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sirenvoice[Angel wakes up while the bus is still moving through the trails and tunnels. She's been arranged gently, with great care, on the seat where she's half sitting up, her head resting in the crevice between the seat and the window. She looks out and watches all the colors rush by and for a moment she closes her eyes again and lets herself fall back asleep.]
[She hasn't had much time to sleep.]
[When she's jostled awake again, it's because the bus has come to a slow stop (tssssssh) and the door opens with a click. She's the only passenger, and the bus patiently waits for as long as she needs to get off. She's disoriented, half awake, and sits herself up straight. It hurts. Well, it doesn't hurt, but she sure is sore. The back of her neck and the base of her spine near her tailbone the most. Her fingers and toes feel a little numb. That much is usual, but it's not normally this acute. Angel thinks she might be dreaming still. She often dreams of the outside, of things she sees through screens and cameras and images that filter through her brain like data. She dreams about being able to go there, of having fun, and going on adventures. Sometimes she's alone, like this, and sometimes dad is there. Dad before he was just Jack, when she was still little and he was still her hero.]
[This isn't one of those dreams. It takes a long while before she can muster the strength to get on her feet. With the help of the bus benches, she walks slowly to the front of the bus, her hands steadying her every small step of the way. When Angel gets to the steps down, she takes a deep breath and the air smells so... fresh. Different from the artificially clean air of her Core. Actually fresh, like dirt and grass and trees. She's not sure she's ever actually smelled it before in her life. She grips the hand rails and steps down the stairs. The step from the bus to the ground, however, is too far away for her weak legs and she falls like a stone.]
[Angel collapses to the ground in a heap, groaning a little in pain as she picks herself up with her hands but her arms shake while she sits herself up on the road. Her hands and knees and elbows are all skinned from falling, but she's avoided any broken bones. The bus doors close behind her and it drives away almost silently before she can even turn her head around.]
I'm not asleep. I can't be.
[No, now she remembers. She remembers begging to be killed, seeing dad for the last time, finally being freed. Maybe this was heaven.]
Oh crap.
[Her hands are bleeding, all her scrapes from falling down, but it's not anything serious. She rubs them a little on her dress with a wince, before pushing her mess of hair over her shoulder and looking around. This definitely didn't seem like white clouds and angels (actual real life ones) with harps or singing or whatever it was supposed to be, but Angel is sure it couldn't be anything else. If anything, it's nicer than Pandora. Quiet, with birds and bugs chirping far away, the sound of rushing water.]
I'll just... stay here I guess. Until I can pull myself up.
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