Realistic or Modern The Colony

[Petronov]

Waking up face down on the hood of a burned out BTR wasn't the way I wanted to begin my day. I peeled my face up off the hood and stumbled to my feet only to be hit with the sight of an immense, towering structure off in the distance. At first I was clueless just staring ignorantly at the massive construct but that is when it hit me. It was the wall. I shook my head and checked my gear but everything in all my pockets was gone. Every pocket sat open as I finally caught sight of a small rectangular black case. I quickly opened the case which revealed at first, a ten count pack of military grade glow sticks. Underneath the package in the foam lining of the case was a disassembled Fort-14TP 9mm Makarov semi-automatic hamdgun. Having no idea how to assemble it I pulled the lining out to see if anything was underneath and it revealed a small note. I read the note and folded it into one of my pockets before closing the case and looking at my more immediate surroundings. I was in some kind of old battlefield, it was littered with wrecked vehicles, trenches, crashed aircraft and other fortifications. Shrapnel littered every inch of ground not covered by wreckage, rocks or ash. On closer inspection I found people that looked like that were breathing lying on the ground around the wrecked BTR. I sat on the turret and let the situation sink in. I also saw several pallets nearby that looked like they had been dropped from a plane. I thought about checking them out but as I stood up to go look, the people around me began to wake up.

 

[TEOYL]

Deus slowly placed his hand onto his head as he began to awake. His eyes peeked open minorly, then jotted open as he noticed the scene around him. "Oh no, oh no no no." He said to himself as he stumbled to his feet. He quickly took in the area around him and spotted a man sitting up by a nearby turret mounted on a BTR. He stood still a moment, and thought about what his next few actions should be. The shock was still strong, so it was hard to think straight. Deus just wanted to shout and confront the man of taking him here, but reason slipped through his train of thought. He slowly walked over to the man and spoke. "Who are you, and why are we here?" he asked in a shaking voice.

 

[Amerikia1126]

Lucy held her head as she started to wake up. She opened her eyes and saw people in various states of walking up around her. What was going on? On top of her was a black case with her name on it. Inside was a first aid kit and a note which she quickly read. "What's going on?", she asked as she took a mental inventory. Strange place, strange people, giant wall, one shoe... Wait, giant wall? Were they in Russia? She was surrounded by shrapnel and ash, what had happened. Lucy quickly stood up, and nearly fell down again. One shoe? Seriously? She started to panic, "What am I doing here?"

 

[Calibutcher]

Marquist awoke with a groan. He sat up slowly and began to look around it all came to him very slowly, there were strange people around him and destruction every where he looked. Then he saw it the piece that put it all together for him. It was the wall. not just any wall literally 'The Wall' the one that had separated the rest of the world from whatever had been happening in here. No one knew what was going on back here and Marquist knew the stories of those who came back here. He stood up and looked around he checked his pockets which seemed empty but once he actually searched them he found a note. He read the note with a scowl on his face. It was very clear now where he was there was no denying it. Marquist saw one familiar thing though and took heart just at the sight of it. It was his Cello he immediately picked it up and held it. It's familiar weight and smell brought a lot of comfort to him and he continued to hold it close to him as he took a couple steps towards the others to see what they were doing. From the looks of it it was not much though. He did not say anything as words would not come yet he just stood there holding his Cello he had to fight back tears. Now was not the time to cry so he mustered himself and stood up straight and did his best to look brave for now.

 

[WantYourSoul]

Sam first feels a hot sensation pressed against the flesh of her nose and forehead. On her second inhale, her senses return. The metallic tang of something hung muted in her nose and cast a bitter taste down her throat.


As she opened her eyes, she saw... Herself. Reflected in a shard of metal that has been polished to a dusty sheen, Sam realizes that she came seriously close to losing her nose.


She then sits up, a bolt of fear and adrenaline waking up her senses sharply. Her bag rolls from her lap but she momentarily ignores it. This was not a bus, nor the university campus. It was too arid and looked of a battle lost long ago.


"Oh my god," Masami Ito gasps.


There were others spread around her, looking equally confused and frightened.


Remembering her bag, which should contain her phone and keys, Sam dives for the bag that had rolled to a stop against a miniature dune of dirt striped entirely of minerals.


Study material... The flashlight she won in class the other day... And the batteries she had bought that morning to replace the ones in Mr. and Mr. DeCoursie's remote.


