Post by Chase Lonehart on Sept 25, 2015 6:32:11 GMT
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34 Days After……
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-ve you…
When she slowly slipped back into consciousness, the first thing she wondered was that everything she had experienced was nothing more than a dream, as she awoke inside a stasis pod. She was familiar with it, as she had slept in one during the trip from the Votanis system to their new home.
Was it all a dream? Earth? Humans? The war? Chase? Could it have just been something my mind created to fill in the time I was sleeping? A pleasant, yet cruel dream?
She turned her head to look out the side of the glass, finding an interior that wasn’t an Ark. She breathed a sigh of relief, realizing she was in a stasis pod, but also in what appeared to be the room where she did her research while working with Eren and Rosa at Top Notch, back in the Bay. She unsure of how much time had passed. The last thing she remembered was him holding her after disabling the terraspire. After that, she drew nothing but a blank. Her hand found the internal release control, the lid popping open and upright. She was a bit sluggish as she pushed herself into a sitting position, finding various intravenous needles and tubes connected to her. Iri Sewuel assumed that after the black-out, Chase must have brought her back to the Bay, probably carrying her in the pod due to her condition and Eren had been taking care of her body’s nutritional needs. But she was surprised she didn’t find him sitting in a chair next to the pod, like a love-lorn prince charming in that old-Earth story of the princess who slumbered. She heard the door open, finding Eren Niden entering, carrying what appeared to be a tray of syringes and vials. Eren took a moment to realize that Iri was awake, hurrying over.
“Easy, Miss Sewuel,” she told her as she placed the tray on the desk next to the pod, moving over to her.
Eren began to carefully remove the IVs out of Iri’s arms, disconnecting leads to an old EKG unit that had been modified and repaired over the years.
“How long have I been out?” she asked.
“About a month. We were worried that you wouldn’t wake up. Give me a moment to contact Ms. Starr.”
Iri was confused as Eren pulled out her hailer and contacted Belle Starr. Iri thought that it was odd that she would call her and not Chase. She felt some minor weakness and her stomach turned. It must have been some time since she actually had a real meal, but she was glad that Eren was able to keep her nutritional needs in check while she was out. Eren examined Iri, running her scanner over her as she waited. Her thoughts drifted back to why Eren didn’t contact Chase. Maybe he was at an Arkfall and Belle was closer to Top-Notch, being the best and logical choice.
I can’t expect him to just stay at my bedside while I was out, she thought to herself. He could be filing his time, waiting for me to wake up.
It took some time until she saw the familiar face, blonde hair and statuesque in physique. Belle Starr sported her emerald and black Castithan business suit, pink lip gloss and a diamond stud in her nose. But instead of a look of happiness to see Iri was awake, she instead sported a look of sadness in her eyes and a grim look on her face. It was as if she was carrying a heavy weight on her shoulders.
“Hey Iri,” Belle said to her, trying to put on a false smile. “It’s good to see you’re awake.”
Eren turned to Belle. “Scans appear to be in check. She’s in good enough condition. Would you like for me to leave?”
“Yes, Eren, if you don’t mind.”
This whole thing was odd to her. She wondered if maybe the sadness she was trying to cover up was from some sort of breakup with Vo again, but she couldn’t be sure of it. But what was even more odd was the fact that she was asking Eren to leave, which she did so compliantly. But she shook the thought out of her head and had to ask.
“Belle,” responded with a slight nod. “Did we stop Lady’s plan?”
“Yeah. We managed to talk her down, though it was good to know you managed to get the terraspire disabled in case she had pressed the button. And what’s worse is that the whole thing was a set up by her mother to see if she could be worthy of being the Mistress of Judgement. Can you believe that pile of horse pucky? All that, losing people, for nothing.”
That last comment was confusing to her. Then she remembered the Inquisitor that Chase killed, figuring that was what Belle meant. It was when Iri looked up to see Belle desperately trying to hold back tears. Something was wrong and Iri sensed it.
“Iri, I-“ Belle struggled with her words.
The thought process had finally come back to life after its long slumber. She began to realize the small details were adding up.
“Where’s Chase?” she asked.
