Alien at Home

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Erik simply glared at the man as the barrel of the gun was pressed into his body. He'd answered the questions asked and he had no other information to give. As January took over the confrontation, Erik looked to her, then back to the other man and waited, still not moving even as the gun pushed into his chest.
 
"Fine" The man stepped to the side and motioned towards the door. "Keep moving and you'll be out in the big scary f'#ed up world in no time." He said and waited for them to get moving.
 
This man was infuriating! Before leaving this room she wanted some kind of idea what lay outside, and the least he could do was answer a question or two, after all they answered his. She also had no urge to walk in front of the man while he still held the gun, who knows, he might just haul off and shot them in the back for stepping funny.

January made no move for the door just yet, instead she focused her gaze on the mans face and spoke again in a calm soft tone.
“Let’s try this again eh? Could you please be kind enough to tell us your name and give us some idea of what happened outside before we go out into the *scary f^cked up world*?”
 
Erik had had enough. He didn't care to stick around any more. He had no patience for someone who wasn't going to be at least the smallest bit accomodating. He took the offered chance to leave and did so. Passing the three security doors, he turned the corner and took up a position leaning against the wall with his arms crossed to wait for January to finish her conversation.
 
The man shook his head and let his gun barrel drop to point at the floor. "I should have welded the damn doors shut." The fight just seemed to leak out of him.

"My name was Stephen, but now everyone calls me Ghost. I'll get you some clothes and then I'll let you know what you're facing. Do you think that any more of those bottles will be opening on me?" He asked
 
She was both glad and relieved that the man had changed his attitude and let his guard fall. With a soft hand she gave his shoulder a light pat and continued to gaze at his face, a small smile graced her lips as she spoke.

“I’m glad you didn’t weld them shut Ghost, for that would have meant certain death of starvation for me and Erik.”

She removed her hand from his shoulder but continued to speak in a friendly thankful tone. She had learned long ago that you drew more flies with honey then you did with vinegar.

"I thank you for both the offer of clothing * A slow blush rose to her cheeks as she remembered that she stood before this strangers wrapped in nothing less then two towels* and the details you can provide about what lays outside….I’m sure Erik did not go far, and I know he means you no harm, nor do I…I think..I think he is just frustrated…The people in the tubes where only suppose to be frozen for days, weeks at the most, but the Doctor in charge…Well, he kind of lost his mind with power…I don’t know much about the workings of the tubes but I’m sure if we find Erik he can answer your questions about those remaining in a frozen state in the tubes….”

Motioning towards the door with her left hand she smiled softly at him.

“Would you lead the way? Since this is your home, I do not wish to wander where you’d not like company…I’m sure will find Erik not to far from us…”
 
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Ghost shrugged and left the tube room, "Am I likely to get anyone else waking up from one of those?" He asked. Then once January was through the door he turned back and locked it. He did the same as he led January and Erik through each of the heavy doors. Once through they were greeted with the sight of a building in disrepair. The next room seemed to have a partly effective set of hydroponics growing a few pathetic looking plants. "Can't keep the power up all the time." He commented as they passed into the next room, which had a few sets of shelves with scavenged tins of food and a few bottles of water.

Finally they came into the room it was clear ghost was living in. A sad looking matress lay against one wall, a heavy steel footlocker against another and a few random books and bags of clothes lay scattered on the floor. "See if there's anything that will fit." He said and went to a table in the next room. The table had a flickering monitor showing a view of the tube room. Ghost unplugged a cable and swapped it for another changing the view to a grainy twighlight view of outside...
 
Erik chose to say nothing as the man once known as Stephen walked by him, but followed after January passed. When they reached Ghost's not-so-temporary campsite Erik finally answered the question as he went about looking for some reasonably decent fitting clothing. "Well I was only supposed to be frozen for five days. Judging by the amount of decay on January's clothes, and the fact that she was frozen at least a decade after me, I would say it's been at least a couple hundred years. Probably more. At least a dozen of those capsules were still active. Depending on their settings and when they were frozen, they could be waking up soon, or it could be several more years. I was the first to be frozen, so I don't have a lot of details."
 
As she listened to Erik speak to Ghost she also rummaged through the bags and piles of odd and end clothing. She finally settled upon what looked like a workers jump suit, it was a little to big for her small frame, but it was better then the towels by far. She waited tell both men where turned from her, dropped the towels and slipped into the jumpsuit, zipping it closed as she turned and walked towards Ghost and the flickering screens.
Though she had her back to him now, she was addressing Erik when she spoke.

“I think our host would prefer that no more awaken unannounced from the tubes. Is there a way to set up some kind of alarm that will warm him?”

She stopped before the screen, eyes wide with curiosity.

“What has happened to the world outside these walls?”
 
"Great. More strangers to look forward to." Ghost said and studied the image on the screen a moment.

"What happened? Wish I know the whole story. About six years ago, after we survived the vampire war and all the other s@&t that followed Capital City getting blown up, we thought those of us still alive were out of the woods. Then one day all hell broke loose. I was in a city about a hundred miles from here working in a lab owned by the Humanity First Corporation when we were hit by an earthquake that was frankly off the charts. The last ever news broadcast said that they expected about half the population died in the first six hours after the quake. After that it just got worse, and frankly I'm not sure what happened. The sky went red, then black, then white and suddenly everything was insane; magnetic storms, days of varying length, all sorts of wierd stuff. The best explanation I ever heard was we got hit by a falling god." He shrugged.
 
Erik nodded as he listened to the story and donned an old pair of sweatpants, the only thing he found that would reasonably fit his frame. "There should be a setting on the tubes that sets off an alert message ten minutes before one is going to be opened, but I have no idea if it would still work."

