Exiled to Lunar Lakes - Chapter 2 - Making Friends at Last

Waking up back where she began was horrible. How had this all happened? All she got to know was that she had committed a crime and landed here? She wasn’t even in the damn system. She couldn’t even remember her name.

Looking around the empty chunk of land she had been told to start on was not how she thought her day was going to go. What would she do for money? Zoraida sat on the ground, thinking, as she baked under the sun. It felt good that there was a sense of normalcy to this place even if for the most part, it was a foreign, radioactive island. She took a deep breath as she pushed herself to her feet and started walking down the strange paved street she had not seen before.

She wasn't sure how the hell she had missed it before, but a lot of shit had happened in a short amount of time. Zoraida started walking down the paved street as she constantly looked around, paranoid. It would only be a matter of moment before another fool tried to attack her. She wasn’t stupid. With a society run by criminals, for criminals it was only a matter of time before shit hit the fan. 

Thankfully with no trouble, she arrived had what she assumed was a city that had instead of falling apart, thrived with the technology they had at their fingertips. Some criminals were dumb and some were incredibly intelligent. Zoraida briefly wondered that in order to keep their society thriving, if they had weeded out the ones most likely to cause trouble and killed them or in her case...placed them at the bottom of the food chain as a precaution. Everyone died in ten years anyways. She wondered if there was any place to get a drink in this gods forsaken place. She took a deep breath and realized what she would do for one. She was young and even though she wasn’t at a healthy weight...someone had to be desperate, right?
Asking for where a bar was out of the option. There was no way she would trust these people, these criminals like herself. Staring back at the reflection in the mirror was going to be hard most days.

Luckily for her, she was able to find the bar in no time by the gathering crowd waiting to get in. Seems like they had the same idea as she did. How was she going to be able to blend in and sneak through the crowd? Her bright green eyes and white hair would give it away at a second’s notice. There was no way in hell she planned on drawing attention to herself. 

Keeping low and not making any contact with the others, Zoraida scouted the area around the bar and found a backdoor that led in. For a society full of criminals, they weren’t as smart as she thought they would be. Taking careful steps towards the door, Zoraida turned the door handle only to find it was locked. Damn it. Maybe she was the dumb ass in this situation after all.

With a long sigh, she turned around and started walking towards the front entrance as the door creaked open and a man came out, smoking a cigarette. 

Zoraida rolled her eyes as she smiled flirtatiously at him. “Do you mind if I get in?” The man looked her up and down and huffed. Zoraida’s smile quickly disappeared as she glared at him before looking at the lighter. He got the message and raised an eyebrow at her before opening the door. 

Holding her head high as she walked in and ignored the man’s laughter, she could see the place was already packed. The bartender was running around, trying to get everyone’s order with quick, shallow breaths as comments were made about her appearance. Zoraida rolled her eyes as she took a seat in the far left corner.

The woman stopped for a moment as she wiped the sweat off of her face with a rag. That couldn’t be sanitary. “What can I get you?”
Zoraida’s eyebrows furrowed. Fuck. She didn’t think of what the hell she would do once she got to the bar, did she? Well, she was hoping somebody would buy her drink once she arrived but that seem highly unlikely if she was unwilling to talk to anyone. Great. “I uh, I don’t have any money.”
The woman sighed. “Well, that’s bad luck.” She reached for the rag again to wipe her face. How the hell could someone be so...sweaty? “Look, I don’t have time to chat with you. Sorry you are down on your luck.”

Zoraida pursed her lips before saying what was on her mind. “I just arrived and haven’t had time to get a job.”
The woman laughed. “So you were expecting a drink on the house?”
Zoraida looked down at the floor. “I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, actually.” She lied under her breath. Zoraida was actually hoping to catch enough attention that someone would buy her a drink, but didn’t consider the fact she didn’t want to talk to anyone.

The woman’s face turned paler by the minute as she sighed. “Fine. If you are bullshitting me though I will be pissed. I’ll ask Sierra after work about you.”
“Seirra?” Zoraida said curiously. “Just a Martini, thank you.”

