Prisoner Escape

[Red Thunder]

The transmitter on the floor, Sean breathed a sigh of relief. Kim hadn't budged. He replaced the pack's contents as well as he could, he grabbed the radio and moved back to his own. The question of course was how to get the two pieces of technology to play well together. But he had time, tools, and a proclivity for jury rigging.


He worked diligently for two hours, occasionally taking a few minutes to eat and drink or to cast an eye on the landscape about them. But he had little knowledge of scouting or survival skills, further solidifying in his mind the need to stick with this soldier. Speaking of...


He briefly consisted stowing the now combined radio and solar panel into his pack. But it would be far safer to volunteer his activity. So he placed it close beside her and touched her shoulder.


"Hey. Wake up, Miss Military. We've got places we need to be."

 

[redletalis]

Kim groaned and grunted as she was brought out of sleep by a touch and a voice, and blinked sleepily up at Sean for a second before she realised what she was seeing. Then she recognised him and realised that all that had happened wasn't some bad dream or one of those soap operas that her mother enjoyed watching. It was real. The crash, the dead, teaming up with an ex-prisoner, a totally unknow world full of enemies in alien and human shape with very limited food and water and medical supplies along with no real way where the hell they were supposed to be going.


She groaned again and brought a hand up to rub at her face in an attempt to wake herself up. "Right. I'm awake." Kim certainly didn't feel awake despite what she said, so she slapped her own cheeks slightly to jump start the adrenaline and wake herself up further. Sitting up made her legs bump against the new construct of radio transmitter and solar panel and her heart jumped into her throat, her hand tightening on the gun. What the hell had he done with the two things that could hopefully ensure their rescue? Had he somehow pretended to put it together but in reality sabotaged it? If not then why hadn't he simply ran off with it while she was still sleeping?


"What's this?" she asked, keeping her voice measured and calm. Sean could have been long gone, could have killed her if he had wanted to, but he was still here and wasn't trying to hide what he had done, so Kim decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Red Thunder]

"That is our ticket off of this weird ass vacation spot," he stated, his matter-of-fact tone underlined by a hint of condescension. "Now upgraded to actually be able to work. See? I know you didn't fail to notice the bright glass and aluminum frame of the solar panel taped to the radio."


The solar panel, and its battery, had indeed been attached to the main box of the radio with what might have been ten or twelve feet of duct tape; it was unsightly and unprofessional, but it certainly held the subsequent parts together. Wires snaked from the discharge ports of the battery to the power input ports of the transmitter, the contact points where the bare wires twisted together being covered in more tape. Kneeling beside it, Sean examined it briefly.


"Now, let's see if this shit will work. Didn't wanna start without ya."


Reaching down, he flipped a few switches and pressed a button. The few lights on the radio, mostly indicating power and signal strength, flashed to life, and a high pitched squeal erupted from the speaker. Wincing, the ex-con spun the dial marked Volume until the sound went away. Standing up and taking a step back, he gestured to it.


"Look, I did a little bit of thinking last night. For a soldier, you're not a bad sort: you haven't killed me yet, after all. And there's no way in hell I can navigate this mess of a jungle, let alone survive in it, without help. And I really don't want get help from the bastards that broke free. So, in a gesture of good faith, here's your radio: untampered with except for the battery install. Ready for you to call whoever the hell you feel like." He scratched his chin and looked around at the landscape. "We oughta be high enough for you to at least try the thing, right? We can always move later."

 

[redletalis]

Wincing at the sharp noise Kim cast a look around. The soft noises of the jungle all around them, the ones one didn't notice until they were gone, had suddenly stopped up, scared off by by the noise. It was eerily quiet for a moment or two before the animals started making tentative noise again, gaining confidence quickly until everything was back to normal. She looked back at Sean. If he was so good with technical equipment that he could jimmy rig the radio transmitter and solar panel, then he really didn't actually need her skills as a mechanic, and having her around to help with survival could mean a lot of different stuff. But she needed help with surviving this place as well, so she couldn't pull back now.


Kim sighed and relaxed her grip on the gun, and put it back into its holster on her thigh. "I wish you had told me what you planned before I fell asleep. Alright, let's see what we can do with this thing."


