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Those Missing McCloud Boys... - Zapp - 09-12-2010
Chapter One: Beginnings
Snapshot One: Life On Gateshead
Gateshead is a boring enough station. Though I imagine any station is boring, stuck inside what is essentially a metal box all day, every day. The neural net gets old after awhile, and it only let's you know what you're missing out there'¦ war films, action sequences, romance. There are 1,400 people on Gateshead; most are Police, scientists, Hunters or traders. My dad is a dock worker, and my mom is a waitress at one of the bars. The year is 797, and life is average I guess. Unless dad is in one of his moods. Then he gets'¦ well. He threatens me. Says if I ever tell anyone, he'll start to hurt mom. I don't want him to do that, I love her, she's so blissfully ignorant and innocent to it all. So I bite my tongue and just take it. What did I do to deserve this? Why would he'¦
Those Missing McCloud Boys... - Zapp - 09-12-2010
Snapshot Two: Siblings
Life continued on the same way for awhile. Mom had two more children, both boys. Nasty brothers. I love them. They're so cute and naïve. It's wonderful. I wish I could be like that again. But no'¦ now dad threatens my brothers, too. Can't let anything happen to them, they need to stay in the wrapping, like novelty collector items. At this point I'm 9, and my brothers are 6 and 5. Their names are Jonathan and Michael. I'm Cecilia. My mom calls me beautiful, but I think she's lying to make me feel better. Dad's careful not to leave any bruises or anything. Sometimes I wish he'd make me look like I fell down a flight of stairs, but he's careful. I think something in his mind is broken, but what could I or anyone do about that? Sometimes I dream about hurting him. Cutting him. Ending his life. I wake up sobbing, curled up in a ball. It's all so awful. I hate the hate I feel for him, it consumes me even when he isn't.
Those Missing McCloud Boys... - Zapp - 09-13-2010
Snapshot Three: Death
My mom died a week ago. I'm only 10. There's some criminal investigation going on, so I don't think I'm supposed to talk about it. She was killed at work. I think they apprehended the guy who killed her, something about crossfire in a bar fight. I'm not sure. I don't know how I feel, or how I'm supposed to feel. I love my brothers even more, they're all I have. I have to protect them, but I'm afraid that I can't. I'm so small, and my dad and the world and space is so big. It's awful. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to break, snap like a twig. It feels like I'm balanced on a tightrope made of blades. My school work suffers. I have trouble sleeping. Whatever beauty I might once have had has disappeared into the black holes surrounding my eyes. I have no friends. I'm so quiet I feel like a ghost'¦ Somebody help me. Please. Take me and my brothers away from here'¦
Those Missing McCloud Boys... - Zapp - 09-15-2010
Snapshot Four: Escape
If we hadn't been trapped in a metal box all those years, I would have escaped a long time ago. As it was, my dad made a fatal mistake; he took us on vacation to Cambridge. It's a beautiful planet, or so I suppose; I've not seen another properly in order to compare them. Even smoggy Leeds would have looked beautiful, though. The first chance I got, I grabbed my brothers and what I could and ran. I tried to make it into a game to them. I am 12 years old. We went as far as we could, sold our belongings we didn't need or couldn't carry, and went even farther. I didn't think into the future, only the past and what I was escaping. The pain, humiliation, guilt. I was sparing my brothers. If I left without them, they would have been destroyed. I have no doubt. But even the escape was its own kind of hell. We were jumped by these men'¦ I twisted and turned and jumped and ran, evading them, but my brothers were caught and shoved into bags or something and spirited away. I ran far and hard, and when I stopped no one was behind or in front of me. I fell to my knees and cried. Where were my brothers? Where was I? I was more alone than I had ever been.
