038 hadn't realised there was a house in the alleyway he had chosen to rest in. When a man walked out of the door he immediately saw him. The man looked like he was most likely in his forties, he had brown hair and eyes and had a kind looking face.

"Michael?" the man said then caught a glimpse of his burns, "Oh my gosh, what happened to you?!"

"Don't call me that," 038 replied.

"But it's who you are.. Isn't it?"

"Maybe at one time."

"What does that mean?"

"They took my memories."

"Who's they?"

"Some scientists, they were testing on me."

"Are they the ones who burnt you?"

"Yes."

"That looks pretty bad, you should come inside and rest."

038 struggled to his feet and staggered to the door. The house was quite cramped, to the left was a small kitchen and to the right was a couch and coffee table facing a TV. On the right there were two doors that he assumed lead to bedrooms. As he walked in he had a strong feeling of déjà vu as if he'd been there before.

"I know it's not much but it's better than lying out there in the alley," the man said, "Oh, I'm Thomas."

"Thanks," 038 replied.

"I have to go to work, we'll talk more tonight."

As he moved to leave a voice from behind 038 said "Who's the guy with the... unique haircut?"

038 turned to see a girl who he guessed was about sixteen. Like Thomas she had brown hair and hazel eyes, her hair was very long, reaching quite far down her back. Thomas' daughter.

"Michael?!" she exclaimed.

"I'm not Michael," he replied.

"You lived in our house for 6 years, I think I think I can recognise you with or without scars."

"Look, I don’t remember anything but I do know that Michael was a killer and I don’t want to be known as a killer anymore."

"Okay, can you please explain to me what the hell has happened to you?!"

"We'll talk more about that tonight," Thomas said, "but right now I have to go to work and he has to rest, I'll see you tonight."

Thomas left and there was a moment of silence broken by the girl.

"So if you're not Michael anymore what do you want me to call you?"

"Just call me 038."

"That's not even a name, you need something better than that! How do you even come up with something that dumb?"

"It's what I've been called for the last several months."

"You can explain that later, right now you need a name."

"What would you suggest?"

"Um... How about Nathan?"

"If you'd prefer to call me Nathan you go right ahead."

"I'd prefer to call you by your name but Nathan's better than 038. Anyways, like dad said you should rest, you're not looking great."

"Thanks."

"You know what I mean."

038 newly named Nathan walked to the couch, sat down and was instantly asleep.

He was in a field. He was surrounded by flowers and trees. It was beautiful. There was a boy in front of him. The boy beckoned to him. He ran to the boy. He hugged him tight and promised never to let him go. Around him the trees burned. Everything burned. His brother burned. He was left unscathed. When all he could see was flames he woke.

When he woke he could smell home cooking. He stood and looked over to the small kitchen where Thomas’ daughter was preparing a meal.

“That was a bit more than a catnap.” she said, “You slept all day, dad should be back any minute.”

At that very moment the door opened and Thomas walked in.

As they sat on the couch to eat Thomas spoke.

“Well, you can’t even remember us so let’s start with introductions, I’m Thomas, and the girl next to you is my daughter, Stephanie.”

“I’m... Nathan” 038 replied.

“Nathan?” Thomas questioned.

“I told him he needed a real name.” Stephanie said.

“Well I suppose Nathan is better than 038.” Thomas agreed, “Now down to the more important things, where have you been for the last year?”

“It’s been a year?!”

“Yes.”

“I only have memories of a few weeks.”

“Well, just tell us what you remember.”

“I was alone for the first week all that ever happened was checkups, then I was moved in with subject 037. For a while everything continued as normal, just checkups but then they shot 037 in the leg. A couple days later they took him away, I learned later that they killed him at that point. Then they took me out and burned me, a couple days later they threw me in a pit and lit it on fire but somehow it didn’t burn me or hurt at all. I don’t know how I was unharmed but I used it as my chance to escape and now I’m here.”

“What about all the other kids, what about your brother? Where are they?” Stephanie asked.

“037 was my brother, I didn’t know that though, not until long after he was dead. As for other kids, how many were there?”

“50 exactly.” Thomas replied.

“Then, assuming they went in logical numerical order, there should still be 12 kids in there, I gotta go back.”

“Woah, woah, not so fast, you need time to recuperate. Besides, are you really equipped to be going and rescuing a bunch of children?”

“Knowing what they’ll go through there’s no way I can leave them in there.”

“If that’s the case at least give me a day or two, I’ll get some stuff.”

“Stuff?”

“Weapons. But in the meantime keep low and heal up, get some sleep.”

At that point Thomas stood up and went into his room, turning off the lights on the way. In the dark Stephanie stared at the newly dubbed Nathan for a moment before speaking.

“You slept all day, wanna go out for a while? There’s something I want to show you.”

“Will your dad mind?”

“I go out at night all the time, I like it, the place seems a lot nicer at night when all the horrible stuff is out of sight.”

“Horrible stuff?”

“50 children went missing last year and everyone who could do anything about it is acting like nothings happened. The police aren’t looking for the kids, instead they’re arresting innocents and not giving them trials while thugs and murderers like... are walking free.”

“Thugs and murderers like me.”

“Well yeah, I hate to say it but the fact that you went so long doing those things without being taking in just goes to show how poor a state this city’s police is in.”

There was a moment of silence and Stephanie worried she had upset Nathan.

“Well, are we going to go out or not?” Nathan asked sounding unperturbed.

“Right, yeah.” Stephanie replied, relieved.

Once outside she called to him, “Try to keep up!”

She then impressively scaled the walls up onto the roof. Nathan clapped then jumped up next to her. She laughed then said, “You’ve gotten better.”

“Have I? I can’t remember.”

“You always used to struggle to keep up.”

“We came up here often then?”

“Yeah, but back then we were usually just trying to get away from my dad.”

She sat down and pointed up at a group of stars.

“We used to look at the stars a lot, you would make up new constellations.”

“Calcene... the bandit.”

“You remember!”

“It’s strange, I don’t remember being up here or naming it but the name’s still there. I don’t even have a slight memory, not even a haze, I remember specific phrases and names but no places or people.”

“Alfie... never made it up here.” she laughed saddle, “It made him so mad.”

There was a long silence. Nathan sat down next to Stephanie and looked up at the stars.

“I think I just kinda hoped if I brought you up here you would remember. It was stupid that I thought your memories would just come flooding back.”

“I’m not sure I want them to. I know enough about my past to know not a lot of those memories are going to be good. I’m probably better off just starting fresh. But hey, maybe you could fill me in on the good stuff.”

They talked and laughed for hours about stories from the past. When they went back in to sleep Nathan dreamed of saving the kids from the lab.