She shifted her position until she was kneeling and checked the equipment over quickly - make-do but it would work for now, she would have to do some soldering and such to make things steadier - and started fiddling about with the dials and buttons, searching for a frequency. All she got was a lot of static and squeaks, but after five minutes of searching, she chances upon something that sounded almost clear. Sending a small, silent prayer, Kim pushed the right button and leaned down to speak into the radio's microphone.


"This is an SOS." She waited for a few seconds. "I repeat, this is an SOS." Another short period of waiting. "Is anyone out there? Hello?"

 

[Red Thunder]

The static persisted for several long seconds with not even a break in the tone. But suddenly a voice broke through: halting and disjointed, as if the signal wasn't maintaining its strength, but a voice none the less.


"...-es? I read you! Come i- ... -s the Goodwill Ship Mercy! Cap- ... -ercival speaking! Hopefully- ... -through to you. Your transmiss- ... -otty at best. Something seems to be interfe- ... -dio frequency! With who- ... -speaking?"


The fellow on the other end was obviously well bred: that was easily deduced by the man's tonality and vocal demeanor. But that was about right. The Mercy was fairly well known by its reputation as a Samaritan ship, running hither and yon and trying to better the lives of the poor and unfortunate. It was privately owned and operated, the funds coming exclusively from the pockets of one Thaddeus Percival, Esq., the heir to one of the sector's wealthiest families. He was something of a buffoon and a moron, but he had a reputation for meaning well in everything he did.

 

[redletalis]

Tense and silently telling herself that this probably wouldn't work for a million different reasons, Kim almost fell over when the improvised radio crackled into life and a voice replied. If Kim had been surrounded by her team they would have been sharing high-fives and even even a couple of hugs in joy. But since she wasn't Kim simply settled for almost beaming in relief and happiness at Sean for a second as the voice came through their makeshift radio. With this storke of luck, with having managed to establish contact with someone on the first try, Sean had firmly situated himself in Kim's good graces. He wasn't quite cemented there, but he was doing much better than he had a mere ten minutes ago.


"This is Corporal Kimani Williams of the prisoner transport ship the GMS N. Asher. We have crashed on a jungle planet in the M-344/G System. There are survivors and escaped prisoners. We need help. Over." She waited for a few moments before repeating the message. Then again. And again. Her heart sank in her chest at the thought of losing contact this soon. Especially if they hadn't heard the name of the system.


"God, I hope they got the message, at least of the system. The closer to us they are the easier it will be to contact them. And we should still try to get higher up. The dead from the crash will attract the local beasts, and also probably some of the escaped prisoners in search of something they can use. We should be further away by that time. Just in case." She looked at Sean and smiled. "Thank you. For rigging this. You did an excellent job with the equipment we have."

 

[Red Thunder]

"You get used to working with trash and spare bits when you live on the run." At a momentary change in static tone, Sean looked down to the radio expectantly. But when nothing immediately came of it, he looked back to Kim. "But, uh, you're welcome, I guess."


Turning back toward his pack, he hoisted it up on his shoulders. She was right; it made sense that staying put would be unwise.


"You know," he stated, passing a cigarette into his mouth as he looked across the jungle landscape, "most soldiers would likely have done something awful to me for dating to go through your stuff like that. I mean, I guess you still might. But thanks for not doing so yet."


The radio still cackled on with its static tone, as if it were mocking their attempt to gain rescue off this miserable island lost in an infinite sea of blackness. Sean frowned at it, clearly as disappointed with the final result as his companion was.


"I wish they'd signal back. Wonder what he meant, 'something was messing with the signal'. Maybe you should send back a reply that we'll try to contact him again in some amount of time. Hopefully we can find a higher point by then."

 

[redletalis]

"Good idea." Kim nodded and leaned down to the microphone again. "Mercy, we will try to contact you again in four hours." She repeated the message three times hoping that at least one of them got through, or even halfway through. With a sigh Kim started repacking her pack, placing the newly improved radio transmitter at the bottom and supporting the solar panel construction with the extra clothing and the food and medic packs, leaving the water packs to be put on the very top. Water packs had a tendency to burst and if the jimmy rigged radio got wet they would be fucked.


