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CHAPTER ONE - WHITE
Everything was... oh, what was the word? Gone? Absent?
That wasn't right. Nothing could be gone, nothing was ever there in the first place.
She wondered what she was even seeing, if her eyes were even open.
She blinked them twice for good measure; definitely open. What was she looking at then? No shadows, no contrast, nothing a person with all five senses could note. It was just a lot of...
White.
That was the word, everything was the color white. Remembering the word kicked her brain into function. Okay, well where is this white? Why am I here? How could I have forgotten what color was in the first place? She looked down, sight meeting a different color. Pleasantly peachy, pleasantly pink. Pleasantly not white.
Thus was the color of skin, she assumed. Her skin. The body she had been numb from for... how long? She moved her fingers, then her hands, then her arms, each with achey, long needed practice. She sat up, finally able to study the rest of her; all in tact, just tired, lying on the floor of a bright white room. On her skin rested comfortable monochrome white clothes, the only contrast being the thin shadows of her body in the light - wherever it came from, for there didn't seem to be any light sources in the room- and her dark brown hair as it fell over her shoulders.
Her brain began to panic almost; why am I here? How did I get here? Where am I?
Who am I?
Her ears decided to join in her recollection process before she could fully contemplate her identity, for a sound faded into earshot. An alarm; a muffled, sharp sound of an alarm, not unlike a siren. She stood in the direction of the sound, legs buckling with a lingering fatigue as she hobbled to the wall of her cubical cage. A small black line- no, an indent was etched, square and neatly hidden. Carefully placing her ear on the cool, smooth surface, her suspicions were confirmed; the alarm was somewhere beyond the confines of her cage. Just on the outside...
Leaning on the wall, the small section clicked and noisely scraped upward, as if it were being dragged upward as it disappeared into the ceiling. From her spot on the wall, she jumped and nearly toppled over in shock. The alarm, significantly louder now, hung from the ceiling in front of her cell.
The colors almost hurt her eyes as she took them in all at once. Squinting, she concentrated as a metal hallway came into focus in front of her. The alarm spun and pulsed with confusing red light and ear splitting shrieks in a continuous rhythm, all but rupturing her ear drums. Adjusting to the sudden sights and sounds, the prisoner stood, cautiously creeping from her safe confinement. The gaping mouth of a hallway stretched for several yards away from her, doors similar to her own lining the walls. Some were bent beyond opening, some untouched and sleek. She moved to take a wobbly step into the dark new environment.
A last comforting, yet unnervingly unatural thought flashed in her head. She thought it a relief that her brain was functioning, yet a suspicious red flag all the same. This was nother own thought, yet it was sensible, motherly almost.
Back to safety.
It was telling her not to leave, to return to her room, shut the door, and sleep once more. That much was clear, but she fought it. How could she return to an unconciousness such as what she had awoken from? She had no idea where she was, who she was. The fact irritated her, and she decided she had to know. She moved to complete her first step away from her former home.
Do not leave.
Her body froze, as her head told her to do so. Her mind throbbed and dripped with the thought as it overwhelmed her mind. It was not natural, it was not her mind. Gripping the sides of her head, a wispy, worn out whimper escaped her throat, a voice that had not been used in quite some time. Each time she thought anything at all- Why must I stay? Why can't I leave? Who are you? - the idea melted away, replaced by the loud voice in her mind, do not leave.
Her body prepared itself to give in, the pain growing too great, when a tremor shook the hall. She lost balance and fell forward, over the boundary of the room and out into the hallway. Instantly, the thought infesting her head vanished, and her mind eased. She gasped for air as the pain subsided. Swallowing hard and looking up dizzily, she scooted hastily away from the room. The white walls that had looked so welcoming when she awoke, were now ominous and eminating the feeling of greed, of prison.
Moments later, regaining her composure and standing again, she realized what the tremor was. The muffled shouts and yells from outside the hall on the other end, the smaller quakes and crashes that followed; it was warfare.
