Note: This was a dream, for real. No really, it was! As such, it's very mysterious and strange. I tried to describe it just as I remember it. You'll notice things that you aren't used to reading but that are directly linked to the dream format of this story. For instance: the narration will shift from first to third person without any warnings. Believe me, this dream is cool enough that I don't have to modify it. It's definitely meant to be intriguing, and this format really serves to spice up that aspect ; ) Enjoy!

Neski Cruise

I woke up facing a computer screen. I was sitting in a small office. I didn't recognize anything there. There was a soft hum escaping from the ventilation system, but I could also feel something. It felt like the ground wasn't perfectly still. I looked out the small window on one side of the room. I was staring at the grey sky. I got off my computer chair and looked outside. I was overlooking the ocean. I was on a ship; a very large one from the looks of it. It was far too quiet though. I took another look around the room. Only after a close examination did things start looking somewhat familiar. There were signs and notes everywhere, but they were all in Russian. To my surprise, I could read and understand them, but I didn't remember ever learning the language. Something was definitely wrong. I sat back on the chair and looked around. On the wall behind me, there was a storage locker. Beside that, there was a clipboard covered with random notes. Above that, there was a picture. It was the picture of a man shaking some else's hand. One of them had my face. I got off my seat and approached the picture. The man who had my face wore a suit and tie. He looked like a rich man. The person shaking his hand must have been an important person, but I didn't recognize him. I couldn't even recognize myself. I looked closely at the message written underneath the picture. It was Russian, like everything else in the room. It said Frankov Neski, Russia's most powerful bio-weapons developer. That couldn't be me. That was impossible. That was not my name. I wasn't even Russian. From what I could remember, there was no way I could ever be involved in anything remotely close to weapons development. I would never do anything like that. I would never even work with anything that could be harmful to anyone on any scale. Bio-weapons… the word alone was enough to terrify me. I may have lost years of memory, but my personality could never change. I could never harm anyone. Nothing was right. That man in the suit and tie could never be me. I was never interested in wealth. I could never wear a suit and tie; I despised that style. I was currently wearing a simple t-shirt with jeans and a gray raincoat. I looked through more of the notes in the hopes that Neski was the person shaking my hand instead. Note after note, it became obvious that I was Neski. This was my boat. It was called Zokov. It was a research vessel I purchased from the Russian military. I could not believe anything I was seeing. I had to sit back down to calm myself. I was facing the fact that what I was witnessing was far more horrifying than simply missing a few years of my life. I must have lost years of memory. Nothing that surrounded me could have been related to who I really was.

I looked at the computer screen. I tried to gain access to it, but everything was password locked. I could see an empty syringe next to it, but there was no label. There was nothing useful in the room. I stood up and walked out. It truly was a large ship. From where I stood, it looked like a shopping mall. The center of the ship was just empty space. I approached the railings and looked around. There were rooms all around the ship. The walkway I was on bent in the shape of the ship: around towards the front and back on the other side. I could see every floor from there. This big area was just the front of the ship. It was gigantic. It suddenly hit me: I was completely alone there. There wasn't a sound coming from anywhere. I followed the signs that led me up to the top of the ship where the bridge was. The ship was off, stalled, in the middle of nowhere, and I was alone. How can I be alone on a big ship like that? Nothing made sense. I didn't even know how I can be on a ship. What could I possibly want with a boat? I had to find answers. I went back in my office and tried my best to login on the computer. It was a very fancy computer; I must have been very serious to operate one like that. I must have been enough of an adept to break into it. I tried and tried, but it was no use. There was something missing. There was an external drive near it. It looked like it was made to accept small data chips, but it was empty. I was beginning to feel despair. I sat back and ran my hands through my hair. Suddenly, I could see someone walk past my office. I looked at the doorway, but there was nothing. I heard a sound and a person backed up a few steps to look in my office. It was Suha: a girl I knew in high school. I couldn't believe it. She walked into the room with a smile on her face. I got off my seat and approached her. I was very happy to see her. To see anyone I knew was the biggest relief I could have at that moment.

"Suha! Oh my god, it's you!" I said in disbelief. I walked towards her, but I could sense that her smile was fake. Something was bothering her. I stopped approaching her and looked at her carefully. She had something hidden behind her back. Whatever it was, it wasn't good. She took a step forward when she noticed my hesitation. I took a step back reflexively.

"It's good to see you…" Suha lied. She didn't even want to give me a name. She knew my real name, but I suppose she was just as confused as I was. It was obvious that she was aware of the other name I carried. She was on my ship after all. I took another step back.

