Chapter Seven:
Siobhan rolled her eyes.
“We’ve got bigger problems here,” she said. Linn sighed.
“I know, it’s just my way of whistling in the dark. Hey, I bet he can still see us.” She did this little wave. Siobhan shrugged.
“If he’s not in his car on the way back to the station. I bet he’s forgotten all about us.” Siobhan swiveled around, taking in the depressing scenery: the rubble, the craters, the dust. Everything looked dead.
“You’re so pessimistic sometimes.”
“Just realistic.”
Linn sighed. “I don’t feel like having the argument with you right now, Siobhan. What do we do now?”
Siobhan shrugged. “How about-”
There was a ripping sound. Siobhan looked down to see all her stuff on the ground. The duffel must have broken.
“Oh, damn, Linn, can you help please? I’d forgotten how old this thing was.”
“Yeah, sure,” she said. They bent over and started grabbing some of the things. Linn opened her own bag and started shoving them in there.
“I think we’ve got space,” Linn said. Suddenly, though, all the peri who had been sleeping or just ignoring them came over, like they could tell there was food nearby. A swarm developed around them. Soon there was a group trying to grab the stuff, grabbing at whatever they could. Siobhan started to run as the peri saw her and Linn.
“Run!”
And soon they were both running, the weakened peri behind them.
“I thought you wanted to help them!” Linn said, out of breath already.
“I did, but not if they’re going to mug me!”
Siobhan tripped over something and fell, rolling down into one of the craters caused by the bombs. She moaned. Everything hurt, it felt like she was on fire-
“Siobhan? You all right?” Linn asked from the rim, scared. Siobhan felt herself drifting, blackness growing behind her eyelids. “Siobhan? Siobhan!”
The last thing she saw was Linn making her way down the crater, trying to get to her.
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She woke up with a start. She could hear a beeping noise beside her.
Then the pain came, rolling in. She clenched her teeth, trying to ignore it.
“Shit,” she said to nobody in particular. Then she remembered what had happened. “Where am I?”
A lady came in, wearing scrubs and looking official.
“Good, you’ve woken up,” she said.
“Where am I?” she asked.
“City of Lights,” the nurse said, concentrating on filling something Siobhan couldn’t see.
“Again, where am I?” she asked, confused. City of Lights? Is she tripping? She looked around. More importantly, am I tripping? How did I get here?
“You know, the resistance movement. Didn’t he tell you?”
“Who?” Her head was spinning. The beeping slowed down. She groggily noticed a tube that was feeding into her arm. She hadn’t seen it before. All she wanted to do was close her eyes and sleep.
“Keenan. He sent us your tracking code. We found you in that crater.”
Everything was slowing down, and she felt oddly giddy yet tired at the same time.
“That should be good,” the nurse said. Realizing with a sense of horror that the nurse was drugging her, Siobhan blacked out again.