Buried Alive

It should be a nearly instantaneous transition. One second, Jemma and Daisy will be lying down on the Zephyr, electrodes attached to their heads, and the next they'll be heaven knows where in the Framework. The last thing Jemma perceives in the real world is the cold table against her fingers.

The first thing she feels in the Framework is pressure against her entire body from all sides. It is pitch black, and Jemma can smell something rotting. Grains of dirt are in her mouth, grinding against her teeth. Most importantly, she can't breathe.

All of this information floods her head in less than a second, and panic takes over as Jemma tries to get herself out of this. Knowing that dying in the Framework will kill her in real life doesn't help her in reigning in her panic enough to think.

Being buried alive doesn't give her good odds.

She jerks her limbs around instinctively, to the best of her ability, that is. Surprisingly, she can move around. The dirt surrounding her shifts around with her every movement. Jemma nearly screams when she accidentally grabs what feels an awful lot like a cold, rotting human foot. She throws her arms away from that direction, making the ground shift violently around her.

Despite the adrenaline overflow and the underflow of oxygen, Jemma is problem solving. If there's anything on how to survive being buried alive, she doesn't know it. Caught in an avalanche though, that she knows about. And unless the Framework's gravity is beyond messed up (which somehow doesn't seem like too much of a stretch in comparison with Jemma's S.H.I.E.L.D. career), the center of gravity is the opposite direction of the surface.

Jemma forces herself to salivate before she opens her mouth and tilts her head until her saliva runs down her cheek. She starts flailing her limbs in what she now knows is up, feeling herself start to feel faint.

Now that she knows what she's doing, she starts to make progress. As dirt falls down on her, Jemma wraps her fist around some roots. They're thin, and hopefully mean she's near the surface. She pulls on the roots, moving her body up as dirt falls off her and goes underneath her. She keeps doing this until, finally, her hand breaks through.

She uses her hands to pry her hole into a larger one, ripping most of the plant out of the ground. Once her head breaks free, she gasps for breath and closes her eyes, blinded by the sun. She does nothing but shield her eyes and cough up dirt for what must be several minutes, still half buried.

When she can finally breathe and her eyes adjust to the light, Jemma starts to push dirt off her legs. Looking down, she sees her sweater is covered in blood, the centers of the stains being two bullet holes.

"I was murdered," Jemma whispers, trying to process what is happening. "I was killed and dumped in a mass grave." Looking around her surroundings, she sees a familiar building. "The Academy? But that would mean...oh no! No, no, no, no." Jemma shakes as she realizes what must have happened to this virtual reality, all while still recovering from being buried alive.

She stops digging herself out for a moment and covers her face with her hands, sobbing as her mind processes all that has happened. Adrenaline courses through her veins still, keeping Jemma alert and expecting danger. It isn't until that drains from her system that she begins to calm down. She finishes digging herself out of her shared grave.

"What sort of mess is this world in?" she asks herself as she walks towards the gates, hoping she can get out of the field that way while avoiding harm.