Belle moved towards her, standing in front of her. Iri looked up at the human, who practically towered over her at that moment. She could see that Belle’s restraint wasn’t enough as tears began to roll down her face.
“He thought you were dead,” Belle explained. “The best we figured is that he went after the man whom he thought killed you, and killed him in retaliation. Chase cut out his EGO unit, leaving everything in his weapons bag. He walked off into the desert as a razor rain storm came in. With the winds, they covered any kind of trail that Lu Kshaa could follow. We tried to see if we could find out which direction he headed, but we didn’t have any luck. We don’t-“
The sadness had overpowered Belle as she began to cry. Iri went numb. She couldn’t believe it. She had lost him for a second time in her life. Like that, he was gone, and this time the chances of his surviving were almost next to non-existant. She felt the sadness brewing inside of her, the same sadness she had felt those months ago when Belle was the barer of bad news the first time around. Iri couldn’t think, but her eyes focused on something within reach. The Solstice Wolfhound pistol in Belle’s holster was within reach, and Iri went for it. The movement caught both Belle by surprise. If Chase was dead, she couldn’t stand to go on any more. Belle had instinctively got a grip around Iri’s wrist and began to twist it, grabbing ahold of the gun from her hand. Belle proceeded to turn Iri around and pin her down to the cushion.
“Let me go!” Iri screamed. “Let me go! Let me go!”
She repeated those three words, starting off struggling and with anger behind them. Iri hated Belle Starr for stopping her. But as the she continued to repeat the words, her resolve would break. The anger turned into sadness and began to cry into the cushioning of the pod. Belle finally let go of her, pulling her off the pod and holding her as they slid to the floor. The human held her as she rocked her in her arms, shooing her and running her hand up and down the back of her jacket.
“We don’t know if he’s dead,” Belle finally answered. “He could still be alive. If you do that, then you’ll be leaving him alone in this world.”
“He did it to me,” Iri replied. “He did it to me!”
“He didn’t know you were alive, Iri. He thought you were dead, and I think he went out there because he couldn’t live without you. And if he is dead, he wouldn’t want you to kill yourself. I know him enough that he wouldn’t want you to do that. He’d want you to pull yourself back up and keep living. Heck, I’ve pulled every resource I could think of that could help in trying to find him out there. We’ve got drones out there right now, scouring that sand pit to find him, dead or alive. Just don’t-“
Belle began shaking her head, as she broke down in tears. She pulled Iri into a hug, holding her as both purged the sadness, though both knew it would come again and again until they knew for certain about Chase’s fate. Iri, whose head rested on Belle’s right shoulder, could only say one thing at that moment.
“What I wouldn’t give for a jekkin’ cigarette right now,” she whimpered.
——————
Die……. die……… die……..
That was the only word that repeated in his brain, over and over again, no matter how much he wanted it. His brain wasn’t firing on all four cylinders like it had been before, it leading to nothing but basic functions and a repeating of that one word. His body betrayed him multiple times. Whenever it was hungry, his body found food by eating whatever wildlife he came across instead of allowing him to starve to death. When the rains came at night, his body would drink the water despite his willing to tell himself not to drink anything. Eventually, he began to lose track of time, as days and weeks began to bleed and blend into one another.
Eventually, the desert gave way to green grass. The green grass eventually gave way to trees. At this point, he found himself shambling through a field of lavender, lips chapped, throat dry, skin darkened and peeling and the right side of his face almost done converting the burn injury into a scar. Every muscle in his body ached and his feet were almost numb from the walking. He tripped over some sort of makeshift tombstone, which for some reason in his broken mind, he took a moment to straighten back out, seeing the words A Kind Heart inscribed on it. After that, he continued on, moving. He had wondered why it had been that any predators of the desert hadn’t claimed him and had digested him, but his nose couldn’t register the smell emitting from him, which included a brief trip into what was Hellbug shtako. As Chase walked, he spotted a massive black beast with a body that would have reminded him of a lobster that Marcus Reagan cooked for him if his brain had been functioning properly at that moment. He would have also noticed the canine head that this big black creature had, but he didn’t.