Those Missing McCloud Boys... - Zapp - 09-17-2010
Chapter Two: Survival
The sun beats down on my face, but it could have been winter's cold embrace for all I care. My world is the tundra, icy expanses of permafrost and sparse, dead vegetation. I have nothing; I had dropped the last of our stuff to run faster and escape. My brothers are captured by what I have to assume are slavers. Alone, I wander the streets. I notice nothing. The world washes over me. People walk by, no concern on their faces, as if everything is alright and the biggest worry that could ever exist is 'what's for dinner?' I feel some dull anger, but it doesn't find fertile ground inside me; the loss is too great.
I eventually find myself inside a lukewarm building. I think it is because of the sign outside, advertising it as a shelter. I could use shelter, but I could also use my brothers back. I sit, and half an hour later one of the people that works or volunteers there, it doesn't matter which, approaches and asks me if she can help me.
'I just need to think'¦ sleep'¦' I hadn't realized how tired I am, but now that I think about it, I'm almost falling asleep sitting up. The room is large and busy, with cots spread about. She leads me to one of them and I quickly fall asleep.
My nightmares are dark and vague, the most guttural and primal displays of fear, anguish and distress. I awake feeling worse than when I had gone to sleep. I'm cold and hungry. The same woman who had led me to the cot approaches now, seeing that I'm no longer sleeping.
'Your poor thing, you kept thrashing'¦ those must have been some awful dreams. What's your name?'
'Cecilia,' I respond in a whimper. I am twelve but diminutive even for my age, a pale and frail thing. I can't meet this woman's eyes, there's something haunting in them, or haunting in my own.
'Well I'm Terra, dear. Nothing to be afraid of here. We'll protect you.' I try to smile and look at her face, but my eyes slide around. She stands there, smiling warmly at me, and I can't even return it. After a few seconds, she walks off and brings back some hot food. Not a lot, but better than nothing. I inhale it and settle back into the cot, unsure of what to do.
Those Missing McCloud Boys... - Zapp - 09-19-2010
Chapter Three: Discoveries
Snapshot One: Preparation
I spent five months living in that shelter, existing as a vagabond and street urchin. In that time, I learned how to charm my way into handouts, especially food. The shelter was a safe haven, but it had inadequate supplies and funding for the number of people it supported. I grew somewhat leaner and more muscular, given the active lifestyle I was leading. And people never noticed me. I remained tiny, I could slip through cracks and crevices, in a way life was easier. I didn't have to worry about my dad, and I firmly pushed him from my mind. My brothers, however, were a different story. I couldn't just let them go, and in my mind I eventually resolved to rescue them. How, I didn't know. I'd have to find out where they were first, and that meant finding who took them. So I found myself resting on my cot, mentally preparing for a night of information gathering'¦
Those Missing McCloud Boys... - Zapp - 10-05-2010
Present Day (August 14, 810 AS)
I slip into the bar practically unseen. No one stops me and accuses me of being under-aged; this isn't that kind of establishment. This is a rather well-known hangout for shady characters and illegitimate business practices. I look around and notice few people in the dimly-lit and smoky interior. Most are hunched over drinks or whispering in pairs, likewise hunched over. I notice, with just a cursory examination, at least four handguns. It's definitely not a safe place to loiter, so I slink to the bar and, when the barkeep comes over, I ask him about what he knows on the slave trade in this area. I pass a credit chip across the table; I had been saving up for just this occasion.
'Well,' he says, eying the credit chip and leaning in, 'slavery ain't too big on Cambridge, you know. But there is a group of folk who scoop up children and the like off the street. I think I heard that they ship them to Trafalgar.'
He glances about and then starts scrubbing a cloudy glass, ignoring my existence. Trafalgar. I exit the bar and taste the word in my mouth. That's a Junker base, and I don't know where. Somewhere in the New London system.
A couple of rushed and heavy steps is all the warning I have. Instinct overcomes me, and I sidestep to the right twice as a coarse cloth bag passes down through the air to my left. A muttered, guttural oath proclaims my would-be assailant to be a man. I don't waste time seeing how large he is, and I break out running down the road. Foot traffic is nonexistent this late, and my legs carry me far. Eventually, I leave his panting breaths behind. Could the bartender have told whoever I'm looking for that I was asking questions that fast? Only if the person -- or someone who works for him -- was in the bar right then.
