Jinxer

Infintium, A Space Opera

Colour me interested!

I may be intermittently absent the next two days as it's my sister in law's wedding but I shall be in the background, reading up.

Happiness

@Write

Not sure the 'over' part is necessary this time around :P. My wife does it as well (having a degree in English probably does that) so I always feel somewhat inadequate in this particular area!

Happiness

Rhiannon shot Tim a wary glance, deciding what she risked by answering, before fishing the phone from her back pocket for him to see.

"Yep. It was in my box of supplies. No dead body in my room to cover them up." She put the phone back and took another look at the corpse. What concerned her was that the corpse wasn't that old. Little sign of decay and the blood was still fresh enough to be washed away by this foul-smelling water. As time went out she was finding herself less and less trusting of the nervous accountant she'd discovered. She breathed in shallowly, controlling her nerves with rhythmic breathing she'd learned from anxiety therapy, before trudging across the water-logged floor of the restroom.

"It's fine, you can stay there. I work with animals so I'm pretty used to blood and guts." There was a note of irritation in her voice; this man was clearly older than her, albeit not by much, but wasn't coping well with the situation. Privately, she found that the corpse did disturb her more than any animal would have but she put it down to the cause of death; some things would put anyone off their breakfast and she was pretty sure this was one of them. Still, for some reason she found herself calmer now that she'd run into another person here. If he was an enemy then at least she knew what he looked like and she could keep her eyes on him. If he was a friend then at least she wasn't alone in this place.

Turning her attention back to the corpse she noticed its eyes were still open so she reached out and gently closed the eyelids before sliding her hands under the body to get some purchase. With its clothes now sodden the body was even heavier than it should have been but she managed to heave it over rather than lift so that they could get the supplies underneath.

"Come on, get your stuff and let's go find out if someone else is here. You heard shouting before, right?"

Happiness

Dang, you guys are quick! I had absolutely no idea that theme was going - not even a tiny bit!

I'm both impressed it was there and that someone spotted it.

Happiness

Rhiannon felt more confident around this man, maybe because he slight sheepishness appeared to give her the upper hand. The situation and the place still scared her half to death but at least if she was trapped here in some kind of death or survival game then it looked like she might have the advantage. Assuming that the man wasn't putting up a facade.

"Let's have a look at the supplies then. Anything might help us here, so far all I've found outside the room is a lot of rubbish. Quite literally." She walked past him, back straight and trying to force confidence into her voice as she tried to take charge. The room he had come from had a powerful odour seeping out of it, the same one she had been smelling up until then. She began to push on the door, taking a deep breath before she faced the corpse he had spoken of, when the creaking sounded from inside stopped her.

He did say the body was dead, right?

The creaking continued but to her it sounded distinctly non-human and then the sound of rushing water from beyond the door assured her the corpse had not in fact come back to haunt them. Heaving on the door she pushed into the room to see a broken pipe gushing water across the floor. Swirls of red discoloured the salty-smelling water as it began to clean away the dark dried blotches of blood across the room. The corpse itself disturbed her, the weapon a brutal thing, but it was no worse than she had seen.

Nothing like someone who's been a harvester a few times.

"Where are these supplies then? Let's get them and get away from here, it gives me the creeps. Maybe we can search for anyone else in this place, see what we can find out."

Happiness

Rhiannon nearly jumped out of her skin as the man appeared from one of the doors further down the hall. Despite her plea she had doubted anyone would actually respond to it and suspected a trap. Taking deep breaths she kept her cool, her hands still up and visible rather than try and antagonise the first person she met in this waking nightmare. She looked the man up and down, or at least what she could make out of him in the dim light, and decided he looked the bill for his story. Than itself could be part of this trap, she reminded herself.

"I'm Rhiannon. I own a farm, my family are... in trouble with the law so I run it for now. Well, ran it. I guess one of the farm hands will take care of it while I'm away..." She hadn't thought of what ramifications her absence might have for her livelihood back home; with a sinking feeling she realised she hadn't even considered getting home as an actual possibility. More like a dream, an unachievable goal to keep her going in this sick place.

"It's the same for me. I got a phone but I was in a room by myself. There was a box with water and soup and... a knife. I lost it somewhere in the rubbish when I tripped though." The lie rolled smoothly off her practiced tongue. Now was not the time to reveal she had part of an advanced weapon in here. A knife? That sounded less scary and easier to lose. Made her look harmless.

The part about a dead body caught her attention though. Unless this person was a really practiced liar, better than her which was not completely impossible, then his apparent confusion added to his supposed innocence. The smell she had been aware of for some time made some sense now, although not like the corpses she had come across but there was no telling how long that one had been there.

"Maybe... we should go away from here. Whoever killed the person might still be about and there might be others like us here... not killers, I mean." She half-turned but kept a weary eye on the man with her water bottle clutched tightly, ready to bludgeon him if he rushed her. Despite her fear, she doubted this bewildered and terrified accountant was a killer and his story seemed plausible but she suspected that nothing here was as it seemed.

And who the hell is supposed to be my soul mate?

Happiness

@SilverDawn

Did you want me to respond to Tea before the next phase?

Happiness

@drewccapp

You remember yours? I'm not sure I remember anything past midday...

Happiness

No problemo!

Happiness

As above!

Got around to posting - was feeling a bit slow today after New Year's!