Dead Sky Ch2
Sky was sitting behind a huge log. Her rifle lay on the ground next to her. Noon crouched next to her, firing shots every now and then, each shot finding a target.
"Come on, Sky, we're being shot at!"
"I know, we're being shot at because you are shooting back!"
Noon grinned, "Well, you're definitely acting like yourself. They'll fall back soon."
"Good, I hate all the shooting." A bullet smacked the log just above her head, sending chips of bark flying up through the air. "Why did they even give me a gun?"
"I think it was so that I can use your ammo." Noon leaned over and picked up her gun, using it to send a trio of shots out. "They really don't want to leave, do they."
"Maybe if we stop shooting they'll go on their own." Sky was pouring sarcasm into her words like syrup on pancakes.
"Fine then, I'll stop shooting." Noon lowered his gun.
"Really?"
Noon smiled, pulling out a comm. unit. "Really."
"Airstrike? Come on, just let them go!"
"They aren't gonna leave Sky."
"Remind me again why I followed you into the military?"
Noon checked his map, slowly telling the person on the other side of the radio the coordinates of the rebels. The comm unit clicked twice, the signal for success. Noon yelled over to another soldier, keeping his voice low enough so that the enemy couldn't decipher his words. "Birds incoming!"
The soldier nodded, continuing to fire. All around Sky and Noon soldiers were firing at the rebels. Sky unslung her backpack, pulling out a can of beans.
Noon nudged her, "Is now really the time for beans?"
"It's better than shooting people."
A huge salvo of explosions rocked the woods. A gunboat had opened fire on the rebel position, flying so low that it skimmed the tops of trees as it passed overhead. Soldiers all around Sky and Noon were cheering, making sure to keep behind cover in case any rebels remained. A squad of men approached the rebel position. The sound of single shots popped in the air a few times, but other wise the only sound was that of soldiers cheering for their victory.
Noon sat down next to Sky. "Now is the time for
beans."
XXXXXXXXXX
Sky sat, once again,
behind cover. Her rifle lay on the ground next to her. Noon was
crouched next to her, firing shots every now and then, each shot
finding a target.
"Why does it always seem like we're in the position?" Noon fired another shot.
Sky made herself a little bit more comfortable, shifting her back up against the low concrete wall. This battle was taking place in the middle of a small town, the street lights illuminating the battle. "Because this is the way that I like it. Well, I don't like any of this, but I like this better than any other way."
Noon hauled on a section of Sky's armor. "Come on, they're pushing forward again."
"Again? Fine, I'll get up."
Noon loped back to a position much farther back. Sky struggled to her feet, making sure that she was behind cover. A flurry of fire kept her stuck at the low wall. She held on to her helmet, her back up against the wall. Sky decided that she wouldn't run until they stopped shooting. A soldier that she didn't know yelled to her, "Come on, fall back."
Another flurry of shots flew over Sky's position. Not going in that. The roar of a gunboat calmed her, she hated seeing people die, but people dieing when they wanted you dead wasn't so bad. The gunboat streaked right towards Sky. Her eyes widened as she realized what was happening. "Oh shi-" A huge explosion blocked her senses.
The scene dissolved to
black.
XXXXXXXXXX
Sky woke to a terrible
headache. She couldn't move at all, her body hurt so much that she
didn't want to. She opened her eyes a crack, the light was piercing.
It took a long time, a full ten minutes for Sky's eyes to adjust. She
looked around without actually turning her head. The lights were
actually on extremely dim, the room's was gray with shadows. She was
obviously in some kind of hospital, the steady beep from the machine
behind her told her that much. The beeping quickened a little bit as
Sky remembered what happened. The explosion, what happened?
A doctor rushed over. "She's awake!" Sky could hear the feet of many people running over. The faces of about twelve different doctors looked down on her. "Where am I?" Sky's voice came out as a croak.
One of the doctors asked her, "How do you feel? You are in a military hospital, we've been making you better."
"Last thing I remember was an explosion. What happened?" Sky couldn't talk in much more than a whisper.
"You were injured quite badly. We evacuated you on a transport ship, but it was attacked by Reavers. You were the only survivor the recovery team could find."
"What about my brother? Where's he?"
Several of the doctors coughed nervously. One of them finally spoke up. "Your brother was on the transport. The Reavers must have taken his body."
"Couldn't they have taken him prisoner?"
"All that we know is that there wasn't any sign of him on the ship except for this." The doctor held out the tag that read "Mooreson" and a medal of valor that Noon had won.
"But...he's not dead, right?"
"He's listed as missing in action, but there's no way that he is still alive." Another one of the doctors, a woman, tried to hush him. "Bob, don't just ruin her hope. Some people need to hang on to these things.
Sky shook her head. "Noon isn't dead. He's fine, they just haven't found him yet."
"That's highly unlikely Sky."
"Maybe the Reavers took him prisoner. You have to help him!" Sky tried to raise her head, but fell back because of the pain.
The woman shook her head. "Let's just not worry about it for now, we can find out what happened to your brother later."
