Strawberries Aren't Berries

Kris

Kris sat on a stone bench beneath a weeping willow tree. Its branches wrapped around him, a makeshift shield from the glaring sun. Propped up on the young man’s leg was an inky black sword with a crimson belly. There was a piercing cry as he ran a whetstone along its side repeatedly.

“Would’ve never found you all the way out here if it didn’t sound like you were strangling a banshee.”

Kris looked up as a silver-haired man pushed a bundle of branches to the side, a smirk already plastered onto his face. From outside the canopy, his abnormally long scarf danced steadily in the wind. When he entered, they still retained some movement, lively flowing around the pair.

“Marc,” he acknowledged, “back from another heroic journey so soon? How many fanboys and girls are you polluting our camp with this time?”

Marc rocked on his heels, feigning ignorance. “Hmm..” He plopped down next to Kris, holding a finger up an inch away from the other’s face. “One!”

Kris pushed his hand away, voice flat. “Awesome.”

“Her name’s Esther, you gotta meet her.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because she can help us. Go on, guess what kind of power she has.” He waited giddily.

Kris crossed his arms and let out a sigh as he played along. “What kind?”

“She can see the past Kris. Like, imagine a fortune teller but-”

“I get it.” Kris got up, letting go of his sword. Before it hit the ground, it disappeared, dissolving into tufts of light that floated away like fireflies. “You got scammed.” He shoved some branches aside, slipping through the opening.

“Scammed?” Marc followed his lead as they started down a makeshift dirt trail.

“This mystery girl that you saved just happens to have the perfect ability for helping you regain your lost memories?”

“You can summon a sword out of thin air. I have a magic scarf. But seeing into someone’s memories is too much?”

“Hmm.. yes!” His fake enthusiasm wiped the smile off Marc’s face as he struggled to come up with a response. Kris took the silence as a momentary victory and went on.

They hiked through the woods until they were overlooking a small village in a clearing. Kris had tolerated the silence but could feel his companion’s eyes burning into the back of his skull. He turned halfway, staring at him from the side. “Before we deal with the army of migraines down there, tell me: why does it matter so much? For you to remember?”

Marc was caught off guard by the question, absentmindedly rubbing his neck. “Well.. I guess it’s because.. What if I’m forgetting something important? Something I was supposed to do or someone I loved? Sometimes I feel like there’s a weight on my shoulders that I just can’t seem to shake.”

“Oh.”

“What?”

“I didn’t expect such a..” He waved his hand in the air as he struggled to find the right word, “soppy answer.”

“Soppy?!” Marc exclaimed, dumbfounded. “Well- what did you expect me to say?”

“Something like: because I want to. The end.”

“Never speak to me again.”

“Aw, man,” Kris let out a dramatic sigh. “That’s such a monumental bummer.”

“I was being so genuine, too!” He whined.

“Truly a tragedy.” He shook his head slowly. “I can push you off this cliff if it makes you feel any better?”

“What an empath.”

“I do try.”

“Enough.” Marc gently shoved him, putting a stop to their skit. “Honestly, though. I tell you these things because out of everyone down there,” he held an arm out to the village, “you’re the one I trust most.”

Kris raised an eyebrow at the sudden change in tone. “Alright.” He tried to think of a witty comeback but found himself too flustered to react in time. “Let's get going, before the sun sets.”

Marc nodded, ready to move on.

Kris sat in front of a fire pit, next to the tent Esther was staying in. He watched the embers drift up to the starless sky, his vision wobbling as he resisted sleep.

Marc burst out of the tent, causing him to flinch awake. Tilting his head, Marc smuggly asked, “Did I wake you?”

Kris ignored the question. Forcing himself to stand up, he put an arm on Marc’s shoulder as a crutch. “So? How’d it go?”

“Suddenly curious?”

“Suddenly not yapping?” He retorted.

Marc clicked his tongue sheepishly. “Can never win with you, aye? We worked through it a little bit. She starts from older memories and works towards more recent ones, but Esther got tired and we had to stop. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who wanted answers today. Sorry, man, I ended up taking your spot in line.”

“Classic excuse. I can’t give you answers today, but perhaps tomorrow?” He rolled his eyes. “Don’t bother, there’s nothing to remember anyway.”

“How would you know if you forgot something?”

“You know.”

Marc rubbed his face. “It’s too late to deal with you.”

“Why.. thank you.”

“I’m going to bed.” He patted the other’s back before pulling away. As Marc walked away, he called back. “You should too! We’re going to the next floor tomorrow!”

Kris gave a thumbs-up, waiting until Marc was out of sight before turning to leave.

A hand reached out of Esther’s tent and grabbed onto Kris’ wrist. Within mere seconds, he held a blade to the girl’s throat. It hovered there as he waited to see what she would do.

“Your friend likes to talk.” She stated, eyes locked with Kris’.

“Obviously.”

“So you are friends.” Her grip loosened on his wrist, which he quickly yanked away. “It’d be pretty bad for you if he found out who you really are-- ah.” She cut herself off as the cool metal pressed against her skin. “You can’t kill me here. You don’t have any escape plan.”

