damned_institute | Day 55: Intercom, Evening

Snow doubled in number as the day transitioned into the evening hours. Unfortunately, none of the patients were allowed the time to enjoy the weather changes. They were instead greeted by the telltale jingle of the intercom, signaling their cue to return indoors.

Once again, they heard the voice of a familiar female. She sounded unchanged from her previous announcements, her intonation as clear and as flat as ever.

"Attention all subjects and personnel. All subjects are to return to their assigned rooms for their evening meal. Lights Out will commence shortly after."

The woman paused, seemingly for effect.

"All personnel: you are to report to your stations. Thank you."

The intercom clicked off.

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"Gone from yesterday to sometime last week." She vented a self-deprecating snort. They were all vastly overdue for a decent break, and it wasn't for lack of trying.

"Kind of hard to leave when they can just drag us back here as easily as they brought us here in the first place." That was the crux of it; what made this inescapable prison different from all the ones they'd proved less impermeable than its keepers had bargained on. "Guess we're going to have to start at the top."

All or nothing. It was a fool's gamble, but she wasn't the one setting the stage. Besides, it meant she didn't have to consider abandoning anyone when they did get out of here. That would be a wrench -- she couldn't stop people from dying and leaving, but she could refuse to leave anyone behind, and that she'd promised.

Morgan let out a snort of her own. "I like the way you think."

The pessimism was a little less impressive, though. "Only if they catch us," she answered with a smirk. "And I'm pretty fast." Usually she was the one doing the chasing, but she wouldn't be too concerned about switching things up. They'd have the advantage on terrain they were familiar with (and on terrain, period), but Morgan didn't think the big problem was being caught; it'd be getting past the heavily-armed horde of guards in the first place. And the fact that with every fresh insult she got a lot less willing to live and let live with these jerks.

Gutting whoever was responsible for this also made it less likely that she'd get dragged back here a second time, but Morgan's main plan to take care of that one was not getting killed again.

"Were you here the night the doors turned into jump points? We weren't even on this planet by the end." Cissnei had been able to stay behind, but she'd been an anomaly, and they'd never heard from her. The possible explanations started at more memory alteration and got more sinister from there. Or less, depending on comfort level with mind games. Death was scarier, but Taura knew people who'd disagree.

"Hard to outrun a shuttle on human legs. But if I see a chance I'm taking it. Easier to bring this place down with a little help on the outside."

And that was where they were going to be trying tonight; north wasn't so much a location as a vague hope, but it was all they had.

"Another planet?" There was that again, just like Rita had said. Morgan still found it more than a little tough to swallow. Weird that two apparently sane people had both independently mentioned being on other planets, but then again, this was an asylum. "The last place I ended up was a quarry outside. We woke up back here the next morning, but I was hoping we just didn't get far enough away." But if they were seriously talking about planets...

"Tell me more about this shuttle," she continued. Better to prepare for what was coming next than worry about what had already happened.

"My roommate then -- Cissnei -- it was her home. We were on a beach." It had been beautiful. Sunny, warm...and Taura knew a different planet. "Every planet smells different, and the gravity is never quite the same." Earth had set the standard; this felt like ship-gravity, though she'd felt that long before she'd set foot on Earth. Either this one or the real one, that hadn't had an untracked wilderness this big in centuries, at least.

"Of course, if we could find whatever they used to do that, we could get out of here. Or bring an army in." General Aguilar had done just that, overnight. Oops. "Another army, I mean."

Morgan pushed the plate (scraped clean, and she wished she could do the same to her tongue) away and turned all the way around in her chair to fix the other woman with a skeptical look. "Wait, so you've been on more than one? More than two?" Most of the people she encountered on a daily basis didn't even seem to go to more than one island--or come to think of it, more than one or two exact locations on each island. That was one of the unique things about the Caribbean.

"So what happened then? Did you just black out and wake up in your cell that night too?" she wanted to know. Morgan still hadn't figured out how they were doing that--gas, maybe, like the stuff from yesterday morning. She hadn't thought it mattered, since she'd be out of here before long anyway. But on the off-chance that Taura wasn't completely off her rocker and whoever was running this freak show actually could grab you even from another planet...

"Same as always. Cissnei wasn't here in the morning, but the rest of us were. Like nothing strange had happened." Taura drooped, a little -- they'd had such high hopes, her and Cissnei and Rika, and now she had no way of knowing if either woman was even alive.

Morgan didn't quite believe her; there were a lot of people here who'd never gotten to really travel. All their lives, confined to the bottom of one tiny gravity well. And not just any people -- the folks here were brilliant, or mostly so, and would be wasted on such limited scope. Two weeks here and Taura was already getting itchy feet, though that had as much to do with the involuntary nature of this "vacation" as being grounded.

At least she'd see something new tonight. Make the Eagle work for his paycheck, dragging them each back from as far as they could scatter in a night. "Their range seem infinite. Not just space, but time, too." There were aliens Earth had never encountered hailing from centuries ago, and technology they wouldn't come close to for millenia, unless something really weird happened. Physicists tied themselves in knots explaining jump physics -- time was tangled up in all those dimensions, but while they could cheat light out of its winning race, they'd never found any way to proceed through life except one day at a time, forward march.

Day 55: Intercom, Evening

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