Chapter 2 – Why is this so strangely familiar?
The moist and tepid ground beneath my form felt somehow comfortable.
Breathing in and out so automatically was almost blessing, and the air was so pure it almost made my lungs hurt.
But still and quiet I remained, laying there as if I was cozy at home, in my sweet and comfy bed, back in my apartment.
Luminosity hurt my closed eyes, a sign… that it was day time – what made me wonder. Had I slept the whole night on solid ground in the middle of the industrial complex where I…
Wait a minute, where am I?
It took me some consistent minutes gathering last night's events. I blinked lazily, so strangely comfortable laying there. The smell of dry dirt and an odd sense of… misplacing was – slowly –taking over me. What was this, this… sensation?
My body hurt all over, a dull ache I wasn't able of especify. Deep inside my mind, I wondered if I had actually been caught by those perverted freaks that were chasing me last night and if they had had their way in the end. I didn't feel anything different on me…, I concluded after some painful seconds. And I had my clothes on. That was a plus.
Finally, I remembered something really strange happening in the room I had locked myself in. The sensation I had had been something like… being swallowed by a black wall, sucked into some void, like... like in those scifi movies.
God. It was bizarre. Not to mention unusual and highly dysfunctional. If someone heard my unreasonable thinking, surely I would be considered crazy. Or, on the other hand, maybe someone would ask me what I had been smoking after all.
Before I could think about something else, voices interrupted my line of thinking. Masculine, low voices.
"Movement."
The voice was low but powerful. I suddenly felt like a prey hiding from inevitable predation. My eyes finally opened completely and my sight was bathed with potent rays of sun and… a rather deteriorating surrounding. What, was this the aspect of that industrial complex by day-light?
"Don't let it slip away, we're scoring positively here." Another voice answered, and I had the feeling those voices were approaching me. And I had no idea if that was a good thing or not. After last night, nothing perspired safety for me.
"I got it, I got it." The other voice clarified, and I tried to move from where I was. I tried to shift to the sitting position, a maneuver that took me more than I would want to. God, what was this terrible tiring sensation? And why?
I hadn't finished the process of sitting, when I was abruptly interrupted. Two man, dressed completely in black, from head to toe… and armed - my God, they had guns… - opened silently the wooden, decrepit door of the room I was in… and they simply stared in my direction.
Like I was freaking Lady Frankenstein.
"What the…"
Okay, their sudden stiff stance while they were categorically scanning me didn't help one bit. I eyed them as well, finding in them a strangely familiar recognition. Where had I seen men dressed like that? Automatically, Call of Duty went through my mind, as well as the military… okay maybe Special Ops, as I had seen in movies. But… what were guys like them doing here?
Two painful seconds passed by, until one of them finally spoke.
"Abort exercise!" I could only widen my eyes at his declaration, as the man spoke to what seemed to be a transmitter next to his wrist. "Team One, we found an abnormality in the training area."
What? My eyebrows rose and my mouth half-opened… with amazement. Not to mention shock. What was this after all?
"Describe abnormality. Over." The man talked, on the other side of the line. What, they used walkie-talkies to communicate?
"A female civilian, Sir. Over." He finally declared, keeping his gun pointed in my direction.
"We're on our way. Over."
And with that, an horrific silence followed, while I remained, sitting on the ground, staring at my surroundings, the room where I was, decorated with portions of rotten wood and… occasional green all around me. Vegetation. Clearly, I was in the middle of an abandoned place – which didn't resemble a bit the place I had run into last night.
Okay, this was starting to freak me out already.
Not to mention those men. Staring at them as discreetly as I was able, I could find in them something… I recognized. But from where? Where had I seen those uniforms before? Damn, all this was starting to give me a headache. Maybe it was this air, which held the most… strangest consistency.
Footsteps suddenly followed, and before I knew it, a horde of men surrounded me. They all resembled huge black flies. All the same, no distinguished face, since all of them wore helmets. One of them approached me slowly, kneeling close to me. My eyes met the place where his eyes would be, behind that helmet.
"Miss?" He said. "Are you okay?" That man's voice, screamed military in all over. "Are you injured?"
No, I thought. I wasn't injured, that was a fact. But why weren't my brains collaborating? Was it the panic? Was it… the surprise?
"Who… are you?" I finally managed to say, looking around me.
