Abandoned World: The Awakening

— No, I'll tell you… I started giving him blowjobs… He loved it all. I could feel it. And then he gave my cheek a weird squeeze with his hand, a painful squeeze. I cried out and asked what he was doing. He looked kind of weird, like he was out of it. But I thought it was from excitement. Though that had never happened before… Anyway, I continued on, and at some point he slapped me hard again on the same spot. On my cheek. And I fell to the floor… It was horrible. I didn't understand what had happened at all. I didn't understand why he did it. I was fine. My nose was bleeding. I looked at him, trying to figure out why he did it… But I didn't even have the heart to ask him… To ask him why…" Delaney burst into tears, and Haddock put his arms around her, gently stroking her back.

— It's all right, Delaney. It's all over now… You don't have to tell me more if you don't want to… It's all right….

— And then he picked up his whiskey glass from the table and finished it There was

something awful about it It was like he was celebrating some kind of accomplishment as he drank.

Like he was glad he could do that… And his eyes. He'd never had such scary eyes. It was as if they

weren't his eyes. They even changed color. They became kind of glassy… And… Young I remember

exactly what really surprised me was how young his eyes could be at his age. And when he finished

the glass, I thought that was the end of it. That he'd say something to me now. Somehow explain why he did it… And the last thing I remember is him swinging that glass at me… It was so scary. I

don't remember such a scary expression on his face in my life. There was no anger or hatred in it. I don't know if it was towards me or something else. It was like he was just happy that he was doing

it. That he had finally waited so long for the moment, and now he could finally do it It's

monstrous… And it's even more monstrous that he did it to me….

— I understand, Delaney. It's all behind us now. I promise no one will ever hurt you again.

— But I don't want him to be sent to Tosca! — the girl pulled back a little. — I know what will happen to him in Tosca. I don't want that-it's some kind of insanity. I'm sure it will pass.

She kept saying something else about how he'd get better, that it had been a fleeting mistake and that all good things were yet to come, and Heddock was thinking about the words "I know what's going to happen to him in Tosca". Was this someone telling everyone what was going on in his prison? That even a structure separate from the main station doesn't allow for complete privacy?

After all, all wardens were selected separately, vetted and are vetted constantly. They have no contact with the other citizens of Apollo-24 and do not communicate with the prisoners. And of the prisoners themselves, no one can pass on anything, because if he gets into special conditions, there is no way back. And those who return have not undergone anything terrible. So what could Delaney be afraid of if he can't know?

— I don't see what's so scary about someone in Tosca. Delaney, they just isolate people from society so they don't pose a threat. That's all.

— Oh, yeah?! And make them pick on each other after the toss?

— What draw?

— That they were given the opportunity to guess the side of the coin eagle/rare and if they won, the warden and if they lost, the prisoner. You didn't know about this? You're the head of the Enlightenment. Didn't you know that?

Now that was interesting. Peyton couldn't have known about it, because everything that happened to him was always bugged, watched and tapped. Some conversation would have revealed it. Delaney must have learned it from somewhere else… But such details…..

It was beginning to look like Haddock had a whole hidden movement brewing somewhere, looking for and then spreading this kind of information. And maybe even an organized movement that someone was leading. And this someone may well be hatching plans of a political nature. There were so many thoughts in his head that it was getting scary how much could be hidden behind the

curtain that he himself had arranged in the form of endless talks about life before the cryosleep and the right way after everyone woke up… This is not all the life that is on the station. People want a lot more, even if they keep quiet about it. And they shouldn't have hoped for a vacuum to form in this place.

— Delaney, take your time… Didn't know what? The drawing of lots? No, I didn't know. I didn't know because it doesn't exist. Where did you get that from?