“The fuck do you want?” He demanded.

“Lost your wits so quickly, huh?” She huffed in disappointment when she got no response. “It’s simple. You’re strong, clearly. If you ensure my survival, I’ll return the favor.”

“Thought you were a psychic, not a clown.”

“You underestimate me. Should I add more stakes? Perhaps tell Marc that he was a murderous dictator? How about a meth addict? Or maybe a prostitute?”

The sword disappeared, but Kris grabbed Esther by the shirt collar before she could back away. “Shut the hell up. Mess with his head and I assure you it won’t be one clean slice that does you in.”

“Is it a deal then?”

He let go, throwing her back as he did. “Fine.”

Esther stumbled but easily caught herself, a smirk tugging at the edges of her lips. “Pleasure doing business.”

Kris finished packing up what few belongings he had, wiping his forehead with a sigh.

“Took you long enough. Sleep in?”

Kris quickly turned around, not noticing Marc approaching him.

“Woah, relax.” He put his hands in the air. “That nervous about moving?”

“No. It’s just.. Hot.”

Marc wrapped an arm around him comfortingly. “There’s nothing to stress over. We’ve got you, me, Rue, and guess who.” He dragged the word out.

“Lovely.”

“I know, I know. Now get moving, all the other groups have already left.”

Kris half walked, half stumbled as Marc dragged him along. They had set up camp relatively close to the exit, so it didn’t take long before Kris saw the two girls in the distance, standing next to a door in the middle of the woods.

Rue was the youngest in the whole camp. Kris remembered when Marc found her, he could hardly believe an eight-year-old survived alone in this world for as long as she had. He basically took her in immediately. She was a quiet and timid kid who knew nothing about fighting. Apparently, her ability enhanced her senses, so she’d spent the majority of her days hiding to survive.

Marc and Kris stopped in front of them.

Marc took Rue’s hand, explaining to Esther. “In order for everyone to go to the same floor, you have to have some kind of physical contact when you go through the exit.” She happily took Kris’s free hand, completing the line.

Kris resisted the urge to crush her hand, instead pulling her towards the door to speed up the process. “Go on.”

Esther twisted the knob and pushed the door open. On the other side of the frame was an empty void. She hesitated for a moment, but took a deep breath and stepped through.

When everyone had crossed over, the door disappeared behind them.

Kris wiped his hands on his pant legs, scanning his surroundings to see what kind of place this floor was.

Cave walls surrounded the group, splitting off into two separate tunnels without any end in sight. The place was well lit despite there not being any openings. As if the walls themselves were emitting some kind of light.

“I hear something coming.” Rue piped up.

Marc kept a collected tone despite the potential urgency. “What direction?”

“I..” She closed her eyes to focus better. “It’s echoing. Maybe--”

The ground began to tremble, stopping her train of thought. It quickly escalated into full tremors, and chunks of the cave’s roof began raining down on the group. Marc’s scarf wrapped itself around Rue, pulling her out of the way, narrowly missing a boulder.

Gradually, the ground relaxed before going completely still once more.

Kris and Esther had kept close to the walls for stability. He leaned back against it and collapsed to the floor. “Dammit.” He cursed as he realized what lay in front of him. Between the two pairs, a wall of debris had come down. “Marc?! Are you alive?!”

“What are you doing?” Esther hissed, “Screaming right now is only going to make things worse.”

Kris scoffed at her.

“We’re both fine! But uh.. I don’t have any way to break this!”

“Naturally,” Kris grumbled. “Are you stuck?!”

“No, there’s sort of a path!”

“Take it! If we're lucky, there will be another spot we can rejoin! Otherwise, we’ll both come back here and think of something else!”

“Got it!”

“What a great plan,” Esther interjected, still keeping her voice low. “Leave it up to luck.”

“Luck kept your head from cracking open just now.” Kris stood up and brushed himself off. “Now get moving. I don’t have all day.”

She grumbled a response, but followed him nonetheless.

They walked aimlessly for what felt like hours. Eventually, the tunnel opened up to a small oval area, and Kris took the opportunity to lie down and rest.

Esther stood over Kris, frowning. “What happened to 'I don’t have all day'?"

“No one’s stopping you from going, Princess. My feet hurt.”

She went to retort but toppled over as another tremor started again. “Oh God, not another.” She tried to stand but quickly fell back down, resorting to crawling on all fours.

Kris sat up but didn’t attempt to stand after watching Esther’s failures. He begrudgingly reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her closer to him. “Best to stay in one spot for now.” He advised.

She didn’t argue for once, gripping his hand back for stability.

The roof stayed mostly intact, excluding a few baseball-sized chunks of rock. They huddled together as it mellowed out, both letting out the breath they’d been holding.

“See? Still alive.” Kris commented.

Just as he was about to let go of her hand, the ground between them split down the middle, and the floor Esther had been sitting on dropped out from underneath her.

Kris almost got pulled down by her weight, but was able to ground his feet in time. To his surprise, she didn’t even scream, just let out a slew of curse words. “Can you reach the edge?” He grunted.