Wrapped around the flashlight was a note, half of it in French and the other half in English. Masami knows she didn't leave anything of the sort in her bag before a big test. So she concludes it must explain why she's here. Glossing over it, eyes unable to focus in her panicked state, Sam begins thinking of some explanation other than the crazy words contained in the note.


Speculations were coursing through her ever-busy mind and the words "Faulty English?" and "Simulation" and "Virtual Reality" are popping up frequently, but there was a darker subtone of "War", "Russian","wasteland" all waiting just below the surface.


She glances over the paper again.


Fear struck its icy talons deep into the back of her neck, reminding her of the date nine years ago.


She could still remember teams of parents going to Russia to build a wall. She could remember the overhead view leaked online of the devastating surroundings. The tsunami that rocked Japan a week thereafter from the intense shock of the explosion decimated a great gap of Japan and brought with it a tide of irradiated waters.


Faintly on the horizon, Sam could see the outlines of a wall. And somehow, she realized she was on the wrong side of it.


As she keeps her gaze trained on the outline, hazy with skyborne sand, one word registers in her mind.


"Kamchatka."

 

[Whisker]

Jack woke up with a start and catapulted immediately to his feet with cat-like precision. He stumbled a little upon gaining them, his dark eyes wild and his hand coming up to blot out the sun ... only there was no sun. It was as cloudy and dark as the mountains before a snowstorm; and though it was pretty cold, it wasn't that cold.


Just where the fuck am I? What ... happened?


He dropped his head down to his shirt and wiped the sweat from his face. It helped with some of the eerie whiteness and before too much longer the world regained it's color. The moment it slid back into focus, Jack fell forward to his knees and proceeded to vomit everywhere upon the ground, his shoulders shaking as the last of the drug he had been given left his system in a rush. When the mess was finished, the man shakily wiped his mouth with the back of his gloved hand and fell back onto his ass.


From what he could tell, he was sitting beneath the wreckage of an old F-18 Hornet with a Grizzly insignia on the crippled and battered wing. The whole thing was lopsided and run into the ground, rusted and dented with moss and dirt from a time long gone. With a shaky breath, he looked away from it and observed the desolate landscape instead: a myriad of broken buildings intermixed with the instrument of war long forgotten just like the plane at his back. And in the background looming over them all was a great wall that could be seen for miles. A wall he had seen only once on a newspaper article back at the farm.


No ... no fucking way. I was standing by my car I'm sure of it. I must have just fallen asleep waiting on someone. This shit ain't fucking happening. No ... no way.


Taking a deep breath in order to confirm his denial, he gave his skin a slight pinch and closed his eyes very tight.


Wake up, Jack. Wake up. You've slept long enough, man. Time to get up.


When he opened his eyes again, the decimated landscape remained fixed before his eyes and a cold chill ran up his spine. Trying to regain his feet once again, his knee banged against something and a small battered suitcase with a loose sheet of fancy paper resting at the top. As a means to satisfy his curiosity, he grabbed the note and read it once. Twice. A third time.


It was that he felt the last vestiges of his hope fade. This wasn't a dream. It was real. All of it. Trying to wash down his anger with a swallow, he saw a flicker of movement from the corner of his eye and saw others emerging from the wreckage. A thousand thoughts raced through Jack's head at once. Who were these guys? Were they all captured like him? Were they enemies? Could he trust them?


Putting his hunter instincts to work, the man melded out of sight instantly to watch, his eyes looking around at the same instant for something he could use as a weapon just in case.

 

[Cadee]

Dylan groaned softly, hands reaching up to massage her temples gently. 'What? What happened?' Her eyes opened, only to shut them again as they were assaulted by the bright sun piercing through the clouds. Groaning again she turned her head, catching the blurred figures of half a dozen people. Turning on to her stomach she pushed herself onto her hands and knees, blond hair falling around her face like a curtain as she hung her head and took deep breaths. It took a few minutes but eventually her head stopped pounding, the world stayed still and she was able to push off so she was sat lightly on her legs. Taking stock of herself she realized she was in her clothes from the gym-black jeans with a studded belt, black crop top with blood hound across it, green light winter jacket, and her chucks- but all her things were gone, keys, wallet, phone, everything. But there was a note. The only thing she had that she shouldn't.


