Day 44: Women's Showers (2nd Shift)
The sting of the water on Momo's wounds reminded her exactly where each and every burn was. Between that and the clear plastic wrapping the nurse placed around the long cut up her arm to her shoulder, she decided as little time in the actual spray would be wise. Sitting on a stool out of the direct stream, she went about scrubbing the grit and
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Then again, there had been all that talk of virgin-eating monsters on the board; animal fodder was not the usual industry for virgin consumption, but it would explain the segregated showers. Or maybe it went along with their notions of therapy -- sex either explained everything or nothing at all, she'd gathered, which hadn't done anything to improve her impressions of experimental psychologists or their pet theories. Sex was sex, and showers were usually too cramped to make very good places to have it. And tile was coldOh well. There still wasn't much to see even when she was naked -- a faint yellow bruise-halo could be from anything, and Mister von Karma hadn't seen it when it was fresh. She poked at it -- no pain left at all. Then she got to work unbraiding her hair, tugging it where frizz had turned into tangles while letting the hot ( ... )
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As they entered the showers, Mele told the nurse she could do this by herself, and stood up to prove it. The nurse consented to leaving her alone, though Mele had the inkling the nurse didn't care if she fell. Which suited Mele fine; damned if she was going to repeat her last showers experience.
Mele managed to hobble over to the nearest free spot (which, as it happened, was next to someone who made her feel really short), and let the water run over her body while she reached up to free her hair from its usual loops.
"Is the woman on the intercom familiar to you?" she asked conversationally, without preamble. "'Head Nurse Lydia'?" What an odd title to name herself by.
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It was daytime, and neither of the last two night's events were being treated as normal by the more seasoned ranks of the population, so maybe it would be fine. And a fall on slippery tiles would hurt, but it wasn't anything like a stab wound to the shoulder ( ... )
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Combing her hair out with her fingers, she said flippantly, "I'm Mele. Nice to meet you~"
The gashes on her legs stung a little more than expected, but it was only water, and the injuries were mostly healed, anyway. Even so, Mele was careful to keep balanced on her feet, since falling would be utterly embarrassing.
"Meet anyone interesting lately?" Engaging in small talk-silence made her edgy and uncomfortable now, though she couldn't say why.
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"Yeah, me too. Fourth day here, I mean. And I've met a bunch of nice people -- everyone here except the staff have been friendly." She mentally dodged running the roll call of names; at least one was dead, and several had vanished. "Lots of folks from old Earth, and a bunch -- a bunch I don't know where they hail from; we were too busy running for real introductions." She grinned -- the zombie attack hadn't been fun, but as they'd all come out of it unscathed, the memory took on the real-sun-drenched cast of a successful mission; it'd burn you if you had to go back and spend all day in it, but the reflected light was warm.
"How about you? Where do you call home?"
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Her hands returned to her hair. "My home is..." Mele tilted her head. She'd never thought about it, and she had the jaded view of someone who lives somewhere without really seeing it. "Normal? Something like that town, I guess, but livelier." Although with the zombie attack there, maybe it was about the same. When she mounted an attack, at least she'd done it in the day and she'd had no means of converting the entire city to some kind of ruins like that.... But, details.
"You said 'old' Earth?" Mele asked, peering up at Taura through the hair that had flopped into her face. "Is there a new one?"
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"Some time around when this whole place is supposed to be. Projectile guns and ground cars and primitive medicine." The low-tech look, including the wounds they'd left on Mele's legs, had to be part of the deception. Even if that technology was more of the "magic" she'd seen last night rather than anything she could recognize, whoever was in charge had more resources than they'd shown. Just like letting them overhear the "confusion" on the radio -- all of it was calculated to be disarming. But the evidence was there if you looked, and remembered -- in everything from repaired building damage to Taura's own new body. "Did you know women used to die in childbirth? Frequently enough that they weren't ( ... )
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As for women soldiers, Mele shrugged. She didn't have too many feelings about that; too busy swallowing a bae killing people. She probably didn't deserve to say anything on that front, being who she was.
"About ten years ago, I was revived in a more futuristic time than I remember. Where you come from sounds like that-it's the future to me, probably." Mele pulled her hair around over her shoulder. "Sounds fun. Is everything 'new' there?" she asked, carelessly clueless rather than sarcastic.
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"New? I don't think so. Everything gets old -- jumpship Necklin rods aren't any different from," she glanced around, hunting for a reference point they were guaranteed to have in common, "floor tiles, when it comes down to it. But you said you were cryo-frozen? For a long time?" I guess you could do that with cryogenics -- take a one-way trip to the future just to ( ... )
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