The Morning After

[Mina Ward]

Mina wished they would shut up. Not necessarily the two noise machines on the couch, though they weren't really helping matters. She missed home, missed the quiet the countryside had to offer when she chose to exit the datastream and it felt like her head would split in twain. Los Angeles offered no such sanctuary. The age of wireless was here and only seemed to become more and more integrated into society each passing moment. A blessing to most, a cursing to a very select few; sadly Mina was perhaps one of the foremost of the later. It was like living in a haze, one that accompanied random data bludgeoning the senses and a miserable pounding headache that always came after she forced herself to leave what had become more reality to her than the waking world.

Needless to say it made her quite grumpy. Not quite as grumpy as the fact that something was wrong. The GPS signals on her eldest siblings' cell phones wasn't registering so it had taken some time to find where they had gotten off to. A small clipping regarding a stolen car and many traffic cameras later had found them far ahead of schedule. There had been no side trip to Las Vegas, no random stopping at horrible fast food chains. They were never on-time, never the less early to anything. It was troublesome.

Her footsteps were light, something she was thankful for at times like these but more often than not found to be a twisted reminder of the affliction she suffered from. Her eyes focused upon the television and a small roll of her eyes followed. It was a movement she regretted instantly as the stabbing sensation ripped through the ride side of her skull once more.

She blinked.

The news replaced the cartoons. It was a story Mina was already entirely familiar with but once more the narration was describing a horrible mutant attack at a resort in New Mexico. Details were sketchy - an after effect of someone trying to cover things up. It wasn't exactly the outcome expected but it would do.