"We can think about the possible jammer later on." Swinging the backpack onto her back with a groan, she walked over to the branch that still held the rope from last night. Untying it she stepped over to Sean and gave him one end of the rope. "We can't afford to lose the rope like this, nor leave traces of us behind, so abseiling down's the best way to do it. Have you done anything like this before? You going to be fine with that wounded hand?"


It was amazing that no other prisoners had discovered them yet, and Kim could only hope that their luck held.

 

[Red Thunder]

He shrugged, catching the rope in his good hand while flexing his injured hand into and out of a fist


"It's all right. I can handle whatever. Including abseiling." He glanced at her, eyebrow raised, then off the tree. "So, uh, I'm assuming you first, given you can't weigh more than ... a buck twenty soaking wet, I guess."


Sean glanced about him, sucking on his lower lip as he considered her proposal. He weighed the end of the rope in his hand, contemplating how to best secure it to bear Kim's weight. A thick branch stuck out from the main trunk beside him. Nodding to himself in affirmation, he looped the rope around it and around his forearm.


"Not quite sure it's a jammer, though." He sniffed and smacked his lips together as if tasting something. "The air smells like iron. You haven't tasted it? If metal is somehow scattered through the atmosphere, it could affect signals badly. I guess I'm just trying to say that it's too early to get paranoid, considering jammers or whatever. The signal could have broken up for any number of reasons."

 

[redletalis]

"If there was enough iron int he atmosphere to interfere with this transmitter then we wouldn't have been able to breathe." Kim replied and then sighed. "I get your point though. No need to count the chickens before the eggs are hatched. First getting out of this tree. Then we'll see about trying to figure out some way of orienting ourselves in this jungle. I don't want to spend my energy walking in circles."


As soon as she was certain that Sean was good and ready, Kim stepped up to the edge and looked down. Now in the pink light of day the ground seemed further away than it had during the climb last night - though it had to be admitted that she hadn't been at her complete best last night. It didn't really matter, she still had to get down. At least there didn't seem to be any enemies around. Casting one last look back at Sean and grabbing a good hold of the rope, Kim swung out and started to rapidly abseil down pushing off the trunk a couple of times before she reached the ground.


Close to the very base of the enormous tree, hidden amongst mushrooms that luckily weren't glowing, she found a root that stuck up and out of the ground at one spot and threaded the rope twice around it. Sitting down and wrapping the end of the rope around her waist and digging her heels into the ground as well as she could, Kim figured that this was as good as she could make it.


"Alright, I'm ready," she called back up to Sean. "You can start to come down."

 

[Red Thunder]

Eyebrow raised in concern, Sean glanced over the edge of the tree at the sound of her affirmation. Ready? I'm not so sure you are. But he grunted out an acknowledgement, leaned into the rope, and began walking down the side of the remarkably tall tree.


He had to admit: for all her lack of weight, she knew what she was doing. His descent never faltered but was rock steady. Finally his booted feet hit the ground, and he sighed audibly, glancing at her.


"Phew. Great, glad to be able to check 'trust my life to a damn soldier as I abseil off an alien tree' from off my bucket list." He chuckled nervously, but his eyes shined with humor. As he turned to survey the landscape, specifically potential paths, he clenched his eyes together as if in pain. "Sunnovabitch. Who the hell makes sunlight pink? That's gonna play hell with my head until I get used to it. Pink. Really?"


Shaking his head, Sean ranked on the rope. With the telltale hiss of sliding rope, it unwound itself from around the root and the branch and slithered to the ground, where it landed in a heap. Still squinting, the blonde man began coiling the rope about his forearm.


"Now what, oh glorious leader?"

 

[redletalis]

Kim bit her lip and held on to the rope as hard as she could, digging her feet into the ground even more as Sean descended. She let go of the rope as soon as he was firmly on the ground and waved her hands around to make them relax and get rid of the tingling of the slight rope burn. It would be gone within the hour at the most so it wasn't anything to worry about. Instead she got to her feet and brushed some of the dirt and leaves off her pants before looking around as well.


