File 9.4 - Escaping Tempest

Crashing into the earth and dropping to the side, Shizuka smashed around the interior letting her know that she still lived, if banged up. An annoying red light flashed at her from inside that meant something. In front of her, the release waited for her. She tried to reach it with her arms, but found them pinned in too tightly from the crash. “Too far away…” Failing a few times, she tried her legs managing to get one to slip over the handle. The reach was just enough, she rocked around trying to get her legs back up.

“Yes!” she shouted, finally getting her feet around the handle to pull. Awkward and painful, she ignored it all, getting the handle pulled closer and closer until it finally snapped free. Launching the hatch open with more explosive bolts, fresh air could be felt at last.

The pod released her with the signal of the hatch opening, but it malfunctioned partly with the coat of her uniform being caught up in the shrapnel embedded in the pod. “C’mon!” Rocking and bouncing on the pod did nothing to free it. It had her whole left arm pinned down still. “Maybe if I slip out…” She unfastened the jacket, slipping out her right arm and then tugging on her left. Yanking hard on her arm, it all snapped free, but she felt pain tear through her shoulder. “Damn…”

Getting out of the pod, she staggered over the earth trying to figure out where she was. Clutching her wounded shoulder, she stared out at the horizon. Waves ran up along the beach with rocky cliffs opposite of them. Further up, she saw what was probably a jungle. “Where am I?”

From the mission briefing she had before launching, she remembered that nearly all of their flight went largely over the Atlantic. The destination of Test Site Delta buried itself deep underground in the north of the former South American continent. Given that they had been flying for only about half of their scheduled time, they had to be somewhere in the middle of their path. Whatever island she fell on probably was too small for her to even know.

She dragged her feet further walking around the beach searching for any break in the cliffs. But time was against her. Lightheadedness suddenly hit her hard and she had trouble standing. Collapsing in the sand, she tried to drag herself back up, but it wasn’t enough. The adrenaline wore off and her body came crashing down. “Where…am…I…”