Harmony
9

Experiment? What experiment? This American woman, whom Le could now see was Caucasian, with short, dark hair, had spoken as if she was wanting answers to something. That was the last thing Le had expected. She and her companions were the ones wanting answers. She stopped walking, having no idea how to respond. Rivo had stopped as well.

She heard Rais before she saw him. He had kept walking, his boots crunching on the gravel of the path as he strode confidently forward and past her to the front of the group. To him, this was nothing out of the ordinary. He would handle it. She gratefully let him do it.

“Hello!” His Azerbaijani accent was exceedingly enthusiastic, as he had been most of the day on the walk down. “My name Rais. These people my friends. I am sorry, we have no information for experiment. We need help. We are tired. We walk all day, down the mountain. You can help us with food and place to rest, it make us happy.”

The American woman, having been joined by five other people, had stopped in her tracks at Rais’ words. Le tried to work out if her expression was shock, or disappointment, or compassion, or confusion, or all of these things. In seeing this, she glanced at the woman’s companions and saw similar. A solidly built Polynesian man stepped forward towards Rais. As her eyes locked on him she saw dignity and compassion in his body language. In fact, she doubted she’d ever seen such sincere compassion in her life before. If only she could remember.

“Hello Rais. My name is Gimi. Welcome to our village. You and your friends look like you could use something to eat and a place to rest. Please come with us and we will give you as much help as we can.” Gimi’s gentle yet strong voice was providing the support that Le’s group needed after such a long day. Not to mention the night before.

Le dumbly followed, relieved they would get to eat soon. The initial looks of shock from the villagers were intriguing and even puzzling. It wasn’t the reaction she had expected, and it mystified her. Then there was the American woman’s mention of an experiment. Those aspects of the meeting between her friends and this group of villagers made no sense whatsoever.

Trudging indoors to supposed sanctuary, Le had an eerie thought that she’d been in a similar situation before and was mildly frustrated she was unable to remember what the circumstances were. Gimi suggested they drop their backpacks inside the door, which they gladly did, and remove their boots if they wanted to. They all did both. Le glanced around once she got inside. This was some sort of large-scale kitchen, with strange looking black boxes on the benches, some other white boxes as well, some tables and chairs on the far side, and not much else. It was nonetheless impressive, with its dark timber floor and shiny white benches and cupboards.

Gimi was continuing to talk. “This is what we call the community centre, or at least the kitchen part of it, where we gather to have meals and do other… things. There are other rooms in here too.” Gimi sounded uncertain, as if he had just learned these things about the village himself.

Prina was the first to question it. “You… you are not living here are you?”

A woman of Chinese appearance replied, in perfect English. “Well yes, but I understand your question. This is not our home. We’ll explain all of this very soon. Please, come with us. We will get you something to eat and you can tell us what happened. We will tell you what we know after that.” She immediately came across as a lovely, tolerant and supportive person. Despite her tiredness, aching feet and hunger Le felt warmth towards this woman.

“You all look tired. Please rest here and we will bring you some food.” The blonde woman standing next to the Chinese woman had a European accent she couldn’t place. She was quite tiny, too. Shorter even than Le herself.

The American woman had been in conversation with a man of Hispanic appearance. She spoke again. “All of you new arrivals: I am so sorry for my hasty words when you first got here… I…”

“Oh please, it’s okay my girl!” Bia set the right tone in response and Le was grateful. It’s what she would have said too if she’d had the energy. “It’s all confusing for all of us. I already get that something strange is going on.”

The Hispanic man spoke. “Gracias for your understanding. We have a lot of questions for you, but we want you to rest first and to have some food.” So it was a Spanish accent. Le would most likely replace out soon which part of the world he was from.

Gimi spoke to the Hispanic man. “Sounds great, Arias. How about you and Rocsi show them to the gathering room while the rest of us get food?”

“We can do that,” replied the American woman – Le assumed this was Rocsi – “after we take their orders. I’ll go get a pen and paper.”

Now Le had a question after hearing this. Orders? They did meal requests? She was still too tired to voice it. Rivo saved her the trouble. “Is there a restaurant here?”

“Almost!” An Arabic woman she hadn’t noticed before. “This place has special food machines. They make just about anything! There they are over there.” She pointed past Le at the same black boxes she’d seen when she walked in. “We’d love to show you how they work but I think you need to sit down, yes?”

Oh yes, indeed. Did she think that or say it? She must have said it, or someone else did, because the American woman – Rocsi – had returned with pen and paper and could not respond quickly enough.