Whatever it was, it noticed him, growingly and began to charge at him. It was at that moment his knees gave out from underneath him, causing him to fall flat on his face. If he still had his faculties in place at that moment, he would have thanked God that his end was coming and that he would rejoin Iri in whatever afterlife exists, if it did. He laid there, not enough strength to push himself up or crawl. The body, a slow mechanism, refused to do anything and had finally gave up its ability to survive. Slowly, the exhaustion took over and he blacked out.
Die…….
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If there was one thing she was grateful for, it was her father teaching her how to handle weapons. In this case, it was a sniper rifle. She saw the saberwolf charging towards the man she spotted at a distance, her not allowing him to die.
Not having your death on my conscious, she thought as she pulled the trigger.
The bullet met its mark, and the huge beast went crashing into the ground, it’s body rolling until it came to a stop only a couple of yards away from the man. She slung the sniper rifle and drew out her pistol, carefully heading over to the human. She stopped in her tracks, hearing the rustling of grass from behind her. She spun around and had the gun up, finding a familiar face.
“Easy!” Berlin told her. “I heard the gunshot and came running.”
Irisa Nolan lowered lowered her pistol.
“Next time, just use the hailer,” the Irathient told her human partner.
“Okay. So, what were you firing at?”
Irisa motioned for Berlin to follow her as they approached the human. The first thing that got to both of them was the smell that was coming from him.
“Jesus!” Berlin called out. “He smells like a corpse that’s been marinating in compost, bad fish and sewer gas. And three times worse at that!”
Irisa knelt down to see if she could get a good look at his face. The man’s brown hair, grown out long, blocked a good view of it, with exception of what had appeared to be a recent burn to his face in the final stages of becoming scar tissue.
“We should check him for a pulse,” Irisa told Berlin.
Berlin shook her head, throwing her hands up and stepping back.
“Jek that!” she said. “I wouldn’t touch him with a twenty-five foot pole if I were you. Who knows where the hell he’s been and what he got into.”
Irisa disregarded Berlin, typical human following her nose. She reached over him, managing to fit her fingers in between the collar of his Riveter outfit and his neck. She pressed into the flesh until she found it. It was steady but pretty weak.
“He’s still alive,” she informed Berlin. “Go get the roller, we need to get him to Samir.”
Irisa looked up to see Berlin shaking her head as she turned to go get their ride.
“Great,” she muttered. “Now the smell is going to be in the roller.”
She called out over her shoulder as she walked.
“If the smell stays in the roller afterwards, you’re cleaning it!”
——————
Samir began by cutting off the top of the Riveter outfit, as the zipper was broke. Irisa helped pull the pieces off until they were able to get the top completely off. She was surprised the T-shirt underneath had writing on it. “Remember: No matter where you go, there you are.”
At one time, I would have agreed with that statement, she thought to herself. Nolan definitely would have.
She looked over at Berlin. Berlin stood back near the entryway with her hand against her mouth, looking as if she were turning green. Irisa knew the smell was bad, but she knew that it must have been pretty horrible to Berlin.
“Maybe you should go for a walk,” Irisa told her. “Get some fresh air.”
Berlin didn’t take a moment to think about the advice Irisa had given. She turned back to Samir, who began to cut the t-shirt off, carefully making sure that the shirt wasn’t stuck to the skin when began to peel it back.
“How are you able to ignore the smell?” Irisa asked Samir as he began to cut up the T-shirt.
“When you work with animals, you encounter some of the most horrible smells that an animal can produce, be it from them or from their environment. So, I’m pretty good at tuning it out. How about you?”
“It’s bad, but I can handle it.”
After Samir finished carefully peeling the shirt off, Irisa noted the man’s physique. His body’s muscle tone reminded her of Tommy’s, which she preceded to ignore the thought because of the feeling that came with it. She noticed a bit of skin that appeared loose in certain spots, which she remembered Nolan telling her about how human flesh became loose when you lose weight. Samir took a moment to hook up an IV drip into the man’s left arm, as his right was nothing but mechanical.
“Judging from what I can tell, he looks like he hasn’t had a decent meal or water in a while. But the way he’s sunburnt and how his skin is peeling on his face, he’s been out in direct sun exposure for a long period.”
