Waking up is hard to do...
I came back to consciousness with a ringing in my head, bruises on my groin, and as a result, my will to live was conspicuously absent. After a while, curiosity overwhelmed misery and I examined my new surroundings. 6' by 10', small toilet, cot attached to wall... one door. Ah, great. A cell.
I tried to remember any useful advice for this sort of situation. The closest I remember is the medical advice of a softball coach. "Walk it off." I question his medical expertise, but, it seemed unlikely that anything was going to involve either of my heads hurting any worse. I was, of course, as wrong as you would expect. But at least everything seemed intact; if a bit loudly complaining.
The door was unlocked, rather to my surprise. A strange woman looked up, waved, and went back to... it looked like she was soldering something to an arrow. A nearby groan alerted me to another cell, like my own, but containing my old "friend", the bank thief.
I limped over to the woman. She looked me over, and produced an ice pack. Knowing the language barrier, I bowed low. She seemed... rather unmoved by my presence otherwise. Skinny, pale... goggled... something of a lab geek. I suspect she could also kill me with any of a dozen implements she had within easy reach.
I had questions, but... well. Some difficulty posing them. I pointed to my head, made "beep beep" noises and mimed the impact of the truck. Then pointed at my groin, shrugged, and put the ice in my lap, trying for a facial expression asking a question, rather than implying constipation.
The woman... I'll call her Labbie for now, seemed to understand. She held up a metal sphere, with a cord attaching it to... another sphere. Ah, bolo... oh. Right, that would rack me pretty good. I nodded my thanks.
Trying to find out what was going to happen to me after this... proved a bit more difficult. I did succeed in making enough of an ass of myself that this stone-faced mystery girl smiled... for three seconds. Then I had the best idea I had since coming to whatever hell I'd landed in. I gave her my cellphone.
The idea was, that these things have to be easy to use. And one of the functions in this one was a dictionary. She could possibly figure out what english was, and maybe be able to start teaching me the local lingo.
After a few minutes of going through the menus, she seemed to realize something, and tapped... I swear it was her belt buckle; before talking into space, fairly excitedly. After a bit, she stopped, nodded, and swallowed... some pill. I noticed over the next little while that she got less excited, although she didn't really slow down her speech.
Of course, I didn't spot details like that normally... but if you can't understand the words, and your life might be on the line? You find things that do make sense. A pill to curb hyperactivity, for an adult? Had to be a psychoactive medication... which meant I could be in trouble if she forgot to take her meds again. Or maybe that just meant she'd be really calm if she decided I was in dire need of dissection.
After a while, she stopped talking, and smiled stiffly at me. She brought up a computer display of an analog clock. She drew a couple lines on it... if it were like the time I was used to, she was saying it'd be about half an hour before... whatever it was we were waiting on.
I nodded, and pointed to the symbols around the edges... and held up fingers to match, if they were the same as the numbers I was used to. She nodded, patted me on the head, and went back to whatever she was doing to the arrows, effectively dismissing me.
I tried to remember any useful advice for this sort of situation. The closest I remember is the medical advice of a softball coach. "Walk it off." I question his medical expertise, but, it seemed unlikely that anything was going to involve either of my heads hurting any worse. I was, of course, as wrong as you would expect. But at least everything seemed intact; if a bit loudly complaining.
The door was unlocked, rather to my surprise. A strange woman looked up, waved, and went back to... it looked like she was soldering something to an arrow. A nearby groan alerted me to another cell, like my own, but containing my old "friend", the bank thief.
I limped over to the woman. She looked me over, and produced an ice pack. Knowing the language barrier, I bowed low. She seemed... rather unmoved by my presence otherwise. Skinny, pale... goggled... something of a lab geek. I suspect she could also kill me with any of a dozen implements she had within easy reach.
I had questions, but... well. Some difficulty posing them. I pointed to my head, made "beep beep" noises and mimed the impact of the truck. Then pointed at my groin, shrugged, and put the ice in my lap, trying for a facial expression asking a question, rather than implying constipation.
The woman... I'll call her Labbie for now, seemed to understand. She held up a metal sphere, with a cord attaching it to... another sphere. Ah, bolo... oh. Right, that would rack me pretty good. I nodded my thanks.
Trying to find out what was going to happen to me after this... proved a bit more difficult. I did succeed in making enough of an ass of myself that this stone-faced mystery girl smiled... for three seconds. Then I had the best idea I had since coming to whatever hell I'd landed in. I gave her my cellphone.
The idea was, that these things have to be easy to use. And one of the functions in this one was a dictionary. She could possibly figure out what english was, and maybe be able to start teaching me the local lingo.
After a few minutes of going through the menus, she seemed to realize something, and tapped... I swear it was her belt buckle; before talking into space, fairly excitedly. After a bit, she stopped, nodded, and swallowed... some pill. I noticed over the next little while that she got less excited, although she didn't really slow down her speech.
Of course, I didn't spot details like that normally... but if you can't understand the words, and your life might be on the line? You find things that do make sense. A pill to curb hyperactivity, for an adult? Had to be a psychoactive medication... which meant I could be in trouble if she forgot to take her meds again. Or maybe that just meant she'd be really calm if she decided I was in dire need of dissection.
After a while, she stopped talking, and smiled stiffly at me. She brought up a computer display of an analog clock. She drew a couple lines on it... if it were like the time I was used to, she was saying it'd be about half an hour before... whatever it was we were waiting on.
I nodded, and pointed to the symbols around the edges... and held up fingers to match, if they were the same as the numbers I was used to. She nodded, patted me on the head, and went back to whatever she was doing to the arrows, effectively dismissing me.
posted by DannyboyO1 at
10:30 PM
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