The woman gave her an odd look as she fixed the drink. A person came up and complained to her about the long wait, causing the woman to roll her eyes. Finally finished with it and running a bit slower this time, the woman gave Zoraida her drink. Zoraida sighed with relief as she avoided making eye contact with anyone else. “I appreciate this." The woman nodded as she leaned on the counter and grabbed the rag for the third time in ten minutes.

Zoraida took a sip of her drink as the woman’s eyes rolled back and she fell to the ground. Her eyes widened as she ended up spitting out her drink as white foam started coming out of the woman’s mouth. A couple people sighed around her and shook their heads as someone muttered “Call them.”

Zoraida's eyes widened as she lurched forward from her chair and ran to the woman’s side. What the fuck. Why was nobody else freaking out? The woman’s body stopped moving as foam stopped coming out of her mouth. What the fuck. How...that wasn’t natural. She opened her mouth and yelled before thinking. “WHY THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE NOT REACTING? A DAMN WOMAN JUST DIED! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON AROUND HERE?”

There were a few chuckles and sympathetic glances towards her as the man that was smoking a cigarette a minute ago came by her side. He nodded at the body before turning towards her. “Are you going to finish your drink or can I have it?”
Zoraida’s shock quickly turned to anger as she clenched her hands into fists and aimed for the man’s face. Lucky for him, he dodged her punch as his expression turned grim. “Wouldn’t want you getting into any trouble, would we?” A crowd at started to gather around them, minding the corpse laying next to their feet.
Zoraida bit her lip as she stared at the ceiling, fuming with anger as she avoided looking at the dead body in front of her. “I suppose not.” She went to get up as comments were being thrown in her direction. Fuck this. She had just wanted her damn beer.

The man stood up next to her and stepped away from the body. “Here, you can come out the backdoor.” He said abruptly as he glared at those who had gathered. Zoraida knew she had already caused enough trouble to get her killed by these...these criminals and decided to follow the man. Perhaps it was naive of her to do so, but she had a better chance of taking down one man than a group of people. Pushing herself to her feet and ignoring those around her, she mentally said a goodbye to the woman that had shown her kindness when she hadn’t had to. 

Chapter 3 - Shattering Light --->

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HUGE, HUGE THANKS TO LIVVIELOVE FOR FIXING THE MISTAKE I MADE IN THIS CHAPTER. I APPRECIATE IT SO MUCH. I'M ABOUT TO CRY HAPPY TEARS.

Exiled to Lunar Lakes - Chapter 1 - A Warm Welcoming

Her eyes shot open as she woke up in a place that wasn’t her prison cell. The hard ground beneath her hinted that her nightmare at been true after all.

She managed to unsteadily get up to her feet as her hands begin to shake and the back of her throat burned. Water. She needed to find water. Where was water in this damn dreadful place? Her head began to ache as she looked at her surroundings.

The trees weren’t….the tree bark was yellow.

Was she hallucinating from whatever they had injected into her arm during the plane ride? Where the hell was she? This couldn’t have been..no. This place didn’t exist. Even in a country that no longer believed in the death penalty, they had to still execute their criminals. Letting a group of psychopathic criminals loose just because you didn’t believe in the destruction of human life couldn’t be true. It didn’t matter if the island was covered in radioactive waste and each criminal only lived ten years max, it still wasn’t wise. Yet with how corrupted she had seen the system be...she stopped herself. 

Standing and think idly didn’t matter and was a waste of time. It didn’t matter if she was debating the existence of the place where she had landed, the burning sensation in the back of her throat was becoming more unbearable by the second.

She started walking towards what she assumed was a hill as two people began to walk towards her. How the fuck had they got here so quickly? She didn’t plan on sticking around long enough to find out.

Glancing over shoulder, she lifted her middle finger at them and took off running towards the hill only to find there was two more people blocking her exit.

She took a deep breath as her arms were grabbed behind her. Deciding the best course of action was to elbow the person in the face, she did just that.

The person grunted in pain as she tried to flee from the scene. Fuck. How did she get herself in this situation? What the hell happened? Just as she thought she was home free, a fist slammed into her causing her to black out.

