Joy stirred groggily in her bed. The last 24+ hours had been hell. First there had been the wreck in the bus on her way back from the penitentiaries of both her parents and then there had been that damned migraine out of nowhere! She knew it wasn't due to whiplash, she'd checked herself over before the ambulance crews had even gotten there, and they'd done little more than confirm her assessment; A few bumps and bruises, but no real injuries to be concerned about. That didn't change the fact that she'd ended up with a mind rending headache at around seven that evening. She'd taken a few painkillers and shut out as many lights as she could, but it just got worse from there.
Around eleven her body started to ache, from her joints to her sinuses. Joy even felt like she was developing a fever, her body feeling hot as well as sore. She ended up taking some DayQuil to help her sleep. Here body was funny like that, DayQuil was guaranteed to knock her out for up to sixteen hours of sleep while NyQuil, for some reason, kept her awake and gave her a splitting headache, and she'd had enough of the latter for today.
Nevertheless, she'd ended up stripping down to only her underwear before crawling into bed, hoping to cool down while she slept. At this point, her body ached so much that bra was out of the question! The last thing she wanted was the clasps on the back digging into her, she was sore and irritable enough already! The DayQuil did what it was supposed to, however, and Joy soon found herself fast asleep.
In her dreams, she was with her mother and father again, living on a property in south-east Texas. They'd owned the land for nearly a generation and it was part of their 'Apocalypse Plan'. They were to rendezvous there if…
When[I] it all went to hell and society started to fall. They were squatting in a blind, hunting. They'd already bagged plenty of cotton tail and were hoping for some venison. That much meat would last them a [i]long time in their chest freezer back home.
They were downwind, the house behind them to the north. The buck was about a hundred feet in front of them and Joy knew she had a shot. The Midway Partisan was no good here, but she had a scoped Mosin Nagant just for this occasion, especially useful considering how expensive .22 ammo was nowadays… For a moment Joy found herself grateful that she knew how to load her own bullets. Resting the stock on her shoulder, Joy let the crosshairs of her scope fall on the deer. It was a good clean shot, hopefully a good, clean kill. All she needed w-
Joy's eyes shot awake. She was awake, but why? What had woken her? She was still slightly groggy, but her mind was trying desperately to asses. Her aches were gone, as was her headache. Sunlight was spilling into the room, reflecting off the black of the sleeves on her jumpsuit, absorbing the heat and making her feel hotter than was necessarily comfortab-
Black jumpsuit?!
Joy sat bolt upright. She
knew she hadn't been dressed when she went to bed, so why was she clothed now? Had somebody dressed her? Why? Jumping out of bed, Joy made her way to the bathroom, inspecting herself in the mirror. Whatever she was wearing it was…
revealing. The chest was open from her neck to her navel, leaving little of her bust to the imagination and the sides, running from under her arms to her upper thighs were similarly revealing. The entire outfit was skin tight and form fitting, with padded shoulders, a black choker around her neck and some sort of belt… thing. The whole outfit was laughably impractical, yet somehow it seemed like it was designed for combat!
The boots were definitely combat and the material was incredibly light. The feel of the fibre of the glove that covered Joys hands felt strange, yet familiar and durable. It was all so comfortable and light that it almost felt like it wasn't there, as if it were as natural as her own skin. Not only that, something was off about it, something missing. It took a moment for Joy to realise that it was the stitching. Or lack thereof. No matter where she looked, there was no stitching
anywhere, no sign that this outfit had bee sew at all, as if it were all on continuous piece of clothing, which was impossible.
Studying herself in the mirror, still trying to understand what was happening, Joy frowned. "Something's happened." She said hesitantly, carefully analyzing her situation."Something's changed."
