She woke up dazed and groggy. She rubbed her temples and groaned as a dull headache throbbed behind her eyes.

Gasping, she sat up on an unfamiliar purple bedspread and looked around the room with blurry eyes. Madeleine remembered nothing. Her memory was a dark void. With her heart racing with fear, she grabbed a silver framed photo from the bedside table.

Her reflection in the mirrored surface told her the girl in the picture was her but she didn’t recognise the other two. They must be her parents, though. But why couldn’t she remember them? Or herself?

Putting the picture back, she rose to her feet and listened for any noise. She heard the ticking of a neon green clock on her wall and the chirp of a bird outside but nothing else. No cars outside, no one walking by.

Where was everyone? Where was she?

Her room was unfamiliar. She remembered nothing and it terrified her. Scanning her room she saw nothing to tell her who she was or what was happening. She didn’t appear to be in a hospital. No tubes, no machinery, no clinical smell or a lonely jug of water on the side. This was a bedroom, her bedroom.

She stood still, planted to the floor with fear, watching the hands of the clock tick. She waited and waited, until an hour had almost past. No one came. No one called her, whoever she was. No car passed. Something was very wrong, past the obvious.

She didn’t want to call out through fear of what could come in the room but she couldn’t stay locked away forever. Taking a few deep breaths, she gathered as much courage as she could and grabbed a hairbrush off the bedside table.

Gripping the handle until her knuckles turned white, she slowly turned the door handle and opened the door. Across from her room was a door and another one down the hall past the stairs. Walking into a closed room wasn’t a good idea so she made her way downstairs.

It was only when she got to the bottom that she heard voices. She froze, regretting her decision to leave her room. Her heart slammed in her chest and she wanted nothing more than to run back upstairs but she had to know what was going on.

Rounding the corner, she saw the silhouette of a person through the archway into what looked like a living room. She couldn’t make out what was being said over he sound of her blood pumping in her ears.

Taking another half a step forwards she finally caught the attention of whoever was in the house. “Hey,” a tall, brunette said. “It’s okay, we’re not going to hurt you.”

We’re?

She took another cautious step and saw a man a few inches taller than the woman. He smiled.

“Who’re you?” Madeleine asked, holding her hands out at arms length, keeping them back.

The man and woman raised theirs, too. “I don’t know,” the woman said. “I woke up on the sofa a few minutes ago next to him.”

“Okay, we all need to calm down and think about what’s going on here. Now, there’s no need to be afraid of each other, look on the walls,” the man said, tilting his jaw to the wall.

Photos of the three of them were dotted around in miss matching frames.

“We’re family?” the woman said. “I don’t remember anything. I don’t even know my name.”

“Driving licence. Do you have those?” Madeleine asked. She patted her own pockets but found nothing.

“Rick Weeks,” the man said.

“And I’m Sally Weeks. Let’s look around, see if anything’s familiar and if we can find your name,” Sally said, putting her hand on Madeleine’s shoulder.

They stared in the kitchen, rooting through drawers. Madeleine kept her eyes on them the whole time. She knew they were her parents from the pictures but she didn’t feel like they were, she didn’t feel safe or comforted by them being around.

The front door was thrown open, slamming back against the wall. They all span around at the same time and looked out through the arch joining the kitchen to the hall.

“Who’re you?” Rick asked, holding out his arms so Sally and Madeleine were behind him, protecting a family he had no knowledge of.

“What? What’s going on? You know me, Rick.”

“How do you know me?”

“Shit, you guys, too? I’m Kade,” he said, running his hands through his shaggy brown hair. “I was back on the mainland for two weeks after a big fight with Maddie, they said there was some sort of virus.”

“Who said?” Rick asked. “And who’s Maddie?”

“Madeleine. Your daughter,” Kade said, pointing to Madeleine. “Look, I don’t know all the details, just that some bird virus hit the island, a couple others, too, and some towns on the coast of the mainland. No one remembers anything. Military are everywhere. Are you all okay? Maddie, babe, come here.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Rick said, raising the arm that was in front of Madeleine. “We don’t know you.”

“No, you don’t know you and I’m the only one who knows what’s going on here. Lower your arm, I’m not going to hurt my girlfriend,” Kade said.

“Why’re there no pictures of you?” Maddie asked. “You said I’m your girlfriend.”

They weren’t convinced of Kade’s story just yet. Anyone could have walked in and told them anything. Maddie needed proof.

“We had a fight a week ago. You told me to get lost. I have pictures of us that I can show you if you don’t believe me.”

