Atlas Abandoned

Fissure (3 years since the alarm/ 1 year since the crash)

In fact, if there were any redeeming qualities about The Northerner besides that it made it easier to forget about their problems from before, it was Pallas' remarkable ability to fit in here. The same rude, scrappy behavior that used to isolate him and get him in trouble actually brought him a sort of celebrity status with his peers. He quickly gained the admiration of a small gang of kids who were similarly orphaned, angry, or otherwise bored. These kids, all slightly younger than Pallas, would follow his orders no matter what kind of shenanigans they mandated. So far, in the year they'd been here, Pallas had only gotten into trouble with authority figures once prior to acquiring his little army. That was when he beat up another kid who was doing the exact same thing.

The door to the group home flew open as Pallas and a couple of his minions stomped in, hunching over with laughter. Everyone else in the home, including Demeter, was getting ready for bed. It was common knowledge among the kids through gossip that Pallas' gang was starting small fires all over The Northerner as some sort of initiation or dare game.

"I have to talk to you, Pallas," she tried to get him to be serious for once, but he was blatantly ignoring her. It didn't take long for her to give up trying.

Demeter did her best to ignore them as they bantered, but lately it seemed like every action; every word that came from the vicinity of Pallas or one of his goons was overly inciting, instigating or obnoxious. It was starting to drive Demeter crazy in the cramped quarters of the group-home, since her life was crammed into a 10 square foot area next to Pallas' and he always had visitors and his visitors always made picking on Demeter one of their priorities when they were around. It was as if her brother encouraged it.

"Hey! Deemy! Dummy! Hey! Hey. Hey. Hey," one of Pallas' friends was standing next to Demeter's bunk teasing her as she rolled over to face the wall, pulled her blanket over her head.

"Go be annoying somewhere else," she mumbled. Demeter figured if she ignored the kid long enough, he would eventually go away and Pallas would go to bed. On the contrary, after about 20 minutes a few more kids showed up and they started talking about their grandiose plans to pull off some sort of big prank in the cafeteria. She didn't want to know what they were doing, wasn't going to convince them to leave, and certainly wasn't going to get any sleep at this point, so she got out of bed, grabbed a sweatshirt and some sandals, and left.

Wandering the halls of The Northerner was a very different experience than on The Phoenix. Before, you could easily find some solitude in the hallways and various utility rooms if you kept to yourself and didn't bother anybody. Demeter used to go sit by herself in big, empty halls and watch the Earth spin slowly through the giant windows. It was so peaceful for her. On this colony, though, it was never dull. There was always a rush of people going to work, from work, or running errands. The halls smelled worse, miscellaneous rooms were all filled over capacity with storage, and spots that might have been tolerable to sit and keep to oneself often had drug addicts who lost their way home, but were cognizant enough to hide from patrolling soldiers. Demeter laughed to herself as she passed one such addict, thinking 'Here I am, 12 years old, and my legal guardian couldn't care less what I'm getting into.' She knew she'd have no trouble getting permission to go to The Tesla if she ended up deciding to go with Professor Thanes.

Since Demeter spent so much time exploring the station, she had found one place to go that nobody else ever seemed to discover. One of the Wildnerness chambers that was well barricaded due to seemingly eternal maintenance was actually full operational. Someone must have forgotten to fill out a form or tell the right maintenance worker about it. Maybe the maintenance worker, like most of them, just didn't care enough about their job to do any work. Whatever the reason, Demeter was thankful and, when nobody was paying attention, slipped into the Wild. It was set to a cold, snowy environment and had been that way ever since she discovered the room.