Artemis Files (0.5)

Chapter 12

Late 2272 - Chicago Outskirts

I really should have listened to those farmers, S9 thought. Despite the warm coat, along with the clothes she already had on, she had her arms wrapped around her as air and snow blasted her and making her colder then she'd ever been before. This better work, her thoughts echoed. He better not find me. Even they had a shiver as she trudged through the ever deepening snow. A few times S9 would get stuck and she would have to spend an extra minute to wiggle herself free. Looking back she would find her footprints were already fairly well covered and in a few more minutes it would be like she wasn't even there in the first place.

Onward she would go, wondering how that family was doing. Hoping they were doing okay in the weather. That they stayed warm enough and had food and water to last them. Spots where her skin was exposed began to feel numb and they turned a brilliant shade of red. Thinking back to her Courser training she knew this to be the early stages of frostbite. She needed to find somewhere warm quickly. S9 quickly began to feel the exhaustion along with the cold. Already she began to trip slightly and become clumsy from the lack of rest. It was becoming clear that the few days she'd spent at the homestead was not enough rest for how hard she'd ended up pushing herself.

That's when it happened. S9 didn't see the cliff in this snow. She could barely see a few feet in front of her. Though her body was numb for the most part she still had enough feeling to feel her foot slip from underneath her. The rest of her body followed. Her hand managed to grab hold of the edge of the cliff but it wasn't enough and a minute later she finds herself back on the ground looking up at the completely white sky. It took a moment to register the pain that was in her left side. Her body so cold that it numbed whatever pain she would have had. She somehow manages to get the strength to lift her head just slightly... to see the slender metal bar sticking out of her left side. A pool of red beginning to slowly pool out. Blood. Sure. S9 was freezing, exhausted, and now she was bleeding to death. Her thoughts crawled through her mind as her eyesight began to waver. J6, she thought. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. You deserve to be free. You all deserve to be free. It was a conclusion she'd taken days to come to, especially as she began to free slaves herself.

All this and more came to her mind as her consciousness was fading. And before her vision completely blacked out two figures approached her saying... something. S9 wanted to ask them to repeat themselves, but the words couldn't find their way to her lips. That's all she could manage to make out before, against her will, her exhaustion and pain became too much for her and her world went black.

Early 2273 - Brotherhood Base/Chicago Outskirts

A sharp pain in her left side is the first thing S9 is aware of. Everything else came after. The sterile smell of the room. The soft surface underneath her as she lay on her back. And she was warm. So warm. Toasty even. Even so she groaned as her thumb and forefinger found their way to the bridge of her nose. God she was in so much pain. Her breaths were shallow but it was enough she supposed. She hadn't suffocated or otherwise died from lack of oxygen.

"Easy there young lady," a voice said, gentle, and clearly that of an older man. "You've just come out of quite a predicament. You're very lucky to survive." S9 can hear him walking over to her as she tries to sit up and get her barrings. He'd place an arm gently under her back and helped lift her up to a sitting position where she could see better.

"Where... where am I? What happened?" S9 asked as she looked around the room. The rearmost wall had a type of insignia on it. It showed three gears with a sword going up through the middle. The gears had a circle around them with wings coming up from underneath them. Other then that she's clearly in some kind of medical room with all it's monitors, drip bags, and other medical care. She moved slightly again but pain shot up from her left side and it earned a yelp that turned into a groan. Her hand immediately went to the scene of her injury.