Initiate the Wait
A/N: I only own Dani, Splatoon is made by Nintendo. The previous chapter, as well as this one are short as I want to get the pretense out of the way ASAP, in addition to the fact that I'm super busy. So hopefully, chapters after this will be longer. (If I'm not busy unpacking that is)
After the rockets started firing, everything changed for Dani. On the bright side, she didn't have to go to school anymore; it wasn't safe. But life became a massive evacuation. Families moved from shelter to shelter. People looted and stole what they could get. Even Dani, who was a lawful person, wound up stealing a couple cans of soup.
People started looking for new places to go after the bomb shelters filled up. NASA fruitlessly tried to send people to Mars in an attempt to empty out the U.S. The rocket only managed to get a little bit past the moon before breaking down.
Dani's family, her mom, little brother, and older siblings, were at a loss. Her father had already died overseas before the new mass extinction Her older siblings were drafted into military service. No shelter would take the three. Thus, her mother was left with one choice: cryogenics.
The most risky option, let it was a last resort. Dani and her family would be frozen until it was deemed safe to leave. So many things could go wrong: the power could cut off, the pod could be damaged, or it could simply short out. Not to mention, it was expensive.
Her mother had saved enough to preserve all three of them safely, and yet, it had to go wrong. The army, who had already stripped away half of her family, forced her to pay for their effort, only leaving her with enough money to save one person. Struck with indecision, she couldn't leave one child to die. They all held out until a choice could be made.
They never got the chance.
One faithful night, Dani was out searching for resources. While those were important, that wasn't what she was really looking for. She surveyed the area, looking for anything of value. She shifted the mask she was wearing a bit, trying to get the sides from digging into her skin. But as she found out, there was no fix. Sighing, she looked down at her outfit. It was dirty, her jeans, once crisp and navy blue, had faded and gained some new tears. It amused her, that after living in a literal hell, she got a look that others payed ridiculous prices for. She pulled on her gloves, which she had cut the fingers off of for better mobility, thinking about how it probably made her look like a punk.
After walking aimlessly, she found what she had been looking for. The shambles of her old home. The house had been left remarkably intact. Dani assumed the looters were too busy with the more elegant neighborhoods to bother with their average looking home. She remembered why she had come, and slowly approached the house. Her hand shaking, she gently opened the door. Similar to the outside, the inside of the house looked mostly unchanged.
Looking around, she saw her kitchen, and ran there first. Yanking open the pantry door, she saw that despite the good look, the house had been stripped of most of its food. All that remained were a couple cans of food and a bottle of off brand Five Hour Energy, both of which she grabbed.
After emptying the room of remaining food, she headed towards her other objective. She slowly went up the stairs out of habit, and slowly opened a door.
Her old room...
Everything was where she left it. She walked around, memories flooding back. She walked towards her old desk, tracing her hand on the surface. A thin layer of dust had collected. She opened a drawer, and nearly cried out in joy. Untouched, her sketchbook and art supplies lay unused. She slowly flipped through the pages, remembering each piece and how long it took. She opened her backpack and put the book in. A thought passed her mind, and she ran over to her closet. Opening it up and searching near the bottom, she pulled out a box, which she quickly tore open.
A simple bound book lay inside. She was filled with happiness as she flipped through the pages. Pictures of her and her family filled the pages, from embarrassing baby pictures to group photos. She closed it and held it close to her chest before gently putting it in her bag as well. Before leaving the room, she grabbed a couple pens and pencils, some pain medication, and an outfit. Grabbing some cash stored at the house, she started to head back to her camp. Filled with joy, she absentmindedly walked, until a large explosion interrupted her.
Shaken out of her daydream, she looked towards the source of the explosion. Seeing that it was near her camp, she sprinted all the way back.
What lay before her was devastating She saw the bodies of her mom and brother and rushed towards them.
"No, no no no no no no..." She flipped them over and felt for a pulse.
… Nothing.
They were cold.
Sobbing, she looked around. Whoever did this was long gone. Not knowing what to do, she lay over them and cried.
After a while she picked herself back up. "Is this what they would have wanted?" She thought to herself, "No, they would want me to keep going." She searched the site again, until she saw a glint of metal. She quickly dug up the source; a small cash box. She opened it and saw what her mother had been saving.
Dani got an idea.
…
A man in a lab coat looked up and down at the disheveled girl. She had claimed to be looking for a cryogenics facility, and the man was confused and best.
"Girl, I'm sorry, but that's an extremely expensive procedure. Unless you have a couple thousand dollars, I can't help you." He spoke this in the kindest way possible, hoping to be gentile with the poor thing. She looked as though she had seen hell and back.
Dani smirked, confusing the doctor even further, and slammed the cash needed for the cryopod.
Wide eyed, the man looked back and forth between the girl and the cash, before shakily picking up a radio.
"Hey Don? Get your finest pod ready."
A/N: And that is all for this chapter. From here on out, chapters will be told from multiple POVs rather than just third person. In addition, I hope to update this story once or twice a weekend. However, I may update this more often than that for a little bit. (I am super excited to be doing this) Anyways, that's it for now, Danner out!