"The same person who makes White Giants white. A month under pure white light with a dash of a possibility to go blind if you stare at it for too long. Now there's a headache for you." She replied as she scanned their surroundings before giving up with a shrug. "I have no idea. I'd say we should find out what's north and south first of all, but this planet may not have that. I suppose we should find some way of going in a straight line without leaving too obvious a trail behind, and at the first opportunity we have one or both of us should climb a tall tree and try to see above the canopy. We might spot a hill or even a mountain like that if we're lucky. As for directions, well, the crashed ship is somewhere over there, so we could just continue in the same direction we had last night."


As she spoke Kim motioned in the general directions of things. She still had no idea how to keep straight though.

 

[Red Thunder]

Grunting in acknowledgement, Sean shifted his pack and glanced over his shoulder. The broken form of the ship, like a corpse lying dead, was out of sight. The alien trees made for a remarkably effective barrier. However, it seemed that the metal husk still burned: smoke, black as empty space, still climbed into the sky. It stood out starkly against the pink sky. The man turned back to his companion, gesturing over gods shoulder with his thumb.


"Regardless of what direction we go, that should last us a few days yet. Plenty of stuff to burn on the Asher, I bet."


He rolled his shoulders and popped his neck, eager to be on. But his conversation with Kim the night before had given him the foundation of respect for her. So while he might have simply taken off and expected her to follow, Sean instead waited patiently for a response from her.

 

[redletalis]

Kim was starting to worry. What if this planet had no mountains at all? It was very rare but it did happen that occasionally a planet's tectonic plates weren't broken up or weren't moving at all or were moving down into the planet rather than up. She had briefly been stationed on one such planet before, everything flat as a pancake and the biggest 'mountain' being a molehill. Literally. If they had been unlucky enough to actually crash on such a planet then finding the highest hill would be impossible and everything would still be hidden and covered by the trees. In that case they would have to climb a tree, but finding the tallest tree in a bloody jungle of trees was, well, it was like finding a needle in a huge pile of needles and-


"Huh? Sorry, what?" she shook her head and looked at Sean. "I apologise, I got lost in my thoughts. What did you say?"


Awkward. Not the best way to act when their working relationship was so tentative.

 

[Red Thunder]

He just looked at her incredulously, the corner of his mouth turned down in disapproval. Evidently his respect had been prematurely given. Sighing to himself, he merely turned away and walked off, not bothering to see whether she followed.


The going wasn't terribly tough. Sure, the underbrush got thick sometimes, and to make things even more fun, the thicker the brush, the more likely it was to be hiding brittle razor sharp leaves within. After the second venture through the thickest of such thickets, Sean began avoiding them. Thankfully the stone creatures from the beach seemed to prefer the close proximity to water, so they were no where to be seen.


They pressed on, looking for a place to set up their communications device. The direction the ex-con had picked and been completely arbitrary, but he followed as straight a line as he could through the forest. Always silent, save when Kim herself brought up conversation. In such circumstances, he stuck to being as concise as possible, usually answering in single words. Her one moment of inattention had ruined the progress their relationship had made during the evening and morning; he was still with her only that he might get off planet.

 

[redletalis]

"What? What's wrong? Hey! Wait up!" Kim hurried after Sean, but she could feel it. It was in the stony silence from him, the same sort of thing that they had had between them when they had just met yesterday. The wall that had slowly lowered between them was back up and whatever progress they had made from reluctant-allies to possible-friendly-acquaintances was mostly or completely gone. Just because of a stupid, idiotic moment of inattention on her part. For all she knew she could have ruined things for good with no second chances at all!


"Good going, Kim, you idiot." She muttered to herself as she followed him through the brush, running a hand over her forehead to get rid oft he sweat. It was a hot, humid jungle, thick with underbrush and trees and heaven knew what else. So now she had to watch out both for possible diseases, dangerous animals, escaped convicts and her own reluctant partner.


She really hoped that she could fix this. Somehow.

 

[Red Thunder]

Sean pushed through lunch, determined to cover d much ground and observe as much terrain as possible before before stopping for a rest. The geography remained much the same as it had been, though the man had started at one point when he thought he saw a movement in the underbrush. But on the whole they encountered no trouble.


And that troubles me, Sean mused to himself as he shrugged his pack off his shoulders. It wasn't a terribly high out cropping that he'd found, but it offered a bit of shelter. Silently Sean sat on the ground and pulled out a bit of ration, munching it silently as he rested against the stone wall, eyes closed.

