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.