OO1 }{ AUDIO }{ CALLSIGN: MZ114C }{ DAY 17

[somethingintangible]

[ The voice that comes over the network is a young woman's - late teens or early twenties. A little deep, throaty, but still obviously belonging to someone quite young and female.

It's shaky though, like the person on the other end of the radio is really struggling. Maybe like she's even been crying, although it's hard to tell. She definitely sounds distressed, though.

This is also clearly someone who has never actually used a walkie talkie before, as the message periodically cuts in and out. Maddy was mostly able to figure it out by playing with it, but she's not used to having to keep pressing the button down. You don't do that with touch screens! ]

Um... Hey...

I don't know if anybody can hear me. Or if [ brief silence; she has lifted her finger off the walkie so whatever she says is missing; her voice picks up again later-- ].

--name is Maddy Perez. My mom's name is Sonia Perez, my dad [ she lifts her finger again, so her dad's name isn't heard ] -- I go to East Highland High School. I think I'm lost. I don't know where I am. I need help.

[ There's a pause; this time, it's not because she lifted her finger. There's distraught breathing on the other side of the radio. ]

Please, somebody help me! I'm lost. I don't, I don't know where I am. I -- I think I'm in a jungle or something? I'm not sure where to go next.

[ Then there's a quiet, sound -- sniffling, and a mechanical huff of someone breathing into the walkie too hard. ]

Comments

KY321B | voice

[backsassin]

Hi Maddy. My name's Zam. You've gotta keep your finger pressed down on the button when you're talking. Otherwise, we can't hear you.

Can you see anything near you besides the jungle? Rivers, debris, anything that's not just trees?

[somethingintangible]

Hey Zam. Cool name. I don't know anybody with a name like that. [ Maddy is slightly skeptical, but she does as she's told, carefully keeping her finger pressed down on the button. ] Is this better?

Oh. Uh. I was just by a river before this. I can try to find it again. Should I retrace my steps?

[backsassin]

Yeah, I'm not from around here. And yes, I can hear you better now.

Fresh water is going to be hard to come by outside of the river, so I'd recommend not losing track of it. Me and some others have set up camp at an old airfield and resort; it's got two big flight towers, so it's pretty easy to spot from the beach. We're west of one cluster of rivers on the island, so there's a chance you can find us if you follow your river in that direction.

Or you might not; depends on how many similar clusters of rivers there might be on the island, and honestly, I've got no idea about that.

Let me know if you figure out what side of the island you're on, though. If you're close enough, we might be able to send someone to find you. The people here are real big on dashing rescues...

[somethingintangible]

Is anybody from "around here?" [ She means the island. ] Where are you from, Miss Zam? [ Zam is an adult who's trying to help her, so she aims to be respectful. That kind of deference doesn't come naturally to her so it's a little stiff, but she's trying. ]

I can trace my steps back to the river. How do I know which way is west? [ Good luck, Zam. You've got your work cut out for your with this one. ]

Dashing rescues? [ You can hear the faint smile in Maddy's voice. A dashing rescue sounds good, right now, but she's a little lost. She has to admit, though: ] I don't know if I could be like that. I think I only know how to look out for myself.

[ Well, herself and kids, anyway. She probably wouldn't go off to rescue an adult or another teenager - not unless she knew them personally - but she would definitely put herself in danger to save a kid. ]

[ Deep breath. She sniffs. She has to pull herself together somehow. ] If I figure out where I am, I'll tell you...

Thanks for helping me... Do you know... how we got there? I don't remember anything.

[backsassin]

[ 'Miss Zam.' That's cute. Zam wrinkles her nose, unsure whether to be charmed or suspicious. ]

Not Earth. Which seems to make me the minority here—by a long-shot, too. The sun sets in the west on this planet, so keep track of its movement over the next hour or two, and that should set you in the right general direction.

[ A smile tugs at her lips when Maddy says she only knows how to look out for herself. Sounds familiar. ]

Trust me, I'm the same way most of the time. But desperate times call for desperate measures, right? Whatever's going on here will be easier to survive together.

[ Particularly in Zam's case as she learns to navigate her new disability—which only means she has all the more reason to try and promote Senku and the others' brand of indiscriminate goodwill rather than anything approaching competition. ]

None of us know how we got here. One second, we're living our lives wherever we were before, and the next, we're waking up on this island. Some of us aren't even the same species as we were before. Suffice to say, it's a royally karked up situation and not one that's liable to have an easy-to-understand explanation.

Try to focus on survival for now. Unraveling cosmic mysteries can come later.

[somethingintangible]

Not Earth? [ The whole concept of being "not Earth" is like a sledgehammer to Maddy's brain. If the entire situation weren't already crazy, she would dismiss Zam as a lunatic. Unfortunately, that's a lot harder to do when she has absolutely no idea how she wound up here, and even her best hypothesis makes close to no sense. ] "This planet?" What the fuck?

[ Her voice gets higher, slightly panicky. At least the way Zam describes everything makes some kind of sense. Still, Maddy is at least still listening to some of what Zam is saying. ]

"Cosmic mysteries?" What? Trust me, I don't need to know anything about cosmic mysteries! I just wannna know how to get out of here! But you're saying... you're saying nobody knows how...?