(snk) Ways to Say Goodbye

Chapter 11: A Stranger in a Strange Land

You awoke at a large bump, the jolt throwing you slightly. Your eyelids lazily slipped open, revealing to you your current situation. Attempting to prop yourself up with one skinny arm, you squinted your eyes, striving to make the slightest sense of your surroundings. [E/c] orbs wide through the haze of fog coating your mind, you realized that you were in a small wooden crate, and that you were moving, fast. But something wasn't right. Deftly, your scrawny, dirt-coated fingers traced blood-soaked bandages through your thin clothing. Suddenly, it all came back to you; the the doctor, the nurses, the screaming, the blood. You were about to pull up your shirt- a loose-fitting new garment that was making you sweat- when suddenly a voice touched your ears. 

        "Hey- #B09, don't touch that-" The voice was soft and crooning, like a mother's, yet the words the figure spoke were cold and careless. Your hands flew away from the hem of your garment shining eyes fixed on the woman that had addressed you. She was of medium height, gray-touched wisps of blonde falling into her round, pale face. She reached through the plats of your wooden cage and stroked your arm with two fingers. You jerked back in surprise, receding into the corner like a frightened animal.

        "W-where am I...?" You managed to get out, lips quavering. Your head was still foggy, but at least now you could string words together. "Why--why am I bleeding..." Suddenly, a more imminent question pulsed in your mind like an alarm; "Where are you taking me?"

The woman remained serene, her eyes a warm hazelnut, evaluated you. Then, her thin lips opened.

        "You are experiment number B09, and you are being removed from your home in the Nedlay District because your operation failed to be a success." The woman's soothing chocolate eyes changed, now rock-hard stones. "I cannot tell you where you are going, but I can promise you that you will never see your family, ever again." The woman was laughing, and everything was shaking. An ethereal voice seemed to boom over the violent wobbling of the wagon, and you were being shaken violently. 

All of a sudden, a cold slap connected with your face, and you jolted awake.

Your eyes shot open to the face of a girl, not much older than you. She had tan skin, and dark, bark-colored hair hung in shags around her freckled face. She had the slender, jaundice-y appearance that all street orphans had, yet the girl's narrowed eyes sparkled with a spunk uncommon to the broken. 

        "Yo, kid," she addressed you with a gruff tone, tough, yet sisterly. Like Levi's. "We gotta get out of here before the morning mass loonies gather. They hate when we crash in their courtyard." The older girl took another glance at you as you propped yourself up on the concrete ledge. "Ay- you ain't from around here, cousin?" She inquired with the pop of an eyebrow. 

Not knowing yet how to feel about the girl, you replied, a cold edge to your tone. "No, I'm not from around here," you paused to shrug on your jacket. "I'm from down there," you motioned towards the rough pavement. "And I'm trying to find someone right now."

The girl let out a half-hearted laugh. "You tryin' to find that goddy teenage-mutant-Titan kid, too?" Seeing your face drop, the girl became more serious. "No, though, it's cool, you know, that you're from down there. You could get some major street cred out here, 'spite the fact that the MP's are all over us homeless kids. Seriously though, if you got no other place to go, I could  use a buddy." Her eyes glazed over, as if recalling a distant memory. In the second in which it came, the reverie was gone. She made eye contact with you again. "I could even help you find the person you're looking for." With one last attempt at friendliness, she held out a hand. "I'm Ymir."

You didn't have anything to lose. At best, the girl could help you find your family. At worst, she would rob and then shank you. Either way, anything was better than walking the streets alone.