Samir took a moment to get the knee brace off of him before they could remove his pants.
“Looks like whatever happened to his knee has heeled some, but he may need to use the brace a little while longer,” Samir noted as he set it aside.
After getting his pants off, Irisa felt around where the pockets were, hoping to find some sort of ID or clue as to who this human was. She was met with nothing but empty pockets. She took the initiative by taking the scraps and dropping them outside the back door. Most of the smell came off from the clothes, but when she went back in, the putrid smell of rotting flesh still hung in the air.
“I suspect that if he was out there for a while, the smells would be helpful in driving away wildlife,” Samir pointed out. “Between the rotten flesh smell, the Hellbug droppings and whatever else, it was enough to keep most animals away. I bet that if you hadn’t killed that saber wolf, when it got within smelling distance, it would have turned around and took off.”
Irisa finally took notice of the right mechanical arm, bringing her nose down enough to notice that the smell was stronger.
“Samir, I think this is where the smell’s coming from.”
Samir came around and sniff, recoiling a bit.
“You’re right,” he replied. “He must have gotten something stuck in there. This is an old PDK-82. I knew a guy who had one. We’ll have to detach it, open it up and clean it out.”
“So, what’s the prognosis on him? Is he gonna live?”
“Yeah,” Samir responded as he looked around for a tool to open up the mechanical arm with. “Other than malnutrition and dehydration, it’s nothing that can’t be handled. Just have to give him some electrolyte fluids for his organs, and some nutritional supplements until he is able to have enough until he is able to eat on his own. I kinda wonder what happened to him. I mean, by how he looks, he must have been out in the badlands for weeks. I mean, this kind of damage to the skin is the kind of thing that you’d encounter from being outside for a LONG period of time.”
“What about this?” she pointed up the massive scab on his face.
“Good old fashion third degree burn. And not only that, it looks like he cut something from the back of his neck as well, as there’s a scar there too, scar shape and thickness looking like what you’d see from a Charge Blade burn.
Irisa looked at the slumbering human as Samir came around to detach the mechanical arm from its host. She couldn’t help but wonder what it was that he had gone through that lead him to Defiance. Cut, burned, starved and dehydrated.
I wonder if he was scared, Irisa thought. And I wonder if someone misses him.
“Well, I found out what was caught in his arm,” Samir’s voice caught her attention.
He stood holding a piece of what look like discolored flesh in a pair of tweezers, the forearm section of the arm open and its mechanisms inside in view.
“Is that Castithan flesh?” she inquired.
“Yeah,” Samir replied. “And I’ve also got fragments of bone in here too. Looks like our man with no name here beat a Castithan to death, just judging by the skin and bone, as well as some blood and how far into the arm it goes. This should be an easy clean up.”
Irisa was glad that they had finally isolated the last of the smells.
“If he comes around, let me know. We should put any flesh and bone in a box with his outfit. I’ll take it out of town and burn it later.”
She preceded to exit out of the office, finding Berlin leaning up against the door. The human’s skin had regain its normal tone once more.
“Are you okay?”
Berlin looked at her a moment.
“I don’t feel like I’m going to vomit like I was a few minutes ago,” Berlin replied. “I guess that counts as ‘okay’.”
Irisa began to head towards the Lawkeeper’s office, Berlin in tow.
“We should check everything,” Irisa told her. “Every wanted notice and every missing persons notice to see if his face turns up, or even if his description matches. May be the only way to identify him for now.”
“Sounds like a plan. Other than the smell, he seems kinda cute. In that pathetic, born loser kind of way.” The comment Berlin made brought a chuckle to herself, Irisa assuming that she probably thought it was some clever pun. “I guess we’re lucky the smell didn’t stay with the roller.”
“The smell is the last thing we should worry about,” Irisa said as they finally got the door of the office. “There’s a good chance he may be trouble. Samir found pieces of Castithan flesh in his mechanical arm, That means that there’s a good chance he’s a murderer, or worse, attract a whole lot of trouble we certain don’t need.”
Irisa turned and headed inside.
“Don’t you just love the quiet days?” was Berlin’s final thought on the matter when the both of them began to get to work on seeing if there was something of a clue as to who he may be.
