Voynich Shift - Season One (COMPLETED)

Leonis, 1:1, 2:13 - Roach Hotel - Tugs At Your HeartWorms

Kate lay on her back in a post-shift haze. It was the first time she had ever experienced the effect lying down and it was really very interesting, almost euphoric. She considered that the sensation might also be related to the after effects of falling into a shift. Either way, the horizontal Gerald seemed to be experiencing it, too, as he was yet to rise, choosing instead to stay face down next to the woman on her one side. However, on her other side, sadness existed as one extremely annoyed cat in a bag hacked away inside.

"Apparently, people aren't the only ones who get sick their first shift," Kate considered and patted the bag. "Poor kitty, it'll get better, I promise, because it looks like I might have found you a good world to make a home." Kate smiled as she lazily scanned the cloudless blue sky above. Blurry images of green trees swaying in the gentle breeze and the tops of glimmering skyscrapers surrounded her on all sides. It was a new world and it seemed they were safe and sound. Sound. Kate sat up. "No birds!"

            "Kate, stop poking me."

            "Gerald, get up!" she said and slapped the man on the back.

            "Ow! Do I have to?"

            "Yes, get up...Hey!"

"Fine! Damn, stop hitting me!" Gerald exclaimed.

"You know when we shifted in I didn't notice it, but there's no birds. It's warm like spring and the trees are green, still, there's no springtime sounds...well, sounds of life of any kind, for that matter. Then, when I looked around I noticed that we were lying in the epicenter of a blast hole of some sort!"

            "Come on, really, another war?" Gerald inquired. He quickly leapt to his feet and remembered something. He felt his side and exhaled a sigh of relief.

"Dittos," Kate said. "My knee is fixed."

Brushing the dirt from his beard and the side of his face, Gerald lifted his ear to the sky, and then shrugged. "Some warzone, I don't hear any fighting."

            "See what I mean. I don't hear anything...at all." Kate scanned the area around the edge of the pit. "Something is definitely wrong around here."

            Gerald cocked his jaw. "What place have we been to that hasn't been? Regardless, I think we need to get out of this thing and quick, just in case the cease in fighting is only temporary."

            <<*>>

With Gerald's hands under the soles of her boots to push her up, Kate heaved the bag over the top edge of the hole and climbed out herself. She then spun around on her belly and extended her hands down for Gerald to grab them. "Upsee Daisy!"

            As he struggled up and over the last few centimeters of the edge, Kate grabbed Gerald by the belt and helped him up. "Thanks," he said and stood, and began brushing the dirt from his tattered clothes.

            Kate noticed a vaguely familiar item just a few meters beyond were they stood.  A .50 caliber machine gun resting on a tripod and it was surrounded by empty ammo cans, barrel pointing toward the sky.

           Leaving the bag on the ground, Kate cautiously walked around the walls of sandbags toward the weapon and knelt next to it. Reaching down, she lifted a brass casing to her nose to take a sniff. "These shells don't look that old, Jerry. It would be wise to keep to the shadows as best we can, especially if the winner of this fight is hostile. This is apparently a rather advanced world with some deadly weaponry almost like the ones the NWUS had back home," Kate said and tilted her head toward a Humvee parked a couple hundred yards away.