The Martian Desert
Collab between @bluetommy2 and @t2wave
Yoshihiro drove the rover over multiple dunes and rocks, throwing the thing up and down. Bouncing in his seat, Yoshihiro decided to break the horrible tension. "So... you know any of the other inmates in that place? Any with... abilities like yours or mine?" He questioned meekly.
Shaking her head Edith bounced in her seat from the rough ride. "No. I haven't really seen anyone other than a few guards and the bots that watch the place for a while. Figure they were told to avoid me though because once they realized I had some ability they practically vanished." Yoshihiro had no idea how close to him his comment of psychopaths landed with her. Given the whole reason she was in prison to begin with. It actually surprised her that the question of why she was there hadn't come up.
Taking a moment to think she turned to the driver. "So you're with a resistance group. What are you resisting exactly?" This kind of thing she would have to tred lightly on. Edith was not particularly keen on throwing herself into another controversy. If things played out well it cold mean a second chance at life. More careful decisions. Though if she knew any better having an ability already made her a misfit on top of her nasty criminal background.
Yoshihiro smiled while still looking at the route he was taking, the sun forcing him to crunch his brow into a small glare making it very hard for him to see. He turned towards Edith for a second, frowning horribly as a result of the sunlight. "I resist the UN, I mean, what else?" He tapped his hand lightly on his thigh after a small shrug.
"I mean, we haven't really done much, we really have done nothing but sit around and steal stuff, civil disobedience and all that nonsense."
He scratched through his bearded chin, sending blonde hairs down through the sunlight. He hadn't asked about this woman's past, though he bet she didn't want to simply give it up. Instead, he decided to ask why she had wondered about his resistance group. "Why do you care about the resistance? You interested in joining?" He glanced at her as he spoke, still avoiding the rocks and sheer cliff faces ahead.
"Well it is about the only thing you've mentioned that tells me anything about you. But I can't expect you'd spill your guts to a teenager that you just helped break out of prison." Grinning slightly Edith took her long hair and did her best to tie it up. She was probably going to have to cut it at some point. Why in the world did she ever let it grow out so much? "I haven't really been able to keep up on the news. What has the UN been doing? Oppressing the residents of Mars?" To some extent she was playing dumb, but also she really didn't know the details. This kind of dispute had been going on for decades. It was only ever going to boil over at some point.
Yoshihiro scoffed. "Really? You don't know? How long have you been in there? They've been doing this for years, I spent time in the army, the things they made me do..." He shook his head.
"I don't want to talk about it, so don't ask. But it's really bad at this point, they have a monopoly on the planet, meaning nobody can jump ship anywhere else, so they don't give a shit about anything they do, just as long as the government turns a big enough profit to build more cities that are just the same as every other one." He stopped the rover as he noticed a large rock in his path, turning the rover away from it and continuing. "I've got some kind of PTSD shit going on, kinda comes from having your neck broke and waking up to kill some innocents with your own bones, though I think my issues come from my military career more than anything else. You ever looked a rioter in the face? They'll spit at you, they'll yell..." He stopped the rover to look fully at Edith.
"Then you shoot them, and they're dead as any other guy, they'll whimper, they'll cry, they'll gargle their own blood, then they'll die, what happens to their families? Their children? I kill people and I can't watch them die. I can't, because if I do, I'll break, like a goddamn twig."
He stared for a moment too long, before turning back to the wheel and continuing to drive.
"So, what do you think? I'm a real piece of work aren't I?" He chuckled.
Thus far Edith really hadn't had the chance to see what anyone would think of her story. This guy wasn't even born when she was locked up, which was quite a strange thing to think about. It made her feel old yet at the same time she was younger than him. The cat was out of the bag when it came to her ability though so might as well confide it someone else that actually understood. "Uh huh. I know they have. I've been in prison for fourty-seven years and that hasn't changed at all. What makes you think a little rabble will change things?"
By now there were only a few options in response to what the white haired girl just said. She was either lying, crazy, or some kind of immortal because she barely looked 17. Medical science had advanced but there was no stretch of the imagination that would allow her to be as young as she was. The slowdown ability she showed must be more than just that. Being locked in a cell Edith hadn't had the chance to fully deturmine what exactly her ability was doing. So far as she knew it slowed things down and sped things up. But without something as basic as a clock she couldn't be sure.
Yoshihiro was confused by her statement, his eyebrows falling over his eyes. He looked at Edith and then the desert ahead repeatedly. Forty-Seven years? She barely looked twenty, nevermind forty-seven! He thought about what to say, but he just couldn't shake the thought, so he decided just to ask. "Forty-seven? You look damn good for forty-seven, I mean, over forty-seven, but... forty-seven years in a goddamn prison..." He blew through his lips.
