Stella Vir: First Flight

Razzo would spend the next week training with Izabela and although there was progress it was coming very slowly. Tonight was the night that he, Dre and Desai set off on their journey to retrieve more resources. They awaited all day in anticipation as their ideas of the mission change and transform in the back of their heads. Even when they’re preoccupied with other tasks they’re visualizing what is to come but a very different image paints in Razzo’s head than in Dre’s. Razzo sees it as an opportunity for glory and to become a hero, but Dre sees this as a way to face almost certain doom. But almost as an equalizer as the day went by Razzo became less enthusiastic and more grim with the possibility of failure being an option. For Dre a calming factor that the probability of death wasn’t a certainty and having survived worse odds it could be worse. These thoughts would marinate in their respective heads as they finally came back to their pop up house and met at the dimming lamp post. The environment had somehow gotten darker and gloomier.

Dre asks Razzo: “How are you feeling?”

Razzo shrugs off the questions: “Fine I guess, definitely not as excited for this now as I was before”.

Dre toys with him: “We’ll just tell Desai to kick rocks I’m sure he’d love that”.

“Yeah I’m not so sure about that”. - replies Razzo, shaking his head.

As the lamp post becomes completely dark the two of them see a silhouette approaching them from the middle of the camp. As the silhouette gets closer it lights up a small energy flame in one hand and Dre and Razzo begin to make out the figure to be Desai. As Desai approaches them they automatically form a small huddle around the energy flame to be able to see one another.

Desai asks: “Does everyone remember the plan?”

Dre and Razzo both nod their heads. Razzo lifts up a finger to pose a question.

Razzo asks: “Oh yeah by the way what’s your name again?”

“It’s Desai, anything else?” - replies Desai.

They both shake their heads.

“Okay let's go then!” - says Desai confidently.

The three of them break the huddle and begin their journey throughout the camp and to the edge of it. They get to the point where there are almost no people left of the worst section of the camp, where people don’t care for the people going around them or pay too much attention to anything, they are either drinking, injecting, or smoking without a care in the world for anyone including themselves. Razzo thinks to himself how sad it is when people get to this level, it signifies the lack of will and motivation to try and fight for anything. These are people without anything to live for, they simply move through life day by day with despair and death creeping towards them. Just by being in their general area Razzo, Dre, and the guard all started walking a lot closer together as if to avoid catching the contagious desperation that plagues the people here.

“I feel like we should talk while we walk” - says Razzo trying to take his mind off things.

“Is that really necessary?” - asks Dre

Razzo continues without missing a beat: “Maybe not with you but Desai I must say that you have an interesting name. I'm guessing it’s not local?”

“Nay it originated in the ancient lands of India that have been decimated by the ancient Asian wars where many countries of those lands perished a couple hundred years ago. My family bounced all around the world at this point making a home wherever we go”.

“That’s a sad way to put it, at least you're alive right now! It’s not all bad things could be worse”. - says Razzo trying to lighten up the mood after rendering the conversation moot right away.

“Touché to that good sir it could be worse but it sucks when it never seems to be getting better, just going from one issue to the next throughout life”.

Razzo nods his head, understanding exactly what the big fellow was referring to. It made him think more about the surrounding people in the area and how much despair they had faced in life to the point where this was their only option. That these people saw drugs and thought to themselves ‘Oooo drugs this will make everything better and fix my life’. Then begin moving from one day to the next living the identical life as time slips through your hands. Before you know it you forget your purpose as the fog consumes you and takes another victim.

Before Razzo can get too deep into his own head Desai asks him a question: “So tell me Razzo how did you end up with Dre as a companion and subsequently found your way to our camp? Quite an odd pairing the two of ye are.”

Razzo begins to tell him his story of the factory explosion and how he met Dre. After their brief acquaintance they were captured by Izabela and brought to the camp as prisoners before being integrated as part of the camp. Desai nods his head acknowledging that he is following along while Dre records the entire story that Razzo is saying. Once Razzo finishes Dre makes the necessary adjustments where needed within the story they had a final copy.

Dre tells the two of them: “I don’t want to hear this story being told over and over again so I just recorded it and next time someone asks for it I’m just going to play it”.

Razzo rolls his eyes: “No one wants to hear a recording of the story, they want to be in awe when it’s told, that’s why I tell it the way that I do to captivate the audience!!”

“Doesn’t matter, this is more efficient and you can save your breath this way. Literally saving your life out here. Imagine how many more times you would have told this story. To every new person we meet. This might keep you kicking for a few extra days in the long run…” - replies Dre with a slight smirk.

“But I’m going to have to add to the story as it goes on! What about that?”

Dre’s smile widens knowing it’s getting on Razzo’s nerves: “Well then I’ll record that too and add it to this recording”.

Desai interrupts stopping further escalation: “Well it doesn’t matter I’m just glad you guys are so eager to help out because we have had people come to this camp before that simply use the resources and never lift a finger to do anything positive. That’s why we have some sections of the camp rotting in despair and we don’t even know how to fight the problem because we have bigger issues at hand”.