Curiously opening the note she raised an eyebrow at the words, swallowing back the panic she could feel wanting to well up. 'An experiment? BEHIND THE WALL!! Ohhhhh my gosh. What....what...what the hell.' Blowing out a breath she stood up, nearly tripping on the string of a medium drawstring bag that was only a few feet away from here. Grabbing up the bag she looked inside it, calming slightly at the sight of the items inside it. They may not have been to incredibly helpful for anything other than an unarmed human but the familiar items soothed her in a way. Slipping on the hard knuckled gloves she flexed her hands, getting used to the feel of unfamiliar leather. Leaving the tape and paperweight in the bag she tied the bag to her beltloops, high on her right hip. The others were waking up, or in various stages of orientating themselves. Biting her lip she decided to stay back for a second. She wouldn't hide, someone probably already saw her, but she wasn't going to go running into a situation she had no idea about.

 

[Petronov]

I looked down at the people that were slowly regaining conciousness around me and thought back to a line in the note "Those around you were selected in the same way." A thought quickly crossed my mind, why bother lying about that? Before I could answer my own mental question one of the men that were waking up approached me slowly and asked me who I was and why he was here. I looked at him, then everyone else waking up and pushing the pain aside I stood up straight and announced to everyone "My name is Nickolai Petronov. Did anyone else get a note?" Dim hope filled my heart as I pleaded with fate to give me an answer to the man's second question. If I was religious I would have begged the sky to give me some kind of sign of a higher purpose but instead my eyes darted between the men and women around me. Each of them in a different state of dispair and drowsiness. Some sick, some hopeless, all scared. A man holding a cello like a teddy bear, a woman missing a shoe and others with various maladies sticking around and asking the same questions.

 

[TEOYL]

Deus stopped a moment and felt through his pockets to find a note. Doing so, he unfolded it and head it a few times over. "This is sick, sick." His heart pained him, as it was bursting with a mixture of emotions that could only be described as hopeless. Again, he thought to himself. "No, calm, this is a dire situation that needs to be handled with care. "Ave, my name is Deus." He looked behind him to see the others in their state. "Listen, Nickolai." He looked at the man, making sure he had his attention. The man spoke with jitters and stutters washing his tongue. "You look like you really know how to handle yourself, so I'm putting a lot of my trust with you. That said, I'm going to need a few things from you, but we'll get into that later. For now, I need you to scout around and see if you can find a nice and stable shelter; preferable one with multiple floors and a rooftop." He looked the man dead in the eyes. "do you understand?" Deus was surprised to know he was keeping himself together in such a situation.

 

[Amerikia1126]

Lucy felt betrayed. She had voted every year and been a good, law-abiding citizen, and now she was here, in Russia, with only one fucking shoe! She needed to calm down, calm down, and then take in a deep breath.... Now calm(er), Lucy started to go through a detailed mental checklist of her surroundings. Wall in the distance, some guy named Petronov who had apparently elected himself leader or something... , and some other guy named Deus who actually had good ideas. "Why are we all here?", she thought. She slipped off her remaining shoe and put it in her traveling bag, which she had thankfully had when she was stolen from her life. Right, her stuff! She had to have something left, right? She checked her bag and everything was gone. Her wallet, her phone, even her snacks for the trip were gone too. All that was left was her journal (still empty) and some pens. She slipped in her black case and put on her traveling pack. She decided to speak out, better to get to know these people sooner rather than later. "Hi, I'm L-lucy" She tried again, this stuttering wasn't getting her anywhere. "We need to find food, water, anything. And Deus is right, we need shelter too.", she said relieved she had been able to get that sentence out more or less in one piece.

 

[Whisker]

His careful backwards footsteps brought him into the shadows of a ruined building where he immediately dropped into a crouch so he could observe the others. There looked to be as many women as there were men and each looked different from the others. Like himself, they all appeared to be in a state of shock except for the one who suddenly stood and addressed the others in a calm yet commanding voice. At his words, Jack clenched his fist and felt his own note crinkle a little. He still had both it and the battered suitcase in his hands.