“Right this way then! Follow us!” she skipped away with way too much energy, dragging the Hispanic man – whose name she had already forgotten – with her through a side door leading out from the kitchen. Le and her group all followed them.

The next room was beautiful and welcoming to Le. It had several couches and some attractive plants that were weirdly growing from the floor. In the middle of the room was a large, low, square table and behind it was some sort of oversized glass decoration, with a black section at the bottom. It had a colourful blanket partially draped over it. She thought it was a pretty decoration, and the blanket was really nice. She sat opposite the glass thing and sighed with gratitude at taking the weight off her feet, finally.

The Hispanic man spoke. “Okay, amigos. In case you did not hear before, I am Arias. I would be honoured to take your dinner order.”

“But…” Rais must be tired too. This was the first time Le could recall hearing his voice since they’d gotten to the village. Or did he speak earlier? “…what food you have? You have menu? How you make it?”

Rocsi was eager to explain. “We don’t actually make it, the machines do. They’re very advanced and they make pretty much anything. So, to answer your question – Rais, is it? – tell us anything you would like, and we will get the machines to make it. It really is that easy. I know it seems too good to be true, but it is. Just try us. Anything at all. Drinks first, then meals.”

Arias took a round of drinks orders, taking the list to the kitchen where the other four had stayed. Rocsi took their meal orders. Le asked for any type of Pho, or noodle soup, that they had. She couldn’t dream of how they would fulfil these requests. Tau, looking minorly offended although Le wasn’t sure why, had requested a local dish from Botswana called vetkoek; a meat and vegetable pastry, he said. He was polite in doing so but his tone clearly suggested he didn’t think it would be fulfilled. He offered to order something else but was told happily by Rocsi that there was no need, and she would return promptly.

Almost as soon as she left, the two other girls, the European one and the Chinese one, returned with a tray of drinks and some water. How had they made them so quickly? It was exactly as everyone had ordered, too. Le was utterly astonished. She did not recall any refrigerators in that – kitchen, was it? – so how did they make her iced tea? Not to mention anything else on that tray. She was quite interested to see how Rais would react as he received his drink. He didn’t let her down, appearing incredulous initially as they handed it to him, and even more so when he took a sip.

“This perfect! How you make this? Kvass found in some parts of world only. I make joke. Think no chance you can make it,” he said.

“Aha!” a broad smile from the European lady. “We told you these machines were special, didn’t we? Wait until you taste the food!” It arrived as these words were spoken. How long had that been? Less than a minute, surely. That was absolutely not possible! Was she dreaming or something? She was completely astonished now. Her tired brain tried to make sense of this but came up empty. She received her meal and took a sip.

It tasted as good as it looked. Le had in front of her the most perfect Pho she could have imagined. Tau had done a wonderful job cooking for them from limited supplies for the past twenty-four hours, and she was grateful, but as she ate this meal she felt normality returning to her thoughts for the first time in several hours.

Was she dreaming or something? Here she was, having perfect food created for her in literally seconds, while in an unfamiliar natural environment with no memory of anything before yesterday. The strangeness of her environment and the day’s experiences were assaulting her from all directions. Dealing with it all was quite challenging. She felt like she’d been transported here to a totally foreign world, with nothing at all familiar with which to hang her thoughts on. At least her dress from yesterday was something she knew was common in her country. Vietnam that is, not Australia. It helped, having clothing she was familiar with. The rest of her situation was perplexing, to say the least, and there was no other sign she would be getting help any time soon.

It was beginning to get distressing.

A wave of good feelings swept over her again, calming her and allowing her to relax and accept her reality for now, knowing that answers would come soon enough. From where, though? As nice as everyone had been so far, she was just barely getting to know them. They were all in the same boat as her, so that was something at least. She wasn’t alone and they could all work together to solve their situation. What she needed right now was more information about where she was, if that was possible, and how the others had gotten here.

She sipped some more of her Pho and waited for that information to come.

The other six for now were simply talking quietly together and letting her group enjoy their food and drinks. They weren’t saying anything beyond small talk, but from their words and mannerisms so far, they were as nice as her group, which pleased her. Some of her friends from the aircraft again asked about how the food was created. The answers received were along the lines of ‘the machines do it’ and that they could see them later. It still made no sense to Le how any food could be created so quickly.

