The girl who he was intimidating with a gun (a gun which he had almost confused with a toy because of its small size) was wearing gray pajamas. Her eyes were filled with an irrational hope. Her light-brown hair slid over her thin shoulders and her knees seemed to shake a little.

   “Who are you?” he cried, before the girl came too close to him.

   “It’s me, you weren’t ... You weren’t looking for me?” she asked, stopping suddenly.

   “I wasn’t looking for anyone,” he replied dryly. She was speaking in English, and that was good. “Who are you?” he repeated.

   The girl let her arms slide along her hips. She seemed not to be afraid of him.

   “I might have hit my head ... I don’t remember anything, not even my name. I thought you were looking for me. Someone must be looking for me,” she said, but she didn’t sound very convinced.

   She doesn’t remember anything. He lowered his right arm and put the gun back in his pants.

   He just realized how ridiculous he had been. Threatening with a weapon, even only for a few seconds, a girl in pajamas, lost in the middle of a forest? He could do better than that!

   “I’m afraid nobody is looking for you,” he claimed, with his eyes darting around the jungle. “What is your theory?”

   “Theory?” she repeated, confused.

   “Yes. How long have you been awake? You must have an idea of ​​what is happening here.”

   “So you don’t remember anything either.”

   “No, at least not about my life.”

   The girl stared at him with her big eyes for a few seconds. Eyes that were now filled with an anguished sparkle. Forest-green eyes. Not just any green, but all the greens of that jungle put together.

   “I don’t know ... I thought I was ... Well ...” She smiled while looking away.

   “You thought you were ...?” he tried to encourage her. Her gaze seemed embarrassed, but at least she looked honest.

   “Ok, but please don’t laugh. I thought I was a researcher or something like that. Since I don’t remember anything and I also have a big headache, maybe I hit my head, but, to hit my head, first I must have fallen and, to fall, I must have walked. And to walk in a forest all by myself in the night ... well, I should be crazy, but since I don’t remember it, I decided that no, I can’t be crazy, so I must be a sleepwalker. I walked in my sleep, I left the camp or whatever, I stumbled, I hit my head and ... here we are! All my memories are gone!”

   He could barely keep from smiling.

   “Well, I have to say that your version is flawless,” he said, still looking around cautiously. “Yet how do you know it’s morning? How did you understand that you spent the night in the forest? What if you stumbled and fell some hours ago? What if it’s afternoon instead of morning?”

   The girl’s puzzled look seemed to suggest that she didn’t really think about it.

   “To be honest, I don’t know it either,” he continued, looking up toward the trees. He couldn’t see the sun. “And I can’t even tell you whether you are a researcher or not, but I am pretty sure that no one is looking for us. They left us here on purpose. And I am also sure that we didn’t spend the night in this forest. They couldn’t risk so much. The wild animals would have killed us long before we woke up. They must have brought us one by one in different places but not very far from each other. They must have used a helicopter unless they have a base around here, but it’s quite unlikely. They wouldn’t risk being found. This makes me think that it’s not just the two of us. They wouldn’t have used so many resources – if we think about how much they must have spent on our capture, the erasing of our memory and transportation – if it were only two people.”

   The girl listened to him in silence. She looked confused, but she surely wasn’t that confused after all. She couldn’t have believed that crazy story about the researcher and the sleep-walking.

   “But why did they leave you a gun?”

   He knew she would have asked him, sooner or later. She was barefoot and wearing a pajama, while he had day clothes, shoes and a gun too.

   “This,” he replied, pulling his weapon out of his pants, “is my personal gun, I guess. It’s still completely loaded. I doubt they left it on purpose because, well ... I found it in a well-hidden place ... let’s say.”

   The girl’s lips curled in a spontaneous smile. Her cheeks, however, were impeccable: no sudden blushing.

   “Which means they have not searched us very thoroughly,” he went on. “So, this makes me think that, probably, there were only a few of them and many of us. And maybe they were in a hurry.”

   “Or, simply, whoever searched you was a very shy girl,” she added, amused.

   “Whatever the reason, apparently, I was walking around with a gun tucked in my underwear,” he said, finding it both delightful and disturbing to be able to joke in that situation.

   This time they both laughed.

   They knew nothing about each other, not even about themselves, but they still knew how to laugh.

   “But why did they take us to this place and erased our memory?” he continued, getting back to a more serious tone. “If they only wanted to kill us, they could have done it right away.”

   “They want to make us suffer. For the record, I don’t know anything about survival techniques and stuff like that,” she confessed, looking just as serious.

   Very straightforward, he thought.

   “To be honest, I don’t know much either. The air humidity could suggest that this is a pluvial forest or something similar. We should expect to meet many animals, even big ones. Earlier, I saw some monkeys on the trees.”

   “I saw one too! It looked at me as if it had never seen a human in its life.”

   Perhaps it was true.

   To have any hope of surviving in that place, they first had to know its dangers. And, for now, neither of them seemed to know anything at all.

   “We have to look for the others. I’m sure there’s someone else besides us in this forest. And they can’t be too far,” he said.

   The girl nodded, but she didn’t look very convinced.

   They decided to start walking in one of the two directions that weren’t those from which they had arrived.

   The girl was not wearing shoes and he thought about offering her his boots, but they would have been too big and bulky for her tiny feet.

   Inadvertently, he looked at the socks she was wearing. They both had colored stripes, but were visibly different. He bet he used to choose mismatched socks too, but he couldn’t remember it. All those futile memories were gone. Together with the most important ones.

   “Our memories!” he exclaimed suddenly, turning to the girl who was following him in silence.

   “Yes, the ones that we lost!” she pointed out, trying to keep her balance on a portion of ground without thorns.