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“You’re quite thin even considered around here, you know.” It was the second time today she had woken up in an unfamiliar place. She groggily shook her head as she pushed herself up. Her head ached and she could already tell there was a bruise forming from the punch she had received. Her throat no longer burned but she didn’t have time to question this abrupt change.

Her eyes widened as she tried to find where the source of the voice was as her eyes landed on a woman roughly in her 30’s sitting in a rocking chair. It was strange feeling a sense of normalcy when being stuck in a wasteland that shouldn’t have ended up existing. The strange woman took notice of it as she leaned forward in the rocking chair. “Do you go by a name or your number?” Number? What number? She didn’t remember her name either, but hadn’t stopped to question it.
“What if I say neither?” She challenged without missing a heartbeat.

The woman laughed as she rolled her eyes. “Then I would say you are just as confused as the rest of us.” She leaned back in the chair. “Number 68, first degree robbery. Five years in prison.”
Her eyebrows furrowed. “First degree robbery? That’s all that got you sent here?”

The woman chuckled. “That’s all I know. It could have been more, but that was my number. You shouldn’t be surprised. People get sent here for a lot less and some…” Her eyes became dark and she mumbled something unintelligible.
She sat up, gasping for breath before finally saying something. “0587.”

The woman’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “That’s not a number in the system, 0587.” Her confusion became clearer as she chuckled. “Must explain those bright eyes of yours.”

She balled her hands into fists as her anger grew from being manipulated by this woman. “I refuse to be referred to something as low as a number. I’m not an animal waiting to be slaughtered.” How the hell did this woman get her to talk?

“Well if you don’t like being referred to a number, then choose a name. Simple. Now if you shut your mouth, you might just make it out and get some questions answered.”
Her eyebrows furrowed as she answered the woman. “Zoraida. I choose the name Zoraida.”
The woman’s eyes brightened with curiosity. “Interesting. Now Zoraida, where would you like to begin?”
“Are you going to kill me?” She asked loudly as she looked around the room. Damn it. She should ask why she no longer felt...dehydrated wasn’t the correct word.

“Due to your extraordinary circumstance, I doubt there is going to be an execution scheduled for you anytime soon.”
“So what do you plan on having me do in the meantime?” Zoraida bit her tongue as she tried to stop impulsively sassing this woman.
“You will become a productive member of our society of course. You are expected to pick up a job by the end of the week on the list you are given when you arrive to the place of you will be living. No going out past ten unless permitted. We do not tolerate any crimes committed that have had our residents wound up here and will be punishable by death unless the given crime was permitted due to a special circumstance. There are no second chances unless it’s a special circumstance. You have at most ten years due to the water you have to drink to survive here. Make the best of it. My job is to assess the newcomers and decide which ones are allowed to live and where you will start in our society and that will be....” The woman’s eyes flickered to across the room. “...homeless. I think you will appreciate the challenge.” The woman paused as she allowed Zoraida to take everything in.

Zoraida pushed herself off the bed as she clenched her hands into fists. “I’m not some...some citizen you can push around at your will. I’m...I’m…”
The woman stared at her, unamused. “You’re leaving. Get out.”
“That’s it? Where am I going to sleep? My throat was burning just a minute ago!” She had too many questions. She wasn’t just going to be forced out because the woman no longer felt like talking. 

“Yes, it probably was. Most who wake up here express the need to find a water source as the first thought in their mind. We think it has something to do with the injection each citizen is given before arrival. I promise you, you aren’t dehydrated and there is enough water in this gods-forsaken place when you need it. It’s all drinkable. Now, I will have you escorted to where you landed and you can began there. You have ten years to make something out of your life. Stop wasting time looking for answers you don’t need.”

Two guards came into the room as Zoraida decided it wasn’t wise to fight back again. She had got herself into this situation, it was time she got herself out of it. Somehow. If she had only ten years to live in this wasteland then she was going to use her time wisely and start planning. She would not accept defeat. She started walking towards the guards as one grabbed her arm before she reacted and injected a needle into her skin. Her vision grew blurrier as leaned on the wall before blacking out again.

Chapter 2 - Making Friends at Last --->