"I couldn't handle it... but how old are you? Really?" He frowned quizzically.
This was kind of fun. Edith wasn't sure if she was reverting to a teenage mind set or just liked watching people writh from havin their mind blown. Her amusement was visable on her face in the form of a grin. Looking out the front windshield she let the question hang for a few minutes. Anyone could probably look up records for who was incarcerated fourthy-sever years ago. Her capture was huge news at the time, especially for Mars as it was somewhat of a victory for the law inforcement there. Earth couldn't catch the most wanted woman on the planet, but Mars could. It wasn't much for Edith to brag about. Her past was likely to haunt her one way or another.
Setting the thought aside t'was only a matter of time before her identity would be known. Hopefully this guy wouldn't spread it like an idiot but the odds were stacked against her. "Eighty-seven. I've spent over half my life locked away..." She trailed off and was clearly thinking. Saying it out loud was not something she'd had the chance to do. It was rather crushing. "...You're not the only one with blood on your hands." The youthful look on her face died with the reflection of what she'd done.
Thankfully, Yoshihiro seemed unaware as to Edith's identity. Instead he was simply concerned. "Eighty-seven? Good lord, you've been in prison longer than I've been alive. You look really good for over eighty, is it something to do with your abilities? I'd assume so..." He cringed, shaking his right hand as it continued to bleed profusely.
Yoshihiro was never a talker, he understood the basics, but when put into practice he just froze and swallowed nothing, and that continued to be the case. His eyes darted back and forth now that he was forced to speak on something he was not passionate about. His eyes returned to the road, his adam's apple shaking as he swallowed again. "Uhh... so, how are you... I mean..." He tried to speak, but he couldn't do anything other than focus his eyes on the desert and chastize himself in his mind.
Since it seemed that her partner had run out of words, Edith didn't try and press to get more. "I guess that's what happened. A month ago I started feeling really bad. Thought I might finally be kicking the bucket and fell asleep to get it to go away. Then the next thing I know I wake up to yelling guards and I was like this." She toyed with her hair a bit. "Though aparently my hair stayed in the past... or the future." The rest of this ride was going to be awkward until on of them come up with something to talk about. Not that it should bather her. But she really hasn't had the chance to talk to anyone about anything to far too long.
"So we can't be the only ones that have had abilities manifest. Does the public know about these things happening? Suely the government knows. What are they doing?" Some rather broad questions but it was a good place to start to get up to speed. It did matter as well. Because her fate was tied into what others knew and were doing about powered beings.
"I wouldn't know." Yoshihiro made a noise and sat back in his chair. He rubbed his fingers along the steering wheel a few times.
"I've been in the desert for the last few weeks, so if the government has said anything I don't know about it, there's at least one more of us in the resistance, though that may be me misinterpreting things, hey, at least we know that we're special, for all the good that brings."
Edith rolled her eyes a bit. Not a whole lot of useful information there. Bringing up the resistance again she wondered what kind of structure they had. Coming from that kind of background she knew how chaotic it could be. Not that she was eager to jump back into that. It really depended on the ultimate goal. Should things get out of hand the girl would rather not have another life sentence on her head. "Guess I'll just have to wait until we get somewhere to find out the news."
A panel in the middle of the dash lit up with a warning. Leaning closer Edith pulled up the message window. "Dust storm incoming. Huh, didn't know these things had meteorological updates on them. A dust storm is good for us though. It'll keep air vehicals on the ground and cover our tracks."
Yoshihiro leaned over to take a look at the panel, he sighed and lifted up from his chair a bit. From under the seat he pulled an oxygen mask, showing it off to Edith. "You've got one too, just in case we lose power." He pushed the mask back under the chair and rested his hand on the wheel.
"Yeah, these things have all kinds of nifty shit, this is a new model, but it's got nothing that I haven't seen before. It has GPS, but on Mars that's not that useful considering the difference in atmosphere, they're working on it, but until they get a few more satellites up it'll be useless. Still doesn't have telly yet, I hear they have rovers with it on the moon, we just get all the back-woods stuff because we're really far away, they're supposed to be shipping stuff over, but I haven't heard anything recently, maybe some kind of breach in the hull or something, they didn't make it at least as far as I know." He coughed, his mouth speaking faster than his brain was able to think of words, causing him to confusedly groan before returning to his speech.
"I was an engineer after I retired from the military, I worked for a company that made military vehicles and rovers, I know this shit better than most guys know their popcorn-makers, though I'm still a bit out of practice."