Taking a deep breath, he allowed himself to dwell on the things the note had said. It had obviously known who he was for it addressed him by his full name. It also knew what he did for a living on top of giving him advice for the future that it 'thought would come in handy'. Gritting his teeth, Jack looked away from the others around the corner and knelt to open his suitcase. Inside, he found a curved skinning knife, a bowstring, a whetstone, and his old harmonica. Though he did pick up the items and pocketed them carefully in his woolen jacket (the knife would be set to one side as weapon for the moment), he lingered longest on the last of them. As he closed his eyes, a faint memory played in his head like a flashback from a bad movie. He was playing around with it in Old Ben's Bar and showing off for his friends, rattling off one song after another while their raucous voices dredged up a harmony in the background. Then like a thunderbolt from the almighty heavens, he noticed a pair of eyes watching him. The loveliest green eyes he had ever seen in his life. And the woman those eyes belonged to could drop any man to his knees in hopeless abandon for her affections. And yet ...the way she was watching him, drinking him in with those eyes and light laugh ...


He breathed deeply and let his vision fall back into memory. Clenching the harmonica in his hand for but a second longer, he then roughly shoved it into his jacket pocket and returned to the task at hand. He couldn't afford to think of Elizabeth now. If he thought about her he was lost. And he could not afford to get lost right now. Not in front of these strangers. Not in this savage, barren wasteland. Not anywhere.

 

[Petronov]

Thinking on what the man had said I had to agree on some points. I looked up when a woman spoke and introduced herself as 'Lucy'. Turning to face the man I calmly said "Have you ever seen a horror movie? Splitting up is the absolute worse idea we could have right now. I agree that we need food, water and shelter but first we should look to the supplies on those pallets and check everyone for injuries." As I said said pallets I pointed at the airdropped pallets I had seen earlier, they had fallen just out of sight of the others from the ground. "As for shelter, the tallest building I see is two stories but the roof is caved in. The only stable shelter I see around are bunkers built into the trenches." I moved my finger from the pallets to a door down in one of the trenches a dozen meters away.

 

[TEOYL]

"I suppose that's a good idea, but I want to make time of the peace we have now to find a safe place. Like you said, we should check the equipment we've been given." Deus's eye caught sight of a small military grade container sitting next to Petronov. "Have you checked that out, seems like there'd be something useful in there." He pointed at the container as he spoke.

 

[Amerikia1126]

Petronov had a good point. It was a great idea to go check what equipment they had, but it seemed he and Deus were doing that already. Instead, Lucy decided to go check out the others and see if they needed any help. Almost everyone was already up and they seemed occupied, however there was one person still asleep. A young woman, about Lucy's age. "I wonder how much medication she's under", Lucy thought. This lady had to be moved to a safe place, whenever they found one. So she decided to stick with this mystery woman and guard her in her sleep, for now.

 

[Calibutcher]

Marquist was simply glad that these people started talking he did not care what they were saying at first he was just happy for the silence to break. Marquist set down his Cello on it's stand feeling some of the tension dissipate. He listned intently as they started to discuss finding shelter and food and such. At the mention of horror movie however Marquist added his Cello's opinion of 4 notes in a familiar patter. "dun dun dun dun..." The sound of his instrument at such a dramatic point brought a smile to his face for just a moment but he realized he just turned a lot of attention to himself and probably not in the best way. "sorry I'll keep it light and cheery from here on out I promise."


Upon further hearing about searching the pallet of old supplies and securing a building and not splitting up there were so many ideas and opinions. He had his own thought though he decided to voice such. "if we can stay in visual contact of one another splitting up should not be a problem." Marquist shrugged at the end of his statement just to be clear that his idea was a suggestion not a command.

 

[WantYourSoul]

Masami draws her legs to her chest and finally focuses entirely on the note.


Others..? Colonization?


The words rung hollowly in her mind and instead of hysteria, Sam felt an overwhelming sense of... It wasn't calm. But she felt as if she needed to do something.


The French bit confused her, but she got the gist of her note. Standing on shaky legs, Sam looks around at the others laying all around her. A twinge of pain shot through her leg as the first bout of adrenaline begins to fade, and she finally notices a drool of blood coating a dusty piece of metal in her thigh.


"Ah, dammit. And I thought this couldn't get any worse...."


Not pulling the shrapnel out, fearing it could have knicked an artery, Sam walk/limps forward. Her adrenaline high seemed to be fading more, and she felt as if she should be crying. But this was all so surreal. Someone must know what's really going on. She watched one of those prank shows with Mr. DeCoursie once, maybe they staged it as an early "Congratulations on Failing French. Again." gift to cheer her up. The emotionless state she was in was protecting her from a complete meltdown.


