The bitter wind blew against my face as I awoke. I opened my eyes and saw a completely white landscape. I realized that I was stuck in a snowstorm with no idea where I even was. Strangely enough, it felt like… home. As if I've not only been here, but I've lived here. As I got up, I realized I was wearing a large yellow and black coat with fur lining the hood, and thick black pants that matched. My feet were covered with black leather boots, and my hands with black leather gloves. Multiple pockets lined my jacket, all of them empty. As I stood up, I noticed two crudely made ice picks lying on the ground next to me. I picked them up and started walking off in a random direction, hoping to find anything that could mean safety.
Half an hour had passed, and I found nothing. I had taken to sharpening the metal ends into makeshift daggers. It would be a lot easier to pull out of the body of any wildlife out here trying to attack me. My legs were weary from all the walking in the three inch snow, so I sat down. The cold snow threatened to seep through my clothes and freeze me to death. Oddly enough, though, my skin didn't feel cold at all. I felt strangely warm while waiting for something, anything to pass by.
My waiting paid off. Not even five minutes after I stopped, a silhouette of a small figure appeared in the distance, and it was getting closer and closer. When it stopped, I could only make out the large brown parka it was wearing, along with the navy blue, thick rimmed goggles that were spotted with metal screws. The end of the parka seemed to have a charcoal black cape that waved in the wind heroically. I brought my hands up to my mouth and shouted, "Hello? Are you here to help me?" The whipping wind must have been too loud figure stood there for a couple seconds before turning around and walking away. I quickly stood up and ran after them as fast as I could in the brutal winds and rising snow.
I eventually caught up with the figure at the opening of a dimly lit cave. I took the T end of the ice pick and spun them around, trying to shout above the wind, "Why didn't you stop for me?! WHO ARE YOU!?!" It took a few seconds for me to realize that the figure in front of me wasn't human. The cape I saw earlier, upon closer inspection, turned out to be a flowing tail. Its face, which I though was shrouded in the hood of the parka, was not shadowed by the hood. The face was jet black, fitting nicely with the goggles it was wearing. What happened next shocked me.
The figure said to me in a masculine voice, "Take your pick off me now or you will regret it!" In my surprise, I dropped both picks and backed away slowly. He smirked and said, "Good. Now why are you here in the Storm?!" I bent down to pick up my tools, ignoring the pony, but he didn't ignore me. He put me in a headlock, wrenching my whole body away from the ice picks as he shouted, "Don't even think about it, jackass!" I eventually gave in after trying to break out and said, "Fine, you got me! To be honest, I have no idea why I'm here or what this place is!" The pony didn't believe me, and it was apparent in his voice as he shouted, "Bullshit, we're all here for one reason or another!"
At that moment, I heard another voice enter the fray, a female's this time. She said, "Having fun in the snow, boys?!" We both stopped fighting immediately as the pony got off of me. He turned to the girl and said, "I'm sorry, Adria! He tried attacking me and I had to show that I could defend myself!" I, however, didn't waste any time picking up both of my ice picks and lunging at the pony. It wasn't long before I felt as if I were moving slower, a lot slower. I looked down at myself and saw that my whole body had turned a blue tinge. As the pony walked out of my range, the girl known as Adria walked up to me and said, "Give me one reason, just one, and I'll blow your friggin' head off. Understand?" The feeling of slowness wore off and I fell into the snow, both of my picks embedding into the ground. The girl walked back to the cave, beckoning the pony to follow her as she muttered something about not having a brain under her breath. I followed suit, feeling the relief of the wind battering against my skin as I entered the haven. It was here that I could see the two more clearly.
The pony had taken his parka off, showing his streamlined body. The parka he was wearing was covering amazing sky blue wings, which were currently outstretched and majestically flapping in the empty space. On his flank was a star encompassed by a waning moon, the two tips of it pointing upward. A pair of wings were unfolded on each side, and there was a line coming from the middle of the moon through the star. The girl, however, was much different. She was a Caucasian teen, probably aged about 17 or 18 years. Her long brown hair reached down to a clunky metal suit. On the back was a long blue bar and a fourth of a circle right next to it, slowly refilling itself. At her side was looked like a large, square pistol with three light blue sights coming from the end. On the ground next to a large duffel bag was a more cylindrical weapon, most likely a type of assault rife. There were four barrels to it: the first three were in a triangular formation, while the fourth was in the middle.
The Pegasus caught me looking at her weapons and said, "Wait up there, new kid. First, let's get acquainted. Her name's Adria Milic, CEC Aeronautics Engineer. I'm Ebony Night, First Lieutenant of the New Lunar Republic. Now, who the hell are you?" I stuttered and said, "I-I don't know. Listen, is there-" Adria, not looking up from her pistol, said, "Inner coat, left side." Confused, I looked in my jacket and saw an ID card. I read it off, saying, "Apparently, my name's Belenos Tesar, age twenty-three, miner on a planet called Tau Volantis. Is this place Tau Volantis?" Adria stood up and said, "Might as well be, with all the fuckers hanging around here trying to kill us. But no, this is not Tau Volantis. This is a place only known as The Storm. I've been stuck here myself for ten years. Ebony here came shortly after my second year."
"But… ten years… so young…" I said, and she laughed at me. "Oh no, time doesn't pass here. I've been this old this whole time. So, when and how did you get here?" she asked. I looked up to her and said, "I've been here for, what, less than an hour? What an accomplishment, nearly got killed after forty-five minutes in a new place." Adria laughed again and said, "Try forty-five seconds. Damn ship got infested with the things so bad that they were waiting for me on the landing pad." Her statement confused me. I put my ice picks down and said, "What things?" She turned to me and said, "The Necromorphs, of course. How do you think I got here?"