He went about looking for a shirt to no avail until the reality of Ghost's words finally hit him. "Wait. Did you say the Humanity First Corporation?" It wasn't so much the name of the company that caught his attention, but the combination of that and some of the details of what had gone on in recent history that struck Erik as attention-worthy.
 
Vampire wars, a city blown up, Humanity First Corporation, an earthquake so large that half the population died and a world left in chaos. The horror of it all paled her face and nearly dropped her jaw as the words he spoke sunk in.
Half of her mind was glad she'd slept through the holocausts that had assaulted the world; the other half feared what remained outside these walls and wished perhaps that she had not awakened. But she was here now and awake, and she would face what she needed to face in order to survive this strange new world.
She stood still, almost rigid in stance as her eyes gazed at the screen, unsure what she was looking at or for, while she listened to Erik and Ghost speak to one another, it seemed at least that they no longer harbored anger or fear at one another, this was a small relief in her mind.
 
"They basically made sure we won the war, and came out of it with half the goverment contracts going, as well as about a third of the companies still operating under their wing." Ghost said as he continued to study the screen.
 
Erik couldn't believe it was simple coincidence. It was impossible. One of the members of the crew who'd forced Erik's cooperation had been called Prophet, because he was obsessed with his own visions of what was going to happen in the future. One of his recurring prophecies was "The whole of the globe shall tremble because humanity is first."

None of the others understood it, including Erik, but the man they called Prophet was excellent at predicting what would happen in the near future, as well. Actually it was Prophet, himself, who'd gone to the police and turned the entire group in. Otherwise they never would have been caught. He was that good.

Erik couldn't believe that Ghost's story and Prophet's prediction just happened to be that close. But now Erik's mind was made up. "Alright we definately need to find a historian of some sort. No offense but there are simply too many things I need to ask that you won't be able to answer if you haven't done heavy studying of the past."
 
Ghost shrugged. "I've spent the last six years trying to forget."

Then he went to his footlocker and opened it up, carefully pocketing the key once he'd done so. He took out a tatty notebook and started leafing through it. "I sold a man some antibiotics I'd grown a few months ago. He seemed quite interested in the past. He said he was from the small town about two days from here. Went by the name Joseph." He offered.
 
While the two men spoke January still stood beside the flickering screen. When Ghost moved away she sat down at the desk, her eyes never straying from the grainy image flickering before her. She understood and agreed with Erik’s need to find a historian, to find out what had happened while they had slept. She wondered if Ghost would help them. Would he follow them out these doors he felt so safe behind to full fill this quest for knowledge?

Just as she was about to turn and give voice to this thought, something on the screen changed… Something moved past the camera! She let out a startled gasp!

“Ghost?! Something… Someone… I saw someone outside!

What ever it was, it was the size of a very large human but its features where hidden to well by both the dim lighting and what looked like a mask upon its face. It moved in and out of the cameras range with a swift but awkward speed. She backed up a little to allow room for both men to see should they wish to view the screen.
 
"Two days, you say, huh?" Erik hadn't really thought about measuring distance in the number of days. The simple fact that Ghost did measure it in such a way answered another question Erik had. Vechicles, if there were any at all, were a rarity.

Erik turned to the screen, but didn't move to get closer. Ghost would have a better knowledge about what it was that lurked outside. In a way, it was almost comforting to know that, even with all the changes the world had undergone, somehow, it was still the same old Ayenee, with surprise after surprise on a constant basis. Erik almost smiled at this thought...almost. "Can you make it out?"
 
"Could be anyone. There's a bunch of inkers living in the woods not far from here. I've made it pretty clear they're unwelcome but every so often they come back." He took a closer look at the screen. The man came back into view and there was a clear look at the face for a second; it was covered in tattoo'd lines and patterns.
 
She glanced up at Ghost as he spoke then returned her gaze to the image on the screen. Her questions seemed to flow out at a rapid pace, as if she needed to get them all out at once and be done with the answers to her current biggest worries.

“These. .Inkers?.. Are they dangerous? What else is alive or passing for living outside these walls Ghost? How unsafe is traveling two days from here? And are you sure this historian is still in the same spot?”

She knew the journey would take place, regardless of the dangers, but she wanted to know exactly what they would be faced with.
 
A creak of a door joined with a hiss, and another chamber starts to open. When closed it appeared as though the tube was empty, yet still functioning for some unknown reason. There was not even a name plate on it, so any walking by would assume an empty cryo-tube that someone accidentally started and could not stop. When the door fully opens as the internals slowly continue to warm up, curled up in a tiny ball upon the floor appears to be a human child of no less then a year and half in age. What would a child be doing in one of these things in the first place?

In truth, the person was not a child, but a victim of a very unfortunate set of events. His name was Daniel and he was actually a twenty-four year old male now trapped within the body of a toddler. No one would even know this fact, not even during this time of chaos, not even Daniel for now. As he slowly starts to awaken, his mind was filled with clouds as his identity and past were all shrouded within a veil of darkness within his mind. For now, all his mental reactions and thinking were that of a tiny child, and as time would pass more of the veil would be removed.

Slowly he continues to wake up with the deep grogginess and weakness flowing within his body, feeling as though he were ran over by a fleet of semi-trucks and then used as a mud-flap for a few miles. The cold air of the room bringing a different chill to his body, and instinctually he remains curled up within the tight ball to keep what warmth he has within. His mind was struggling to remember what had happened, and who he is, but nothing. A whimper filled with cold and fright exits his dry throat.

As the cryo-tube started to spring to life, and tiny light hidden by layers of dust upon the wall slowly starts to flash a red. A small hand etched scribble under the flashing LED stated Cryo-tube 6. It would seem as though someone had placed that light there in secret for it was the only one and made to be discreet while it and the tube’s sleeping charge lay dormant in stasis.
 
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