Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Please read parts One and Two before reading further.

In the hallway closet, just inside the front door, Paulie grunted as he reached for an ordinary cardboard box on the top shelf. When he had a firm grip on it, he shut the door with his knee and headed for the kitchen table. "You remember that night Em and I found you?"

"Hardly," Eddie followed closely behind Paulie's footsteps, stopping at the table.

"Well, I do." Paulie put the box down. "This is what we found on you." He opened the box and began to pull out a large, white piece of clothing. "It's a labcoat... but it's huge."

"Huh?" Eddie reached out for it, pulling it towards himself, smelling it, and finally rubbing some sort of embroidered symbol on the breastpocket. It felt like... a letter G surrounded by smaller bent lines.

"You were in this coat, but it's so big, I don't see how you could have--"

"What's this symbol? It seems familiar."

"G-corp," Paulie grimmaced, not liking the taste of the word in his mouth.

"G-corp?"

"Yeah," he paused for a beat, "This coat wasn't the only thing," Paulie began, digging back into the box, "You were wearing this oth--" He stopped and looked up to the sound of a yawn.

It was Emilia, rubbing an eye, almost half asleep, "So here you boys are." She yawned again. "What're you up to at this hour?"

"Oh, uh, I thought I'd show Ed here the box since he was remembering stuff out on the cliffs."

"What were you two doing out there?," Emilia raised an eyebrow.

"Wipeout," Eddie answered. "Wave tossed me in a crater. Paulie pulled me out."

Paulie grinned.

"Oh yeah?," Em was unphased by the dangerous activity Eddie had partaken in, "How'd you do?"

"Six seconds of glory," Eddie answered, closing the box with the oversized labcoat.

"Not bad with such high waves out there. You'd probably do better to stay out of them."

"Yeah," Eddie's straight gaze fell toward the floor, "but I was having the nightmares again." He looked back up, "I think I'm alright, now, though." Eddie started making his way back to the guest bedroom, ready to climb back into bed.

"Oh, Eddie," Emilia's voice stopped the man dead in his tracks. He didn't move. "you wanna come with me to the market in the morning?"

Eddie smiled, still gazing forward, "Sure. Love to."

Emilia waited untill she heard Eddie's door close and sighed.

"Aw, Em, you knew he'd remember and probably leave."

"I know, Paulie," She looked down, "I suppose I shouldn't have given him that name. It wouldn't feel like losing a son all over again."

Paulie stepped over, giving his wife a duely needed hug, "It's still pretty slow, Em. He might be here another year."

"I suppose so," Em pushed back, ready to make her way back to bed. "You gonna come back to bed, then?"

"Yeah. I just need to put the box back. Meet you there." Moments later, Paulie found himself alone with the box. He stared at it getting an ominous feeling from the rest of the contents. It was the same feeling he had felt when he first came across the man he would quickly know as Eddie.

One and a half years ago a blast shook through the whole of Gaia. A vast whiteness seemed to blanket everything and then disappeared, back from whence it came. Hours later, night had fallen and Paulie and Emilia were walking barefoot along the quiet beach together, a soft tide washing over their feet. In the distance they both caught sight of something beaching itself on the shore. It didn't bare much of a resembelance to a piece of driftwood and was definately too small to be a whale.

They ran together, up to this thing in the sand. A man was laying face-down in the wet sand wearing an oversized labcoat, parts of which had been burned. Around this man's neck was an odd looking scarf. Paulie stared at the scarf, getting a terribly ominous feeling. He reached out toward it and could have sworn it hissed at him.

Emilia was bent down over the body. She had no problem pulling back the scarf to feel for a pulse. She stood up quickly, "He's alive, Paulie! Let's get him back to the house."