"What are you doing here?" I asked. She didn't answer. She just kept a very fake smile and a very strange stare.

"Suha… what are you holding?" I asked worriedly.

"Nothing. I just want to talk. Why are you afraid of me? I'm your friend." She continued and took another step towards me. She looked like she was forcing herself to approach me. Something was terribly wrong.

I would soon be cornered against the wall. I had to do something. She held some kind of weapon behind her back; of that I was sure.

"Suha, just stay there. You want to talk, let's talk. God knows I need someone to talk to." I proposed while signaling that she should stop coming closer. I knew what was about to happen. While my eyes distracted her, I grabbed a board from my desk with my hands. I gripped it tight and waited for her to make a move.

"I'm sorry, but there's something I have to do." She said pressingly while rushing towards me with a syringe. I reacted instantly and hit her arm with the wooden board I held. The syringe was forced out of her hand, but she didn't stop. She attacked me. I defended myself exceptionally well. I could do things I never thought I was capable of. I sent her slamming against the ground. I could see that she was trying to reach for things to hit me with. She grabbed the chair and struck me with it. I crawled away from her.

"Jesus Christ Suha! What the hell are you doing?" I yelled. She was still on the floor. I could see her hands were trying to grab hold of something she could use as a weapon. She grabbed random things and started throwing them at me. She looked like she was desperate to harm me. I had to leave the room or she eventually would. I ran out. I didn't know exactly where I was going, but Suha couldn't have gotten on the ship without others. I wasn't alone anymore, but I wasn't certain if that was any better. I never thought of Suha as being aggressive, but what she was doing just then was far beyond that. Whatever motivated her to do such a thing must have been as unreal as everything felt for me at the time.

Suha got off the floor and walked out to the hallway. She couldn't see me anymore. She cursed herself and grabbed the phone next to the door. It was interconnected to every phone in the ship. There were many of them throughout the ship. When one person picked one up, a red light would flash on all the other phones to indicate that he/she was trying to reach someone else. Only a few seconds later, someone answered her call.

"I found him in his office… room 117, third floor. He got away. I'm sorry, I couldn't get him. He's heading towards the front of the ship. I'm going after him. You guys get around to the other side and block his escape." Suha said. She hung up and ran after me. There wasn't much of anywhere I could run off to. I kept running towards the outside of the ship, but everything led back to the walkway inside. When I got back in, I could see Suha there, running after me from one side. On the other side, there were two more girls. I recognized them all. They were all high school friends. I didn't know what it meant, but they were after me. They sprinted like there was nothing else that mattered to them but getting me. I froze. There wasn't much of an escape. The gap was closing fast. I had to make a choice. Emilie and Catrinel both had very serious looks on their faces. Emilie was a fast runner, but Suha was closer from the start. They would both reach me at the same time, so I couldn't expect to deviate past either of them. There was also the fact that I would never attack any of them, even for my own safety. I waited just a second later, and then I ran to the ledge, grabbed the railings and swung around. I jumped onto the second floor. I could see a set of hands reach down to try and grab me, but they were too late. The landing was rough. I got back on my feet and continued running.

"Shit! Get down to the second floor. He has nowhere to go, we'll get him eventually. We need to separate again. Keep an eye on the phones." Emilie said.

I kept sneaking around from room to room. I tried my best to stay away from the walkway where they would surely see me. Everything was very quiet. I moved slowly not to make any sound. I walked into a laboratory. It seemed to be the last room before it turned into a corridor. I stopped at the entrance and kept my ears focused on the other side. There was nothing. I walked into it. There was no other way around. It led to the walkway. I walked slowly. I stopped when I reached the corner of it. I saw an axe swing towards me from the other side of the corner. I stepped back a quickly as I could to avoid the hit. The axe slammed into the wall and got stuck for a moment. I could see Suha appear from the corner.

"He's here!" She shouted. I was trapped. I could hear the footsteps of one of the women coming from the other side and someone else coming from where I had come. Suha was still standing at the exit with her axe in hand. There was no escape. I Stepped back and looked around. I immediately knew what to do. I ran to the back of the corridor and broke the protective glass that covered the fire hose. I could hear the footsteps finally end at every exit. There was a loud bang. I could see my blood splash on the roll of tubes. I grabbed the fire hose and dragged it with me as I collapsed to the ground.

