Escaping the Storm: Part 9
_ **Part 9** _ Walking down to the kitchen for breakfast the following morning felt more akin to swimming through molasses; each step reminding Erik of the rough night's sleep he'd endured. Tuesdays, and the prospect of another week of work, were...
Special Delivery
_ **Special Delivery** _ Morozovo. Fuckin' Morozovo. Of all the places to get transferred over to. They couldn't have moved me any further north without pushing me out of Zelengorod entirely. I'd been driving flatout for almost an hour already, and...
Knock Knock
_ **Knock Knock** _ 'Cut through the apartment complex Danny, they said. It'll shave ten minutes off your walk to the station, they said. Man, _they_ were chattin' some utter shite with all that. Never mind this place being a maze of identical three...
Getaway: Parts 1 & 2 (AaO Side Story)
**_Getaway_** **_Part 1_** Everything jerked at once. My monitor and fan rocked back and forth. Pens skittered and tumbled off of the desk. Hell, even the fully-loaded filing were thumping. The shaking affected everything, all the way through...
Escaping the Storm: Part 7
Part 7 As had become par for the course, the start of another week of work-based tedium accompanied Tuesday's arrival. Erik stacked shelf after shelf, day after day with little to no praise for his efforts. By the time he'd fought on through to...
Escaping the Storm: Part 6
Part 6 In the days that followed his discovery of Viktor's opinion on Polcians living in Velika, Erik made a conscious, determined effort to cut all contact with him. Largely, he remained successful; their only subsequent encounters being the...
Getaway: Part 12 - Final
_ **Part 12** _ It had taken forever and a day to get ourselves to the airport. At seven that morning, I figured peeling myself off my hostel bed would be the toughest part of my day, especially after the less than sensible night we'd enjoyed before....
Foundations: Part 9 (AaO Side Story)
_ **Part 9** _ _(Jonas)_ "Martin was the first Maleni I really got to know back at high school." "Maleni?" Alen mumbled past the finger in his mouth, slipping it out to swipe up more residue from his glass. "Really?" "You sound surprised?" "I...
Getaway: Part 6
_ **Part 6** _ Sunday evening wound up being the perfect time for our first trip out for dinner. Compared to our first pass of Ibarra's earlier that day... it still wasn't quiet, for sure, but it'd got way less busy. From what I'd seen of Arlone so...
Foundations: Part 3 (AaO Side Story)
_ **Part 3** _ _(Jonas)_ Man, I was _so_happy Ma and Alen got on as well as they did. Not that I had any real doubt. Ma's so chatty and open, friendly and welcoming, that I never saw how it could go any different. Poor Alen. I could read him like a...
Getaway: Part 3
_ **Part 3** _ In the days and weeks that followed those initial discussions, I managed to get somewhere approaching comfortable with the idea of travelling all the way to Polcia. I'd also got used to fact that I'd be heading there with Sasha in...
Foundations: Part 8 (AaO Side Story)
Part 8 (Alen) For me, subtitled movies could be tough to follow sometimes once their pace really got going. This one had taken me onto a whole new level, however. Actors seemed to take every opportunity possible to switch back and forth between...