Snippet #841531

Katrina stood patiently behind Leon, silent in her motions as she retracted her arm away. He turned around rather abruptly with a tense expression, as if he was on a constant guard. First impression of this man... dangerous. She wasn’t quite sure why, but the stern look of his gaze definitely made Kat retract back a step. Sure, she was a brave soul at heart and could rise to a challenge, but fear was not a foreign feeling. Leon was probably double her weight in all muscle. Even her lab training in the many branches of martial arts would be little of a defense up against brute strength. She would not mess with this leader if she could help it. Katrina managed to hold her own expression blank during this encounter, but a little bit of hesitance was clear in her eyes. Then he began to speak.

"That is fine, I'll take you around after everyone else gets around, we have enough trucks to carry everyone. Take your time here, introduce yourself to Peng there.” Leon pointed across the landing, Kat’s attention following his hand until it stopped to point off at a boy in the distance. He seemed friendly, gentle... but Kat was not in the mood for happy introductions. She was trying to hang on to the little she knew in life, and there wasn’t much room to fit in new friends. She faced Leon again, as if meeting this boy Peng was obviously not going to happen now.

“I don’t need anyone to take me on a tour around, I just need a ride to my room, wherever that may be,” she answered back to Leon as calm as she could, but it was pointless. He didn’t seem to take notice of what she was saying. Grunting with a smirk, she crossed her arms, posture contrapposto. Maybe he was the type to always have something on his mind. Or maybe he lost sensitivity to newcomers over time, which she couldn’t blame him if he had to do this every time. Leon had now walked away from her, Kat’s mind roaming the people around for another way out. Each of his team members seemed unique in their own, Katrina wondering what special abilities they had inside. Leon then mentioned something about getting into one of the humvee’s lined up to get to food, which would also mean sleeping quarters near by, right? Right. Katrina perked her ears, eyes fine-tuning on the man across the way from her leaning against one of the vehicles. “Perfect,” she stated cooly, striding rather smoothly over to the male. He was wearing a hat that almost blended in with his shade of ashy hair cut at jagged lengths underneath. Since he was closest to one of the vehicles, it meant that he probably wanted to get out of this place the most. Exactly what she was looking for.

Without a word Katrina walked up to the truck, looked the fellow from head to toe, then opened up the back door. She swung herself gracefully inside the back, buckling up in the middle seat. “Lets ride,” she yelled through the open back window, as if she had been waiting on him for a while to get in, though it had only be seconds. Her words appeared to hit the soldier like music to his ears, for without hesitation he got in the humvee and turned on the ignition. The technology of this vehicle seemed pretty old fashioned, but what could one expect when Earth only gave their leftovers to those on Mars. The junk planet, of humans and objects a like. Inside it smelled like smoke and old food, but overall it was fairly clean. Once the vehicle started up, Jasen seemed to make himself at home. There was a floating radio device, like an old classic boombox, that seemed to recognize who he was. It was fuzzy at first when he turned it on, the man having to hit it a couple times for it to sound clearly audible. Kat then looked out the window to those still roaming around the loading deck. There was enough space in the other trucks to take passengers, so there was no need to wait. Even if Kat wanted to wait, Jasen already was beginning to rev the engine.

She placed her hands firmly against the back seat, prepping for a shaky take off. The sound of the ship they took off in was still a fresh memory to her mind, but certainly a memory that she was glad was over. The trip in this vehicle would hopefully run more smoothly than the trip to Mars, for after all. The destination they were taking now was to get food. Plus they were on land and not in the middle of space, which was much more comforting. Before hitting the road, he got on his vehicle's radio to Leon.
"Hey boss, taking a little lady to the community station," he clarified over the mouth piece. Leon responded with an okay to go. He began to drive, the humvee picking up speed rather quickly as it took down a pathway that led to a long tunnel-like connector. It size of it was massive. As they neared the entrance to the tunnel, the metal gate flew up, motion detectors catching their presence. There was enough for as many as three humvee’s to travel both ways, a total of six wide lanes across in full.

“Wow,” escaped her lips, taken back by the stretch and length of this tunnel. She peered up at the driver, his spunky personality pretty obvious to her. He was home in this car, that was for sure. Kat watched as he rolled his window down, pulling out a cigarette from behind his ear and lighting it with his butane lighter. He inhaled a few times, while his right hand messed with his radio. Then it came. Loud, horrible music. “County?” she groaned, as if this guy was really being serious. What did he think he was, some type of cowboy? Could he even hear her? The music was loud, and he cranked it up even louder when the current song was getting to his favorite part. A pained looked crossed her face, hands gripping her ears from the sudden blare in noise. The slight pint up anger inside of her was now growing a little faster, due to the unpleasantness of the situation. If only she could get the sound to stop, she would do anything. A happy, country song as no where close to the blues she felt inside.

Then she started to feel something internally. It was the same strange feeling she felt when the door was opened in her lab at open, and as well the feeling she felt inside the corridor when she got near Leon’s gun. This time though, the strange feeling was stronger, and began to make her mind tense. It was making her feel fuzzy, but at the same time very clear. Whatever was happening, it didn’t matter, her mind focused instead on the disturbance of the music and singing country boy in the front seat. Yet then out of no where, Kat’s eyes widened, as if a click turned on inside of her. She let out a tiny gasp, holding her breath in as she could feel a wave from inside of her about to release, out of her control. Not even a few seconds later passed before.. BAM. A loud screech emitted from the tires as the humvee caught traction against the indoor highway’s pavement. The vehicle’s power went out, ignition shut off, and for that little radio that was once making noise, well... the smoke bellowing from the speakers suggested it was fried. The shock of the sudden stop startled Kat beyond belief, taking her a few moments to recollect. Thank god she buckled up, the restraints catching her from flying forward. They sat in silence, almost enough for a cricket to be heard. The car wasn't dead, just turned off automatically, but for that radio, it was a goner.

“Umm...” she mumbled, wondering if she was responsible for this. And for some reason, she had a feeling she was. Opps?