"Shoot him again, shoot him again!" Catrinel screamed to Emilie. I got back up and activated the hose. Emilie shielded herself with the corner of the corridor before I could spray her with the high pressure water jet. I sprayed Catrinel before she could escape back into the room she came from. She covered herself with her arms and screamed in pain as the water pushed her towards her friends. As a protective reflex, Emilie peered the gun in the corridor, just showing her arm, and fired random shots. I threw myself back on the ground to avoid being shot again. I aimed for the gun, but she retracted it just in time.

"Jesus!" I screamed in utter panic at the peril I was in. It was odd that I didn't panic at the fact that one of her shots had already pierced through me. I didn't even look down at my wound. I suppose I was just thankful that I was still alive at all.

"Stop it! Why are you trying to kill me?" I yelled.

"You're a monster Steve! I can't believe I was friends with you!" I could hear Emilie yell.

"Could we just talk about this? For Christ's sake, I don't even know what you're talking about!" I said defensively.

"You're Frankov Neski! You're a damn terrorist and a traitor to your country!" Catrinel yelled.

"I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ANY FRANKOV! PLEASE STOP!" I pleaded.

"Don't try us: this is your ship!" Emilie yelled. I ran away before she could finish saying it. The sounds of my footsteps were buried by the stream of water splashing against the wall. It didn't take long for someone to notice I had left back the way I came.

More shots were fired towards me through the lab I was running in. The bullets whistled passed me and destroyed anything that was close to me. I disappeared through the corner, but I left a large blood trail at my feet. The bullet that hit me when I was grabbing the hose pierced right through my back and exited through my stomach. The pain finally caught up to me as I was running away. My speed was greatly reduced, and my situation looked very desperate. I ran down the stairs to the first floor, into a steam room, and noticed a vat of water. I submerged myself in it completely, being careful not to disturb the water. I could hear the vibrations of everyone entering the steam room. I stayed very still and hoped that no one would look closely at the water. I pressed myself against the side so that no one could see me unless they stood right above me. Suha took a quick look around and moved to the nearest exit. Catrinel soon followed, but not Emilie. She held the gun up and walked slowly towards the vat.

"Come on! We don't have time to waste! We have to catch up to him." Catrinel yelled to her friend. Emilie hesitated and followed them. I waited for as long as I could hold my breath, and then I got out. I sat on the floor and tore my shirt off. I used it as a cloth and wrapped it around my stomach. I screeched in pain and I got back on my feet. I was shaking. The fear, the cold and the pain that I felt were immense. I walked along the outside of the ship and moved back up to the third floor. I was in no condition to continue. I had to find a safe place to lay low. I went into a storage room and lied down in a corner of it. I covered myself with a cloth and just waited. I stood very still for hours. I fell asleep, but not for long.

I needed to get back in my office and figure it all out. I just hopped they didn't expect that move. When I got close, I went into an adjacent room and changed clothes. I put on an overall that was left in a locked and went into my office. I looked around desperately for a clue of what was happening to me and why. It didn't make sense for my high school friends to be after me like that. If I was who they said I was, they would just send an elite team to terminate me. Not friends. Everything was very unusual. I inspected the notes very carefully and discovered that I, or Neski, was responsible for having created one of the must powerful bio-weapons the world has ever seen. That simply couldn't be. Something was wrong. I could hear footsteps approaching my office from both directions. I hid in the locker and sat down. I closed the door and stayed very still. Emilie, Catrinel and Suha entered the room.

"Did you guys find anything?" Suha asked.

"No. He must have hidden it somewhere very random. We need to find him. He has to tell us where it is." Emilie said. Suha sat at the computer and tampered with it.

"I can't believe he could do something like this. I can't believe ANYONE can do something like this." Suha sighed.

"Hey, look: we need to get this done. Remember what they said? Try not to think of him as someone you know. He's obviously a liar. Just look at that picture!" Catrinel said while pointing at the picture on the wall.

"Frankov Neski. What a monster." Suha said in disapproval.

"And how long do you think he's been doing this stuff in secret? Probably nothing we know of him is true. You heard what they said! Steve is his fake name, not the other way around." Catrinel said.

"But why are we here? Do you really buy what they said about us? Why couldn't they get professionals to kill him? WE aren't killers. I don't feel good about this. He was our friend." Emilie said sadly.

"What are you talking about? You shot him." Catrinel said.

"But that's because he's a bad guy. He's killed hundreds of thousands. What was I supposed to do? Let him go?" Emilie said.

"Just forget it ok? We're here because we aren't professionals. We're here because he trusted us and because we could get close to him. They said they tried many things before, but Steve's too… I mean Frankov's too smart to get assassinated. I guess he didn't predict that they would send us instead. So far, I'd say it's working. We also need that microchip. We need to destroy whatever project he's been working on lately." Catrinel said.