When they had all mostly finished, the Chinese woman spoke to them all. “It’s time we did some introductions,” she said. She introduced herself, and the other five followed her. Pixie’s name stuck in Le’s mind, simply because it aptly described her stature and waif-like appearance. She had even said it was her real name, not a nickname. Le liked that too. The Egyptian girl – Neca? – was lovely. As Neca spoke, Le happened to be looking in Rais’ direction. He had an appreciative expression on his face. He and Neca were similar in ethnic background, unlike the already blooming friendship between Prina and Rivo, and Rais appeared to be attracted to her. She was exotic to Le; her blue eyes and dark hair were captivating, so she could understand his response. For her own part, she liked them all. They were all so nice, and other-focussed too. Just like her group.

The village group’s explanations as to their lost memory were not surprising. With her hunger satisfied and her tiredness fading, she was able to process things a little better. She could now study their body language and mannerisms more closely. They were visitors as well. Just visitors who had been here in this place a bit longer than they had. What was it, six days, Pixie said, since she’d arrived? By herself even. Le couldn’t imagine how hard that must have been. She doubted she could have faced memory loss on her own.

After their brief introductions, Gimi asked her and her companions to tell their stories. They did so, including a description of where they woke up and under what circumstances. They all shared the telling of their time up on the mountain, sleeping in the aircraft and replaceing their way down the valley. Pleasingly, no-one interrupted, even though they finished each other’s sentences at times. The village group didn’t seem surprised by this. They also weren’t surprised by Rais’ assertion that the whole scene at the aircraft was most likely staged, although he didn’t know why. He mentioned the cylinders too, but no-one had any idea what those were for, he said.

The village group then told the rest of what they could remember. It was quite a bit different to Le’s group because their awakening points were in separate places and at different times. Le couldn’t work this out. She hoped one of the others could analyse the pattern and understand it, but no-one had any explanation for the differences.

Rocsi was the last to speak. After talking about herself she described the experiment she had referred to with her first words to them. It was a theory, she said, that Pixie and Suria had presented to them, and they’d been discussing it right before Le and her group showed up. It was entirely logical to Le. The idea that this whole environment was planned by some researchers somewhere fitted their overall situation well, including her group, without fully explaining the involvement of a crashed aircraft.

Nobody knew what day it was. The village group had discussed the date briefly during their conversations but had no clocks or calendars anywhere, which was curious to Le. This was some sort of experiment for sure. The consensus view was that they had had specific memory parts removed, along with no convenient way to track time, plus a strange environment, to test how they would cope with it all. After some discussion, they group managed to vaguely pin the date down to sometime in September of 1975. That seemed reasonable to Le, as the group were basing it on world events that some of them were able to remember. This left her with the notion that their memory removal was not absolute. Discussions continued for a little while about this aspect of their memory loss. Le was enjoying the intelligent discussion. The shared experience between all twelve of them, including the unified emotions and thought processes, was beginning to form and solidify.

Then, without warning, Bia exclaimed excitedly: “Oh! Oh, look at that!”

She was pointing at the glass thing with the blanket partially over it, directly in front of Le. She didn’t initially see it as she was looking at Pixie and Suria. The whole glass was illuminated, but it was partly obscured by the blanket. Bia was close to the glass thing and took it upon herself to remove it. Le had a fleeting acknowledgement of how nice the blanket was; it was a red and orange diamond weave pattern, with tassels. Where had it come from? It looked foreign to her and to Switzerland. More of an African style rug. Now that it was off the glass thing and on the floor, her attention was captured by the fully revealed and brightly lit glass. The light coming from, incredibly, within the glass had a subtle bluish hue to it. There was also a blinking red square in the top left-hand corner, and the whole presentation of the light within the glass elicited several gasps from the group. The blue light especially prompted a rush of words from different people.

“What is it?” asked Rivo.

“Why is it lighting up now?” asked Neca.

“Who turned it on?” asked Gimi.

“It hasn’t done this before!” exclaimed Suria.

Le volunteered her own opinion. “It so pretty… all lit up!” She studied it closely for a moment, confirming that the glass was impossibly lit from inside, as if it had an interior source of light. There were, however, no cables or wires visible inside the glass. It was a total mystery to her.

Rivo asked an inquiring question that cut through the astonished reactions of all of them. “Hey! My new friends – the ones who have been here for a week – can you tell me what you know about this… glass… light... thing?”

“Not much, amigo,” Arias responded immediately. “We have walked past it and did not know what it was. We did not guess that it could… do this.”

“I didn’t know it could light up, so I put a blanket on it I found in the other room. “I thought it looked nicer than just glass,” said Neca.

