by Nexxus 3 Kline
"Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister
on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped
into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or
conversations in it, "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice,
"without pictures or conversation?" So she was considering in her own
mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy
and stupid) whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth
the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a white
rabbit with pink eyes ran close to her."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Nexxus sprawled in her chair some more. "Oy vey," she thought
to herself. "This is BORING!"
Mal was reading a book, it didn't have pictures, it wasn't
written in any language she'd seen before, and he wasn't giving up any
clues as to what it was about. Katze had gone to Chicago and Cal had
gone with her. Phoenix had been locked in the computer room all morning
working on the Comms system. Now that VR was finally getting organized,
there really wasn't much to do, especially on the weekends. Most people
had gone home, taking advantage of the fact that there wasn't much to do
lately - vacations don't come easy in the Jihad, after all. Nex was in
the process of deciding whether or not to go hunt down something to eat
when she dozed off from all the (non)excitement.
Maybe it was the smoke from the burning buildings and the sounds
of breaking glass to the tune of one explosion after another. The
screams of innocents and the smell of death - it really didn't matter
when it all came to an end. You don't know who you're shooting at if
you can't see. You can't see if you don't have the proper equipment.
War sucks.
"Collect weapons and proceed to next target." Never mind all
that "leave no one behind" crap. In this army you either walk away or
get left for dead. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened. They
were forced to leave him for dead. 13 years of friendship meant
nothing, not to them. They made her leave him and then they made her
organize the ceremony for those who didn't return. She told herself
that's why she left, convinced herself he was gone because of them. It
killed her to think about it any other way. Truth be known, it was her
group, if they'd had the correct equipment...if only they had been able
to see who they were shooting at...
She'd waited on the hill for days. It was the agreed place.
Should one of them not return, the other was supposed to wait on the
hill in case they managed to get themselves out. As slim a chance it
was, she wasn't ready to give up. She'd been there for 13 days, days
equal to the number of years they'd been together. The smallest price
to pay in return for all the many days he'd waited for her, hoping she'd
make it back from one mission or another. She'd scanned the horizon
continuously, hoping to see him walk out of the mist. Night after night
she'd denied herself sleep and food hoping to no avail and it was then,
after the second moon had come and gone, that she decided to leave.
Here she was again, on the mist covered hill, but she wasn't
alone. "Hello?" Nex called out into the mist. "Is that you? Sev?" she
added tentatively. There was no response. She couldn't see clearly -
not enough to make out who was there, anyway. "Who are you?" she
shouted. The figure only made a slight motion, as if she should follow,
before turning and starting to walk away. Being more than curious, she
followed quickly, hoping she could catch up with the mistlike person,
but always managed to be too far behind to get a good look. It seemed
that the faster she chased the farther ahead he/she/it got.
Eventually she found herself in the middle of a clearing
surrounded by thick forest. The figure was standing just inside, facing
the trees that formed the imperfect circle, back to her. As she caught
her breath the figure spoke, voice unrecognizable at first and slowly
took on familiar tones as the message became more clear.
"It was your fault," the voice said accusingly. "Your fault."
"Sev? Is that really you?" Nex asked, recognizing the voice.
"I'm sorry, I never meant..."
"I know where you live, I know your homeland," the voice
interrupted. This time, different: not Sev's, but someone's voice,
someone she knew and just couldn't remember.
"Who the hell are you?!" she demanded. "What kind of crap are
you trying to pull?!"
"She thinks she's being sneaky, thinks I don't know where she
goes on weekends...but I do!" the voice said menacingly. It was Josh.
"She thinks she can hide but I know who she really is, and it's too late
now!" Nex just stood there, the mist was doing strange things to her
eyes. Twirling, circling her and everything was fading into itself.
"She's going back to the Master now, I have her." The voice took on an
evil tone as the mist churned and collapsed in on itself. Nex felt
herself falling into a vortex as everything mixed and spun into a tunnel
of darkness.
"Kat!!!" she screamed in her sleep as she fell out of her chair
with an ungraceful thud. "Gotta tell Mal!" she thought to herself as
she jumped up off the floor and ran to the door, down the hall and ran
straight into Phoenix who was likewise running down the hall. "Katze!"
they shouted at each other in unison. "Uh, huh?"
"How did you know?" Nex puzzled silently. "Something's wrong
with Katze!"
"Yeah, I know...Cal just called from Chicago, and he said Kat is
missing. I'm supposed to round you and Mal up and were supposed to call
him back," Phoe explained, out of breath from running.
"OK, I'll get Mal, you go to the conference room and call Cal,"
Nex said.
"Will do," Phoe said, and walked swiftly off towards the
conference room.
Nex ran three or four steps towards the elevator and stopped.
"What the fsck am I doing?!" she asked herself angrily. "This walking
stuff is a bad influence!" She teleported to Mal's office.
"MAL!!" Nex burst into the office from nowhere (literally),
landing on Mal's desk. "Oops, sorry 'bout the footprints," she paused
to look where she was standing and hopped to the floor. "Kat's gone.
She's been stolen..." (Mal was glaring at her) "...or something. I said
I was sorry! Anyways, Cal and Cyo called Phoenix and he came to find us
but we ran into each other at the hallway and he said to come get you
because he's supposed to call Cal back so hurry up!" and with that, Nex
got going while the going was good.
To be continued in "Getting Lost."