"Right, the new weapons… I still can't believe it." Emilie shook her head in disappointment and sadness.

"Let's keep looking." Catrinel proposed to Emilie.

"I'll stay here." Suha said when she stopped fiddling with the computer.

"Ok." Emilie said. The two girls turned around and were about to leave the room.

Suddenly, Suha could hear something dripping behind her.

"Uh… guys?" She said to gain back the attention of her friends. Suha and Emilie turned around to look at what was upsetting her. Suha was pointing at a small puddle of blood forming just at the foot of the storage locker. Blood was still dripping down slowly from within the locker. Emilie pointed her gun at it and the two other girls surrounded it. I was shaking, but I didn't make any noise.

"On two." Catrinel said to Suha.

"One… two!" She continued. They swung the metal door open and pulled me out with all their might.

I was trembling in my blood. I looked at the furious faces of the people who held me to the ground. Emilie had a neutral face, but her eyes had a hint of hesitation in them. She kept her gun pointed at me though.

"Where's the microchip?" Catrinel asked aggressively.

"I don't know." I said with a crackling voice. Suha struck me with her fist.

"Jesus Christ! I don't know!" I repeated only to be struck again. Emilie stepped closer. She stood just above me and held her gun pointed at my face.

"You know what happens if you don't tell us, so why don't you just say it." She threatened.

"I don't know! And you'd kill me even if I told you!" I said defensively. Emilie looked away in disappointment. What he said was true, and she felt terrible about it. She had to kill him.

"I'm sorry Steve, but that's how it has to be." She said sadly.

"This is just a big misunderstanding. You're making a mistake…" I said hesitantly.

"No, we're not. You're going down for the crimes you've committed." Catrinel said.

"I don't know what crimes you're talking about. I really don't remember anything." I cried in fear.

"You have to believe me…" I continued.

"You've lied all your life. How could we?" Emilie said.

"I'm not a liar! I didn't lie all my life! I don't know anything about this Neski guy! It's me, Steve! I swear; I'm just the same as you remember me. I would never do this!" I said.

"We have all the proof that says otherwise. Just tell us where the damn chip is so we can destroy it!" Suha said coldly.

"I told you! I don't remember!" I said.

"That contains information people could use to kill countless innocent citizens! Tell us where it is! Tell us for old-time sake!" Emilie said. I hesitated for a moment.

"I…" I stuttered.

"If I was to hide it…" I began again.

"I think I may know where…" I said slowly.

"Show us." Catrinel demanded. I nodded.

I brought them to the steam room and looked around. They didn't want to believe this is where I would hide it, but I could feel something about this room. There was nothing else in my memory but this feeling I had when I looked into this room. There was something very important in it, and it must have been the microchip.

"This is bullshit! What the hell are we doing here?" Catrinel yelled. I ignored her and kept looking around. I could barely stand up. I lost far too much blood, and I was starting to feel really weak. I approached a steam pipe and felt the back of it with my hands. There was a bump there. It was a little pouch. I opened it and took out a little button-shaped piece. I held it for everyone to see.

"That's it!" Emilie said. She took the chip from me and smiled in relief that her task was almost over… almost.

"Ok. Kill him now, we don't need him anymore." Catrinel suggested.

"What if it's not the right one?" Emilie asked.

"Bring him with us, and I'll find out. Then kill him." Suha said. Emilie hesitated and nodded. She could see the terror in my eyes, and it saddened her. They dragged me back to my office and let me lie down on the floor behind the chair. Suha inserted the chip in the external drive and the data automatically appeared on the screen.

"That's it! We got it!" Suha said.

"How can you be sure?" Catrinel asked.

"This thing has everything." Suha said after carefully revising everything.

"Let's finish this then. Where did you put the syringe?" Catrinel asked Suha.

"Over here." Suha answered whiled she reached over the desk and picked up the syringe. She handed it over to her friend and looked at me.

"Please don't. Please. That's capital punishment! You can't do that!" I pleaded.

"We're not in our country right now; we can do whatever we want. Just be glad that your death will be painless. I'm sure if it were anyone else standing where I am, you would suffer for what you did." Catrinel said.

"Why can't you just believe me? I could never do anything like that!" I cried. Catrinel approached me with the needle. She stood above me.

"Wait, wait! Can't we just wait a minute?" Emilie asked.

"It'll just make things harder." Catrinel said pressingly while looking at her friend.

"Come on! Just a minute!" Emilie pleaded.

"Just give me a minute!" She repeated.