I really need a hug.

 

[Petronov]

Nickolai squated down and opened up his case again, this time actually trying to assemble the handgun within. After a few moments he finally had the gun together. He grabbed the magazine out of the box, slid it into place. Feeling a new sense of hope replace the dread inside he slowly placed his hand on top of the slide and gently pulled back, allowing every metallic twang of the gun calm him until the slide was all the way back. He released the slide and it slid forward with a satisfying 'chuk' noise. Looking up from the gun he noticed a woman limping off the side of the group and as he rose to offer aid, the man with the cello made his suggestion of visual contact. "I agree with you celloist, visual contact will be fine as long as a couple of us stay here to act as a rescue team and reference point. Since i'm the only one with military training, and a gun, I should stay here. And from the looks of that girl (pointing at Masami) she is in no condition to go scouting." At that, he holstered the Fort-14TP.

 

[Amerikia1126]

As Lucy sat with the sleeping lady, she noticed someone limping. She had something stuck in her leg, and like everyone else, she seemed to be scared. "I have a first aid kit, I can help.", she thought as she ran towards the injured girl, ignoring the shrapnel, rocks, and ash grabbing hold to the bottoms of her feet. As Lucy ran, she fumbled to get the first aid kit open and swiftly examined it's contents. It contained about half a roll of bandage, some rubbing alcohol, a needle and thread, a bottle of hand sanitizer, and a couple other bits and ends. "Hey! You, wait up!", Lucy yelled as she closed the kit. She hoped that she could help, it would be awful to be on this side of the wall not being able to run.

 

[Whisker]

With Elizabeth firmly pushed from his mind, Jack peered around the corner and paid attention to what the others were doing. None of them seemed to notice he had up and vanished from the center of the group, but that was to be expected really. He wasn't quite sure about them yet and only watching them would bring him any kind of answer as to what he should do. From what he could tell, the cello player and the nervous guy were talking to Nikolai about plans for food and shelter. All very important things to be sure. One of the girls was crouching over another who still hadn't gotten over the drug-induced coma the others had emerged from and seemed to be checking if she was okay. A third girl seemed to be in absolute shock though by the way she staggered forward from the ruins, it was quite clear something was wrong with her. An injury he couldn't quite make out from that distance. Then the last girl seemed to just be standing and observing the others much like himself though without being hidden.


As he satisfied his curiosity on pinpointing the location of all the others, he looked further past them to what looked to be air dropped packages scattered about the area. There seemed to be no question as to who those packages were meant for and with only a fleeting look towards the others, the hunter stole quietly from his position and began to inspect one of the nearby ones with his hand on his knife. He'd heard plenty of scary stories about the 'Zone' from the old guys back in the village though he wasn't sure yet as to what he should expect. He'd just have to keep his eyes open at all times even while taking the time to inspect the pallet.

 

[WantYourSoul]

Masami stumbles at the sight of a man with a gun, gripping her tattered bag protectively.


Today was a terrible day to wear her favourite skirt. It was actually a bad day to wear a skirt in general. No it was just a bad day overall.


Sam's head bobs slightly to the pounding of her heart in her ears and limps towards the survivors. A slight squishing in her shoe told of the blood seeping down her leg and into her shoes, signalling that the shrapnel must have shifted from all her movement.


Ah... It hurts. Dazed and confused, Sam stares about.


A man with a gun, one with an instrument, a girl laying down, and one standing, and then there was a man slinking away from the group.


The movement grabbed the shocked girl's attention and she moves to wave him back, but ends up dropping her bag. She glances from her hand, to the bag, to the retreating man in confusion. Did she wave with the wrong hand? Huh.

 

[Cadee]

Dylan stayed back, rolling her eyes slightly as the two men who introduced themselves as Deus and Nickolai seemed to have a sort of semi-pissing contest. Though they were both right there was no way anything was going to get done with those two talking at each other. Shelter was definitely the first thing to find, though now that attention had been brought to them, the pellets did strike the chord of curiosity within her. Who knows what was in them; food, water, weapons that might actually help in someway, a form of communication, a ladder...


