The sparkle of lights was all that she saw, a solid image in her eyes, black space swirling dots and vision like she hadn’t noticed before. Her mind swam and tingled, she couldn’t tell if she was only dreaming or if she was just crazed. Out of the blue her vision changed, everything started to crumble, her mind lost in a series of thoughts and memories washing and flowing away like a river of knowledge, nothing was the same. She saw what only appeared as black space, far out to the distant reaches of her imagination. Something had happened, she was in pain.
One quick intake of air grabbed her out of her teeming head in the form of a harsh gasp. She felt like screaming but she couldn’t, like her mind wouldn’t let her, instead she winced for what seemed like forever, her head pained and feeling washed out.
The young woman opened her eyes finally, blurred with tears, she saw no one. Just a gloomy, semi-dark room with pipes that ran from one wall to the next, it seemed like any normal day steam room with a door on one side of the room. She tried to move to wipe her tears, but with a slight tug of her hand, it already hurt. She twisted her wrists softly and heard the sound of metal clanking together. It wasn’t until then her head finally swam back into the real world, she felt along her wrist feeling the cold and smooth metal of handcuffs.
She tried to focus again, but it didn’t work, it was as if she hadn’t known anything at all of what was happening, her mind was blank, something had made her forget… something or perhaps someone she thought… locked her up here for a good reason.
Not even her name she knew. The young woman sighed deeply and looked down at herself. She saw she was wearing a dark green uniform with forest cameo complete with a name tag… and something else, a small emblem, one that probably designated where she was from.
She observed the emblem very carefully; she didn’t know what it meant only that it was a rectangular shape, a sort of red leaf at its center and two equally red stripes at either side of the leaf with a white background.
The name tag was next; she couldn’t read the name well upside down, especially with blurred eyes. She wiped her tears on her shoulder and looked again, this time it seemed clear enough. “Sgt. Melanie M. Johnson” It stated her has. That was her name, she remembered vaguely of people calling her that, memories and ghostly visions soared through her head. People and voices she didn’t know calling her that name over and over, a different voice replaced by another.
Melanie shook her herself out of the visions and focused again, she had to get out of where she was. She didn’t have a good feeling that if she stayed here, she would not live long.
She started feeling around with her fingers for something to pick her cuffs with; eventually her fingers ran over a metal pin that had been stuck into her sleeve intentionally.
Another vision entered her mind, this time she couldn’t shake it off, it played in her mind like a tape record in black and white. She saw herself talking to someone, a man with the same uniform as her, brandishing the exact same pin in her face, beckoning the words “You might need this.” until she saw herself snatch the pin from the man’s hand with a grin. That, she thought was her, when she knew herself. The man possibly her friend, she kept hearing the man’s voice in her head, a light musical voice, something she only vaguely considered recognizable.
Grunting she pulled the pin out of her sleeve and held herself straight to pick the pin into the locks of the handcuffs, strangely enough it was as if she knew exactly how to do it. The cuffs clicked open with effort and in only a few minutes she was free. She still didn’t see it as free, it still hurt. She pulled her hands to her front; it felt horrible to her shoulders, a sickening crack from them indicating she had probably been this way for awhile and the bloody red scars on her wrists told her she had struggled a great deal as well.
Taking a deep breath Melanie pushed herself up to stand, it hurt but she managed even when her knees and ankles cracked. Again she knew had been here too long and her stomach grumbled for food but she ignored the feeling and with much effort, stumbled her way to the door and leaned on it, setting her hand on the knob. It didn’t open as she turned it, it was locked.
A sudden thump of footsteps alerted her greatly and she quickly hid to the side of the door pushing up against the pipes and valves that poked into her back with agony. The footsteps stopped, he or she was right at the door on the other side peeking in through the window… looking for Melanie. Luckily she hadn’t left the empty cuffs sitting in the middle of the room, she pocketed them.
The door creaked open and a man walked inside carrying a rifle on his shoulder by its strap. A uniformed guard, Melanie determined she looked more closely at the guard’s gear as if it were basic training to her. He was armed with what appeared to be a pistol in a holster and a rifle. The rifle had a hard mahogany handle at its middle, and a darker color at its back end, and the rest black. It was a deadly rifle, just by the look of it she knew that she had seen it before; only no name came to mind.
Melanie despite the pain involved, silently lurched out at the guard while he was turned away, grabbing his neck in a professional fashion and twisted hard. Hearing the hard crack, she softly set the dead body on the floor. Staring at his face, a brown man with a mustache, she didn’t recognize him at all.
She ran her hand through the pistol that lay at the guard’s holster; she unclipped it from the guard and equipped it to herself. She also glanced at the rifle the dead man carried; she considered it was too big to carry around so she would leave it there. The other things she of interest that she took with her: a ring of keys, few enough keys to not be able to make much of a sound and the guard’s ID card.
