It was the absence of sound that stirred her into consciousness; there was nothing but a loud ringing in her ears. A bright light blared down on Kate’s closed lids, but it just wasn’t a bright light. She could actually feel direct heat hitting her eyes and face, making her feel warm and healthier. Her deathly pale skin was not used to this kind of exposure and began to sting and burn almost. She winced and rolled over onto her side to shade herself from whatever form of torture the guards were trying to instill upon her, only to have her face hit something prickly but soft and smooth. Still not opening her eyes she moved her hand across it feeling the lights warmth on it as well. As Kate pulled at it she gasped when it actually uprooted itself rather easily causing her to open her eyes to something she wasn't expecting….the color green.
Slowly she raised herself up into a sitting position, not being able to get her eyes off the green things that were all over the ground around her she shifted her gaze to a brown trunk that was next to her that seemed to go on for days then at the top was more green things. They were everywhere, “Trees.” She whispered to herself. Trees were something she only read about in books. She smiled and looked at the ground again, “Grass.” Sticking out of the grass was a little blue thing, with a slim green body and a top that burst out towards the sky. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She reached out to touch it when the ringing stopped, and reality came back to her.
Screams and crying came from all around her making her head shoot up and look all around her. A space craft sat a few feet away with some bodies struggling to get out, they all had the same jumpsuits on but with different colors, ‘The other prisoners…right we-’ Her brain throbbed as images flooded her eyes, the craft they were shoved into, the falling feeling and her banging her head on the glass pulling her into the darkness. She put her hands on the sides of her head to try and ease the pain, but there was something sticky and wet on them. She pulled them away and saw the dark red substance staining them. Her body began to shake as she looked to the ground and followed the trail of blood next to her as it led to its source. There a girl lay with a large stick jutting out of her abdomen, she was clearly dead.
Kate felt panic and fear take over her as she took a deep breath to scream only to let out a loud yelp before her body was rattled with coughs. She became extremely lightheaded and dizzy not used to having so much air in her body at one breath, the air in the Continent slums was very sparse and nowhere near as potent as it was here. Kate continued to hack and cough as she crawled away from the body, towards the space craft.