Esther’s hand waved wildly, missing it by a few inches. “You need to pull me up!”

“Kinda working on that.” In a swift motion, he lifted one of his feet, pulled it towards himself, and planted it into the cave floor. He copied it with his other foot and repeated. Between his legs, he saw her fingers grip the cliff’s edge, slip, then, after one more pull, she got a firmer grip and hauled her upper body over. Kris strained, helping her get the rest of her body onto solid ground before gladly letting go of her.

Both had to catch their breath before Esther sat up, rubbing the palms of her hands against her eyes. There was a long silence before she hesitantly murmured, “Thank you.”

“Don’t.”

“I didn’t think you’d actually save me.”

Kris sat up before slowly rising so the blood wouldn’t rush to his head. “I had to.”

“Right.” She nodded thoughtfully, standing as well. “The deal.”

Kris’s nose scrunched up. “No.”

“No? Then why did--”

Kris kicked Esther square in the stomach. With the wind knocked out of her, she couldn’t react in time, not even her expression changed as she sank into the pit below. Kris leaned over the edge, sword in hand, in case she had any tricks. He counted two minutes in his head before stepping back and heading towards the only tunnel left untouched.

“Because you would’ve dragged me down with you.” He answered.

Kris went on in silence, rehearsing a story in his head. His thoughts were interrupted as he heard a familiar voice calling for him ahead.

Rue and Marc were standing by the exit door. Marc waved his hands excitedly, but Rue looked more shaken up than usual; the tremors must’ve really gotten to her.

Kris lightly jogged to reach them faster, noticing how Marc’s smile faded when the realization hit.

“There’s another one coming. Soon.” Rue informed Kris, looking down.

“Where’s..?” Marc started.

Kris shook his head. “We need to go, now.”

“But-”

Rue grabbed Marc’s hand and pushed the door open.

On cue, the vibrations started again. Rue wasted no time getting through the door. Marc quickly reached out, grabbing Kris to pull him through as well.

The three landed on hard ground, wasting no time to see if this floor was as deadly as the last.

They were inside what looked like a ginormous tree trunk, which went up endlessly. There was an opening at the top where the sun shone down, revealing the hundreds, if not thousands, of other people who were already occupying the floor. There were stairs that spiraled up the trunk with small huts jutting out of all sides. On the ground floor, there was a short hallway with the exit door at the end. Above the door was a sign showing two people holding hands.

As the trio realized they weren’t in immediate danger, the questions began.

“What happened?”

“The second quake.” Kris rubbed his face. “The ground opened up and she fell. I tried to grab her and pull her up, but..” He trailed off, holding his hands out to reveal the blisters lining their palms.

Marc froze as Kris spoke and put his head in his hands, muttering unintelligible words. Rue watched him quietly, clearly wanting to say something.

“Marc I..” Kris rubbed his neck, looking around at the prying eyes. “I’ll scout this place out. You two rest.” He left them without resistance, beginning up the spiral stairs.

Kris was sitting on the edge of the stairs, about three flights up, when Marc sat next to him. He glanced over, gauging Marc’s emotions. “How’re you doing?”

“Kris.”

“Yeah?”

“We’re a team, so we can’t have any misunderstandings between us.” Kris opened his mouth, but Marc went on before he could interject. “Rue says she heard you kill Esther.”

Kris’s stomach burned, and blood rushed to his head, making him feel like his hair was standing on end. “She did?”

“So it’s true?!” His icy blue eyes were wide, staring right through Kris.

There was a moment of silence as Kris ran scenarios in his head of how he should respond. “..yeah.”

Marc’s face crumpled up in disgust. “What-- why would--”

“She was threatening me.” He inhaled sharply; this is what he prepared for. “She said she’d tell you lies about your memories if I didn’t follow her every command.”

“So you killed her?”

“The floor was collapsing. I tried to help her at first, you saw my hands, but then it came down to either me or her. If I told you any of this before, she threatened to not help you at all.”

Marc had his head in his hand now. His scarf protectively shielded his face so only the upper half was showing. “I see.”

“You do?”

“..yes. We’ll.. Don’t worry, we’ll work through this together.” His hand moved down, revealing his eyes.

“Really?”

“Yes. Just give me time to think of a plan.” Marc rose, walking past Kris and down the stairs, ending any further conversation.

Marc

Marc gently shook Rue awake, his scarf wrapping around her mouth briefly while he held his finger to his lips. Once she understood, it let go and he pulled back, whispering. “Come on.”

She looked over the sleeping bodies surrounding them, confused as to why she was the only one he woke up. Nevertheless, Rue did her best to follow Marc down towards the ground floor as quietly as she could.

The two stopped in front of the exit door. Marc turned and held out a hand to the girl, who by now had noticed the absence of their third member wasn’t by accident.

“What about Kris?”

“Don’t worry. You’ll never have to see him again.” He smiled warmly at her, trying to ease her nerves.

Rue took his hand without hesitation, and the exit automatically opened.

Before waiting to find out if the sound had woken anybody up, Marc stepped inside the doorway with Rue at his heels.