   “I think they are the key. If they removed them from us, then they must be important. Maybe they don’t want us to remember something useful, something that could get us out of here.”

   “Or maybe they don’t want us to know whywe are here. Maybe we did something terrible, something they want to punish us for.”

   He looked directly into her eyes. How could that girl have ever done something terrible? Something so terrible to deserve to be thrown in the middle of a jungle with no means to survive? On the other hand, though, he was still suspecting her. Maybe because he had always been used to suspecting everyone?

   “It can be.” He turned around. All he could see was brush. Thick brush. Maybe they should have walked in the other direction. But nothing would have probably changed.

   “Or maybe we’re innocent and they are just doing an experiment or a game,” she added, clenching her fists. “We must do everything possible to remember something. Anything.”

   He turned back to her again. “Maybe we know each other. Maybe we are relatives and we don’t even know it!”

   “Do we at least look alike?” she asked, giving him a shy smile.

   “I can’t ... I can’t remember ... I can’t remember how I look like,” he said, touching his cheeks. He could not believe he had said such a thing. 

   “Neither do I, now that I think of it!”

   They stared at each other in silence for a few long seconds, both analyzing each other’s aspects.

   “Well, we have to find a puddle or something we can see ourselves in. After seeing our reflection, maybe we will start remembering something.”

   The girl sighed. She seemed to have just realized the seriousness of their situation.

   “Meanwhile,” he continued, “I suggest that we tell each other anything that comes back to us. Even the most ordinary thing. We don’t know how we are connected, but we are here together for a reason. Even if we don’t share the same memories, there must be something that we share.”

   “If we will be able to recall something,” the girl added, her voice broken. She seemed to be holding back a sob.

   “Anyway, you don’t know it, but your face is very pretty,” he said suddenly. He couldn’t tell if that was just an attempt to cheer her up or an honest observation.

   He got back to treading over the weeds and continued through the bushes, leaning on the fallen logs. A shy smile must have appeared on that beautiful face. He could feel it from her voice, now clear again: “Don’t expect me to say the same about you only to return the compliment!” she joked, following him quickly.

   He did not really care about being good-looking. It would have been simply irrelevant in a place like that.

   “Don’t worry, girl! I’ll be fine!” he replied, playing along. He knew that keeping up the spirits was essential in that moment.

   And finding someone.

   There had to be someone else around. Together they had more chances to get out of there alive. Numbers counted.

   “Do you think we should shout? Ask if there’s someone here? I mean, as I did earlier.”

   The girl had read his mind. 

   “I don’t know if it’s worth it. We don’t know who could be hiding behind these trees. Animals or maybe savages,” he replied, reflecting on the meaning of those words. Even if they hadn’t found other people, they certainly were not alone in that forest. “We wouldn’t even see them coming.”

   Needless to say that the girl had actually made that mistake without incurring in unpleasant consequences. But, in hindsight, she would have realized that it had been pure luck. And luck wasn’t something that they should have expected to find often in a place like that.

   They proceeded slowly in the chosen direction. Ahead of them the vegetation was progressively sparser, but not less insidious. The girl’s socks were dirty and torn, and her feet must have hurt. But she had never complained, even though her eyes seemed to beg for a little rest. And refreshment.

   Water! He hadn’t thought about water before, but now that his throat was dry, he couldn’t think about anything else. Unsurprisingly, he found out it was the same for the girl.

   The prospect of not being able to find water was slowly getting into his mind. And knowing that he had to make sure the water was clean didn’t make him feel any better. They had to find some potable water as soon as possible.

   A rustle coming from some bushes made him stop abruptly. His hand jerked towards the pants, quickly pulling out the gun. He released the safety instantly and, holding the pistol with both hands, pointed it at the plants whose leaves kept rustling.

   He had already done something similar before. Yes. He was living a kind of vague déjà-vu that was bringing him back in time, in an unknown and remote past.

   That feeling lasted just a few seconds. It vanished when he saw two birds coming out from the leaves and flying away together. He couldn’t see where they were heading, but he imagined they were going up. Toward that clear sky that he could barely see through the thick branches of the trees.

   Those birds were free. They, instead, were prisoners.

   He put the gun back in his pants, ready to start walking again, but the girl stopped him. She was pointing at a tree full of fruit.

   “They’re like the ones the creepy monkey had in its hands,” she explained as she reached out to grab one of those pear-like green fruits. They looked so tasty. “If monkeys eat them, I guess we can eat them too.”

   Perhaps it was true. Or at least that’s what he hoped. They needed liquids and the girl had just found a possible solution. Very well, he thought while scanning the surroundings warily. Something was telling him to be careful. At all times. Not only to keep himself and the girl safe, but also to find the others. The people that must have been kidnapped and abandoned in that forest like them.

   His thoughts were brusquely interrupted by a cry.

   “It bit me!” the girl shouted, panicked. “That ... that snake bit me!” she repeated, jumping in his direction. But she was not pointing at anything. Instead, she was holding her right wrist, while giving him a desperate look. A shiny green fruit was at her feet.

   A snake? That bit her? Where ...

   The seconds must have been passing quickly, while his throat was struggling in vain to make any sound, but it was like time had stopped suddenly. He grabbed his gun in an automatic gesture and held it up with both hands.

   The forest around him was now quiet, he could feel his own heartbeat, loud and irregular. His vision was blurring quickly. He tried to come back to his senses, sticking to the girl’s voice that was saying something – was repeating it insistently – but he felt like paralyzed, stuck in a distant universe.

   He put his hand on his chest, which was now pounding with pain.

   “Kate ... No ... Kate ...” he moaned, before losing consciousness.