34 Days After……
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-ve you…
When she slowly slipped back into consciousness, the first thing she wondered was that everything she had experienced was nothing more than a dream, as she awoke inside a stasis pod. She was familiar with it, as she had slept in one during the trip from the Votanis system to their new home.
Was it all a dream? Earth? Humans? The war? Chase? Could it have just been something my mind created to fill in the time I was sleeping? A pleasant, yet cruel dream?
She turned her head to look out the side of the glass, finding an interior that wasn’t an Ark. She breathed a sigh of relief, realizing she was in a stasis pod, but also in what appeared to be the room where she did her research while working with Eren and Rosa at Top Notch, back in the Bay. She unsure of how much time had passed. The last thing she remembered was him holding her after disabling the terraspire. After that, she drew nothing but a blank. Her hand found the internal release control, the lid popping open and upright. She was a bit sluggish as she pushed herself into a sitting position, finding various intravenous needles and tubes connected to her. Iri Sewuel assumed that after the black-out, Chase must have brought her back to the Bay, probably carrying her in the pod due to her condition and Eren had been taking care of her body’s nutritional needs. But she was surprised she didn’t find him sitting in a chair next to the pod, like a love-lorn prince charming in that old-Earth story of the princess who slumbered. She heard the door open, finding Eren Niden entering, carrying what appeared to be a tray of syringes and vials. Eren took a moment to realize that Iri was awake, hurrying over.
“Easy, Miss Sewuel,” she told her as she placed the tray on the desk next to the pod, moving over to her.
Eren began to carefully remove the IVs out of Iri’s arms, disconnecting leads to an old EKG unit that had been modified and repaired over the years.
“How long have I been out?” she asked.
“About a month. We were worried that you wouldn’t wake up. Give me a moment to contact Ms. Starr.”
Iri was confused as Eren pulled out her hailer and contacted Belle Starr. Iri thought that it was odd that she would call her and not Chase. She felt some minor weakness and her stomach turned. It must have been some time since she actually had a real meal, but she was glad that Eren was able to keep her nutritional needs in check while she was out. Eren examined Iri, running her scanner over her as she waited. Her thoughts drifted back to why Eren didn’t contact Chase. Maybe he was at an Arkfall and Belle was closer to Top-Notch, being the best and logical choice.
I can’t expect him to just stay at my bedside while I was out, she thought to herself. He could be filing his time, waiting for me to wake up.
It took some time until she saw the familiar face, blonde hair and statuesque in physique. Belle Starr sported her emerald and black Castithan business suit, pink lip gloss and a diamond stud in her nose. But instead of a look of happiness to see Iri was awake, she instead sported a look of sadness in her eyes and a grim look on her face. It was as if she was carrying a heavy weight on her shoulders.
“Hey Iri,” Belle said to her, trying to put on a false smile. “It’s good to see you’re awake.”
Eren turned to Belle. “Scans appear to be in check. She’s in good enough condition. Would you like for me to leave?”
“Yes, Eren, if you don’t mind.”
This whole thing was odd to her. She wondered if maybe the sadness she was trying to cover up was from some sort of breakup with Vo again, but she couldn’t be sure of it. But what was even more odd was the fact that she was asking Eren to leave, which she did so compliantly. But she shook the thought out of her head and had to ask.
“Belle,” responded with a slight nod. “Did we stop Lady’s plan?”
“Yeah. We managed to talk her down, though it was good to know you managed to get the terraspire disabled in case she had pressed the button. And what’s worse is that the whole thing was a set up by her mother to see if she could be worthy of being the Mistress of Judgement. Can you believe that pile of horse pucky? All that, losing people, for nothing.”
That last comment was confusing to her. Then she remembered the Inquisitor that Chase killed, figuring that was what Belle meant. It was when Iri looked up to see Belle desperately trying to hold back tears. Something was wrong and Iri sensed it.
“Iri, I-“ Belle struggled with her words.
The thought process had finally come back to life after its long slumber. She began to realize the small details were adding up.
“Where’s Chase?” she asked.
