The Cardinal Directive: Mission Log #42

What you're breathing isn't oxygen.

[Start of Season 2]
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>> Now Playing Mission Log #42

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The log begins with several seconds of darkness, the feed clicking and the sound of camera shutters moving, but no change in the visual presented.

An image slowly flickers to life on the screen — the inside of a tent, the fabric a red tinted sort of canvas or similar material. There’s a crinkle of a sleeping bag as the view shifts and rolls, panning until a familiar face comes into view — The Outrider. She’s holding something, a small syringe gun with a clear fluid loaded into it.

The camera suddenly lurches back as Solena scrambles to her feet, but her legs are not strong enough to hold her, and her uneasy footing slips on the sleeping bag. Outrider lunges after her, catching her just before she can stumble into the tent wall and take the whole thing down with her.

“Easy — easy…”

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Solena’s heart moved like it was double-time swing dancing in her ribcage, far outpacing any coherent thoughts she might be having in her first seconds of wakefulness.

She’d registered the syringe gun immediately, but it took several seconds to understand that she’d somehow gotten to her feet — ish — and several more after that to understand that Outrider was holding her, gently easing her back to the ground.

When Solena was safely lying back down, the Outrider’s support receded. The syringe gun was still in her hand, primed and ready to be used.

“Don’t touch me,” Solena snarled. Or, tried. Her voice shook, and her mouth was dry. She had to peel her tongue off of the roof of her mouth to speak.

“Then stay down,” Sloan countered. “The medicine will help.”

“I-If you stick me with that, I swear—”