“We have no idea what it is.” Pixie was keen to add her view. “There is no button to turn it on that we could replace, and to be honest I didn’t even know it was electronic. I first thought –”

She was cut off mid-sentence by a gentle, melodic tune that seemed to be coming from the glass thing. There were no speakers next to it, below it or anywhere near it. How the heck was it producing sound then? The tune itself caught her attention. It was a classical piano piece with an unusual electronic quality to it, such that it took her a few moments to recognise which piece it was. In a few more moments, she got it. She was the only musician in the room, so perhaps she was the only person who knew what it was.

“I know this!” They all turned to her. “It Debussy. Clair de Lune. Shhh… listen!”

This was mostly a request was to herself, so she would stop talking and listen to what was coming out of the screen. The opening refrain from this classical piece played through for a minute or so and then cycled back to the start. Once Le heard it repeating, she knew she could talk again.

“It loop through back to start again. That not piano playing it.” The melody was soft and comforting. It had astounding depth – the bass was almost perfection. The notes pierced right through her and made her feel special. She knew what it was being played on. They were all watching her for the moment, waiting for her to continue. “It a synthesiser. I know I see or use before.”

She might have expected questions about what a synthesiser was, because it was new technology, at least in her experience. There were no questions; just mutual astonishment and mesmerisation with the light and the tune coming from the glass thing. Or screen, or whatever it was. She looked back at it, prompting the rest of them to do the same. The synthesiser rendition of this short musical piece was seriously captivating.

Le had felt like a fifth wheel that morning within in the group because she had no apparently useful skills. No longer. It wasn’t much, but she was helping. She glanced around at her eleven companions. They were all transfixed, staring at the glass thing as if trying to work out how it was doing what it was doing. Clair de Lune was now playing for the third time. It stopped and the room was in total silence.

Rocsi was the first to respond. “Oh god. I haven’t been here that long, but I’ve heard no music since I got here. It feels otherworldly to hear something musical now. Le, you’re going to be my new best friend if you can play –”

Another event on the glass thing stopped Rocsi in mid-sentence. The appearance of words. On the glass; or rather, in the glass. In dark red capital letters. More intakes of breath, all round, including from Le herself.

INCOMING MESSAGE IMMINENT.

The words were fixed for a few seconds and then they started flashing. Le could feel the intense excitement in the room. For some reason she glanced at Pixie and Suria. They were both fixated intensely at the words on the glass – clearly sensing they were finally going to get answers. Pixie, however, launched to her feet and raced out of the room. “I’ll be back very soon!” she called over her shoulder.

Le saw Suria stare after her in disbelief that she had left the room at such a critical moment. It was soon evident why, as Pixie returned promptly with a notepad and a pen.

“Great idea! You write down message.” Rais’ natural enthusiasm had reappeared. Dinner and rest had served him well too, apparently.

“So it is a computer screen. Now we know. It is so advanced!” Arias’ statement didn’t totally make sense to Le. It was indeed advanced, yet she didn’t understand how he knew it was a computer. There was nothing attached to it that she would have expected to see if it were some sort of computer. There was no keyboard, for a start. Text on a screen, that she knew, but it was usually words on a small green screen in a science or engineering lab somewhere; not a large, thick sheet of glass like this was. It had also just played a short classical piece as if it were a synthesizer. Where were the speakers, like she would see on a stereo system? The sound was actually coming from the middle of the screen, too. No speakers there at all. She was astounded by it and could not imagine which company would have made it. There wasn’t even a commercial logo on it.

The initial three words were still blinking. It had now been a minute or so at least since they first appeared. They suddenly stopped blinking and then vanished, replaced gradually by more words, again in large red letters.

WELCOME TO YOUR VILLAGE. SENSORS IN THIS ROOM HAVE DETECTED THE PRESENCE OF TWELVE PERSONS. THIS MEANS YOU HAVE ALL ARRIVED SAFELY. PLEASE DO NOT FEAR. IF TWELVE PERSONS HAD NOT ARRIVED, A SEARCH PARTY WOULD HAVE BEEN ORGANISED.

The message stopped for now. There was a collective pause for a moment as everyone read the message. Le now knew they had all come from different countries. She hoped those from some of the non-English speaking countries could read it. There were no initial indications that they couldn’t. The silence was broken by Neca’s emotionally charged voice, saying something in her native language.