"But I want my brother. He's the only one I have."
"What happened to your parents?" One of the other doctors slapped this man in the back of the head. "Didn't you read the file? They died in a ship explosion a while back. That's why she followed her brother into the military."
Sky groaned, her limbs were aching. She moved her head a little. "So what happened to me? Why do my arms and legs hurt so badly?"
"Well, you were caught in an explosion. Your wounds were...numerous. We have you immobilized right now, but pretty soon we'll have you up and around. The military has been working on a new project, and you are receiving the prototype treatment."
"You didn't answer why my arms and legs hurt."
The doctors looked at each other nervously. "Well, um, do you know what phantom limbs are?."
"Not really, something about arms and legs that aren't there."
The doctor pulled on his collar a little bit. "See, when a person looses an arm their brains think it's still there, but it isn't. So the brain basically decides it hurts like hell."
Sky coughed a little, "So I lost my arm then?"
"Yeah, your right arm is gone up to the shoulder."
Sky cut in weakly, "Good thing I'm left handed then, huh?"
The doctor shook his head. "You lost your left arm just below the elbow. Both of your legs are gone. The shrapnel did most of the work, the medical staff on site had to amputate the rest. There was a big hole in your stomach, but we patched that up with the new treatment."
"So am I going to be completely limbless for the rest of my life? I want Noon, where is he?"
"Noon is gone, honey. The new Alliance program will help with the, uh...limblessness."
Sky passed out again before they could fully answer her
question.
XXXXXXXXXX
Sky slowly woke up. Her
eyes hurt even though she didn't have them open. It took a while for
her eyes to adjust. At least the lights in the room were normal
brightness this time.
More doctors stood over her than last time. "Why do my eyes hurt?"
One of the doctors stepped forward. "You've been out for a long time, they aren't used to the lights."
"How long?"
"This was a week."
"How long since the accident?"
"Four weeks and four days."
Sky shook her head a little bit. "It's been so long, I've been out this whole time?"
"Aside from your little wakeup before, yes. We finished your
procedure a week ago, you should be all better really soon. The good
thing is that you should get used to them extremely
quickly."
Sky picked her head up a little. A blanket covered her. That's odd, there are bumps in the sheet where my feet used to go. "What are you talking about? What am I going to get used to?"
A new doctor stepped up. "Your new limbs, of course."
Sky used her legs to shift her body into a more comfortable position. Wait...What legs? She pulled her right arm out from under the blanket. The light reflected off of it, a glistening white that almost looked like plastic. It looked almost normal except at the joints, where it was sectioned to allow it to bend.
Sky caught herself from screaming. "What the hell is this?" She moved the fingers, clenching them into a fist and back to normal again. "What the fuck am I?"
"Well, the Alliance took an interest in your little case, they need a person that will bring back faith in them. So they fixed you."
"What the hell did they do?"
"They've had a project going in bio-engineering for a while, trying to make parts that work like peoples' and animals' so that machines will work better. We just used it to make new limbs for you. It's made with a special kind of plastic, mixed with a metal. It's one of the most resilient materials I've ever seen."
"So I can walk again?"
"Why don't you try it now?"
"Aren't I still sick or something?"
"We kept you out for the last two days so that you would get better. The Alliance poured a lot of money into making your recovery faster, new kinds of drugs and such. Go on, try them out."
Sky felt a little sick as she sat up. Her head hurt a little bit, but not too much. She used her arm to pull the sheets back, a little bit disgusted by the way the arm worked. Sky gasped as she saw her legs, and almost threw up. The metal plastic went all the way up to her hips on both of her legs. The doctors had been nice enough to put some shorts on Sky, but she could see where the skin ended and the plastic began. Her left arm was slightly better, it only turned to plastic below the elbow. The plastic actually melded quite nicely with the skin, the size was perfect. Her real skin was darker than the plastic, so the the difference was pretty noticeable, not to mention the fact that every joint was sectioned in a way that looked almost human, but was still glaringly obvious.
Sky tried to ignore her stomach as she stood up. She had a T-shirt on, the doctors had provided that, but it was pulled up slightly by the side of her arm. A section of her stomach was covered with the white plastic, covering the hole that the doctors had told her about. "What the..." Sky threw up on the floor, the throw up spattering against her leg. Some kind of sensor was in the leg, it tried to copy the sensation of feeling. It didn't work very well. "What the hell did you do to me? You couldn't have just given me prosthetic arms and put me in a wheelchair? I wouldn't have minded, it would be better than being dead. Noon would be there to take care of me. Instead you...you turned me into a freak and killed Noon!"
One of the doctors tried to sooth Sky, as if she was a young child. "There, there, the Alliance is going to take care of you. You'll become a hero, go on parades and such."
Sky threw up again, her stomach wasn't behaving. "I don't want to be their little slave."
"Let's not get hasty, you need rest. I'm sure everything will turn out alright."
Sky lay down, she was awfully tired. Maybe it's just a dream.