01: Foreign
The rough surface against her face stung fiercely, wounds and bruises violently opposed to the contact. She groaned through the haze of semi-consciousness which had begun to assert itself, aware of the stiff, sore state that every inch of her body seemed to be in. What on earth had happened? Eyes screwed shut, she strained to retrace her steps.
She remembered the uncomfortable shoes she'd been wearing and the burnt smell that lingered in the room from Kieran's failed attempt at cooking breakfast. From the way he got into it, she'd wondered (and not for the first time) if he had any tastebuds at all.
She'd been listening to the conversation between her comrades across the room, and as her second-in-command strode through the bedroom doorway, she'd set her hands on her hips and rounded on him.
"Elijah, your brother is harrassing Natalie again."
"I don't think he likes to watch people read," Natalie had commented mildly.
She remembered Lucas gesturing excessively like always as he protested, "I just don't get how you can read the same book over and over again! It's not like something new is going to happen on the thirty-fourth page."
Her fingers flexed stiffly, testing the surface underneath her. Metal, solid. Very rough - probably just as old. She could taste iron in her mouth but wasn't sure if it had come from the floor, or blood on her lips. She needed to get up, but it was difficult to co-ordinate her own body.
She must have been unconscious for a while... it seemed that the negotiations had gone far worse than she thought.
"How did you fare?" Natalie asked, shutting her book.
"Total bust," Elijah said, sitting down.
Listening to them absently, Rosetta hadn't stopped, beelining straight for the bedroom. Lucas had been strewn on his bed with a music player - a look of warning, hand on the wardrobe door, turned out to be enough for him to scarper out the door without a word of complaint.
She'd re-entered the room in old clothes that were far more comfortable than the stuffy diplomatic uniform, right on the tail of Natalie's protest. "But all we want-"
"I know," Kieran interrupted, sitting on the floor with a bottle in one hand. "But to them, we're Thanatii. Says it all, doesn't it?"
Rosetta had chosen to cut behind the sofa as Lucas moved join Elijah.
"How long until extraction?" Elijah asked.
"We're shipping out at Beta-Dawn," she'd answered.
"--What?"
"That's right," Kieran said with a nod, “I'm amazed they're letting us go at all.”
And then... and then what? She'd ended up here? That wasn't right. Shifting to stand, she couldn't help the pained gasp - every muscle shrieked, every wound stung and her head pounded as she slowly picked herself up.
Her arms quivered, severely weakened by trauma. What happened to me?
"'Night, Rosetta."
Struck by his unexpectedly somber tone, she'd glanced to Lucas as he followed his comrades to the bedroom. "...Yeah, you too."
The last one awake, she'd flicked off the lights and set about cleaning up. Being 'Thanatii', it seemed likely that the contents of the room would be burnt after they left, but she had refused to leave a mess behind.
She didn't remember hearing the door click open - had it been drowned out by the sound of the tap? - but she'd never forget what the intruder said.
"We only need one. Keep it alive."
With a shudder, Rosetta remembered - she'd been that one. They'd killed everyone else in their sleep, and hauled her away. There had been so many questions, but in the state they had driven her to she couldn't decipher left from right, let alone Simlish from their own language, Taran.
Finally, they'd just left her alone.
... Hadn't they?
Now upright, she wavered dangerously. Hands pressing to her head, Rosetta forced herself to breathe properly, to maintain control, to stay on her feet. She was a soldier, damnit, she had to figure this out.
Vaguely, part of her wondered -- why wasn't she restrained?
There was the crunch of a bad gear change and someone cursed in Taran; the whole room lurched violently. She stumbled but caught herself, realising that they - this truck? - had stopped.
Taking in a deep breath, Rosetta listened acutely for a hint of what would happen next. Cabin doors opened and slammed shut: a tremor passed under her feet from the inertia. Someone laughed but it was distant - the response, even more so. It sounded like they were moving away.
If this was to be her only chance... she was taking it.
Climbing over a crate, she prised the door open as carefully as possible. It was heavier than she expected, and panic rose in her chest. Unwilling to be a sitting duck, Rosetta pushed harder - the door abruptly gave way and she dropped onto the concrete beyond it.
Rosetta stayed there for a long minute, eyes shut again as her body reminded her of the pain it was in and that it was unwise to fall down. Something nearby had the acrid stench of moist, festering organic matter - she was quickly breathing through her mouth instead. God, she hoped that it wasn't corpses.
By some miracle the door drifted shut, resting lightly on the catch. She stayed where she was, silently counting to ten. When there was no shout, no sign that someone had seen her, she carefully stood.
As she straightened, voices drifted to her. "So long as others don't find out you know it," someone said. The words were distorted by an echo, but clearly Taran. She pressed up against the back of the truck, not daring to look for the source yet. She was beginning to think this was an execution.. where ever 'this' was.
"But it is a useful skill!" another answered, and with a frown she realised that the voice was not unfamiliar - although she couldn't place it.
As quietly as she could, Rosetta crept to the edge of the van, and checked her surroundings.
It was incredibly dark, and mouldy brick wall stretched in all directions. Not far from the van was a junction of some sort and beyond the concrete's edge, Fireflowers glowed faintly as if encouraging her to come their way. They were underground, then - a sewer network would certainly explain the smell.
"There is something that we have brought you," the second voice said.
"What we asked you to bring?" this speaker was new, and suspicious.
Time was up - she ran.
She didn't stop to check how close they were, or if anyone was looking - a pause like that was asking to be seen, and if they saw her they'd just kill her on the spot. Sprinting, Rosetta had never felt so vulnerable. Adrenaline pushed her exhausted body into overdrive - somehow, she didn't trip or fall.
Somehow, she made it without being shot from behind.
She reached the corner and darted around it, conscious of the fact that no-one had yelled.
In fact, no-one had even seen her leave.
Continue to 02 >
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notes
Hi there. :D Welcome to Derelict Sims. This is the end result of a plot I've had in my head for five years - hopefully, it won't take five more years to write and present. Although I have written stories before, this is my first sim story - so with any luck, I'll have a fast learning curve.
You won't see much of me, apart from posting the occasional outtake, and in comments of course.
Obviously, I made none of the CC, and I'm so very grateful to those that did. Finding the right themed stuff for this was hard. @_@ A resource post is in the works, but if you see anything you want to know the source of, fire away.
Until next time!
Note: chapter reformatted April 5, 2011.