Her Painful Past
11 May 2018KazukoHimura
(Date: Unknown, Past entry 1/2)The alert tones, sirens, and lights flashing weren’t what caused #1515 to break focus, as the ship she was forced to work on was occasionally attacked, and sometimes had components temporarily stop working. What broke her focus, however, was the prison door opening, signaling a systems failure so catastrophic that everyone must evacuate. With the doors open, #1515 ran, worn magboots clanking as she immediately searched for a way out-and hiding from anyone else who might spot her. She was NOT going down with this ship, not now, not EVER. #1515 recalled seeing some escape pods in one of the cargo bays she was assigned to work in, so she ran there as fast as her legs could carry her.
Gasping for breath, #1515 finally made it to the cargo bay in question, just as the ship began to plummet. With her lungs screaming for oxygen, she darted over to the first unoccupied escape pod, and climbed inside, hoping that she would be found as it was closed.
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The next thing that #1515 knew, she had spilled out of the escape pod onto a soft surface that she couldn’t easily identify, and there was something in her lungs that wasn’t air. Immediately clapping her hands over her mouth, #1515 coughed violently, the offending fluid seeping between her skeletal fingers. Even when she could finally breathe normal air again, she shivered, cold and soaked to the bone. She wearily glanced around as she brushed a lock of short, black hair out of her field of vision, pale blue eyes unfocused and glazed over. #1515 could hear voices, see disjointed shapes, but none of it made sense. Where was she? What is happening?
“Can you hear us?”
“Hey, kid! Can you hear us?”
#1515 could hear them, but the words held no meaning, echoing in her head. The adrenaline was wearing off quickly, and her emaciated body couldn’t manage consciousness much longer. #1515, the young child who escaped her cruel masters, felt herself falling back to the soft surface from before, and then nothing at all.
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#1515 woke up lying on another soft surface-well, softer than slave allotted beds-covered in strange cables and tubes, some which she was tethered to. Odd sounds could be heard from the machinery surrounding her, and something was covering her mouth. Yet, she could still breathe easily. Despite this, and despite feeling a bit less weak, #1515 was trembling. She didn’t know where she was, who brought her here, what they wanted with her, anything. For all she knew she’d be delivered right back where she came from...wherever that was. There was a lot of red on the interior, but that was all she knew of note.
#1515 was reassured by medical staff that she was safe, and they were there to help her. She was brought a small bowl of a warm liquid that smelled good, and encouraged to drink it. #1515 certainly did, and it tasted much better than the tasteless, chalky squares she’s had for as long as she can remember. In addition, it was much more filling than those nasty squares. This surprised #1515, but also left her quite relieved, as she didn’t know whether the constant hunger she had lived with for years would finally come to an end. Vocalizing this lead to #1515 being given an impromptu visit from a lady that asked her all sorts of questions about herself, where she came from, etc. All of these questions were answered honestly, but with plenty of hesitation (and encouragement that everything will be ok). #1515 eventually opened up completely, though the process took several days. She spoke with a distance in her eyes, an almost robotic tone, and an occasional waver in her voice, tearing up near the end no matter how hard #1515 fought her own emotions. But what she said made one thing clear-she had been enslaved her entire life.
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Even after deemed able to eat solid foods, and even after being deemed physically recovered from her ordeal, #1515 still dealt with frequent hunger, and an increased appetite. This required tests to be run on her, requiring her to stay in the hospital for longer. The results revealed that there were more damages done by her ordeal than expected-permanent ones, in fact. #1515 was told that there was something in her body called a parasite, and that it was making her hungrier than usual-and that it couldn’t be removed without making her very sick. Upon hearing that, she began to weep, tearfully confessing that one of her first memories was being forced to swallow a plant worm thing, for doing something she can’t even recall. #1515 also admitted to having nightmares of that very moment and the subsequent hunger that plagued her for so long. Both of these things only solidified that she needed assistance beyond what the hospital could handle.