Down Time

[The Future Warrior]

Several questions of varying importance and magnitude swirled at random in her head. Quite literally, in this case, as she felt her balance deserting her and she swayed precariously on her edge-of-the-bed perch. "Okay, okay... It's almost noon. What, uh...what day is it? I didn't loose that along with the time, did I?"

"Well, don't ask me what day it is. We don't get a calendar until we make it long enough to get at least one promotion." The joke was evident, but it was quickly brushed aside. "Whole mess with the Vorticons down on tier 7 was just yesterday, though. So at worst you're missing a few hours, don't worry. Listen, speaking of that, I want you to do me a favor."

"A favor?" That gave her something to clamp down on and focus her mind on. "Okay." Her mood quickly hairpinned into positive again, the prospect of something to do livening up her tired mind. "Whatcha need?"

"Gonna need you to get up, go to your window," the trooper instructed.

And dubiously, the prime hopped up, making her way across the room to her window. "'Kay. At the window."

"Great. Now I need you to open the blinds if you got 'em. Look outside, tell me what you see."

Confusion continued to mount in her mind, but she did as instructed. She hopped up to grab hold of the pull cord for the blinds, giving it a quick tug to draw them open. A bright glare of unrestricted, artificial sunlight assaulted her eyes, from which she recoiled, one hand shading her eyes. "Gah...okay...all I see is bright. Bright light." She waited for the initial glare to subside in her eyes, squinting at the glass. "And...buildings. Big wall just across the way."

That was met with a deep, resounding chuckle from the other end of the call. "Yep. That'd do it..." A moment of silence. "Things can get packed together pretty tightly down there, on Tier 4. Sun's probably been up for a while, but just managed to clear the other buildings and shine on in for your wake-up call."

This simple explanation stuck in the small, blue prime's head. It left her struck dumb, blinking slowly and staring at her faint reflection in the window glass. "That, uh..." she started, trailing off with a huff. "That...makes sense, I guess..."

"Restful night, huh?" the secondary quipped, cutting off her further mental meandering. "Look. I know you said you don't sleep or...whatever. But that doesn't mean you don't need some rest now and then. And I mean good rest, not just flopping down and not doing anything for a few hours." Graowr couldn't help but cringe at how accurate that assessment had been. It was pretty much spot-on, word-for-word what she'd done last night. "Look, you're supposed to be on some down time anyway. Little leave of absence, y'know? After that whole ruckus and all the damage we caused down on Tier 7, we're all kinda supposed to lay low for a while. So take you some time, have some rest. Take it easy."

There was a moment of silence, as if Hunt was waiting on a response, or about to hang up, before he spoke up again. "...and hey, while you're at it. Make sure you remember to take a shower and clean up. Things got pretty messy yesterday, don't wanna see you lookin' like you just crawled out of a hole in the ground, y'hear?"

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, right. That, definitely." She nodded to herself, giving the pull cord for the blinds another tug to try and get them closed. "I can definitely do that."

"And see about getting something to eat. Dunno how you, uh..." He paused for a second, and the floundering over his words was evident. "...work, whatever you are, but a good bite to eat does wonders for me when I'm on the fading end of a rough night. Just a suggestion." There was a muffled voice in the background, and Hunt sight. "Alright, listen...much as I'd love to keep helpin' you out, gotta get goin'. Apparently I'm gettin' called back in for a bit more training. Apparently they caught wind of my flubbed first aid training and I got hit with the big 'WHAT?!' from the Sergeant. Who knew that was required?" He chuckled weakly. "Be seein' ya. Don't do anything too dumb now, y'hear?" And with a faint click the call went dead.

"Y-Yeah...see ya," Graowr mumbled. The entire situation was compounded with a light thonk as the blinds finally cooperated and came sliding down, landing right on her head.