While Yoshihiro was going on about the rover they chose and the various features it did and didn't have, Edith busied herself with exploring the other features on the panel. Most of it she recognized at least on a basic level. Things were moved around but for the most part not overly complicated. "You're out of practice? Guess how I feel. You should try operating some of the first rovers after the domes came down. They were a pain in the ass. Huh, the GPS might not work but we still have a map. Know where we are?" She thought about commenting on some of the other things but they would probably have plenty of time to talk once they were safe from both the USF and the dust storm.
Yoshihiro shook his head as Edith reminded him of her age. It was still unbelievable to him that she could be so old yet appear so young, he didn't dwell on it, but it still lurked in the back of his mind whenever he looked at her. "I've got a vague idea where we are, I've been following tire tracks and footprints where I can find them, the same route that brought me here, or so I assume, you can try to use the map if you want, I'd rather not tinker with those things, I hate 'em, and with Mars being Mars, I doubt I'd find any of the stuff the map says is there. If you wanna try to find us, we're north of New London, I'm sure of that." He bit into something and spat it out, some kinda insect or something that had flown through a window when they had started the rover.
Chuckling a bit Edith went ahead and tried to find where they were. If only this guy knew what put her in that prison. Dumb tech like this wasn't an issue for her though. It was the thinking stuff that unnerved her. Anyway she knew the prison's name and what it looked like but never where it was. It took her a good ten minutes to locate the prison and trace the direction they were going. "There's a lot of old abandoned facilities out here. You'd be surprised what you can find when you learn how to locate them." Sadly they were not near one of her old hiding spots. Otherwise they'd have a good place hide and some more equipment. "We're not going to outrun the dust rolling in. Turn off the trail forty degrees to the left. Looks like an old plant there." She tapped on the screen to point out the structure. It was hardly visible on the map that was probably a couple decades old from now. No one needed updated scans of wasteland.
Yoshihiro looked at her with confusion and then nodded after a moment of thought. "Yeah, we'll stop off there, though I doubt I'll fit the rover in there, I passed by and it doesn't look to have a garage, it should be fine if we leave it out for the storm, if not it'll just take a little cleaning or some oil, there's probably some of the latter in there." He placed hand over hand as he turned the rover in the direction of the facility, he had passed by it, but it had been the middle of the day and there was no reason to stop there, he had never gotten a good look at what the facility was or had done in the past, though it was a manufacturer of some sort, though with the cities and infrastructure, the ones further away had been relocated into the city to cut costs on transport, hopefully it had something, or just a few closed windows.
Abandoned facility
@Sep
The building came into view as the rover passed by a rock. "There she is... ahh god, it's not looking good, I don't see an intact window in the place, hopefully the masks don't run out by the time the storm passes, they aren't that heavy so we should be good." The facility rolled over the horizon, a grey mess of old machinery and dust.
"There's bound to be an inner room we can hide in or something. After being in a cell so long I don't really care." She hadn't really taken the chance to think about the fact that she was free. Falling silent for a while she got lost in thought. Now wasn't the time though. Upon approaching the facility it looked like what Yoshihiro said was true. There wasn't really a good place to cover the rover. But there was a decent place by a building that would shield it from most of the wind. Speaking of the cloud of dust could be seen making its way over.
Taking the oxygen mask she hopped out of the rover and headed toward one of the larger buildings. As she neared the door she noticed that the red rust d been disturbed recently. It didn't look like any tracks that she recognized but something had been here recently. Pointing it out Edith carefully opened the door. "Keep an eye out. Someone else may be here." Stepping in carefully this section looked like what Yoshihiro pointed out with red dust everywhere. More importantly though light could be seen coming from a room up ahead. There was a scattered trail of dust illuminated from the door though. Following carefully it finally lead to a woman who was sitting by herself in a closed off room. Edith peeked in but drew back almost immediately. The uniform looked like that of a USF pilot. "Shit, they beat us here. You've got to be kidding me."
Glancing again to confirm it looked like the woman wasn't paying attention. Something didn't seem right. What was a pilot doing out here by herself? USF wouldn't just put a single person to find them, much less a pilot. More so she looked distraught rather than on guard. Maybe this was an unscheduled stop because of the storm? The facility around them groaned as the wind began to buffet the structure. This was not good, there wasn't enough time to find another place to hide. The dust already started swirling around the room they were in. Turning back to Yoshihire she spoke quietly enough so only he could hear.. "We got one pilot to deal with. She doesn't have her helmet on so if we can grab her before she gets to it then she can't call for backup. If I slow her down you think you can grab her? And try not to lose it and tear her apart, she could have useful information."
