It was swelteringly, uncomfortably hot, and too bright for unaccustomed eyes. And it stank. The fetid stench of rotting meat and feces was blown about on a dry breeze which did nothing to relieve the heat. There were sounds carried on the wind, too - a kind of shifting, restless moan of the earth which was heard only mechanically, broken by the staccato sounds of foreign speech.
It was hot. Too hot. Unable to open her eyes against the glare of the light, but overcome by a frenzied need to get cooler by stripping off the material that clung to and burned against her face, she scrabbled blindly at the contraption on her head, half sitting up in her effort. Fingers finding a weak point, she tore the damnable thing off and cracked open her eyes to make sense of it.
In her hands was a piece of metal. A very damaged piece of metal to be sure, but still recognizable as a primitive helmet. It was more of a mask, really, but whether or not it was intended to be that way was impossible to tell, as the back of the top portion of the helmet was caved in, with a large split in the center of the long dent.
She felt very hot, but it wasn't only due to the climate around her. Her breathing slowed and her heart raced faster. The few words that had been casually tossed back and forth around her had ceased a short time ago. Eyes wide and nerves singing with alarm, she slowly lifted her head. Her body finally registered the temperature of the helmet, and it was dropped unconsciously. Her eyes took in the scene, light bouncing against the retinas, optic nerves sending the upside-down images to the brain, but there was no understanding. She stopped breathing.
Bodies. There were so many bodies. Rotting out under the mercilessly bright desert sun. People slain. Butchered. The sand was maroon, saturated with blood. It made no sense. An intense wave of vertigo overcame her, and was followed by the liberating feeling of dissociation. She stood, and laughed, looking at her gloved hands, now outstretched - this was not happening to her. It wasn't real! It didn't matter. She was dreaming! She needed to wake up. Now.
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Fair warning: This will be updating irregularly. Also, we won't meet any of the main characters for a few chapters in order to properly give background to this story's main character, but it's coming; don't worry.