Rais, the only other person who could understand her, happened to be sitting next to Neca. He put his hand on her arm. At this, she almost threw herself at him, holding him as if he were her only source of comfort left in the world. He was bewildered. It was the first time Le had seen him with that expression. Once again, she was struck by the lack of emotional barriers between people who had only just met. It had happened with Rivo and Prina. She sensed it had happened with Pixie and Suria and probably others as well. There was no difficulty in communicating with anyone, or in the group, to this point. In her knowledge, if not her memories, this was quite unusual.

Rais was offering words of comfort. “I know, Neca. I know. I know what message mean. We maybe be lost. But do not worry, we make it all safe. We here now.” Rais was so great. Such a source of strength for everyone. Neca pushed herself away and glanced at Rais with some puzzlement at her loss of control.

“Thank you Rais, thank you. For your kind words. I am sorry for… that. Yes, I got the meaning right away. Anything could have happened to us… to you, especially you all, up there in the aircraft. Camping out and all that.” She turned back to the screen in a rush as she finished speaking. There might be more words.

“What were you saying, Neca? Are you alright?” Suria’s voice of concern from across the room.

“I was speaking Arabic. I was saying ‘oh my god’. I thought how awful it would be if one of us had gotten lost. I’m alright. Sorry, I get emotional easily.” She glanced at Rais. He was still stunned by Neca’s reaction. Or perhaps the fact she’d hugged him in front of everyone. That was more likely the problem, if she could call it a problem.

Gimi responded first. “I can understand that. I am sure most of us have similar thoughts. To be honest, I was thinking something less polite. I just didn’t want to say it out loud. It is really sounding like an experiment now.”

“Yeah, totally. You’re very astute, Suria,” said Rocsi.

Suria simply nodded. She was still staring at the words, as if trying to decipher some deeper meaning. Le looked back at the screen. The words were still there. Nothing had changed in the past few minutes. Le glanced back at Pixie. She had her pen poised and was fixated on the screen, ready to instantly copy whatever came next, lest it should disappear suddenly.

“I wonder if that’s it?” Prina had not spoken since dinner. Le was glad to hear her beautiful voice. She loved the way she spoke, it was calming and lyrical. She was similar to Bia in that respect. Neither of them would speak within the larger group unless it was clear no-one else would. The difference between them was that Prina was motivated by practical considerations while still coming across as polite and gentle. Bia was motivated by group cohesiveness and was often gracious in the way she spoke.

Tau, probably the other overly practical one within the six of them who had woken up in the aircraft, answered her. “I don’t think so Prina. This message was prepared ahead of time and seems to have a particular intent behind it. There will be more. There is clearly a plan here and we’re going to get some idea what it is before too much longer.”

“Ooh, so exciting! I maybe rush out for another drink! I not know how to make, so maybe I stay.” Le had a craving for another iced tea but she did not want to miss what was on the screen.

“Oh yes, I’d love a hot chocolate right now! With marshmallows!” Rocsi was going to be the life of the party, Le thought, even when there wasn’t one.

“I get one for you, my love.” Arias was already up and moving.

“Oh, silly boy! I was only kidding! You might miss more of the message.”

“It is okay. The message stay there for me when I get back. Pixie will copy anyway.” Arias turned to the rest of the group. “Does anyone want a drink as well?”

“Oh yes please! Can you get me a strawberry milkshake? Thank you so much, Arias.” Pixie had not taken her eyes off the screen for even a millisecond as she spoke. She was more talkative than Le had thought she would be when she first saw her. Le’s initial impression of Pixie was that she was not as outgoing as some of the others. She wanted a drink too, though, and spoke up.

“Ice tea, Arias? Green tea? Please! And thank you!” Le shot him a look of gratitude. He nodded with a smile at her in response, and his glance lingered on her a bit more than she might have expected. Maybe she was imagining it? She was still a bit tired, after all.

“Anyone else?” Arias got a few more orders, and a few no-thank-yous in response. He dashed off to the kitchen. To Le it felt like a party. Maybe Rocsi had hit the right tone after all.

The message did not change while Arias was in the kitchen. He came back with a tray of drinks; including his own hot chocolate. Rocsi reacted to this: “Aww, you got one too! You won’t regret it.”

“It look so nice. I think, why not? I thought maybe I make popcorn too. But I decide – I want to see message. No change yet?” He sat back down next to Rocsi after handing out the drinks. She thanked him warmly, her eyes glistening, as she received hers. Le was enjoying watching their little friendship.

“No, no change to the message yet.” Gimi was staring at the words, deep in thought.

Rivo was watching Gimi’s intensive stare. “Do you read anything in the words, Gimi? Any ideas?”

