Meryl had been following the man who saved her for nearly two days before he ever stopped. She wondered if he were even human, to have the ability to keep going like that, with no rest and little food. Many times she had stopped to sit down and break for a few minutes, and then had to run to catch back up with him. He had to be a machine of some kind. She had a thousand questions for him, but she dared not ask a one. It was clear that he had little patience for curiosity.

It was convenient that he had stopped at a small bar in one of the few free towns. Places like that were rare these days, and Meryl only remembered seeing one other before this one. It was in this bar that Meryl felt a strong sense of longing, a fleeting emotion of need, want, or desire. It was as if she had walked into a room filled with gloriously made food and the best of wine, but was denied the right to take a single bit.

Her head pounded with this feeling, and she rubbed her temples almost roughly. A welcome distraction was made by the man she had followed, as he sat down in the chair across the table from her. He reached her a mug overflowing with rum. “Have a drink. I’m sure you could use it.”

Meryl forced a small grin and took a sip from the mug. The sensation she had felt earlier seemed to fade a bit, so she drank some more. By the time the mug was empty, the feeling had completely left her mind and she began to relax. “Thank you” she told the man as he stood up to get another round of drinks. He responded with a solemn nod before disappearing into the crowd around the bar.

Just as Meryl was beginning to feel truly good for the first time in years, a high-pitched giggle pierced her ears and forced her to turn around in her seat. There, standing by the lower end of the bar was an unusually tall woman with long light brown hair. Her face was so familiar to Meryl that she wanted to call out to the woman immediately. A name etched itself across her lips, desperately wanting to be given voice, yet Meryl couldn’t say it. Somehow, Meryl couldn’t remember the name that was dangling from the tip of her tongue. She didn’t have to.

“Meryl!” the woman cried, dashing over to her and knocking quite a few people over on her way. “Where have you been?!” the woman asked, taking Meryl’s hands in hers.

Meryl fumbled around for words, but couldn’t think of a thing to say. She could only stare blankly at the woman who was now on the verge of tears. Before she could get a word out, the woman encased her in a bear hug that nearly cut off her circulation. From the corner of her eye, Meryl noticed that the man she had been traveling with had approached the table and was looking at the two women with an almost amused expression.

“Hate to break up the party, girls, but here are some more drinks.” He sat them down hard enough to make the flimsy wooden table rattle and some of the foam to overflow. He gave Meryl a strange half-smile before returning to the bar.

The larger woman took a seat at the table and picked up a mug. She took large gulps between periods of staring intently at Meryl. Finally Meryl worked up the nerve to speak. “Um… I don’t really know how to say this but…. I can’t remember your name.”

The woman looked at her incredulously. “You don’t remember me?!”

“I remember your face and your voice, but I can’t seem to match a name to you. I think I have amnesia. I couldn’t even remember my own name.” Meryl told her with an uneasy laugh.

“Amnesia? That’s horrible! So I guess you don’t remember how you survived the bombing that day?”

“Bombing? So that’s what it was? I remember waking up under some rubble. That’s all.”

The woman seemed on the verge of tears again. “I thought for sure that you were dead! I was away from the office visiting my family when the bomb hit. I got there as soon as I heard, but I couldn’t find you. They said a lot of bodies were crushed so bad that they couldn’t be recognized. I was sure that you were one of them!”

Meryl placed a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “It’s all right. I’m alive and I’m here now. Could you help me by telling me who I am, exactly?”

The woman’s sad faced instantly lit up with a friendly smile. “Of course! I’ll tell you everything! No one knows more about you than your partner and best friend!”

Meryl blinked. “Partner?”

The woman held out her hand formally and shook Meryl’s. “Millie Thompson, the faithful partner of Meryl Stryfe for the Bernadelli Insurance Society!”

Meryl smiled, the name ringing many bells in her mind. With that, Millie began telling her all the things she had wanted to know, about her past and about her life. The problem was that some of it seemed familiar, while a great deal more of it wasn’t familiar at all, as if she were hearing the story of another woman entirely, that she had never met.

After Millie had finished, and after several beers, she stood up and dusted off her pants. “Oh, I forgot to introduce you to my husband!” she said with a grin. She turned around and faced the bar. “Nicholas! Come meet my friend Meryl!” she called.