"What do you want?" Catrinel asked.

"Just let me look at the files. I just want to see them." Emilie said.

"Fine." Suha said while she left the chair and let Emilie take her place at the computer.

Emilie browsed through the folders and was displeased at what she saw. Her friends noticed this and held Steve down on the ground for the final move.

"Wait, wait! Come on, just a few more seconds… I found a file… I have to see it." Emilie pleaded while looking at her friends restrain me.

"What is it?" Suha asked.

"It's called Neski. I just want to see what it is. I NEED to see what it is." Emilie said while turning around to face the screen. Suha and Catrinel both looked over Emilie's shoulder and at what the screen displayed. It showed profiles containing pictures and many facts and details of people. The girls browsed through them one at a time. Each time, it was a different person, but what they had in common was that they all had a very terrifying background. Some of them were deceased, but they were all in the warfare business.

"What is it? A list of competition? Come on; there's nothing there! Let's just finish this and leave." Catrinel said impatiently. Suha looked at her and nodded. Emilie was agitated. She rushed through the files, one by one, in the hopes that she would discover something that would stop what was about to happen to her old friend.

"Just one more minute! One more! Come on!" Emilie was in distress. Catrinel placed her hand on her friend's shoulder and rubbed it a little.

"We have to do this for our country… Be strong." She whispered in Emilie's ear. She turned around and inserted the needle in my neck. She injected the poison in my bloodstream and looked into my frightened eyes as she did it.

"The world's going to be safer without a demon like you." She spat.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Emilie cried.

"What?" Suha asked.

"FUCK!" Emilie cried loudly.

"I found his file! Just let me read it damnit!" Emilie shouted.

"It's too late, but read it anyway." Catrinel said.

"What do you mean it's too late?" She said while looking at me and the empty syringe on the floor next to me. She bit her lip and cried. She held her hand over her mouth and a soft moan of pain escaped. She tuned back around and read the file.

Frankov Neski

Created in 2003 by the Canadian Special Forces

Status: Double Agent – Neski project...

Infiltration of the bio-weapons division. Gathering intelligence and carrying out special tasks.

Current Status: URGENT! Defecting - must contain incident. Stolen Zokov – east pacific ocean – targeted for termination.

Victims:

Valentin Hossofski, 2003 Creator of the Neski gas rockets (Southern europe - 123 thousand killed) - captured

Kovni Dimitrivitch, 2003. Crime lord and weapons distributor – assassinated.

Juan Jose, 2003. Italian mob – terminated.

Christopher Jones Junior. 2004. Former U.S military officer – charged with fraud.

Francis Lee, 2004. Bio-Weapons developer – captured.

George W. Bush, 2005. Weapons purchaser/user – unavailable for capture.

Anton Habaar, 2005. Terrorist – destroyed.

Message code: Alpha Alpha Golf 22

I want out. I'm not cut out for these missions anymore. I'm sorry; I just can't do it. I don't believe in killing anyone, no matter what their crimes. I don't want to remember, and I won't. I used a powerful memory serum. I'm no threat to you. Just leave me be. End of message.

"No, no no! This can't be! Are you reading this?" Emilie cried to her friends. They didn't respond.

"They sent us to kill one of their own! I can't believe this! FUCK! Our own Special Forces! How can they do this to us?" Emilie yelled out.

"Emilie just calm down… it's too late… look at him, he's dying." Catrinel reminded her of me.

"Why did you have to poison him? Couldn't you just wait a damn minute?" Emilie was frustrated.

"He was going to die anyway… look at all that blood…" Catrinel said while looking at the puddle of blood forming underneath me. Emilie got off the seat and crouched over me. She looked into my worrisome eyes and unzipped the coverall. She untied the shirt I had wrapped around my wound and took a look at the damage.

"And I'm the one that did this to him… I'm so sorry." Emilie said while pressing her hand against my cold cheek.

"I'm not… I'm not Neski am I?" I asked slowly. Emilie shook her head and cried.

"Told you, didn't I?" I said. Emilie looked down in shame and cried some more.

"I'm sorry Emilie. I wish I could explain this to you, but I can't remember anything." I said softly.

"You don't have to say anything. I believe you." Emilie said.

"I know I shouldn't be… telling you this before I die, but… I…I have a confession to make. There's something I do remember very well… I love you Emilie. I love you." I said as clearly as I could.

"Don't blame yourselves for this… I was doomed anyway." I said as I finally shut my eyes for the last time.

"Wait! Steve don't go!" Emilie cried, but I was silenced forever.