The group continues in silence for a bit until they come out to another platform. The platform is almost fully dark with no one there, just trash laying around and 4 emergency lights that are visible. One on the entrance where the train is supposed to come from, two more by stairwell exits that have both been caved in at this point. These collapses look much more intentional and manmade than previous collapses that they had seen traveling to the camp. The last light was in the middle of the platform signaling to both of the exits. As they all walk to the middle of the platform Desai oozes out a ball of energy out of his hand. His light is red and he makes it the size of a watermelon. He then walks up to the edge of the platform where the trains ran and jumps down onto the tracks. The ball of energy gives light to the whole platform illuminating it in a red light, he then turns looking to the left of the train tracks and hurls the ball of energy in the direction until it hits what could be some collapsed ceiling. Desai then creates a small red energy ball and hurls it the other way, as the ball flies through the air it goes a lot further before it hits a wall and evaporates. Desai then makes another small ball of energy and uses it as a light and then signals to Dre and Razzo to come over. As two of them jump down onto the tracks Desai begins walking in the direction of where he threw the watermelon sized light.

Desai says: “Sorry guys, I had to double check what direction we had to go in and can't be wasting time at this point we are at the critical stage where time is of the essence. I also don’t know how long TD is going to wait for us”.

Razzo with a confused look on his face asks: “What’s TD?”

Desai replies with a grin on his face: “Who! TD is my friend, the scout, why of course!”

“Why TD?” - asks Dre, puzzled.

Razzo answers confidently: “Name’s probably too long so it’s like a shortcut for it”.

“So a nickname? I know what a nickname is, my whole name is a nickname!” - says Dre.

They don’t entertain the conversation past that and continue down the tunnel until they reach the area where it collapsed. A narrow pathway exists to the right side of the tunnel, for Desai, its snug as he is of the thicker complexion and is forced to go at an odd angle. For Razzo and Dre they can walk freely through the tunnel but as well not having much room to move around. Desai goes in first illuminating the way with his energy as a source of light. They move slowly through the tunnel, the tunnel gets wider and narrower as they move through it. By the time they get halfway they walk by a train that had the ceiling collapsed onto it creating pathways around the train for more movement but the inside of the train crushed under the weight. Desai takes a moment to remember which direction to go in.

Desai says: “This is the tricky part because if we go in one pathway we might get crushed but the other path is a lot longer and I don’t know if TD will wait for us all night. I also don’t remember which path is which…”

Razzo and Dre look at each other anxiously almost as if to tell each other telepathically that this might have really been a bad idea. Desai picks the narrow pathway to the left of the train. They then begin to slowly follow Desai as to not lose the light that he is providing for them while watching their step to not step into a hole or on an uneven rock. After the first 30 or so meters the pathway becomes a lot wider and has enough room for all of them to walk shoulder to shoulder freely. Desai picks up the speed and they start moving faster to keep up with him, after picking up the speed Desai begins to sweat harder due to his bigger stature. They keep moving through the tunnel after what feels like an eternity and Desai at this point is starting to breathe heavily whether it be from the lack of oxygen or the heat from the energy ball or simply from the fat. The tunnel keeps winding in various directions and they keep traveling down the tunnel and after about two hours Desai's light begins to get dimmer and fade. Just as the light goes out they look down the tunnel and see a faint light at the end of it. They quickly begin moving towards it and suddenly Desai stops moving and bends over his knees and starts losing his breath while hyperventilating. Razzo goes over to help him move and tries to pick him up and sling him over his shoulder but Desai pushes him off. While still being hunched over he points to the wall trying to signal at something.

Razzo asks: “I don’t see anything, what are you trying to tell me?”

“Razzo make some light and see what he’s pointing to” - Dre says in a panicked tone.

Razzo creates a big ball of energy the size of a watermelon and the ball lights up a big portion of the tunnel. Before Razzo can even notice anything and understand what Desai is still pointing to, Dre springs to action and immediately sees what the big guard was referring to. On the wall a couple meters down from them is a set of five breathing apparatuses. Dre grabs one of the masks and runs up to Desai and puts the mask on his face. Desai takes a couple deep breaths and as he returns back to normal as his breathing becomes steady.

Desai says through the mask: “Thank you Dre much appreciated, here the radiation is very strong and concentrated which I forgot about silly me. The mask that I’m wearing helps counter those effects and removes the radiation from my system. I’m surprised you’re feeling so fine, Razzo”.

Dre quietly says: “That’s because he’s practically…”

Before Dre can finish Razzo interrupts it: “Because I’m practically immune to radiation because of how long I worked at the star factory”.

Desai says with hesitancy: “I don’t think it works like that but whatever that’s not important let’s get to the end of the tunnel and hopefully TD is still waiting for us there”.

Razzo goes over and helps pick up Desai and together the three of them go towards the end of the tunnel. Just as they exit the tunnel, they see the night sky, the moon shining down on them and the ruins of the city. Dre and Razzo take a moment to look at the beauty of the moon, meanwhile Desai looks around and walks away from them. As he begins walking away Dre nudges Razzo who’s still staring at the moon and they both turn to see where Desai is walking off. They start following him and as he gets around 10 meters down from the entrance he makes a sharp left and disappears behind the rubble. Dre and Razzo run over to take a look, and around the corner they see that there is a second tunnel. At the entrance of the tunnel stands a tall silhouette masked by the shadows. As the three of them approach the tall skinny figure walks out, they’re wearing the same type of tattered cloak that they saw when they were first captured. The figure also has a mask similar to Desai, Desai and the figure go for a handshake and half hug as if they are two friends that haven’t seen each other in a long time. Razzo and Dre walk over to meet the stranger and figure out the next steps for what they’re going to do.