She stood on the forest floor for a moment, panting and
almost fainting. She's gone frail and she looks horrified,
looking to the sides and trying to catch a full enough
breath to satisfy her hungry lungs.
The stars sparkle and pulse; it's clear that this hot
mid-summer night is moist and boiling, especially in the
forest, which oddly lacks leaves. It seems dead and
deserted, the air sits still and her fragrance is spreading
slowly, but provides an excellent pin-pointing accuracy, not
a good hiding place indeed.
In the distance the barking of dogs is heard, many of them,
whistles are going off.
She doesn't spend much time resting, she quickly runs again,
avoiding trees and branches instinctively, her pupils
dilated to catch what little light the night has to offer.
As she ran further and further her face bared cuts and her
torn boots bared the marks of many years, even though they
were fairly new.

The wintery boots suited her well in the summer against the
sharp thorns of the thicket in the forest and the knife-like
shards of rock scattered all over the place. Some of the
policemen who were after her had been cut deeply by them
already, and had difficulty keeping up with their dogs.
She sees in the distant the flickerings of flashlights; it
prompts her to run even faster, reaching the edge of her
physical capability.
The trees pass her sight like odd ghosts, swirling all
around as if falling through an endless spiral void, her
mind set on automatic; it's not she who is running, but her
sub-conscious; she is unaware that behind her are roughly 30
armed cops and several flesh-devouring trained dogs. All she
is thinking about is: 'rock, not good, turn right, tree
ahead, bad, one step to the left, continue forward, maintain
speed, branch ahead, duck! log, jump!' - she stopped again
to breath, she clinged to one branch that was thick and
chest-high and put her arms on it. Then she placed her head
on her hands, looking at the ground through her arms... she
took a moment to think, her mind activated again, but not
with sufficient clarity; she's being hunted, there's no time
for rational thought, no time to make plans, not to mention
trying some way of getting help or contacting someone she
knows. Actually, everyone she knows is also hunting her, a
fugitive, an enemy.

A multi-eyed creature stared through dead leaves and
branches, his seven legs spread open in the air, the eighth
hangs on a thread, slowly descending an inch. He looks
around him, sensing his surroundings, and drops another
inch. Finally he reaches a strange surface, unlike any
surface before, so he remains motionless for a few seconds,
again looking, smelling, and looking... an alien world, with
many small creatures burrowed in the ground, and tall thin
curved trees came out of the ground - which was sliced all
over, as a wasteland that used to be fertile and endured a
long period of drought.
The creature didn't survive on the alien world, when a huge
creature with five legs landed on him, leaving behind a rich
soup of internal organs.
She woke up in a ditch, dirty and aching. She wanted to
brush her hand in her long black hair that was a mess; she
almost did, when she noticed a spider splashed inside, and
smeared it on her dress.
She wasn't in the forest anymore, she was greeted with small
wild bush and grass. She wasn't quite awake yet; she laid
down on the ground, looking towards the rising sun. She must
have been laying there for hours, when a siren is heard in
the faint distance.
She slowly came to stood up, noticing a giant cliff above
the ditch.
It wasn't a giant cliff, otherwise she wouldn't have
survived the apparent fall, she thought. It reminded her
that when she was about 7 years old she spent some days out
with her mother at the city. They used to walk along the
esplanade facing the ocean on one side, and facing the
sky-scrapers on the other, they were so huge, so vast,
stretching miles above the clouds, housing Titans, engaged
in eternal olympic war.
Actually they weren't sky-scrapers at all, they were regular
office buildings, with regular corporate coffee addicts, she
knew it was the case here, a small cliff off the side of a
small hill, but at the moment it was colossal.
What was truly gigantic are the starships at the dock where
her father worked, operating the dock, unloading and
arranging scaffolds for operation and loading goods, a most
mundane working environment, but Tali saw it differently,
she loved coming with her dad sometimes when school was off
to see the ships, and standing below them in an awe
inspiring picture - a Giant, and a curious little Ant below
It at its feet, the huge freighters landing, making a sound
like a breath, opening the airlocks and the cargo bays, it
seemed alive and menacing, but she loved the fear and the
excitement, more excitement than fear really, but both in a
way.
The road was shimmering with a disturbing twilight, as the
sun rose and reflected upon the asphalt, Tali stood on the
edge of the road and started walking impairly, no one seemed
to drive at this place at these hours, the one or two cars
that did, just flew by, the drivers didn't even look at her
as she tried to hitch hike, as if they leaned over to the
right to avoid being seen; 'I'm not here, this car is driven
by a ghost, I'll just pretend I'm not here and Gosh, I hope
that those horrible freak hitch hikers won't notice me, or
my extremely noisy car '.
Finally a trailer pulled over, when the passenger door
kicked open an awful smell poured out, it was a garbage
truck.
She came closer and with each step the suffocation grew, she
climbed up and there sat a man around 50, heavily bearded,
but elegantly, a cowboy hat to his head, and she asked him
where he was going.
"Ah, down over to the 24's Heven, about 30 miles from here,
is that alright for you?" he asked, with a deep but
reassuring voice - "Yes, wonderful" she replied in a hurry
"It's right where I'm headed, so... excellent" and she
couldn't resist giving him a dumb looking smile and a thumbs
up.
It isn't where she is going at all, in fact she has no idea
where that place is.
she looked around her and in between all the garbage and
empty bottles floating around like M&Ms in zero gravity, she
saw many medals of all sorts pinned to the sides, not just
the sides but everywhere, the stirring wheel, above, below,
right and left, officer's pins, medals, unit tags, and what
not.
She gave him a doubtful look as he stared on the endless
bright road.
"Yea you noticed the medals, huh? Don't worry about that,
I'm not some insane old veteran, I've never been to the
army, but you wouldn't believe what you can find in people's
garbage, I mean, computer chips that still work, fine
televisions, medals, I once even found...uh... yea...", he
saw she's not really listening, she looks out the window,
with a kind of sad or longing stare, pondering, the driver
looked at her in a sort of understanding way, then she fell
asleep with her head against the window.

Half an hour into the drive, in the middle of an already 3rd
dream, she began to slowly wake up at the sound of the
radio, local news announced  the usual weather report, the
usual foreign affairs, and then she heard her name, spoken
clearly.
"the fugitive is armed and dangerous, if anyone sees her he
is requested to immediately contact the authorities at
once"
She looked at him in distress, within a split second he
reached out his right hand and introduced himself - "I'm
Hermann, pleased to meet you", she shook his hand and
answered "I'm..." -"Tali, Yes the lady on the radio just
told me" he laughed.
"don't worry, no one will look for you where we're heading,
it's a crapy little motel  near Colony 24, it's open 24
seven and they'll take in any one, nice folks, you're gonna
love'em." She tried to say that it would be nice but he kept
on talking "they won't look for you there, it's out of their
reach, sit back, relax, there's food in some of the trash,
it's not much, not tasty, but it's more than nothing", she
turned around the seat and looked at the cargo, the 'good's
carried inside were looking more than vile and the stench
was almost suffocating. "Wonderful!" she said hastily, in
her typical cynically-happy tone.