 

[redletalis]

He set a harsh pace throughout the day despite the humid warmth and the rough terrain. Kim grit her teeth and followed, determined that not a single sound of complaint would come from her even if her head started pounding as the hours passed and at the end she had to blink away spots in front of her eyes. She had already screwed up and she needed to fix that before something else happened.


She sank to the ground gratefully when Sean stopped, leaning against the rocks a yard or so away from him. Shrugging off her backpack she rooted through it for something to drink and almost desperately chugged down the entire pack after ripping it open. Only then did she bring out a food pack and ate half of it much more slowly. Munching on the rather bland food, Kim eyed Sean for a minute.


"I'm sorry." She said. "For not paying attention back then."

 

[Red Thunder]

"It was an overreaction, one I've since had time to think over."


Sean hadn't moved from his spot, save to toss away his ration wrapper, and his eyes still remained closed. His voice, too, still remained cold and distant; the only sign of a reversal of opinion from the man were the words he spoke.


"You're a good soldier, and capable, I'm sure. It's a shitty situation, you being stuck with me on this gods-damned planet, surrounded be who knows what. If you get a bit, uh, pensive, I guess I can't really blame you." He cracked open an eye. "So yeah. I shouldn'ta snapped. But I don't apologize for being scared of this place. And when you're inattentive, you get killed. I lost plenty of brothers that way, and I'll bet you have, too. So keep your brain in the now, huh?"


Having taken a good look at her, he opened his other eye and stood. An arm flung out as he gestured to the rock wall behind him dismissively.


"And get some shut eye. Dunno why, but it looks like that march took it outta you."


Sean walked a few feet away from where he'd been, stopping to lean casually against the rock wall a couple of yards down. He'd put on a tough face, but his thighs were killing him, almost shaking badly enough to make him lose balance; he'd taken a jab at Kim, but in all likelihood, he was in worse shape than she was. His hand certainly hadn't really improved much in any way, and he hoped the gesture he'd made hadn't revealed it. Sympathy would get them killed. All the same, she'd not uttered a sound all through the march. And he had certainly appreciated it.

 

[redletalis]

She could feel a figurative weight lift off her shoulders as they didn't descend into yet another argument. They were both grown enough to admit to some blame, and now that it was over Kim had no intention of dragging this on. It was too small a matter to bother with. Forgive and forget and try again since both of them were more than willing. That was good. It made the future more promising.


"Don't worry about it. What we went through would have affected most people somehow." She sighed, mostly in relief but also in slight pain. Her head was still aching. Kim watched Sean for a second and then decided to go for it. "Would... would you mind doing me a favour? I hit the back of my head during the crash. I used some gel on it last night, but I don't know how bad it is and it's been getting worse throughout the day. Would you mind checking for me? I'd rather know what the scope of the injury is rather than simply hope for the best."


This would give him the perfect opportunity to kill her if he really wanted to, but it was either she trust him with this (and possibly help further heal over the breach of the argument) or she could very well end up dead because of stupidity.

 

[Red Thunder]

"What, can't reach the back of your own head, huh?"


But he got up without waiting for an answer. After rifling through his bag, Sean yanked out a tube of tissue regenerating gel. Still shaking his head, he squirted a bit of the stuff onto the fingers of one hand and applied it to the back of her head. It actually didn't look too bad; the pain she was feeling was likely simply due to the healing injury being irritated by their journey that day.


Finally he stepped back and capped the tube. "There."

 

[redletalis]

"I tried last night but I'm not certain if I got it as good as I should have. Besides, I'd like to know the extent of it." Kim did her best to keep her hair out of the way as Sean worked, wincing slightly and hissing as the cool gel got to work, spreading and calming her headache considerably. She sighed in relief. That felt so good.


"Thanks for the help." She said before looking at his hand. "How's that doing? Any better?"


If his hand wasn't getting any better they might have to actually wrap it up and keep him from using it as much as possible. Slowing down would be worth it if he got better and retained full mobility of his hand. In fact, while they were sitting there they might actually try to contact the Mercy once again, and she started pulling things out of her backpack to reach the radio transmitter.