"You don't know anything, " retorted the bearded man to the lanky dark-haired young man before him. "You can't even remember your own name! Maybe you just don't remember seeing her. Maybe she was here. She had to have been here."
The other man, his wavy hair and soft features surprisingly unblemished considering the circumstances, shot him a sympathetic look.
"You don't know your name either."
The bearded man grimaced.
"You don't remember anything. We're the same. We both ended up here. We ended up here alone."
"But I remember her," the bearded man insisted, kneading his brow vigorously.
The dark-haired man shrugged. "Maybe you do. It's not my place to say. I remember bits and pieces from before, but it's all blurry. You know what I mean? It all fades in and out and it all blurs together. It's like if you flashed a bunch of brightly colored lights in front of your eyes and you squeezed your eyes shut tight and you stared into that afterimage. That glowing, indistinct light that you can still see through the darkness. It's like that, I guess. But I can't remember people or places or anything really important like that."
"We don't have to be the same."
"You're right. We don't. But I have to wonder, friend, if you're just trying to separate us. Maybe you just don't want to believe what I'm saying."
"Why would I do that?" asked the bearded man. "You're the first person I've found. I've come across what was left behind and I've walked a long way. . .but you're the first person I've found, alive or dead. I don't understand what that means, but shouldn't I be happy to see you? Shouldn't I be happy to share our common experience?"
"I dunno, man. Are you?"
"Yeah," the bearded man replied, but he didn't sound convinced. "Yeah, I am. I mean, as happy as I can be, given the circumstances. I don't know what's going on here, man--but I just know I've gotta find her. I have a feeling she's. . .still okay. I just have a feeling."
"I wish I remembered someone," said the dark-haired man. "Maybe I'd feel like I had something to hold on to. Maybe I'd feel like I wasn't falling."
"Falling?"
"Yeah. Somebody cut the ropes and I'm falling off the mountain. It's only a matter of time until I hit the bottom."
"That sounds dramatic."
"Yeah. Sometimes dramatic is pretty true to life, though."
"Yeah. I guess you're right."
The bearded man's mind was swimming with thoughts. He'd just met this stranger on what was ostensibly an abandoned playground. Had it really been abandoned or did some unforeseen phenomenon whisk all of its inhabitants away suddenly? As little credence as the man was prone to give to supernatural events under normal circumstances, his faith in the natural order of things was certainly currently being put to the test. Where was everyone? Where was she?
"I can't remember anything from before, at least not with the clarity that you claim to remember this girl," said the dark-haired man. "Tell me, what was her name?"
The bearded man hesitated before answering.
"You don't know it, do you?"
"It was Ashley," the bearded man replied with some confidence. "Her name is Ashley."
"I see. It's a nice name. I hope you find her."
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