“There is plenty we can interpret from this once it’s done.” Suria too, of the same mind.

Gimi responded to Rivo’s question. “Nothing I can decipher yet. I’m hoping more of the message arrives soon. The words ’welcome to your village’ are telling. There’s something to that. I’ll wait until the rest of the message is done before commenting further.”

Le sipped her iced tea, watching the screen. It did not take long for the more words to appear. She quickly glanced around at everyone else and saw nothing but eager faces, staring at the screen. Suddenly there they were:

YOU ARE TO MAKE THIS VILLAGE YOUR HOME. PLEASE DO NOT FEAR FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS. THEY KNOW WHERE YOU ARE. PART OF YOUR MEMORY HAS BEEN ERASED FOR REASONS THAT WILL IN DUE COURSE BECOME KNOWN TO YOU. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT THIS UNDULY.

THIS VILLAGE IS SELF-SUSTAINING. DIAGNOSTICS ARE MAINTAINED ELSEWHERE. ANY UNLIKELY MAJOR OR MINOR MALFUNCTIONS OF EQUIPMENT WILL BE ATTENDED TO AS REQUIRED. CLEANING OPERATIONS OF THIS CENTRE ARE AUTOMATED. HOUSE CLEANING IS MANUAL BUT NOT EXPECTED TO BE ARDUOUS.

The words had by now taken up almost half of the screen. Le quickly glanced at Pixie, who was scribbling furiously. The message had stopped again, but Le thought this wasn’t the end yet. There was a momentary silence and then the group conversation began quite quickly. Le contributed to it.

“Our home? How? When we decide…” she trailed off. She was asking questions the others might have difficulty answering. Everyone was talking at once anyway, for a change, and she didn’t know who to focus on. She reflected for a minute instead of talking.

So, it was official. This was some sort of set up – probably an experiment – and someone was coordinating it. This was good to know. At least that meant there was a finite time to it, and answers would be forthcoming, as the message said. It was a massive relief. The message also told them not to worry about their memory being removed too much. She was a bit annoyed by this but on the whole, it was a comforting thought. To her it meant they would soon get answers of some sort about why it was gone.

“Why is this our home then?” She had picked up on Prina on her right saying this. “This is a nice place but…”

“I’m guessing we travelled here for some reason – we volunteered, but how? Why would I come from Cuba to Switzerland? It’s crazy, is it not?” said Bia. Tau, Bia’s companion on that particular couch, was listening and nodding in agreeance.

Le switched her attention around to some of the others. She could hear other conversations going on. She tried to figure out who to listen to. Someone might have an insight that was useful. Rais and Neca were speaking in Arabic; she could tune that one out.

She focussed on Pixie and Suria for a moment. They were speaking in low voices. From where she was she couldn’t hear them. Rocsi, immediately to her right, glanced at her briefly, then for longer as she realised Le was a bit isolated.

“What do you think, Le? I know it must be hard for you. You just got here and this all has happened on top of a long walk and a difficult night last night.” As Rocsi talked, she glanced at Arias, who was also regarding her with a sympathetic expression. He seemed liked such a nice man, on first impressions, and again now.

She flashed an appreciative smile at both of them. “It so hard to understand. So much happen in two day. I wake up day before and I not have memory. Like you all. I don’t know anything about this place, and then –”

“Shh. There’s more!” Suria’s elevated voice cut through the chatter. They all stopped talking and turned to face the screen, all at the same time.

More words indeed.

YOUR PRESENCE HERE IS WELCOMED AND APPRECIATED. PLEASE ENJOY YOUR NATURAL SURROUNDINGS AND FEEL FREE TO EXPLORE THE LOCAL AREA. USE ANY OF THE EQUIPMENT WITHIN THE VILLAGE AT YOUR DISCRETION. LOOK AFTER EACH OTHER AS BEST YOU CAN AND WORK TOGETHER TO SUSTAIN THE VILLAGE.

THERE WILL BE ANOTHER MESSAGE IN TWO WEEKS. BE WELL.

Two weeks! That was such a long time. Especially since, to Le, the past thirty-six hours had felt like forever. This time, there wasn’t as much immediate discussion. Rais and Gimi were talking quietly together and Gimi broke from that, speaking to the group in a voice that overrode all conversations that were just beginning as a result of what they’d all seen.

“Everyone,” he said. The rest of the group turned their attention to him. “Rais and I were thinking we should have an ordered discussion about what all of this means. That way, we can all share opinions and focus on what this all means.”

