Otherwhere Chapter 7: The Others Part 1

The first thing Rory felt was pain. Head splitting, crushing pain that caused her to gasp and then to force her self to breathe.

“Focus,” she said to herself. “In. Out. In. Out.”

The pain receded from agonizing to barely tolerable. Like the worst migraine she had ever had. She realized she was lying on some kind of a bed. It wasn’t her bed at the settlement, too hard and the surface felt strange. She realized she was naked, which wasn’t all that uncommon lately but she knew she had been dressed while star gazing.

Star gazing! She opened her eyes and quickly shut them again with a groan. The light was so bright. She tried sitting up and her stomach did a slow roll. She started counting her breaths again to keep from throwing up. She heard a groan next to her and slitted her eyes open. She was in a room, bright white light all around. It certainly wasn’t the settlement, the walls were a kind of metal. Dee was just sitting up next to her, head in hands. She was the one groaning. Astra stood at some kind of…door. It looked to be made out of, well, shimmer. Like those SciFi movie doors.

“Y’all awake?” Astra asked quietly.

“I guess,” Rory groaned.

Dee was dry heaving. Rory started counting again so she wouldn’t join her.

“Girls,” Astra whispered, fear in her voice. “This isn’t good…”