I stop and duck into an alley, panting and trying to reclaim my wind. Regaining my bearings, I notice that I'm near the spaceport of the city. There's a hush in the air. I don't trust it. Quiet before the storm. I glance around, and barely make out the dim outline of a man in the mouth of the alley, five feet away. He appears to be two meters tall. I spin and sprint, but he's fast and almost catches me. The man-mountain lunges forward and crashes into me, but I turn and skip, using momentum to stay out of his grip. He hits the wall and rebounds to the ground while I bounce off of it and keep running. He's on his feet fast, though, but he's far enough behind that he can't cover the ground before I'm out the other side of the alley and running for the spaceport.
Warehouses start to line the road, and he's keeping pace with me. Not good, not good at all. There's light coming from that warehouse though, and it's large doors are slightly open. I angle for it and run through into an open space. No one is around, and I head into a maze of crates and tanks of gases or liquids. I round a corner and there's an open crate. I leap in and close the door really fast. I hear a click. There's darkness and silence. My hands grope for a handle, and I find nothing.
My throat constricts, and the tentacles of claustrophobia start to constrict my mind.
Those Missing McCloud Boys... - Zapp - 10-15-2010
Chapter Four: A New Home
Snapshot One: Darkness
I could feel the crate moving. I could feel the other contents; consumer goods. I could feel the darkness. It was like being covered in snakes. Some remote part of my brain knew that I should control my breathing to conserve what little oxygen I had, but the vast majority was caught up in the immense unease of being trapped. I started to yell and beat my fists against the door or wall, but no one must’ve heard. Time didn’t pass. It stood still with me, sat down in the box and ate brunch with me. We became close intimate friends. I opened myself up to him, and then he hurt me. Again and again. I screamed until I blacked out, but that was the same as being awake.
He was back in that box with me, and I had to get out. But there was no escaping it. I cried, I curled up, I died. I could see my crumpled body beneath me, lying there. Quivering from the pain and mortification.
Those Missing McCloud Boys... - Zapp - 10-16-2010
Present Day (August 16, 810 AS)
I awaken to the darkness. I'm scared and know that another experience like that (was that real, or in my head? Did it matter?) would destroy me. My fists hit the door, my throat and lungs yell until they are raw and exhausted. There is no answer. Then the door opens and I fall out, gasping for air. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust and my body to adapt to the plethora of oxygen. Tunnel vision slowly widens until I can see. A man in a transport crew uniform stands over me. I look around. This isn't where I had been, no. The climate felt different, more temperate. It was definitely a planet though, I could see the blue sky.
'W-where am I?'
'Planet Stuttgart,' he said, looking unsure of how to proceed. 'What are you..?'
But I was already running by the end of his sentence. Have to get away. Back to Bretonia, to where my brothers would be'¦
Eventually I stop and think. One thing is for certain, I have to return to Bretonia and find my brothers, wherever they may be. With only a few credits to my name, this would prove difficult. Steeling myself, I prepare to pick pocket with the best of them. I find a busy street and jostle through the crowd, muttering apologies and stealing wallets with deft fingers.
Those Missing McCloud Boys... - Zapp - 10-18-2010
Snapshot Two: Change Of Fortune
Months pass. I slept under bridges, on benches, wherever I could. I ate what and when I could. I alternated thievery and begging. Months. I kept telling myself I would leave soon, but I never did. I don't know why. There was something peaceful about the planet, despite my meager existence. It wasn't connected to any of the horrors of my past. My father was on the other side of the galaxy, as far as I cared. Then I pick pocketed the wrong man. Most people aren't as observant as they'd like to believe. This man felt my delicate maneuver, swept my legs out from under me and pinned me to the ground by my throat. I tried to scream, but his hand was crushing my throat and constricting my windpipe. His next action could only be described by mercy and pity. Right as tunnel vision set in and I began to black out, he loosened his grip and picked me up.