Unicorn and the Raven/Talk to Hudson
From Create Your Own Story
You've sat still too long to sit any more. Its cold and the uncertainty and the fear, its just too much. You can't shut your mind off. The woman in the chair -Marill- appears to be asleep, Jensen's staring at his map table as if frowning at it will change something and the man at the console in front of you is... well, he's concentrating on it even though he hasn't done anything in twenty minutes. The only person who seems the least bit bored is the man to your right, the one in the headset and at the back of the room near the strangely glowing red eye.
You get painfully to your feet. Jensen notices immediately and his hand is on the hilt of his sword almost faster than you could see it move, but then, maybe realizing that you aren't a threat, relaxes. He still watches you, though, like a teacher waiting for a student to make a mistake so that an example can be made.
Quietly, you introduce yourself as best you can considering you don't remember your own name. "I'm Hudson," he says. "I run things." "You're in charge?" you ask, suspiciously. "No, she's the boss here," he says, jerking a thumb at the sleeping woman behind him. Unlike everyone else, his displays were against the wall, facing away from the window. "And this," he continued, "is Dave." Now he's pointing at the red eye. It isn't like a real eye, more like a glass lens in a black metal panel. There's a wavering red glow in the heart of the glass, deep inside the panel and while its obviously electronic it still manages to convey the impression that it's watching you. "Hello... Dave?" you say, but the glowing lens doesn't respond. In spite of the tense atmosphere, you feel a little silly.
"What's... going on?" you ask, trying to pretend your embarassment away.
"Not much," he says. "It's very quiet. No radio chatter at all. Nobody's talking, or nobody's left."
You glance back, over your shoulder at the darkness behind the glass. You can't see anything but this isn't as reassuring as it was before. You suddenly don't feel like talking.
You walk back to where you'd been sitting. The stones are still faintly warm from the past few hours you'd been sitting there. You shiver, not entirely because of the cold, and wait for morning.
