Ch7: Isolation

Lyra had been locked alone for what seemed like a week. There was one shower a day, three meals a day, and 5 bathroom breaks a day. Teenagers should not be put through this torment. Stop whining. You know how that works out: cry, sob, and weep as you will, nothing is gonna magically end this. Back to the plan…

She had no idea where she was, or how long she had been there but she knew she had to get out. The four steel walls, floor, and ceiling would drive anyone mad. The most she knew about her captors was that they had powers and every one of them had a small golden orb following them. All of them wore midnight cloaks and none of them were, or at least sounded like, women. Nobody talked. Despite the hundreds of drones that were in the holding complex, none of them made a sound.

Well, almost none of them. She had befriended one of them, Jim. He was much older, maybe in his fifties, but he seemed like he was twenty or thirty. Must be one of his powers. Although he didn't talk about what he did outside of her personable aura, it was nice to at least talk to someone. That must have been the one thing taking her up to this week, but Jim had vanished last week, at least from her life. She well couldn't ask anyone else where Jim was and expect an answer. Eventually her thoughts trailed to her daemon. She missed him dearly but her witchesque ability let their distance not harm her. She knew that Pan was alright because the connection still existed. But he was uncomfortable, confined. He must be caged.

After a few minuets of thinking of her precious Pantalaimon, her thoughts trailed to Will. Ah, Will! What a plethora of memories she could recount with him. But there was a limited supply of the best memories. She spent the next hours just fantasizing about what she would do with Will if he were here. Her mind wandered further than is necessarily appropriate, but realizing this she blushed. She could think whatever she wanted, and she wanted Will. Why should I be embarrassed about thinking about Will? I mean he's Will. It's not like there's anyone that'll care… Fuck. Hehe, forgot about Alex. Alex was her boyfriend of one year. I like Alex. He's nice, funny, and he cares for me. But Will is Will. And I love Will more than anything. God! We've been over this before. Debating the possibility of Will is pointless. But it's all I want to do. No, that's irrelevant . It just makes you remorseful for not staying with him. There was no choice but to leave. You had to work on creating the Republic. Oh ya, the Republic. I should get started on making a plan to begin thinking about creating a blueprint for the Republic. I got to the fuck out of here. The plan. Right…

The room was small and confined. Luckily, the ceiling was low and the lighting was through, what Will would call, electricity. There were long tubes inside a ceiling behind a pane of glass. That night, Lyra had pulled the pane out. The light made the pane hot during the day so she had to wait until night. Silently she unscrewed the long glass tube that illuminated the small room. She had practiced swinging at just the right height to have a substantial blow to the head. She would use the pane of glass as covering fire when she started to make her way out. Hopefully, the strange men had weapons on them to use in case of emergency.

Then came a long awaited knock on the door. At least they had some courtesy. Composing herself to seem as innocent as possible. The door burst open and smoke filled the room. Gasping for breath and feeling for the exit, Lyra stumbled on a heavy metal pole. Pulling herself up, she looked out through the smoke trying not to tear by blinking rapidly. A hand shot out of the thick air. It groped almost knowing where she was. Swatting it away from her face, the hand found the back of her neck. Out of nowhere, the hand gained a body out of the smoke. Lyra couldn't see it for her face was buried in the floor. The captor seemed to be quite calm but a pulse was running through his or her hand.

She felt the blunt pressure of metal on her neck. The cool metal was shaking and her captor said angrily, "Don't you dare fucking move!" Shit, and I'm usually so good at escaping. How the hell did this happen? "Where the fuck do you think your going?" Lyra just grunted and kicked out into the air, aiming for the groin but sadly she only found air. "Oh, you want to leave? 

Is that it? Go ahead and take your stupid fucking pine martin and get the FUCK out!" Lyra's captor picked her up by the neck and dragged her over to an opening that seemed to air out the room she was in. He pushed.

After she had seen the opening, everything was bright and she couldn't open her eyes. She felt like she was falling forever, but eventually she found soft leafy ground. She tried to look up at where she had come from, but only found fog and her immediate surroundings. Something was falling out of the clouds though, like a rodent thing… Pan! She rushed over to catch her precious Pan and she held him close to her, never wanting to let go. She felt his fur and his joy of seeing her again.

"Lyra! What happened? Are you okay? Where are we? Where were we? Why is it so foggy? I missed you! What's going on? Are you hurt?" He scampered around her, inspecting every inch to make sure Lyra was okay.

"Pan, I'm fine, and you asked that question twice. What about you?" She said grabbing hold of his soft fur.

"Me? I'm okay, fine, never better, awesome. Where are we?" He still seemed to be panicking.

"I have no idea," said Lyra appearing to keep a level head, but feeling as anxious as Pan acted. "I think I hear something down the road. We should check it out."

Pan finally taking a breath said, "That was the scariest seconds of my life."

"What falling? We've been in much worse trouble."

"But at least then we could do something about it. Heights are the worst."

"Well, your fine now." She cuddled him close to her face and soaked in his warmth and exuberance. After a few minuets of reconciliatory joy, they decided it was time to move out. The strange fog was lifting, along with the clouds and soon it was out of sight. Lyra barely recognized the amorphous blob that the clouds resembled but she didn't take it too seriously. She had Pan back.

Lyra and Pan started to move towards the sound that Lyra had heard earlier. Despite her love for adventure and new experiences, she still felt very anxious. Trying to put on a brave face, she said to Pan, "So where do you reckon we are? It doesn't look like anywhere near Oxford."

"I can't tell. But we are definitely not in a strange world. It looks very much like the forest just after the river in Oxford."

"You're right! I couldn't recognize it. It's usually so cloudy. Try and see if you can get a better look in one of the trees."

"Sure," said Pan and he quickly scaled the tallest tree in the area. Once he got to the top he paused as if unsure about something. He rubbed his eyes and then looked back out.

Feeling puzzled, Lyra called out, "Hey, Pan! What's wrong?" As a response, he looked down at Lyra with an open mouth, as if in awe.

He darted down the tree. Finally reaching Lyra he gasped a breath of air. He seemed shocked and distressed, but he was never uneasy. "I guess I was wrong about the strange world theory."

"What do you mean?" She said stroking his fur to soothe him.

"The closest thing to civilization is a large metal structure with wires attached to it."

"What about the noise that we heard?"

"Same place."

"Might as well check it out."