Meryl peeped around her large partner to see a tall man in a long black jacket walking toward them. He was a bit unshaven and his black locks of unkept hair needed to be cut, but he was still undeniably handsome. His face was just as familiar as Millie’s. “I know you too!” Meryl exclaimed.

Millie looked at her awkwardly. “I don’t think you did. I didn’t even meet him until after the bombing. Unless you two met before that?” Millie asked, looking to her husband.

“Can’t say I remember you.” Nicholas replied, “Sorry.”

“But… you’re so familiar! Just like Millie was. Your last name… something that reminds me of a wild animal. I just can’t place it exactly.”

Millie looked surprised. “Wolf.”

“That’s it! Something about a wolf!” Meryl cried.

“Wolfwood. That’s my last name.” He said.

“Yeah! Wolfwood! I knew it! You and I knew each other!”

Millie and Nicholas exchanged nervous glances. “I’m sorry but, I’ve never laid eyes on you before you came in the bar this evening.” He told her.

“That’s impossible! I remembered you, and I remembered your last name!” Meryl felt like she was going to go hysterical. She knew she had met him before, but why was he denying it? Why would he want to hide it from Millie? Could it be that he and her had been lovers at some point, and he didn’t want Millie to know? Meryl had many questions, but she thought it best to save them for later, perhaps when she and Nicholas were alone.

She sighed and took another drink from her mug. She was happy that she had found Millie, but she was even more confused than she had been because of Nicholas’s behavior. She glanced around the room in search of her “traveling partner” and found him at the bar, surrounded by whisky glasses. Maybe she could ask his opinion? He seemed very intelligent and perhaps he could help her sort this out.

Meryl stood up from the table. “I’m going to get another drink. I’ll be right back.” She said to Millie, who waved in response as she finished another mug. Meryl approached the man carefully, praying that the whisky had made him a bit friendlier. “Hi,” she said meekly.

He looked at her coolly and scooted a half-full mug toward her. “Have another drink. I’m feeling generous.”

She picked it up and took a sip, smiling appreciatively. “I wanted to ask you something.”

“What is it?”

“The woman you just saw hugging me, her name is Millie. She knows me from before I woke up. She said we were partners.”

The man nodded. “That’s good.”

“Then she introduced me to her husband, Nicholas. He was so familiar that I was sure I had known him before too. But Millie says she met him after I disappeared, and he denies ever seeing me before tonight.”

The man rubbed his chin. “Hmmm. That is strange.”

“What do you think? Is he lying, or am I just crazy?”

“I don’t know either of you well enough to make that judgment, but I’d keep a close eye on him if I were you.”

Meryl looked down into her mug. “Thanks.” She said quietly.

“I guess you’ll be following your partner around now, right?” the man asked, looking at the space in front of him instead of her.

“No, I can’t do that. I still have to find him, and something is telling me to follow you.”

The man gave an exasperated groan. “I guess I’ll be stuck babysitting for a while.”

“I thought we already established that I’m not a child.” Meryl said, almost annoyed.

The man laughed oddly, surprising Meryl. “Yes, that’s fairly obvious” he said, his eyes shifting quite sharply to her chest.

She instinctively wrapped the cloak around herself, hoping that her cheeks hadn’t gone red. “How rude of you, sir.” She said with mock formality. “You should tell a girl your name before making sexy comments.”

“Knives.” He said flatly.

“Knives?”

“That’s my name. Knives.”

“That’s an odd name” said Meryl.

“Maybe, but it’s the only one I’ve got.”

Meryl smiled. Knives wasn’t as bad as she had first thought. Perhaps the trip to find the man of her memory wouldn’t be so hard after all. She smiled again and turned around to look at Millie. Her friend was hugged up tightly with Nicholas, both of them looking quite plastered yet happy. It amazed Meryl that people could still laugh and be merry in these dark times. Or maybe those two were just very odd. So she sat beside Knives and drank from her mug, and the four of them stayed at the bar that night until the owner ran them out, laughing and drunk and not caring that this could quite possibly be the last happy night of their lives.