They call it death
Foru syeykaw tsa'u kxitxä
•—————•—————•—————•—————•

The whirring of the machine around her weak and broken body lulled her into a sleep. They call it death. And she was ready for it. It was silent. For what felt like years, it was silent. And it was warm and cold. It was peaceful.

And all too abruptly, it was loud again.

Light shone through her eyelids, she could feel the cool air on her skin, fabric over her body. There was no blood caked onto her skin. No torn organs or pain. She could smell floor disinfectant and saline, someone's shampoo. She could hear-

"Hello?"

The question felt like noise. Just noise. A muscle in her ear twitched with a snap of someone's fingers.

"If you can hear me, open your eyes." They asked.

They were too loud. She wanted to pull the blanket of death back over herself and rest, but she couldn't tank her own heartbeat so easily. Her eyes flicked open and with a grunt, she pushed off the table and sat up.

She rubbed at her eyes, the light was too bright.

She heard someone back up and another person enter the room.

She thought more, she remembered her life. Her first memories, her childhood in a crowded urban land, wearing a mask everyday to school. Watching the news with her mom about extinct animals going extinct or being revived via cloning.

She remembered enlisting as an adult. America had come under attack from nearby countries who needed their resources. She was reconnaissance and a special operative who ran with a set aside group of spec ops. She never went above the rank of Lieutenant, she was under her Captain. And she fought with brave boys. She was injured in the line of duty and had a brain scan done before she passed, and then she did pass during.

She was dead.

She pulled her hands from her eyes and stared down in horror. Blue. Four digits.

"'S not right... I'm dead." She began to feel tremors throughout her body. Something in her snapped into a response. She stood up and tried to push past the figure in the doorway, but they caught her hands.

"Easy now!"

She felt a sharp pain in her leg and she was out.

Slipping into a comfortable rest.

When she awoke next, she was in a room with three others. The shack was large and made of wood. Avatars streamed in and out, resting, researching. But they were behind a mesh. They even smelled different, those bodies with human minds, they were like plastic.

She observed the three others with her. A resting man, he was thin and probably na'vi. A reading man, five digits instead of four. He had strong human features. And a woman who was analyzing a sample and going over some paperwork.

"Where am I?" She asked, her voice was hoarse and soft, "what am I? I'm dead." She glanced around at her others. Maybe they're like her? Maybe they're just as confused and afraid.

The resting man sat up at her words.

"Lieutenant?" His voice was familiar, she could place it easily. Recalling her service.

"No." She looked at him with wide eyes. Hound was a strong man, he was a fighter. He looked so defeated.

"No- I don't... you're dead too?" She reached out to touch him but pulled back, driving her nails into her palm.

"I don't know. They don't tell us anything, but we're like those avatars. But we're permanent. They don't really know what to do with us." Hound said in a dejected tone.

"You shouldn't be here, you-your family, your kids, everything is..." she looked out the window finding herself looking at a lush field with an obstacle course, agriculture, a military base and a fence. Trees behind that.

They didn't have trees on earth. Not really, not this big.

Her heart hammered in her chest as she realized what they did to her. To these people.

The other man finally put his book down.

"Welcome to Pandora." He said with a sigh. Definitely a marine from his apparel and attitude.

Her head buzzed with anger as she fell silent.

She's alive. Now what?

•—————•—————•—————•—————•

The scientist one was pulled away to study something and the marine decided to "go on patrol". It was just her and Hound.

He looked up, weak and thin, shriveled in his avatar-sized clothes.

"Lieutenant?" He asked.

"It's just Kyra now." She replied softly, she had been reading the na'vi language book that she didn't really understand or pay much attention to.

"I know a way out." He said suddenly.

Kyra looked up at him, surprise in her face.

"I wasn't strong enough to make an escape, but you are. You have enough strength to get us both out." He said. He was sitting up now.

"Show me."

It was just a hole in the fence. But it would be enough. They'd need a while to prepare, a day or two to make a distraction large enough.

But Kyra had an idea.