Madlands

35. Screeching Darkness

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Grey wasn't sure if she was awake.

With her eyes closed in the dark cell, the line between consciousness and unconsciousness had become deeply blurred. The standoff that she was in with her thoughts was only making reality seem more and more surreal. With nothing else to focus on, memories and feelings had become too loud, too all-consuming, and they had swung so wildly from gratitude to grief, from hope to horror, that she felt burnt out. So she'd started trying to avoid all thought, become hollow, hanging in suspended animation amidst the turmoil.

She decided that she was asleep.

In her dream, she heard a sound, very close by, that was somewhere between a thunk and a click. It was heavier than the sound of the meal slot, and completely different from the sounds of the sonic shower vents and the vac-tubes. She would wait to see where this dream would lead. One of her closed eyes, though, felt strange, almost painful. She squinted it more firmly shut and slowly opened the other one. Bright in the cell—a narrow slice of light falling onto her.

No. She did not want this dream. She did not want hope to visit her and fill her and then be gone when she woke. She closed both eyes and held them shut as tightly as she could. But the dream raged. She could feel the light get brighter, and brought her palms up to cover her eyes.

A feeling on her arms, something wrapping around both of her arms just below her shoulders.

Grey.

The sudden onrush of light and touch and sound after so much nothing was overwhelming. Something between a gasp and a sob that she hadn't expected fell from her mouth. She was being shaken, and her hands were pulled away from her face.

GREY!

Starting to panic in confusion, she opened her eyes. It was so bright, but something large and close was blocking the worst of it. She couldn't focus the image, so she focused on the voice.

Grey can you hear me? We need to get you out of here.

Mando.

The strange sob erupted again, and didn't stop. She grasped forwards and clumsily got a hold of one shoulder pauldron and the side of his chest, and held on for dear life. She tried to say his name but it was battered around by her heaving breaths.

You can do this. Come on.

He pulled her up onto shaky legs. As soon as she was upright, the air broke out with the angry blare of an alarm as everything fell into pitch blackness. Then the light returned as the sound fell silent, only for the howl and the darkness to return, three seconds later, and then the light and quiet three seconds after that—an alternating alarm on repeat.

Grace period's over. Can you walk?

She nodded but tightened her grip and forced herself to calm enough to speak during one of the three-second gaps.

Don't let go though.

Grey felt him squeeze her arms as a yes as the alarm took its turn. When the lights flared back on, saw a second person, covering the corridor from the doorway; he filled the entire frame.

That's Paz.

She wanted to cry again. She looked into Mando's helm in the moment she could see it.

You found them.

I did.

They were finding their rhythm using the three-second breaks.