Under the Pear Tree

I wake up from what seems to be a deep sleep, I am lying flat on my back vertically; I can feel the grass. I stare out into the sunlight, that is shining through leaves from a tree; a pear tree. I sit up and look around, I am in the middle of an open field. I then realize I do not know where I am, nor do I remember anything, I don't even remember who I am. I notice a white watch on my right wrist. The wind starts to blow and I notice my hair; It is a pretty auburn color and just above my waist. Suddenly, I hear a groan behind me; I quickly turn to see who it is. It is a guy, also lying vertically on his back in the opposite direction of me on the other side of the tree.

"Who are you?" I asked him.

"Who are you?" He asked me with a frightened look on his face.

I look at him for a few seconds, "I... I can't remember. Where are we?"

"I have no idea..." he answeres while looking around the field; still with that frightened look on his face."

I noticed that he was also wearing a watch, a black one. We both stood up, and begin walking the field. There is a forest at the end of the field, we start to walk to. He and I are both wearing sackcloth clothing and are both barefoot.

"So you don't remember anything at all, not even your name?" He asks me.

"Nothing at all, not even my name, maybe I'm just still waking up I guess," I answered, trying to not panic.

"Yeah, but it doesn't make sense that I don't remember anything either, maybe someone is doing this to us, maybe someone put us here."

"I don't understand, who would do this to us?

"I don't know." He says then looks down.

We make it to the forest and start walking through it. It is a little foggy and moist, but we can still see everything. After we walked through, a wall behind us quickly builds up. We both picked up our speed and started looking in every direction and then I start to hear distant whispers.

"Did you hear that??" I asked him.

"Hear what?" He replies.

"Did you hear any whispers just a moment ago?"

"No, I didn't hear anything. What were they saying?" He asked with a confused look.

"I couldn't understand them, they were too low."

"Hey, it's okay, we'll find help soon.” He tells me.

We gotten closer to the end of the forest, we are only a few feet away. We then hear an old lady's voice. It sound's like she's telling an interesting story.

"They were banned for disobeying their leaders and because of that, they were banned from the field and never been seen or heard from ever again. They-" The old woman reads before she gets interrupted, by this younger woman.

"Okay, Mother Manisha, wow, what a great story. Okay, guys, it's group time. Time to get into your groups and explore the field." The younger woman interrupts.

"The arrivals are here!"A little boy shouts out pointing at us.

There are two separate groups both groups are sitting down. In the first group, there are hundreds of them; they are wearing three different colors green, blue, and orange. In the second group, there are about twenty of them, and they are wearing the same clothes we are wearing, all sackcloth.

"Oh, good! Come over here you two." You two are the final two to arrive here until next year." The lady tells us.

We stare are her puzzled and walk slowly with her.

She laughs and says "I know you guys don't know what I'm talking about now, but soon you guys will. There are thirty-six new arrivals here. Twenty-four new arrivals are parents, then the twelve of the new arrivals are assigned their parents. All thirty-six of you are divided equally by age so it will be easier to assign you guys with parents. The parents are given names upon their arrival by the leaders. No one here remembers anything, but years ago a book was discovered. It tells us, how to live and survive here. We pick our leaders and go by the rules by the book. Your parents give you your names, birthdays, and whatever else they'd like to give you. Our society has been looking for an answer for years now. We will never give up, as long as we have this book, there is hope. Someone or even more than one person will find the answer that will bring us back home; I have faith." Mother Manisha tells us.

"This is insane, Someone has to be punishing us; all of us. What could we possibly have done to deserve this? To forget who we are, where we came from? I just don't understand..." I frustratedly say.

"I know it's a little too much right now to take all in, This does take a lot of time. You guys can go have some time to yourselves to process all of this after our orientation then you can go take some time to yourselves.." She tells us.

"Orientation? What orientation?" The boy from the tree asks.

"Every year we give an orientation for the new arrivals, it won't be long at all; Let me introduce you guys to your parents. Young lady, come follow me."

I follow her to this beautiful woman; she is tall, has fair skin, long black hair, and blue eyes. Her eyes are very mesmerizing, she is smiling at me like she is happy to be assigned as my mother. Young lady, this is your field mother; Joanna.

"Hi, my girl. It is my honor to have received this assignment." Joanna tells me while still smiling.