Maddie shook her head. She would want to see those pictures. “I don’t know what to believe.”

“How’d this virus make us lose our memories?” Rick asked.

Kade shrugged. “That’s all I know. Mainland is working on an antivirus, apparently. I came back as soon as I heard what’d happened. Don’t think anyone died but it attacked the mind or somethin’. You want to stand down now, Rick? I’m not gonna hurt anyone.”

“Where’re the military?” Sally asked. “I don’t hear anything out there.”

“They’re closer to the port and working their way around.”

“A virus?” Sally asked, pushing Rick’s arm down and stepping forward.

Kade replied, “Yeah.”

“And you remember everything?” Maddie said.

“I do. I wasn’t here when it hit. I’ve been trying to get back since Monday but they wouldn’t let anyone back on until they knew everything was okay.”

“I know nothing about us,” Sally said.

Kade stepped forward and this time Rick relaxed. “You’re a high school teacher, Sally. Maddie’s teacher, much to her disgust. Rick, you work in construction.”

“How old am I?” Maddie asked, moving forwards. “How old are you? And why did we fight?”

Kade stroked the side of her face. “You’re seventeen, I’m eighteen. We argued over stupid things but we do love each other. I went to stay with my grandparents for a few weeks after you broke it off to give you time to cool down. We’ve been together for two years, Maddie, please try to remember.”

“I am, but there’s nothing there. I don’t even recognise my own parents.”

“I think it’s about time to go see someone from the military,” Rick said.

“Alright,” Kade replied, looking over the top of Maddie’s head. “I’ll take you to them.”

The streets were lined with people, angry and confused. At the end of the road were five military vehicles. Soldiers held people back, answered questions from those shouting and screaming.

“What’s going on?” Sally asked absentmindedly.

“Chaos. People are scared,” Kade replied. “Understandable but not helpful.”

Maddie scoffed. “It’s alright for you, you remember everything.”

A group of men pushed forwards, taking on the military, shouting, demanding answers. A hysterical teen screamed at the two people he was with. “It’s the apocalypse. Why won’t anyone take me seriously?”

Two soldiers replied to him, telling him that was ridiculous and explaining, for what looked like the thousandth time from his tight eyed expression, that it was a virus and everyone infected was going to receive the relevant help and treatment.

It certainly looked like the word was ending. Panic was everywhere; Maddie could taste it. It made her skin pebble and heart race.

“Let us off this island,” a man shouted, shoving the soldier.

“To go where, sir? This is your home.”

They walked on, passing the quaint wooden houses lining the narrow street. “Hey,” Rick said. “What’s going on?”

A soldier left his post beside his vehicle, putting his radio away. “There was a bad breakout of a virus, a different strain to the one we’ve seen before. It spread like wildfire, affecting whole towns. This is the latest island to be hit. There’s a vaccine we’ll be giving everyone. We have stations set up in the town hall.”

“Wait,” Rick said. “How did a virus do all this?”

“We’re not yet sure exactly why or how, just that it attacks the brain.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” Maddie said.

“There are a lot of things that don’t make sense. We have people here, people that can help, they can explain exactly what the virus does but we don’t know why it does it.”

“When will we get our memory back?” Rick asked.

The soldier pursed his lips and Maddie glared. “We won’t, will we?” she asked.

Shaking his head, he responded, “No one infected has regained memory as of yet. Would you like me to show you to the town hall? There are plenty of people in there, counsellors, therapists who can help you come to terms with what’s happened and rebuild your life. They’ve gathered as much information on you as they could so they can help you.”

“How long will they be here for?” Sally asked.

“For however long it takes. Now, do you want me to take you to the town hall?”

Across the road a fight broke out. Two men throwing punches, shouting about a plague that would wipe out life on earth, even though they were alive and well. People were still no less confused than when they first woke up. There were questions that couldn’t be answered.

“Excuse me,” the soldier said, running towards the scrapping men.

“This is crazy,” Kade muttered. “Do you want to go to town hall? It’s just a block over.”

“Yes, please take us there,” Rick said, shielding Sally and Madeleine with his body. The fight was still underway; more soldiers had joined to separate the two men and three others who had jumped in on the action.

“God, this is just crazy,” Rick said. “I want to see news reports about this, information about the virus and whatever they have on us.”

Kade nodded. “They should have all that. I’ve seen reports,” he said, leading them down the chaotic streets. “It’s insane. I had to have a vaccine before they let me back.”

“Is it something we could contract again? How do you know it’s gone?” A lady screamed at a nurse outside the wooden clad town hall.

