Mission 615

Chapter 11

Hunter looks at me like I'm a ghost.

"You're.. You're from Earth," he stammers.

I nod. Hunter leans back against the wall.

"I knew there was something off about you, but I didn't think it would be this bad."

"What do you mean, this bad?"

"Earth is the most corrupted planet in this sector of space."

"Corrupted?" I ask. 
"You and your kind are the closest planet to extinction."

"Says the one living inside a desert in a society where there are barely any men."

"There are four and that's more than enough," Hunter replies. "Now shut up, already. I'm not getting paid enough to deal with this."

Hunter storms off down the hallway.

"You are charming, aren't you?" I mutter, following him down the hall.

I sit on a chair in the corner of Hunter's small bedroom. He lays on his back atop his bed on the opposite side of the room, staring at some kind of holographic tablet. We hadn't spoken anymore since earlier and honestly, I'd resigned myself to reliving the past day in my head. Each time I remember more details and parts of this strange land start to make sense. The women must live in the city and all the men must live in the caves. The only solution to why Hunter was here was maybe that he was too young to leave with the rest of the men. But could the two groups really have been split for his whole life? I've yet to learn how old he was but I'm guessing around eighteen. That's a long time without any contact with over half the society. What could've happened to make the sides split? Sure Earth was not always a great place, but things this backwards were unheard of.

A soft knock on the door pulls me out of my thoughts. Hunter glances up.

"Come in," he yells. The door opens moments later and a pale face pops in through the gap. Her long strawberry hair cascades over her shoulders as she walks into the room. Her eyes fall over Hunter and then me.

"You're just keeping her prisoner here?"

"No one else was volunteering for babysitting duty," Hunter mumbles, returning his attention to the tablet.

The girl comes towards me.

"Hi, I'm Sadie. The unfortunate cousin to this Grinch."

I offer up a tight smile that she returns with far more commitment than I could ever muster.

"What do you want, Sadie?" Hunter asks.

"Freya told me to take Jemma for the night, unless you were planning on making her sleep in that chair," Sadie says, casting me an apologetic glance.

"Fine, but don't let her try anything. She comes back to me in the morning."

Sadie bows dramatically.

"As you wish, oh great one," she laughs, resting a hand on my shoulder to guide me from the room.  

Right as we're about to cross the threshold of the door, I remember the bracelet around my wrist and stop abruptly.

"The bracelet." I shudder at the thought of the shock.

Sadie smiles. "Don't worry." She holds up a small device she'd stored in her jeans pocket. "A couple of us have them."

I follow her out of Hunter's room and let out a sigh of relief once the door closes behind us.

"I'm sorry about him," she apologizes. "He's just very.. protective."

"Over what? His ego?" I question.


"Well that's a given," Sadie laughs. "I guess over all of us. It's complicated. He'll get over it eventually and then you won't have to deal with that fashion nightmare." She points at the metal cuff on my wrist.

I wake up the next morning to a soft ringing. Slowly, I untangle myself from the crisp white sheets and let my feet fall to the floor. I reach over and slap the light switch. Sadie shifts on her bed a few feet away, her mop of red hair shading her face from the light. I hop out of bed, feeling better than I have in weeks. A new change of clothes waits for me on the dresser along with the clothes that I'd worn in the desert since the crash. They'd been repaired and scrubbed clean, no longer standing testament to the hardships Jackson and I had faced. I quickly slip the large red hoodie over my head, stuffing my hands in the pouch. I wander through the threshold of the door into the bathroom, carefully listening to make sure the bracelet on my wrist doesn't start its warning. Thankfully, it stays silent as I pull my shaggy blond hair back into a high pony tale. Once I'm finished, I wander back into the small white room Sadie had brought me to the previous night. She still sleeps soundly, the sheets twisted around her body in a heap.

I cross my arms, unsure of what to do. Do I risk waking her up or do I just wait around a little longer?

I attempt to wake the sleeping girl, but she hardly stirs and I give up after a few minutes, dropping into a heap by my bag. Someone must've brought it in with my clothes after, no doubt, inspecting all it's contents. Everything seems to be inside except for the water proof lighter. Evidently, they didn't want me setting their little kingdom on fire. I'm not that mischievous, usually. Well, the more times I get shocked by this stupid bracelet, pyromania might actually seem like a legitimate form of revenge.

Corrupted. That's what Hunter had called the people of Earth. Sure, I knew Earth wasn't always an amazing place, but corrupted? Unless something had happened when Jackson and I were out of it.

I rummage through my bag, removing the tablet. The small battery pack on the back had been crushed during the crash and the screen needed to be fixed. Nothing an hour in a decent lab couldn't fix.

I glance back over at Sadie. If she ever wakes up. Or do I need her awake?

Slowly, I creep over to other side of the dresser where a pile of Sadie's clothes lie in a heap. I grab her jeans and find the small device in her pocket.

After one last look at Sadie, I slip out the door, tablet in hand.

I wander down the crisp hallway back in the direction of Hunter's room and the only exit I'd seen to whatever this building was. The halls are mostly empty, leaving me alone with the sound of my own footsteps.  I glance into the square windows on some of the doors, silently wishing one of them would hold a small lap or at least workshop of some kind. I keep walking, the hallway slowly angling in one direction. Two double doors separate the hallway from the next corridor. I push it open and a big dome opens up in front of me. It extends several stories up, balconies lining the different levels. One floor below, a huge lab fills the floor space. Two women work on one side but they don't notice me coming in. I trot down the staircase to the bottom level and plop down at one of the workstations, getting to work on fixing the tablet. Finally, after much tinkering, I get the screen to light up and try to salvage what little of the solar cells that weren't smashed. In the end I get something about five times less efficient, but working nonetheless. As I work, I keep expecting to see Hunter or Sadie barge into the space but neither of them do. Maybe Sadie hadn't even woken up yet? I decide not to let it bother me. They would find me soon enough, it would be easy enough. I was working out in the open, wearing a bright red hoodie. What more do I need to do, leave a trail? Evidently, they don't get many prisoners and I know for a fact they don't stay prisoners very long. I wouldn't consider myself a criminal mastermind whatsoever, yet here I am roaming free. Unless that was there plan?

I glance up at the double doors once again before turning on the tablet. It flashes on to the 'Mission 615' logo before returning to the menu. I click on data. This single device would tell me everything about the time between when Jackson and I had been put to sleep, to waking up just before the crash.

I scroll through the information, my eyes widening the more stats that come up on the screen. I'm not sure what had happened during that time, but something had gone terribly wrong.