"It is a tradition that the woman names her daughter without suggestions from the husband. So before I introduce you to your husband and to you young lady, your father; what would you like to name her?" Mother Manisha asks Joanna.

"I've been dwelling on this name, and the name is Amani; it means faith. Is this name okay with you?" Joanna asks me.

"Yes, I love it and the meaning; thank you, mother," I say smiling at her.

"Now come you two" Mother Manisha says while tagging us along with her.

we walk to the end of the group to a guy with shoulder-length, brown wavy hair. He is also beautiful, he looks just like a prince.

"Amani and Joanna, this is Joshua; your husband and your father." Mother Manisha introduces us.

They both giggle, "Well hello." He giggles again and turns to Mother Manisha. We actually spent a lot of time together taking walks and sitting by the river. It is my pleasure to take this woman as my wife, she is a gorgeous woman and a beautiful soul. Thank you Mother Manisha and to all of the leaders, I am honored."

Joanna blushes and slightly looks away for a second. "Well thank you, same to you; what a wonderful gift this is."

The boy from the tree meets his parents and receives his name as Abel, it means breath and life. After our orientation and after the names were given out, we break out into groups and hang out, the leaders one way, the parents, and then us. We decide to walk to the river, it is quite a walk I've heard. The people who arrived before us are sharing their experiences and what they did before we came. Out of nowhere, I hear this guy shouting at Abel who is next to me.

"It's you, isn't it? You know what's going on and you know why we're here. You're a part of this, aren't you? You're a part of all of this." A guy named John says to Abel.

" No, I'm just as clueless as you are bud," Abel says while walking a little faster.

He pushes Abel hard. "Admit it! Why don't you admit it." He pushes Abel again even harder.

Abel pushes back "Hey, stop it what is wrong with you man?"

A girl named Sarah says "Hey, stop it John we are all experiencing the same thing you are. We are scared too, you are not the only one. We are not here to harm anyone okay?"

"He's been like this ever since he arrived. He arrived the week after me, his outbursts only gets worse." A girl next to me name Crystal tells me.

Once we get to the river, we all try to come up with a strategy of a way out. All I could think about is the pear tree, how we just magically appeared right under it. Could it be under the tree maybe? Did something drop us down to the tree?

"Hey what about the pear tree from the forest? We all woke up there, didn't we?" I ask everyone.

"Yeah, but it doesn't matter because a wall builds right up, right after we walk through it; no way we'll be able to get back into there." someone says.

"Not unless we jump through as soon as the wall opens. How often does the wall open? Does it only open for arrivals?" Abel asks.

"The wall opens up two times a day, six in the morning and eight at night. We still don't know why, but maybe if we all go to the wall and try to figure it out. Maybe this food in there or medicine, but I don't understand if it closes back up fast." John says.

"It's 7:20 now, by the time we get there, the wall should be opening back up. Let's hurry, maybe we can make it there on time and see what's inside."

We rush back to our field then to the wall, once we get there; we have three more minutes until it opens back up. Everyone is looking nervous and confused.

"Are we going to try to jump in or just see what's in it?" Abel asks

"I think we should jump in, we should just take the risk and see what's in there," I tell him.

"Well, it should be two people, who are going to volunteer?" Sarah asks us.

Everyone just froze and then we start to hear the wall open back up, without any thought, I quickly run into the forest.

"Hey!" Abel says while running after me.

The wall then closes up back up, Abel and I are breathing rapidly, the fog is burning my skin; it must be poison. I look around, Abel and I notice food and medicine right at the wall so we could just grab and reach while outside of the wall. We then see a person dressed in black rushing through the forest.

"Run!" Abel shouts, he grabs around me to run, but before we are able to run; multiple gunshots are shot at us. I look down, my whole entire chest is covered in blood and I drop.

"Amani!!" Abel shouts as the guy dress in all black runs off. "Come on Amani, stay awake. Can you hear me? Amani, please."

I am unable to move, my earring is starting to go away, and my vision is getting blurry.

I slowly move my mouth and barely say, "go... go back." Before I could even finish, my eyes closed and I could feel my body shutting down."

I wake up and see sunlight that is shinning through leaves from a tree; a pear tree. I sit up and look around, I am in the middle of an open field. I do not remember anything at all, not even my name. I look down and see a white watch on my right wrist and on the left side of me is a paper with writing; it reads “Remember who you are.” I then hear a groan behind me, it is a guy sitting, and lying the same way I am lying.