Belle moved towards her, standing in front of her. Iri looked up at the human, who practically towered over her at that moment. She could see that Belle’s restraint wasn’t enough as tears began to roll down her face.
“He thought you were dead,” Belle explained. “The best we figured is that he went after the man whom he thought killed you, and killed him in retaliation. Chase cut out his EGO unit, leaving everything in his weapons bag. He walked off into the desert as a razor rain storm came in. With the winds, they covered any kind of trail that Lu Kshaa could follow. We tried to see if we could find out which direction he headed, but we didn’t have any luck. We don’t-“
The sadness had overpowered Belle as she began to cry. Iri went numb. She couldn’t believe it. She had lost him for a second time in her life. Like that, he was gone, and this time the chances of his surviving were almost next to non-existant. She felt the sadness brewing inside of her, the same sadness she had felt those months ago when Belle was the barer of bad news the first time around. Iri couldn’t think, but her eyes focused on something within reach. The Solstice Wolfhound pistol in Belle’s holster was within reach, and Iri went for it. The movement caught both Belle by surprise. If Chase was dead, she couldn’t stand to go on any more. Belle had instinctively got a grip around Iri’s wrist and began to twist it, grabbing ahold of the gun from her hand. Belle proceeded to turn Iri around and pin her down to the cushion.
“Let me go!” Iri screamed. “Let me go! Let me go!”
She repeated those three words, starting off struggling and with anger behind them. Iri hated Belle Starr for stopping her. But as the she continued to repeat the words, her resolve would break. The anger turned into sadness and began to cry into the cushioning of the pod. Belle finally let go of her, pulling her off the pod and holding her as they slid to the floor. The human held her as she rocked her in her arms, shooing her and running her hand up and down the back of her jacket.
“We don’t know if he’s dead,” Belle finally answered. “He could still be alive. If you do that, then you’ll be leaving him alone in this world.”
“He did it to me,” Iri replied. “He did it to me!”
“He didn’t know you were alive, Iri. He thought you were dead, and I think he went out there because he couldn’t live without you. And if he is dead, he wouldn’t want you to kill yourself. I know him enough that he wouldn’t want you to do that. He’d want you to pull yourself back up and keep living. Heck, I’ve pulled every resource I could think of that could help in trying to find him out there. We’ve got drones out there right now, scouring that sand pit to find him, dead or alive. Just don’t-“
Belle began shaking her head, as she broke down in tears. She pulled Iri into a hug, holding her as both purged the sadness, though both knew it would come again and again until they knew for certain about Chase’s fate. Iri, whose head rested on Belle’s right shoulder, could only say one thing at that moment.
“What I wouldn’t give for a jekkin’ cigarette right now,” she whimpered.
——————
Die……. die……… die……..
That was the only word that repeated in his brain, over and over again, no matter how much he wanted it. His brain wasn’t firing on all four cylinders like it had been before, it leading to nothing but basic functions and a repeating of that one word. His body betrayed him multiple times. Whenever it was hungry, his body found food by eating whatever wildlife he came across instead of allowing him to starve to death. When the rains came at night, his body would drink the water despite his willing to tell himself not to drink anything. Eventually, he began to lose track of time, as days and weeks began to bleed and blend into one another.
Eventually, the desert gave way to green grass. The green grass eventually gave way to trees. At this point, he found himself shambling through a field of lavender, lips chapped, throat dry, skin darkened and peeling and the right side of his face almost done converting the burn injury into a scar. Every muscle in his body ached and his feet were almost numb from the walking. He tripped over some sort of makeshift tombstone, which for some reason in his broken mind, he took a moment to straighten back out, seeing the words A Kind Heart inscribed on it. After that, he continued on, moving. He had wondered why it had been that any predators of the desert hadn’t claimed him and had digested him, but his nose couldn’t register the smell emitting from him, which included a brief trip into what was Hellbug shtako. As Chase walked, he spotted a massive black beast with a body that would have reminded him of a lobster that Marcus Reagan cooked for him if his brain had been functioning properly at that moment. He would have also noticed the canine head that this big black creature had, but he didn’t.