“Thank you Gimi.” Rais was continuing his leadership into the expanded group. “We talk a bit, then we sleep. Talk more tomorrow. One person at a time please. Hand up if you want to speak.”

“Ooh, I feel like I’m at university!” Rocsi’s playfulness was unrestrained. Then her expression changed to a more solemn one. “Sorry boys, couldn’t help myself. Someone else, please.” She cast her eyes down.

“Anyone?” Gimi was suppressing a laugh as he spoke, more at Rocsi’s contrition than anything, Le suspected. A moment of silence, then he added: “Thanks Pixie, for copying the message. I don’t know how much longer it will stay on the glass.” It hadn’t moved, however. Le glanced at her. She was simply nodding gently towards him.

Rais spoke again. “Put hand up if you want to speak. Better that way. Gimi and I choose who speak. We all share thought; whatever we think of, even if crazy.”

“Yes, please. No matter how strange – all ideas and comments are welcome. Suria?” Gimi reacted to her hand going up first.

“The message says this is our village. Both Pixie and I have recently come to that conclusion too. I woke on my first morning here – five days ago now – and, you know that first thought you have as soon as you wake up? Mine was that I was home.”

Gimi was nodding. “Interesting thought for sure. Might indicate that it is, but you’ve forgotten?”

“It’s entirely possible, Gimi.”

“Thanks for sharing. Prina?”

Prina, for some reason, glanced at Rivo first before speaking. He must have encouraged her to speak.

“I think we are meant to be family,” she said. “Not family as in relations and marriage, but family as in being together. I am young. I don’t have a lot of life experience to share. I mean I can’t remember as many facts as maybe some of you. I also can’t remember my family in Patna. But I love how I feel in this room, with all of you. Even so soon after being together. We have a purpose here, so it was meant to be. We have something special, too. I feel it. It is maybe too early for us all being together to say things like this, but I can’t help it.”

Le could not agree more. She felt a warmth rising in her chest at Prina’s words, that this might be a close family-like group they were now in. It was exactly the right assessment of their situation, at the right time. All external distractions and surface meanings were stripped away, and what was left was the core reason they were here. Maybe she was tired and not thinking logically. Maybe she was not supposed to. Right now, in this moment, none of that mattered.

“Wow. Prina! So nice word. I think very true you say – oh sorry!” Le had spoken without raising her hand. She did so belatedly.

“No – it is okay Le. I think good words too. I cannot explain why. We friends after short time. Easy to talk to anyone. You have more thoughts?” Rais was surprised at his own agreement with the theory.

“Not more thought, but I ask everyone – you agree with Prina? I understand if you not agree.” Le’s own words sounded genuine as she said them, so she hoped they all felt the same.

Tau raised his hand and spoke. “I love our cohesiveness too, Le, but it’s too early for me to say why we are here. There is so much to figure out still. That’s just me personally. I don’t feel bad at all – I only want to be cautious. There are a few things that bother me about the message.”

“Like what, Tau?” Gimi’s tone was of genuine interest.

“Well, our memory has been erased. Part of it. The part where we had family and loved ones. That doesn’t make sense. Why would we have knowledge of our countries and our professions but not the people we love? Why erase that? I don’t understand that at all. The reason for it I mean. I’m not disagreeing with Prina and Le’s enthusiasm and I sure hope there is a wider purpose here, but I want to solve that mystery first.”

Gimi was nodding. “That’s a very big question, in my mind. One I’d like to explore in more depth. I can see some tired faces though.” Bia was leaning against Tau, appearing as if she was about to fall asleep. Even some of the other group, who hadn’t just walked down the mountain, looked tired. Le for her own part was exhausted. It was all catching up with her now. She began to consider what the beds in the village were like. Even if they were only average at best, they had to be more comfortable than the floor of an aircraft.

Gimi had apparently picked up on the general tiredness of the group. “A few more immediate reactions now, and then we can perhaps have a group meeting tomorrow after breakfast? What do you think, Rais?”

“Good idea, Gimi. Group meeting after breakfast. I am tired; I probably not alone.” Rais even yawned at these words.

“I would love to get some sleep too.” Pixie did look somewhat drained. “I want to copy this message onto a large sheet of paper, for us all to view, though.”

“It is still on glass, mina. Maybe it will stay there, and you don’t have to?” Arias was right. The message hadn’t moved.

“Glass, or maybe a screen. A computer screen? If it’s a computer, I have nothing like that in my knowledge bank.” Rocsi’s words provoked some shakes of the head around the group. It appeared to Le no-one else had either.