Or so she guessed, she had never actually experienced warfare before. At least, not that she could remember. Not that she could remember anything at all. But the rapid ticking of bullets and panicked commands? It couldn't be anything but.
The prisoner of war continued her journey down the hall, her path thrown awry by exterior explosions. The doors she passed were no longer sleek and orderly, but now dented beyond opening or slightly ajar, wires sparking at indents torn open. She held her eyes on the hallway exit, averting her gaze from the sickening white lights flowing from the chambers now exposed. She thought there could be people contained there, just like her, someone with the answers possibly, yet she had no desire to stop and find out. Hugging herself feebily, she forced the door - which had fortunately remained in a usable condition - open with her shoulder.
The sounds of conflict were clearer now, though still a dark, deshiveled metal hallway stretched out before her; this time, to her left and right. Doors sat in their assigned spots as they did in her own hallway. To her right, double doors loomed further down the corridor, a warden of all the passageways combined. To her left, stairs akin to the color of the metal spiraled upward and away, past the ceiling. Well, where there were stairs, there was height, she decided. Where there was height, there was a roof were she could figure out her location. If not a roof, then a window of sorts, at least.
She chose the stairs.
~✾~
The stairs were a long, ascending spiral of darkness. She had a assumed they would lead up a few floors to the top of the building, but not so much as a crack in the wall hinted at any sliver of the outside world. Blue strips of pulsing light trailing upward were her only aid of vision. She stopped to take a breath, estimating she had covered at least five floors, yet she had come in contact with no other doors or hallways.
Looking up, the amnesiac could see small flashes of light. The tremors had ceased, though the occasional rumble persisted, threatening to knock her off her feet and send her tumbling into the darkness at any time. The thought that she might even be underground instead of above ground only occured to her as she studied the lengthy distance she had covered.
Suddenly, a massive flash of light filled her vision. The sheer sound of the explosion in the wall next ro her blew her back towards the raling of the stairs and canceled out all her senses.
All sounds muted, a loud ping in her ears pulsed in her hearing. Her body came back into focus, the prisoner suddenly in pain all at once, followed by her vision. A blurred white circle filled her vision. At first she panicked, white? She hated that color, it reminded her of her cell, of the room that tried to keep her trapped. Her mind ceased to race as she realized it wasn't white, but blue. Not a dark electronic blue as seen in the walls of the metal labyrinth, instead a soft blue. Splotches of white dotted the picture before her, yet it didn't bother her. This white was different, shapely white puffs of greys and pale blues.
What startled her the most was the nostalgia. She knew this color, the feeling of her skin being swept by air... it was wind, she recalled. The beauty of it stunned her, and she almost felt like she could remember something... something about the sky. Before she could grasp it, it slipped away from her just as easily.
With a shake of her head, she took it all in. The wall next to her had exploded from something outside, revealing the sky. But it wasn't just the sky above her; it was all around. Poking her head out of the hole barely smaller than the cell she'd bee trapped in and adjusting to the fierce wind, she saw it; sky, everywhere. Above her, below, all around. It would have struck her as beautiful, had she not noticed the drop to the ground below. She seemed to be peeking from the side of a floating mountain, far above the ground. The green land was dotted with pebble sized trees clotting together here and there in green pillows. A pencil thin river sliced through the centers and snaked off over the horizon.
Above her, she stared in awe as she discovered what had disintegrated the wall next to her. An airship, the size of a small building. It was huge enough to make you question how it could fly, and sleek enough to give you the answer. It was docked to a peak jutting out above her, and seemed to be the origin of all the panicked souts and sounds. Wherever she was, the place was being attacked.
The girl turned to continue her journey up to possible safety, only to find the stairs above her had been blown away from the impact. She searched desperately for a another way up, yet the section of metal had fallen to the stairs below, blocking her way back down as well. Her stomach tightened and her palms began to sweat as she realized she would have to climb outside.
A metal pipe lined the rock below her, not helping with the fact she was miles above the ground. It inclined up to a rocky cliff where climbing up to the outcropping with the airship seemed possible. It was yards away, and seemed mildly crazy.
