Spectator

Chapter Three: Now

Kali's first thought when she regained consciousness was that the Pangolin suit needed more padding. Everything hurt. Her eyes were closed; opening them punished her with a light so blinding, she immediately closed them again. Ah right. The Sun. It was much brighter without the same thick barrier that protected the Marisian cities; the one that surrounded the research zone was less necessary for a breathable atmosphere. But the air felt so... heavy, so inundated with tastes and scents, laborious to take into her lungs. But the burning in her ribcage was probably not helping either. Not broken, but not enjoyable, either.

The micro-tech armour was gone, receding into the straps, good for one use only. That was preferable to the first test cases, where the armour stayed, leaving its protectees in cages of unyielding metal, hoping that help was somewhere around the corner. She was still in her seat, but her seat was no longer in the shuttle; the sudden dizzying motion and sound of something creaking made her try opening her eyes again. Definitely no longer in the shuttle - and not on the ground, either.

She was wedged in a tree. And not the sort of slender, white-barked kind that grew on Mars, designed to aggressively filter out CO2, smell like jasmine, and produce edible food both from fruits it bore, its bark and leaves. This one was wild and thick boled, with a mixture of vines and speckled, peeling bark, no fruit to see, a buzzing swarm of cicadas somewhere above her head, and a chirping, feathered bird somewhere, a remnant of centuries ago Earth. After the collapse, they made this a closed ecosystem, and then preserved it, controlling everything from the species to the organisms within it, all to keep it a perfect, pristine environment.

And they'd just littered tons of metal all over it.

And people, though as far as Kali could tell, she was alone. Wherever the others were, it wasn't here, and here seemed to be thirty meters above the ground. First thing was to get out of her seat. There was a manual release that wasn't reliant on technology—another wonder of practice tests—and she was out. The small motion rocked nearly the entire limb that was keeping her airborne. She was also pretty sure she heard more cracking. The branches varied in shape and width, some too frail for her to risk. Others were covered in gunk and moisture, and she could imagine slipping and falling to her death all too easily. But if she didn't move, the branch would break or she'd be eaten by the ravenous looking mosquitoes humming around.

There was a branch horizontal to her, just higher up. She almost missed the Games; at least they always had the appropriate equipment nearby. But they hadn't been prepared for a crash landing, or jungle survival either. Pretty much all she had was herself. Something creaked beneath her, and her mind was made up. With a grunt, Kali threw herself upwards. It was too large a branch for her to wrap her hands around, so she tossed one arm over and gripped her forearm with her other. The splintering grew worse, and as Kali looked over her shoulder, she was gifted by the sight of her seat falling to the forest floor.

Now her feet no longer had any purchase beneath them, try as she might to find something to stand on.

"Come on, Kali," she grunted. "What were all those pull-ups for if not this?" She had to climb down somehow. The vines brushed her hair, but she doubted they'd be useful if she needed them. It was a slow process, shimmying herself over to the trunk, her shoulders aching from the exertion, but her feet finally found a knot firm enough to support her, and she let out a breath of relief. And then took a look beneath her. Thirty meters. Right.

One handhold by the next, she started to lower herself down. At one point, a screech over her shoulder made her aware of a primeape watching her, his long limbs and fingers way more suited for climbing than hers were. After a few moments, it chittered, leaping from one vine to the next.