"Training Soldier, miss. How did you get inside the training area?"
His answer was swift and fast, but the content sounded like an alien language to me.
"Training Area? No, I… I live nearby."
Yeah, it was pretty obvious. Regular people lived nearby, what did he mean with training area anyway?
However, his answer couldn't be more terrifying.
"Miss. There is no living soul in a hundred mile radius."
Okay, the man's got to be kidding me. His last declaration earned a hard stare from me.
"No, but I-"
"Team 2. Describe your exact location." The rough voice through the walkie-talkie thing interrupted me before I could think of something coherent to say.
"395.456.555."
The man kneeled right next to me responded with haste, glancing at their two colleagues standing next to the door.
All of them seemed to – somehow – communicate between them in the silence that followed. Before I could say anything, out of nowhere a horde of men – all dressed the same, all in black, all… like freaking cloned, surrounded me, staring at me through the glass of their helmets like I had perpetrated the crime of the century. Their stare weighted tons on me and my despaired state of mind. So this was team 1, rejoined with team 2, all together now for a God damn tea party.
I felt so dislocated, so… out. Of everything.
So strangely… as if I had landed in another planet or something. Which was a ridiculous thought. I was at good-old Earth, the one and only planet with humans in the Solar System, Milky Way. Right?
The voice of one of them interrupted my pathologic thinking.
"I've contacted the Base. We must take the civilian for questioning."
Woooo. That had me reacting at once.
"Questioning?" I quoted, frightened. I wasn't entirely grasping the point of all that questioning and base thing. "But I told you, I-"
"Let's go. The base is set to receive you."
And, without any further word, one of them held me, helping me to stand and… silently and slowly I walked, escorted by a concrete horde of thirty men, towards…
… the unknown.
-/-
As much as I wanted to remain calm, the situation didn't allow me to. First, it had been the escorting thing – freaking scared, I felt guilty all over, and I didn't realize why. Why, if I hadn't done anything wrong, why was I feeling this way?
Well, maybe the answer was easy. They, the freaking horde of black outfit men, constricted my will and peace of mind to that point – to the point of feeling guilty over nothing.
Second, the instant I got outside… I faced a total unknown scenario. This wasn't my neighborhood, not even close. This, this place… was a deserted, sandy and lonely landscape. I couldn't see a thing – civilization? – close to the horizon line.
There was nothing. Only… wind and wasteland. And occasional rocky, dark formations, here and there.
My eyes, not believing, scanned the area, over and over again. As if I needed to do it multiple times to actually believe what I was seeing.
Is this California? The desert?
I had never been in California, but I had seen it on TV. And, albeit it wasn't exactly how I had imagined it… the whole landscape held this strange familiarity again. It was discomforting, it … hell, it was now becoming annoying. What the hell was this place that I couldn't remember? I was actually sure that I had seen it before. But from here?
And… and how on Earth had I ended up here? Miles and miles from home? Really?
This isn't happening…, I thought, trying to get a grip on myself, seconds before the sound of vehicles startled me.
What now?
Me and my dead silent horde of muted guys slowed their pace until everyone stopped completely. And so, they waited, his heads tilted towards the noise.
Curiosity got over me, and I looked in that direction as well. Black transportation vehicles. Several of them, leaving a dusty trail behind.
Anxiety didn't win me over until the vehicles stopped completely. Once the dusty wind reached us, a sign that gave in the high (and most likely illegal) speed at which those vehicles traveled, one door opened. And, from there, an equally cloned man stared at me and the man standing right by my left side.
"Is this the civilian?"
"This". How nice…, I thought, sighing.
"Yes, sir." The man next to me answered, fast and sharp.
"Get inside, fast. The Base is already alerted."
And, before I could say or do something, I was swallowed by a black, dark van.
-/-
"Is this the Police headquarters?" I asked, visibly curious and despaired to know exactly what was this place and where. Since the moment I had arrived to the so-called Base, everybody avoided talking to me. Stares and discreet prying eyes in my direction were scarce, as my personal escort took me from building to building, until I reached – what I presumed it was – some kind of interrogation room. It looked like Bones live and color. Dark room, steel door, one-mirrored wall, a couple of chairs and a table. And I was willing to bet there were cameras, audio and people on the other side of that supposed mirror.
The man in front of me – an ordinary looking man, properly dressed like the military that had escorted me – eyed me as if I had cursed in a foreign language.