"Not that I have a choice..." she thought.
Swallowing the butterflies now fluttering her stomach, she clung to the obliterated wall with a death grip. She lowered her body shakily down onto the pipelne; her right leg in a crouch on the ledge as her left barely brushed the surface. Her foot slipped and her right leg followed, planting itself violently on the pipe to steady herself. Half standing, half hanging on the thin metal, she eased along the wall, grasping for anything remotely passing as a handhold. She stopped as something caught her eye. She could now see heads bob just over the outcropping as people frantically ran back and forth, crouching and ducking for cover. People were retreating to the airship as it revved to life.
That's when she saw her. Another girl about her age backed up to the edge of the outcropping behind a pair of crates, dangerously close to the ledge. Her pale blonde, almost pink-tinged hair was tied in two messy braids slung over her shoulders. She was nocking an arrow in a pearly white and gold bow, the arrowhead misting with a strange wispy aura. She stood and released the arrow, followed by an explosion that would have knocked any regular person off the eldge, yet she stood almost unfazed.
At the same moment, the spectated also noticed the spectator. The girl laid her brilliant blue eyes on the dishiveled, scared, confused amnesiac clinging to the side of the cliff. Judging by her frantic gaze, she seemed surprised, and of course had a reason to be. The amnesiac was studied in a split second and that impression suddenly turned to hatred, or something of the like. Confirming her suspitions, the girl nocked anther arrow, aimed straight down at the pipeline. The stranded prisoner, left nowhere to run, crouched down, hanging by feeble handholds in a desperate attempt to make herself a smaller target.
When the arrow didn't make contact and no explosion flung her off the wall plummeting to her doom, she opened her eyes again and looked up. The girl had redrawn her bow and seemed to pity her. She barked an inaudible comment to a comrade behind her, and they both fled to the airship without a single glance back.
Both relieved to be alive yet insulted to be denied salvation, the prisoner stood shaking along the pipeline again. The airship, easily deflecting enemy ammunition, floated away from the outcropping and slowly hovered as several people from the lower deck fired back with their own weapons, among them the archer. Her pursuer pointed to the pipeline and her heart skipped a beat. The airship turned its attention and began making straight for her. Like a trapped animal, all she could do was wait and shield herself as best she could.
Again she expected unfriendly fire and for her perch to be gunned down, though for the second time all was still. Over the roar of the wind and the revving of the engines, she heard a voice. Looking at the airship agian, now only a few feet from the cliff face, the people on deck were ushering her towards the airship. They gestured for her to jump, even the archer as she looked frantically between her and the people above them, possibly readying another attack. The prisoner hesitated in fear, following the archer's gaze. Their opponent was racing back and forth, and in a heartbeat they aimed their guns at the airship.
She hardly noticed the archer leap easily from the deck to the pipeline right next to her, almost causing her to lose her balance.
"Don't fall," was all she said in a sweet, almost cheeky voice as she hauled the girl from her position and pushed her, out into midair, towards the airship.
The moment she spent suspended in the air was slowed down in her mind. It felt as if she could study everything that happened; birds flying below, wind on her bare skin, her flailing limbs. It took her breath away, the feel of it. Flying, almost. What breath was left was pushed from her lungs as she landed with a thud on the metal floor of the airship deck, at the feet of several people. Her mind sped into real time agian, and she gasped for breath, barely able to figure out what just happened. She felt hands on her as they helped her up and she almost panicked again. Standing, the archer leapt back gracefully onto the deck as an explosion rocked the ship, and her new ride pulled away from the clifface and officially fled.
At first, all was silent. Then arose the few curious murmurs to one another about who this girl was and what she was doing hiding on the pipes.The archer in front of her was unfazed. She simply grinned at her and spread her arms wide.
"Welcome aboard the Gypsy."
 Charmcress · Sun Sep 07, 2014 @ 10:57pm · 0 Comments |
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