[i][b][color=ed145b][h1]Evelyn Prince[/h1][/color][/b][/i][hr]Michaels Street, [b]Lower East Side[/b]
[i]The day of the blast...[/i][hr]At this time of day, Michaels Street was one of the busiest strips on the LES of Larissa. With the sun high in the sky, overalled workers from the nearby nuclear power centre would flock in their droves to waste away their lunch hour; being barely ten minutes walk from the facility, and boasting a modest offering of delis and food joints, Michaels Street really was the ideal spot for the men and women to get out of the office and a grab a bite to eat. 

It was also the ideal spot for thieves. With the rhythmic waves of pedestrian traffic running on a near-immaculate schedule throughout the week, it became rather easy for would-be crooks to target at opportune moments. Evelyn Prince was one such crook who had taken advantage of the situation. She wandered along the busy strip, her eyes bound in cloth as she stumbled around feigning disability. Whilst most would consider her sight completely redundant, the young woman could actually see her surroundings with even more scope then they could imagine, and she was using this 'specialist skill' of hers to weigh up the most vulnerable target. It wasn't something she was particularly proud of, but she wasn't exactly riddled with guilt, either. Over the years she had grown used to borrowing from strangers. She found some solace for her conscience in the knowledge that she was not driven by greed, like so many criminals in the city. Evelyn was just doing what she had to in order to get by. 

She soon locked on to a rather muscular man, his broad back stretching out his grey overalls and the clear bulge of a wallet pressing against the inside of his tight thigh pocket. He was faced away from her, in the midst of telling a particularly asinine anecdote to his posse; who of course, found this tasteless tale completely hilarious. The whole pack laughed and brayed like asses. He was perfect. 

Wasting no time, she tripped straight into him and threw herself on the concrete. The group laughed louder, until she turned her head and feigned blindness with the Oscar-winning performance she had near-perfected. The fun stopped, half-assed apologies were uttered, and the man she had bumped into tried helping Evelyn to her feet. She used his pocket as a support to heave herself up, and once she had assured them she was okay she hobbled off down the street, rounding the corner and vanishing into the crowd... With his fat wallet tucked beneath her arm. She was neither proud nor ashamed, instead turning her thoughts to where she would be dining this afternoon. 

Heading into a sandwich bar, she waltzed up to the counter and began flicking through the wallet as she waited for a server to attend her order. There was a fair bit of cash, which she pocketed; she would always pay contactless until the cards got locked, making the most out of every steal. She pulled out one piece of plastic, and discovered it wasn't a debit card at all. It was his employment ID, bearing the Michaels logo and an unflattering picture of the man she had just robbed. As she read the words [i]'Michaels Nuclear Power Plant'[/i], a familiar feeling washed over. A dizzying feeling, that made her feel at once dormant and alert; hyper-senseless and hyper-aware of everything and nothing. Her head felt disconnected from her body. A young woman arrived at the bar. 

"Welcome to Rizzo's, ma'am, what can I get you?"

But it was too late. Evelyn knew that resistance was futile; she had tried countless times to shake off that initial sensation and stop the force that took over her in its tracks. But it was of no use, and soon enough the world around her began to fade to nothing. 

Blackness. Siren whines. Keeps whining. Loud. Long. Danger. A red light becomes visible. Flashing. Pulsing. Warning. The ground is shaking. Shuddering. Grunting. The rumble of earth merges into chopping. Chopping. Helicopter flying low overhead, silhouette against the hellish red. Feel the wind on my face. I'm here. Watching but not watched. Figure falls from the chopper. Hits the metal walkway. Loud clang echoes through my head. But is absorbed swiftly by the chaos. 

Man vanishes into the building. Red beam swings like a lighthouse. Rhythm. Spinning. Turning. Every rotation swishes along the brickwork. Illuminates a sign briefly as it creeps along the lettering: MICHAELS NUCLEAR POWER PLANT. MICHAELS NUCLEAR POWER PLANT. MICHAELS NUCLEAR POWER PLANT. Every time the words are lit in red for a second. Then back into blackness. Then back into red. Then back into blackness. Then back into red. Each time seeming more and more important. More significant. MICHAELS NUCLEAR POWER PLANT. MICHAELS NUCLEAR POWERPLANT. [b]MICHAELS NUCLEAR POWERPLANT.[/b]

Huge shake. Like an earthquake. Then a wave of heat. Burst of light. Burst of flame. Wave of acidity coming over me. Washing me away. Dissolving me away. Into nothingness. The shaking stops. The light fades. Nothing anymore. Blackness.

And then, out of the blackness, emerged the face of a concerned young woman, looking directly into where Evelyn's eyes would be, were they not bound in red cloth. "Ma'am? Are you okay?" she asked, looking at Eve as though she were just another mad vagrant from the streets. Her tone was loaded with faux concern; that sneering superiority that the sane so often hold over the vulnerable. "Ma'am?"

