1. New girl in the ARC
She kept walking. The creatures behind her were playing, having fun nipping at each other's ears. She'd been walking through this cold, sandy desert for far too long. Her feet ached. She had cried yesterday, but now she remembered. It did her no good to cry.
And then she saw it. A shimmering distortion in the light. She smiled and started to walk towards it. She started to speed up, going at a fast walk, and then running all out to her goal. This was her escape. She would be free at last from this desert.
She ran through the light.
And then, suddenly, it closed behind her.
There was no way out.
Nick Cutter walked into the ARC.
"Ah. You're here." Lester greeted him. "Good."
Cutter's eyes widened slightly. It was GOOD that he was here? That was a first. Lester didn't think that anything was GOOD.
"We had a team investigate an anomaly that appeared last night." Lester went on, walking down the corridor, making sure Cutter was following. "Guess what they found?"
"Nothing good, I take it." Cutter replied.
Lester looked at him. "If only it were that simple. Truth be told, we don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing."
"And why's that?" Cutter asked, interested.
"Take a look."
They had stopped in front of a door. Cutter looked at Lester, and then opened it. Inside was a large window that lead into a different room.
"Oh." Cutter said, surprised.
In the room on the other side of the window, was a young girl.
She couldn't have been older then fourteen. She had blonde hair and bright blue eyes that looked like the bright blue that one might almost describe as metallic. She had pale skin that was covered in small scars, and some not-so-small scars. But the most noticeable feature was a pattern on her face. It was the same color as her eyes, and surrounded her right eye. It was a small layer on her right eye, not above it, but to the side, practically pointing upwards. It swirled in intricate patterns. Just under her eye, on the cheekbone, there was another one, only this one was just a simple circle, and it somewhat seemed like part of the other pattern, though it wasn't attached to it in any way. It could have been described as a tattoo, but it seemed so much more natural than that.
The girl looked around the room, terrified.
"The anomaly closed before we could get her back." Lester explained. "We haven't been able to get a word out of her."
Cutter looked at him. "Can't talk?"
"I wish. She talks in… I don't know what it is. But it isn't English."
The girl looked around the room.
"See what you can find out." Lester said, leaving the room.
Behind the window, Steven Hart, Abby Maitland, and Connor Temple were already trying to talk to her.
"Did you walk through this?" Connor was asking. He pushed a picture towards her. On it was an Anomaly.
The girl shivered, not responding. She was sitting down at a table, Connor sitting across from her.
"We're trying to get her to respond to anything. Just so we can know how she reacts to the bigger questions." Steven explained to Cutter.
Cutter nodded.
"An-om-al-y." Connor tried. He wrote the word down on a piece of paper.
"That won't work." Abby said. "She doesn't understand English, remember?"
"I know!" Connor said defensively. He tried to erase it, but the girl stretched her hand over, touching the pen, stopping his hand. Her expression was curious. She gently touched the paper, and then slid it over to her side of the table. She looked at it, concentrating.
"Ah…" She tried. "Ah… Nom…Ah… Ly. Anomaly." She smiled, proud of herself.
Everyone stared. For once, Connor recovered first. "Yes," He encouraged. "Anomaly." He pushed the picture forward. He pointed at both the word and the picture and said, "Anomaly."
She looked up. "Anomaly." She paused. "Olecta?" She asked, pointing to the picture. "Anomaly?"
Connor nodded. "Anomaly."
She looked at the picture. "Etac Olecta. Eto makta. E, Florlic! Florlic Eto makta!"
"Woah, slow down." Abby said. She pointed at the picture. "Did you come through this? The Anomaly?"
She looked confused.
Connor took the paper and drew a stick figure walking through a circle with lines around it. "Did you do this?"
She looked at the picture. She pointed at the figure, and then at herself. "Quarta?"
Connor nodded. "Yes, that's you. Did you do that?" He pointed at the picture.
Slowly, the girl nodded. "Etac Olecta."
Almost everyone smiled in relief.
Cutter took over. He took the paper and wrote,
Cutter.
She read the word. She concentrated for a moment, but seemed to come up empty. "Quana?"
He pointed at the word, and then at himself. "Cutter." He explained.
She nodded, understanding. She looked at the word again. "Cuh…Ter. Cutter." She smiled.
Cutter nodded. He wrote down another name.
Steven
He pointed to Steven. She read the word and concentrated. "Ste-ven. Steven."
There was some shock that she didn't need to hear it first, but she seemed pleased with herself. Cutter continued writing and pointing.
Connor.
"Connor."
Abby.
"Abby."
Cutter smiled at Lester who had appeared outside of the window. He pointed and wrote,
Lester.
"Lester."
Then he pointed to her.
Her eyes grew cold. "Nieata." Was her simple reply.
"Nieata?" Connor asked.
She shook her head.
Cutter wrote down the word No.
She concentrated, saying the word, and then nodded.
"She won't tell us." Steven concluded.
"Yep." Cutter replied.
"Why?" Connor asked. He wrote it down.
Her eyes narrowed. "Nieata lorakna. Ito ectana fortika. Lanarok Sparla."
A few of the team members shook their heads and sighed.
"Nieata." She said again.
Connor sighed. Where? He wrote. He handed her the paper.
She focused, and then looked around the room. Pictures had been put up all over the wall.
She walked over to one, and pulled it off the wall, handing it to Connor.
It was a picture of a Predator.
"Norato." She said.
Connor's eyes were wide. "Oh…Kay…"
It was at this time that Jenny Lewis walked into the room.
"Ah." Cutter said. He took the paper and pointed to her. He had to erase the 'C' that he had started to write, but it was all for nothing. The girl shrieked out a name happily when she saw Jenny.
"Claudia!"