“Please calm down, ma’am, there are no cases of anyone contracting it for a second time.”

“But you don’t know it can’t happen!”

“No, we also don’t know that it will. Would you like me to find someone to take you home?”

“Home? I don’t know where home is,” she screeched.

Rick huddled his family closer. “Come on, keep moving.”

Kade stayed by Maddie’s side, watching her closely. “Are you okay?” he asked. 

She shook her head. “I feel like I want to wake up.”

“How do you mean?”

“Like this isn’t real.”

“It’s crazy, I know, but it’ll be fine. I can help you fill in the blanks. We’ve known each other for three years now.”

She gulped. “But I’ll never know before that.”

“I’m sorry,” Kade whispered.

Rick and Sally had stopped to talk to the mayor. He was being hounded but the military managed the people, not letting them get close and answering any questions they could.

Madeleine looked around. Everything looked so normal, so quaint, friendly and pretty. Lawns were cut, flowers grew bright and bold, besides people littered on the streets, and everywhere was clean and tidy. It was as if it’d just been plucked right out of the south.

“Is this real?” Maddie asked.

“Of course. Babe, you’re just confused and understandably. Let’s just let your dad sort this out and when we get back to yours I’ll answer any questions you have, okay?”

She nodded, green eyes still darting around, taking everything in.

“And you’ll show me the pictures of us?” she asked, tilting her head at the photo of the town years ago. Nothing had changed, it just looked newer now.

“I’ll go and get it and meet you back at yours if you’d like. I’ll bring back my hoodie you like sleeping in, too.” He flashed her a smile, one she didn’t return for a few seconds.

“I think that’s a good idea,” Rick said. “You already know what’s going on so perhaps showing Madeleine some evidence of your relationship will help.”

Kade nodded. “I’ll see you soon.” He leant in a fraction to kiss Madeleine but corrected himself when her eyes widened in alarm. “Sorry. Habit. I won’t be long.”

He turned and left, jogging away from the apartment building, round the corner and behind the school. The car was there. It always was.

Jonah Hart and his team out of the window as footage of Ragged Island from undercover agents was streamed to a screen in the limo. Kade got in the limo and sat back.

“Do we know why she woke up so soon, sir?” Kade asked.

“Not yet. Take apartment 5B. You’re staying here on 142 for three months. If something’s gone wrong we’ll know it by then but right now she remembers nothing so I think we’ll be alright.”

“I’m going to need some pictures of me and her, maybe a couple with the other two as well,” Kade said.

“We had a team on it the second she woke and you were deployed. They’ll be dropped at the apartment.”

Kade lifted his chin. “Thank you, sir.” He got out and jogged to apartment 5B.

Jonah sighed and looked to the man beside him.

“Jonah, where are they from?”

“Alyssa Mason, AKA Madeleine Weeks was a runaway, juvenile delinquent. She was living on the streets in Michigan when we picked her up. No known family and no missing person report. She completed the Weeks family, being child of Samson Grey and Jessica Shank, now Rick and Sally Weeks. Samson is a convicted murderer serving time in Lakeland Correctional Facility and Jessica was convicted of selling class A drugs and serving in Huron Valley Correctional Complex. Neither had any family left and no visitors since convicted. Both woke up on time.”

“I don’t like this, Jonah.”

“Neither do I, sir.”

“Three years we’ve been doing this, ever since crime and unemployment reached an all-time high. The country was in trouble. We have a lot resting on this project and it can’t be ruined by this one girl.”

In 2025, after another recession hit millions of people lost their jobs and their homes. Prisons were overcrowded; prisoners were crammed in three to a cell. But then came the clean up. Project 142 would turn even the most dangerous into productive members of society. A drug was developed to wipe memory and restart human behaviour. Abandoned and vacant islands were housing the rehabilitated.

“If she remembers, sir, Kade will deal with it accordingly.”

“She woke over an hour early. Her eyes question much more.” Once the drug was administered it would take the subject eight to nine hours to wake, never before. Madeleine woke in six hours and twenty minutes.

“Would you like me to have Kade deployed here indefinitely, sir?”

He gulped and scratched his jaw. “We’ll review the situation in three months. We can never get complacent with this. I want more men here. Integrate more people in Miss Week’s life, school friends, teachers, doctors and neighbours. I don’t ever want her alone with a civilian. If she remembers and this gets out it could have dire consequences for us all. Give Kade whatever he needs, have him moved closer. I want them joined at the hip.”

Jonah nodded. “Yes, Mr. President.”