The plastic ID slipped from Evelyn's fingers, clicking on the tiled floor. The bouncing wallet soon followed, as Evelyn turned over her shoulder to gaze out of the large storefront window. The staple silhouette of the power plant loomed unassumingly over the trees, peaceful white clouds drifting from its various towers. 

"Oh, fuck," Eve gasped, as the gravity of the situation began to settle in. "Oh fuck, fuck. Fuck." 

"Ma'am, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave." sneered the smug server, in her ridiculous yellow uniform. Evelyn obliged, pausing for only a moment to consider warning the girl of what was to come. Evelyn understood more than anyone else that the future was set in stone, but knowledge of what was to come at least allowed her the privilege of being able to enforce a little karma where she felt necessary. And so she left the deli not saying a word. 

Better not to cause a fuss, she reasoned. Evelyn had every intention of getting as far away from Larissa as possible, and she didn't need blind panic hindering her escape from the impending nuclear disaster. But first, she had to pick up a few things from home. 

[center]***[/center][hr]112 Belgrade Way, [b]Lower East Side[/b]
[i]The night of the blast...[/i][hr]'Home' for Evelyn had, as of late, been a dilapidated old squat, as yet unsaved by the Michaels renovation project due to its seat on the very outskirts of town. It had taken her almost an hour to get out to the sorry site, and several more to properly plan her next steps; by now, the sun was beginning to set, and Evelyn was cautious that nightfall was only a few turns of the clock away. After that, fate was out of her hands... She had to act fast. 

She'd already arranged for an Uber that would take her to the airport, where she would reluctantly part with what funds she had stashed in the old building and head to Europe. Her initial plan had been to head across the water to New Alexandria, but the logical side of her knew that this was not the time to take risks. She'd read about the ruin brought by historic nuclear disasters, and whilst she had no idea how devastating the Michaels blast would be... Well, she didn't want to take any chances. 

The beeping of a horn alerted her of the cab's arrival, and Evelyn moved her gaze to an old wooden desk, upon which a golden locket lay delicately sprawled. This had, of course, been at once the reason she had called home and the reason she was reluctant to leave. Given to her by her mother on the day of her adoption, it was her most prized possession that she had managed to hide from Del's greedy eyes for a decade; her only physical souvenir of her brief time being loved. A treasure that was too valuable to walk the streets in, and far too precious to leave the country without. But it also reminded her of what she was leaving behind: it was going to be even more difficult to track down her mother from the other side of the Atlantic. And when she returned, how much of Larissa would even still stand? Would her mother survive the blast? 

As the impatient Uber driver honked once more, Eve snatched the locket from the desk and fastened it around her slender neck, forcing herself to find solace in the fact that her mother might have long left the city. A lot can change in ten years... And so she headed out to the car. 

A grinning, chubby white man greeted her as she got into the passenger seat. "Hey, darlin'. The airport, right?"

Evelyn nodded, not looking in his direction. "Yes, please. As quickly as possible."

He smirked, looking the girl up and down before nodding in appreciation. "Alright, princess. Let's get this show on the road." he said, starting up the engine as he glanced back at her blindfolded eyes. "And hey, don't worry about me, babe. I got my eyes on the road for the both of us." he paused for a moment, as the car pulled out and the wheels began rolling. "And I know exactly where we're going."

[center]***[/center]

Eve had been riding in the car for about twenty-five minutes before she began to realise that something was amiss. 

"You sure we're going the right way?" she asked, making little effort to sound unpresumptuous. "We should be there by now. I got a plane to catch."

The man simply grinned, pulling into an alley and shutting off the headlights. "Oh, doll, would you look at that?" he asked, smug in his assumption that his passenger was blind. "We're here!" 

Eve had not even a second to react before the man was upon her, pouncing like some vicious panther as he leapt across onto the passenger seat and began smothering her with his form. Evelyn screamed in shock, but soon turned her attention to struggling back with the man. She'd lived with Del for ten years, and on the street since then. This wasn't her first time in this scenario, but it was dark now and frankly she had neither the time nor inclination to sit and take it. 

She was unfazed as she heard the familiar sound of a fly being unzipped, instead fumbling around in the cardoor for anything she could use as a weapon. She found a can of anti-freeze; unexpected, considering the warm climate of the approaching summer, but it was appreciated nonetheless. She whacked him over the head several times, enough for him to withdraw momentarily; at which point she sprayed the substance into his face, leaping out of the car as he yelped in pain. She sprinted away and down the alley. Evelyn was furious at how her plan had been sabotaged by some sleaze, but there was still a chance of getting away before the blast. She just had to hitch a ride, find another car--

Bright white lights blinded her as she stepped out onto the main road. The blaring klaxon of a horn sounded. The unmistakable sound of brakes screeching against rubber squealed through the night. The weight of a moving vehicle collided with her body. There was a moment of shock as the world seemed to be pulled away from her; and then her skull hit the tarmac. All went dark.