“Relax, Zoe,” she spoke. “You’re not alone. I promised I’d take care of you and I will. We’re in this together, okay?”
Zoe’s nerves receded and her breathing calmed to a gentle rhythm. She focused on the crystal blue color of Eva’s eyes as her hands and feet steadied, noting somewhere in the back of her mind that her eyes were the color of the Santa Barbara sky. For whatever reason it made her trust her more.
“So did my stubborn brother finally kiss you?”
The change in topic caught her by surprise and she found herself laughing, the happy feeling in her cheeks and eyes calming the rest of her unsettled nerves. “How did you know?”