Whatever it was, it noticed him, growingly and began to charge at him. It was at that moment his knees gave out from underneath him, causing him to fall flat on his face. If he still had his faculties in place at that moment, he would have thanked God that his end was coming and that he would rejoin Iri in whatever afterlife exists, if it did. He laid there, not enough strength to push himself up or crawl. The body, a slow mechanism, refused to do anything and had finally gave up its ability to survive. Slowly, the exhaustion took over and he blacked out.
Die…….
————————
If there was one thing she was grateful for, it was her father teaching her how to handle weapons. In this case, it was a sniper rifle. She saw the saberwolf charging towards the man she spotted at a distance, her not allowing him to die.
Not having your death on my conscious, she thought as she pulled the trigger.
The bullet met its mark, and the huge beast went crashing into the ground, it’s body rolling until it came to a stop only a couple of yards away from the man. She slung the sniper rifle and drew out her pistol, carefully heading over to the human. She stopped in her tracks, hearing the rustling of grass from behind her. She spun around and had the gun up, finding a familiar face.
“Easy!” Berlin told her. “I heard the gunshot and came running.”
Irisa Nolan lowered lowered her pistol.
“Next time, just use the hailer,” the Irathient told her human partner.
“Okay. So, what were you firing at?”
Irisa motioned for Berlin to follow her as they approached the human. The first thing that got to both of them was the smell that was coming from him.
“Jesus!” Berlin called out. “He smells like a corpse that’s been marinating in compost, bad fish and sewer gas. And three times worse at that!”
Irisa knelt down to see if she could get a good look at his face. The man’s brown hair, grown out long, blocked a good view of it, with exception of what had appeared to be a recent burn to his face in the final stages of becoming scar tissue.
“We should check him for a pulse,” Irisa told Berlin.
Berlin shook her head, throwing her hands up and stepping back.
“Jek that!” she said. “I wouldn’t touch him with a twenty-five foot pole if I were you. Who knows where the hell he’s been and what he got into.”
Irisa disregarded Berlin, typical human following her nose. She reached over him, managing to fit her fingers in between the collar of his Riveter outfit and his neck. She pressed into the flesh until she found it. It was steady but pretty weak.
“He’s still alive,” she informed Berlin. “Go get the roller, we need to get him to Samir.”
Irisa looked up to see Berlin shaking her head as she turned to go get their ride.
“Great,” she muttered. “Now the smell is going to be in the roller.”
She called out over her shoulder as she walked.
“If the smell stays in the roller afterwards, you’re cleaning it!”
——————
Samir began by cutting off the top of the Riveter outfit, as the zipper was broke. Irisa helped pull the pieces off until they were able to get the top completely off. She was surprised the T-shirt underneath had writing on it. “Remember: No matter where you go, there you are.”
At one time, I would have agreed with that statement, she thought to herself. Nolan definitely would have.
She looked over at Berlin. Berlin stood back near the entryway with her hand against her mouth, looking as if she were turning green. Irisa knew the smell was bad, but she knew that it must have been pretty horrible to Berlin.
“Maybe you should go for a walk,” Irisa told her. “Get some fresh air.”
Berlin didn’t take a moment to think about the advice Irisa had given. She turned back to Samir, who began to cut the t-shirt off, carefully making sure that the shirt wasn’t stuck to the skin when began to peel it back.
“How are you able to ignore the smell?” Irisa asked Samir as he began to cut up the T-shirt.
“When you work with animals, you encounter some of the most horrible smells that an animal can produce, be it from them or from their environment. So, I’m pretty good at tuning it out. How about you?”
“It’s bad, but I can handle it.”
After Samir finished carefully peeling the shirt off, Irisa noted the man’s physique. His body’s muscle tone reminded her of Tommy’s, which she preceded to ignore the thought because of the feeling that came with it. She noticed a bit of skin that appeared loose in certain spots, which she remembered Nolan telling her about how human flesh became loose when you lose weight. Samir took a moment to hook up an IV drip into the man’s left arm, as his right was nothing but mechanical.
“Judging from what I can tell, he looks like he hasn’t had a decent meal or water in a while. But the way he’s sunburnt and how his skin is peeling on his face, he’s been out in direct sun exposure for a long period.”
Samir took a moment to get the knee brace off of him before they could remove his pants.