“Not in mine either, Rocsi.” Rivo was speaking and the raise-the-hand thing had been forgotten already. No-one was interrupting, though. “But I agree with other voices. I want to sleep too.”

“That settles it. Enough votes for sleeping. Let’s call it a night and worry about all this tomorrow. Let’s get these good people to a nice comfortable bed. There are two bedrooms in each house. So, can each of us six who were here first take someone else each to a house?” Gimi was doing a great job organising the group. Le was grateful, as she was with Rais the night before.

As expected, Prina and Rivo went together, with Gimi and Neca. Arias and Rocsi took Bia and Tau. Le honestly would not have cared too much who took her and Rais to their house. She was quietly pleased that it was Pixie and Suria. She got the feeling she was going to be good friends with them, even at this early stage. They both seemed so nice.

The girls were indeed both lovely as they took her and Rais to what they called ‘house number one’. It was the farthest house on the western side of the village. Bia and Tau were in the house next to them. Pixie and Suria told her that Prina and Rivo were being taken to house number six, on the far side from her and Rais’ house.

As tired as she was, Le had still wanted to talk with the two girls more. They acted like they knew this but gently reminded her that there were two weeks until the next message, so there was plenty of time to get to know each other. She should get some rest now, they said. She reluctantly assented but changed that to complete agreement once she saw her bedroom. It was plain but beautiful in its simplicity. After the previous night on the metallic floor of an aircraft cabin, the sight of the bed was heavenly.

Strangely enough, though, she couldn’t sleep. At least not right away. Her shower was luxurious, and the house’s furnishings exceeded her expectations. She would have accepted the barest level of comfort in her bed, as long as it was some sort of mattress, with sheets, blankets and a nice enough pillow. This bed was quite plain in appearance but was soft and luxurious as she got into it.

Nonetheless, the events of the last two days kept replaying in her mind. She was thinking of the possibility of her new ‘family’ and how she had felt on hearing Prina’s words; the planned nature of the village and their place in it; the beauty of the surrounding mountains; why she was in Switzerland when she came from so far away. So many thoughts. She laid there for a while, not falling asleep as expected.

Giving up on sleep for the moment, she got up and went to have more of a look at this uniquely designed house she was staying in. As she exited her bedroom, there was no sound, light or movement from Rais’ bedroom, so obviously he’d gotten to sleep right away. His door was closed. She wandered further into the living area. There was another of these glass screen things in here, as she had seen earlier when she first walked in. She examined it a bit more closely now. It was smaller than the one in the community centre. It had no message on it and no lights or other indications that it even was working. She wasn’t sure what it was for. The community centre screen had a purpose as a means of communication to the group, but what about this one?

Her train of thought on the screen turned more generally to how this house had been built. Perhaps more pertinently, who built it? There was an eerie light in this room also. Suria and Pixie had told her the lights had some sort of trigger sensor, causing them to turn on when they detected motion. Why they hadn’t turned on this time? Instead, the moonlight was the only way she could see where she was going. It was filtering in through the pyramidal crystalline roof above her. She glanced up at the roof but couldn’t see it. Maybe it was a full moon tonight or something? She walked outside to see if she was right.

The moon was not full but quite bright, such that she could see the village layout clearly. She could also hear the water flowing in the stream nearby. It contributed to the overall tranquillity of the village. She walked along the path past houses two and three to the stone bridge over the stream. Here she could see the water more redily. The sound of the running water coupled with the bright moonlight triggered something in her mind. A brief but strong vision, albeit one that only flashed across her consciousness momentarily.

She knew without a doubt that the vision was from a part of her life she was not supposed to remember.

A part that the message had implied was supposed to be removed.

It was only a flash, but it was enough to register strongly on her consciousness. She was extremely anxious about her situation. She was in a small but crowded boat, lit by only the moonlight, with water flowing past. Not river water though – this was the ocean. She could almost smell the sea air. She was awake and desperately worrying for some reason that was not evident. The children were sleeping against her. A boy and a girl. There was danger. A storm was approaching. The boat wasn’t going to make it. It wasn’t going to make it!

Then, she heard it. A scream of terror. The vision was gone. The scream remained. It disturbed her terribly, because it meshed with her own horrific vision where it seemed like she was in great danger. However, the scream conveyed so much terror that she had no choice but to go immediately and help the person who uttered it.

It was coming from house number three. Pixie and Suria’s house.