I wake to a soft touch to my cheek.
I blink my eyes open, turning to face Hestia.
She looks tired, her eyes puffy, but she's awake.
I feel...much more rested than I thought I'd feel. I'm not sure exactly how much time has passed, though I do think it's night time again now, or getting to that point.
I feel much too refreshed for it to have been a shorter rest than that, given how exhausting the last day was.
Hestia leans her head on my chest, and I run my fingers through her hair, trying to comb the knots out of it without tugging or pulling. Her hair's been well maintained by Mia since she started spending time with us, but the past few days have been so busy that Mia hasn't had the chance. Hestia's hair isn't matted yet, thankfully. Just a little tangled and knotted, but it comes loose with my fingers.
I glance around the room, my eyes finding Mia's easily.
She smiles back at me. "Hey. I think we're all awake." Her voice is quiet and soft. She and Eric are in separate beds, near each other. Eric is sitting up, staring into the distance, one knee curled, apparently lost in thought. His brows are furrowed, his eyes focused on something only he can see.
I look back to Mia. "What time is it...?"
"Night." She responds, sitting up in her bed. She stands and stretches her arms up, then walks towards the door. "...We should go find Ivan and find out the plans. It's nice to be here, but if he wants us to reintegrate to complete the plans, we can't waste too much time."
"...Right."
It is a relief, though. Waking up without the threat of those beings marching in, waking us, and sending us to a day of hard labor, or to the torturous 'language training', or...
Really, anything.
It's the first time I can wake up and feel human again, even though we are still far, far away from the earth we came from.
It's not like it's all done, we haven't really escaped yet, we're still trapped on this world.
But it feels like the first breath of clean air I've breathed since I got here.
Despite it being...not clean air at all.
It smells a little dusty and musty, actually.
"...We should go." Eric finally says. He stands and follows Mia to the door.
"Are you okay...?" I ask him.
He glances over at me and smiles. "...Yeah. I am." It sounds...like he's not lying. "This place is just better than I thought. It feels like we might actually make it home." He laughs and looks up at the ceiling. "Maybe we're not doomed after all."
Mia glances over her shoulder at him, but says nothing, just smiling a bit to herself.
I get to my feet then - can't really let myself lie in bed and rest even more when Mia and Eric are already moving on to get...
Marching orders or.
Whatever.
I'm still...a little bit sleepy, I think. And I can feel the tiredness in my bones.
But it's not as bad as it could be. I'm sure it's not as bad as it would have been if we'd have tried to keep going without sleeping.
I can tell Hestia is a lot more rested as she follows behind me.
We follow Mia and Eric through the hallways.
The resistance base seems...bigger than I expected. There are rooms with people, rooms without people, rooms filled with...supplies. I'm not quite sure where those came from. But there's...food and water, clothes, bedding, things like that, from the looks of what peeks out of the mess of boxes in various rooms.
They've been here a while.
That camp we visited last year must have been a temporary thing, maybe designed specifically to pluck up recruits from the prior test?
Given the fact that people could have died during it, I'm guessing it's a good time to sneak people out of there.
The people in the resistance compound don't look...like I expected, to be honest. They don't look as beaten down, they're cleaner and healthier looking than I expected. If anything, they look better than the people I see who are still with our captors. Like they're getting enough food, enough rest, and...
For all the stress of being an isolated resistance struggling not to be snuffed out by the wind...
They get to live free, right? Among humans. Among people who care.
So.
Maybe that makes up for it.
We pass by the people, who glance at us and then look away again.
We get some smiles and nods of greeting, some of them look us over with a critical eye. I'm guessing the people with that expression are trying to gauge our usefulness.
It's a relief that not everyone here is completely beaten down and sad looking, at least.
If they're hopeful, maybe we should be, too.
Maybe it won't be a suicide mission to try to get home after all.
Ivan's sitting in the room we met him in before.
There are others here with him. The room has people sitting around tables, working on...things. Some of them are talking, but most are just sitting quietly and working. Some of them are tinkering with the odd metal rods the guards were carrying earlier, others are writing. Still others are sewing and patching clothing, and some are...working with wires, it looks like.
The place isn't loud, but...it's a lot busier now that everyone's awake.
Ivan smiles when he sees us. "Are you hungry? You missed a few meals." He gestures for us to follow, leading us into a large room that's a little like a dining room, maybe. There's a long table with food and people serving it.
The food is unfamiliar - I don't recognize it from home or from the stuff they serve us in the prison compound.
"We grow and cook our own food." Ivan says, as if he can hear my thoughts. "We're restricted on meat - there's little in the way of human-edible prey animals - but our cooks aren't so bad."
"That's Razorweed?" Mia asks, looking at something on the table. "That's a bit...gritty and sandy, isn't it?"
"You should try it. Like I said. Our cooks aren't so bad at utilizing what we've got."
Mia picks up a small piece of what she's looking at, popping it in her mouth and chewing. She chews a long time and swallows, then looks thoughtful. "...That was better than expected."
Ivan chuckles. "Try some of the meat, too. It's less plentiful, but delicious." He hums, placing his hands on his hips. "That was one of the more dangerous things I've done, hunting the creatures."
"Creatures?" Eric asks, picking up some meat and putting it in his mouth.
"Not the things that chased you last test, if that's what you're wondering." Ivan shakes his head. "Those are stringy and gamey. Not worth the danger."
Eric swallows the bit he's taken a bite out of, nodding. "That is delicious."
"I'm glad. Take your time. Eat." He turns and walks back to the room he came from, waving his hand in dismissal. "When you're done eating, we can talk about what comes next."
The meal is better than I thought it'd be.
That time in the cave after the last test, the aliens fed us reasonably well, even with facsimiles of food from Earth.
But this is...
I don't know.
I just like it more. Maybe because it's made by humans, not someone guessing what humans like? It feels more like something we could be making back home. Even though it's made of alien things.
"Is this all grown and made here...?" I ask.
The girl with us, who is serving out portions of the food, smiles. "We have some small underground greenhouses in the facility, yeah." She tilts her head. "I dunno if you guys have been to the other factories, but they're mostly abandoned, so we've been slowly converting them to be used for food."
"Other factories?" Eric settles into a seat. "Didn't know there were any at all."
The woman hums. "There's a lot more on this planet than just the processing camp. But Ivan probably wants to tell you about that."
I purse my lips.
She said Ivan. Peter mentioned that everyone in the camp went by Ivan, but that girl before called herself Tessa.
I wonder...
"What's your name?"
"Anna." She responds, smiling a bit.
Eric snorts. "Beginning to think that whole 'Everyone is Ivan' thing isn't much of a thing."
Anna laughs, cheeks turning red. "Well...officially...yes. But...not all of us are as good about it as we probably should be..." She rubs the back of her neck, looking a little sheepish. "I mean...there's a point to it. It's just. I don't want to give up who I am. Not to them or to Ivan."
Mia laughs a little, looking down. "...Yeah." She smiles. "That makes sense."
She sighs. "We do try. Just...we have a hard enough time holding on to the life we have. We don't need to lose our names too."
Anna smiles. "Anyway. Don't wanna keep you guys from eating. You're starving, I bet."
"...Yeah. I guess I am."
I've been so busy I hadn't thought about it but-
That gruel was all I've had in probably 30 hours?
Yeah...
I'm going to be hurting if I skip eating again.
So.
We take the time to eat.
We're tired and need the energy.
And, if I'm honest, I'm glad not to be in a hurry. Even though it's just eating.
I feel...light. Relaxed, I guess?
For the first time in a long time.