Shadow Of The Past Trilogy ∞ THE DISPLACED

23 ∞ two directives

Day Six ∞ Wednesday morning

WHERE AM I? Lora swept her gaze in an arc from one darkened corner full of boxes to a closed door, then angled her head toward a draped window. 

Is it day or night? She could not tell.

Immediately her sinnesband responded, injecting the information into her consciousness, —6:07 hours local time.

It was morning then. She probed her surroundings with her senses. There were several presences in the vicinity, but none of them radiated an immediate threat.

She sat up, shouldering off her jacket and swung her feet to the floor, noticing her feet were bare, her boots slumped unceremoniously on the floor near the foot of the bed. Next to them was her bag, and she reached for it and pulled out two rehydration pouches. She tore the end of one with her teeth and started sucking out its content as she rose and went to the window, pulling the drape aside. The view beyond the glass was blocked by dense vegetation, only near the top could she see a piece of the sky that was showing signs of dawn.

How many dawns had passed? She had no idea how long she had slept.

—29 hours, the sinnesband responded in her mind.

At least that was enough for her to feel rested. She finished the second pouch and returned to the bed to retrieve a nutripack. While she sat stilling her hunger, she reflected on the last thing she could remember before waking up. 

She had been inspecting a means of transportation when she was approached by Jagg who offered her a place to 'crash', as he called it. She could not remember coming here, though: she must have really crashed. But now she had a payment outstanding. She wondered what the charge would be. Since it was not going to be money she was sure she would be able to fulfill it. She would do her best to honor her word to someone who helped her.

Pushing the empty wrappers into an outside pocket of the bag, she looked around again and rose. There was a half-open door in the far corner—a bathroom. She pulled a spare uniform from her bag and went to freshen up.

∞

Ramiro sat hunched over an Atari joystick playing Combat jetplanes with the volume turned down when he caught a movement with the corner of his eye. He turned his head and saw the new girl Lora watching him. He dropped the joystick on the couch and stood up.

"How long?" she said, her face still.

He cleared his throat, thinking quickly. "Nearly thirty hours."

She nodded once and looked around.

Ramiro kept his eyes on her and gave the other couch a strong kick, stirring Jagg from his sleep. "Wake up," he hissed.

Jagg pulled an arm away from his face and squinted at Ramiro. "What?"

"She's up."

Jagg jumped to his feet and faced Lora, crossing his tattooed arms in front of his six-pack. "So you finally decided to join the living, huh?" he said, eyeing her.

She turned her gaze to him for a moment, then continued to study the layout of the room. "Aye—yes."

"You must be starved."

"I have eaten, thank you."

Jagg raised a brow. "Hm. So you had something with you." He reached for his T-shirt on the couch and pulled it over his head. Whether his abs were covered or not didn't seem to impress this chick either way. "Well... Make yourself at home. It's gonna be a while before the others wake up. Later we'll decide what you're gonna do."