"No." He answered, slowly, visibly measuring his words. "What do you mean with… police?"
"Police." I said, reinforcing the word. "It means what it means."
What, was he kidding me or something?
"I don't know where did you got that… word from, but we are the military from Shinra Corporation."
Okay, that one almost made me gasp with shock.
"What?"
What had he just said? Shinra? Like… like the same name from the military in that game I had at home? What was it?... Oh, yes, Final Fantasy. Uh…, seven, right? Shinra? Wow. I didn't know those guys creating the games had used names from real military companies. That wasn't mentioned on that regular trivia site. Or was it… and I clearly missed that part?
"Are you lost, Miss…" The stare and the face of the man in front of me interrupted my ridiculous thought. And it did cost me a little to process his question.
"Uh… Elie." I said, correcting myself right away. "Eleanor Stevens. And no, I'm not… lost."
He seemed to study my answer and then he proceeded, calm and steady.
"How did you get into training area in the middle of the day."
Oh, man, that issue again! I sighed, averting my stare from his and searching for mental support somewhere in those dark walls.
"Answer the question." The man insisted, and our stared met again. Okay, this was starting to annoy me. For Christ's sake, how many times would I have to repeat the same thing all over again?
"I didn't know the abandoned industrial area next to my place was… training area. That's not a crime, is it?" I declared, exhibiting just a little percentage of my shock towards this whole situation. "And besides, I was being followed last night… and I ran into the place and got stuck there."
"Industrial area. I see." That man's face was neutral now. "And where do you live, miss?"
Okay, this one was easy. What had he in mind anyway?
"New York. Suburbs."
Duh!
"Can you tell me what day is this?"
Right, as if I didn't know that! The man had got to be kidding me. Really. And making me waste my precious time with all this… non-sense?
"Sunday. 5th February, 2012." I answered, fast. And maybe a little shocked with the obvious questions he was posing me. What, he was testing my mental sanity here?
Oh, please!..., I thought, now feeling a little impatient.
"Hold on a second, please."
And with that, the man left the room and alone I remained, sitting, for what it seemed like an eternity.
Breathing out loudly, annoyance was starting to grow on me. And, in the middle of all this crazy baloney… nobody told me anything.
I missed my home terribly, feeling my chest constricting.
The door that led to the room next to the one where that strange woman was sitting, opened silently. The man entering the room eyed the other now staring through the glass, seriousness bathing his complexion.
"This civilian has serious issues." The man said, approaching the other. "I think maybe we'll need the white coats here." He declared, clearly disturbed with the situation. Calling the lab to check on someone was never a good alternative. "Did you find anything on the registration base?" The man finally asked, hoping his colleague might give him something. Her complete name, her origins, her actual address and all her background.
"Nothing, sir." The other man admitted, disappointment in his voice. "She's not registered. Her print not only doesn't match: it simply does not exist."
"Damn. Alert Soldier 1st class. And the General." The man said, massing his forehead with his index finger. Damn woman, appearing out of nowhere right in the middle of his training place. "This is clearly out of our league." He admitted, albeit he didn't like that one bit. The man enjoyed taking care of their issues, and having – forcefully - to evoke a superior force because of something as random as this… frustrated him. But… Solder 1st class were the ones dealing with these type of issues – namely, because this mystery woman seemed completely out of her mind, in a very calm and quiet way. Which was unsettling. And, who knows, maybe dangerous. It was a very well-known fact that that kind of "calm" was typical in the most cold-blooded murderers, spies and who knows what else. Damn, profiling wasn't one of his specialties. And, for the company sake, there was no place for failures.
Sighing loudly, both men stared at that strange woman, bored and annoyed, with her stare lost in something clearly away from the place she was at.
"Did you videotape this?" The man asked, crossing his arms.
"It's all recorded, Sir."
A/N - Okay, there you have it. Hope you liked it. I wanted to make a dinamic chapter with more interaction scenes, but I realized I had to introduce (decently) her arrival first and then... well, you'll see what happens next. Someone will make an appearance, and our dear Elie will have the surprise of her life! After all, she's already suspecting something is wrong, so... what will follow will definitely...
You'll see.
R&R as you wish guys, let me know your opinion :) And you're very much welcome to the paralell world Miss Stevens is stuck into :)