“Looks like whatever happened to his knee has heeled some, but he may need to use the brace a little while longer,” Samir noted as he set it aside.
After getting his pants off, Irisa felt around where the pockets were, hoping to find some sort of ID or clue as to who this human was. She was met with nothing but empty pockets. She took the initiative by taking the scraps and dropping them outside the back door. Most of the smell came off from the clothes, but when she went back in, the putrid smell of rotting flesh still hung in the air.
“I suspect that if he was out there for a while, the smells would be helpful in driving away wildlife,” Samir pointed out. “Between the rotten flesh smell, the Hellbug droppings and whatever else, it was enough to keep most animals away. I bet that if you hadn’t killed that saber wolf, when it got within smelling distance, it would have turned around and took off.”
Irisa finally took notice of the right mechanical arm, bringing her nose down enough to notice that the smell was stronger.
“Samir, I think this is where the smell’s coming from.”
Samir came around and sniff, recoiling a bit.
“You’re right,” he replied. “He must have gotten something stuck in there. This is an old PDK-82. I knew a guy who had one. We’ll have to detach it, open it up and clean it out.”
“So, what’s the prognosis on him? Is he gonna live?”
“Yeah,” Samir responded as he looked around for a tool to open up the mechanical arm with. “Other than malnutrition and dehydration, it’s nothing that can’t be handled. Just have to give him some electrolyte fluids for his organs, and some nutritional supplements until he is able to have enough until he is able to eat on his own. I kinda wonder what happened to him. I mean, by how he looks, he must have been out in the badlands for weeks. I mean, this kind of damage to the skin is the kind of thing that you’d encounter from being outside for a LONG period of time.”
“What about this?” she pointed up the massive scab on his face.
“Good old fashion third degree burn. And not only that, it looks like he cut something from the back of his neck as well, as there’s a scar there too, scar shape and thickness looking like what you’d see from a Charge Blade burn.
Irisa looked at the slumbering human as Samir came around to detach the mechanical arm from its host. She couldn’t help but wonder what it was that he had gone through that lead him to Defiance. Cut, burned, starved and dehydrated.
I wonder if he was scared, Irisa thought. And I wonder if someone misses him.
“Well, I found out what was caught in his arm,” Samir’s voice caught her attention.
He stood holding a piece of what look like discolored flesh in a pair of tweezers, the forearm section of the arm open and its mechanisms inside in view.
“Is that Castithan flesh?” she inquired.
“Yeah,” Samir replied. “And I’ve also got fragments of bone in here too. Looks like our man with no name here beat a Castithan to death, just judging by the skin and bone, as well as some blood and how far into the arm it goes. This should be an easy clean up.”
Irisa was glad that they had finally isolated the last of the smells.
“If he comes around, let me know. We should put any flesh and bone in a box with his outfit. I’ll take it out of town and burn it later.”
She preceded to exit out of the office, finding Berlin leaning up against the door. The human’s skin had regain its normal tone once more.
“Are you okay?”
Berlin looked at her a moment.
“I don’t feel like I’m going to vomit like I was a few minutes ago,” Berlin replied. “I guess that counts as ‘okay’.”
Irisa began to head towards the Lawkeeper’s office, Berlin in tow.
“We should check everything,” Irisa told her. “Every wanted notice and every missing persons notice to see if his face turns up, or even if his description matches. May be the only way to identify him for now.”
“Sounds like a plan. Other than the smell, he seems kinda cute. In that pathetic, born loser kind of way.” The comment Berlin made brought a chuckle to herself, Irisa assuming that she probably thought it was some clever pun. “I guess we’re lucky the smell didn’t stay with the roller.”
“The smell is the last thing we should worry about,” Irisa said as they finally got the door of the office. “There’s a good chance he may be trouble. Samir found pieces of Castithan flesh in his mechanical arm, That means that there’s a good chance he’s a murderer, or worse, attract a whole lot of trouble we certain don’t need.”
Irisa turned and headed inside.
“Don’t you just love the quiet days?” was Berlin’s final thought on the matter when the both of them began to get to work on seeing if there was something of a clue as to who he may be.
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