Milk Run: Door to Door

Posted on 06 Feb 2022 @ 10:51am by Commander Calliope Zahn

Mission: M2 - Sanctuary
Location: Kalara City, north quarter
Timeline: MD11 1500 HRS
755 words - 1.5 OF Standard Post Measure

“You an’ me an’ the devil makes three… dun need no other lovin’...” Calliope sang to herself. While waiting for Bruce, she’d unladen all of her pockets on the barrel head beside her. “It’s not anywheres.” She sighed. “Stupid hypos. Never there when I need you.” Trying to assure herself, Calliope concentrated as she test-touched her fingers to one another, back and forth, more or less accurately. Beyond her hand, her unfocused eyes readjusted on forms in the distance. At first she thought they were just her imagination. But squinting, she watched through breaks in the opaque winds just beyond her sheltered spot as people criss crossed the square, taking up shelter from the mounting sand storm.

One group of men seemed to go in and come out of multiple homes. They seemed really rushed and aggressive about it. People in the homes shouted at them, and they shouted back. Calliope snickered. Maybe they forgot where they lived.

On their exit from one particular home, the high pitch of panic cut smartly through the whistling sands and gave Calliope goosebumps. The men came out of another door with one woman by the hair and a willowy child gripped by the wrists, screaming for his mother, feet pedaling in the air. Calliope shot bolt-upright and tried to come to her own feet, but instead took a side stumble from the barrel, which she had to right herself on with her hands.

Another man came running out of the building in a pleading posture and was ganged up on by three more cohorts with the trespassers. They unleashed feet and fists into him mercilessly until he was left laying motionless on the ground in the square. The entire confrontation was over before Calliope could even manage to step out into the open beyond the pillars and she wasn’t clear where the Woman and child had been taken to. With her hand protecting her face against the buffeting of the wind, she made her way to the man. His assailants, being finished with him, were occupied with checking the next home.

Calliope rolled him over, his face was badly bloodied and one of his eyes looked pretty messed up. Calliope put her handkerchief over it and leaned in with her ear. With all of the wind it was tough to detect but she was pretty sure he was breathing.

“Hey.” She shook him a little. “You alright?”

“Kaisook.” She heard his cracked voice as he tried his own strength at standing, but his broken leg gave way under him, “My friend and her son, I gave them shelter, but the Nuroc Tchuru no longer recognize Truce.”

“No Rock ChooChoo?” Calliope tried to pronounce but gave up further attempts. Instead she shouted over the wind, “Where are they taking them?”

“No one knows where they disappear to!” He groaned and clutched the cloth over his face. “They wait for the storms to shield them and they go door to door, looking for hidden Turani. Go! Before they find you too. Turani and Outsiders share the Nuroc Tchuru’s hatred equally.”

Calliope unholstered her tricorder and pressed one of the primary keys for broad recording to take visuals and life signs. She set it on a stone wall and lifted herself up, using the stucco walls for support. Unpinning her commbadge, she shut it off and reached inside of her collar, tucking it safely inside of her bra. She picked some loose stones from the top of a short stone wall as she navigated around it towards the next doorway.

“You’re going the wrong way! What are you doing, woman?” The man bellowed.

“Gonna help Kaisook.” Calliope threw up a peace sign for the tricorder cam. Bruce or Lance and the rest would be able to parse it out when they played it back.

Two of the Nuroc Tchuru finished up inside and seemed a little disoriented to find the green devil woman drunkenly accosting them in the walk. She threw a rock, and it went wide.

“Quit harassing people, ya cowardly snakes! Ya..” She pitched another rock and lost her balance. “Ya Chuchaki dung piles!” As she lifted her throwing arm to cast a third time her wrist was caught in a big dark hand. Spitefully, she hawked up some spit in his eye and as she watched it drip down into his wiry beard, was pleased that her aim hit true for once.

His striking reflex was swift, and Calliope crumpled in his grip.