Shaking herself out of her thoughts she scoffed at herself, that was not something she could afford to do right now. Zoning out was a habit she'd had since childhood, not a good one to have, but non the less she had learned to deal with it. But here, on this side of the wall, where who knows what was out to get them. There was no way this...whatever was happening was going to have a happy ending. Fingering the note in her pocket she almost stepped forward to introduce herself, but the conversation between the two men continued on quickly so she simply sighed and stayed back. 'I suppose there will be time to meet them later. Once everything is settled.' The suggestion to stay within sight of each other was a good one. And she agreed with Nickolai, he should stay in the center of the scout party, able to watch all of their backs easily. And the girl who was limping was definitely in no shape to go tromping around the barren wasteland. Clearing her throat she stepped forward, meeting the eyes of both the planning men.


"I'll go out and scout. It looks like a couple of the girls are out of commission right now, but with me, first aid chick over there, nervous cellist, and...Deus, right? With the four of us it shouldn't be a problem. Each head a different direction. Make sure we stay in sight. The lands pretty flat, I imagine we'll be able to get pretty...far..." She trailed off as she realized her ideas had gotten away from her, and the first words she had spoken at all seemed sort of like demands. Clearing her throat once again, this time in nervous embarrassment, she looked to the side and rubbed the back of her neck. "I..um...I mean if you want to. As a group.... I'm Dylan by the way." 'Damn! I suck at first impressions!'

 

[Calibutcher]

"Well I can stay here and be a middle point and help with the injured" Marquist went over to the girl with the bleeding leg and saw the severity of her injury. He addressed her " you really need to sit back down" Marquist set down his Cello and went to the girls side to help her sit down. Marquist took off his belt and began to use it to apply pressure to her leg and help reduce the bleeding. Marquist began to look at her leg closer and saw that the wound was pretty severe.

 

[Whisker]

As he knelt to study the pallet and check the inside of it for supplies, he felt a funny prickle on the back of his neck. The kind of prickle one gets when they're being watched. He looked up sharply and found himself staring into the eyes of the injured girl he had noticed earlier. For a moment, he knelt frozen with his eyes never leaving her face, a damn deer in headlights as it were as he waited for her to rat him out to the others in the area. Fortunately though, she quickly got distracted with a bag she had dropped, and the arrival of the Cello player to aid here would be enough of a distraction he needed. At once, he melded to the right so as to fall into the shadows of an old T-90 tank with the tread blown off and peel around the corner so as to make it back into the building. He arrived just in time to see the watcher woman address Nikolai with some good practical sense. With his snatched goods from the pallet, Jack would wait to see what direction they moved. He was kinda leery about approaching them now with the guy waving the gun around, so if he did make his entrance ... it'd be after that one and the girl left for that scouting trip.

 

[WantYourSoul]

Masami had glanced back toward the man after finding she couldn't bend without tremendous pain and a little squelching noise.


The sound reminded her of the time some of the kids in her group home killed a cat.


"You really need to sit back down," a man's voice startled her from her dazed thoughts.


Stepping backwards on her good leg, Sam squints at his chest... Then realizing he was actually that tall.


"I..." Her voice trails off as she tries tamping down the quaver in her voice. A slight shiver fear down her spine makes her whole body feel cold."But I can't bend my leg," she finally finishes lamely, tilting her head back to squint at him."You're tall."

 

[Amerikia1126]

Cello man reached the bleeding girl before Lucy could. Then he started to apply pressure to the wound, he certainly looked like he knew to handle a wound like that. "Okay, I'm invisible when I start yelling, good to take note of that," she thought as she headed back towards where the main group was, making sure to avoid the puddle of puke. As she approached the others, she began to overhear their conversation, "But with me, first aid chick over there, nervous cellist, and Deus, right?.... head in a different direction... stay in sight.... Dylan."


This Dylan girl wanted to explore? That was an awful idea, some one could get hurt! But then Lucy looked back at her bag, she did have a first aid kit. After more or less calculating the risks of unknown danger and splitting up, she decided it was a risky idea, but a good one to try. They did need to know what dangers they were facing, right? She began to address Dylan, "Okay Dylan, you came up with a good point, so I guess since we're obviously stuck here for an extended period of time, we should get to know the surrounding area. But does anyone have a rough estimate of the time? Becuase something tells me we shouldn't be out after dark..."