caged and confused [spackles]

[Natanah Laurel]

The first thing Tana heard was the birds.

There was a distant, far-off chirping sound in her ears, though her gaze saw nothing but darkness. The sounds floated toward her as though they traveled miles just to reach her ears. And they were soft, subtle, and just loud enough for her to notice. And then in a rush of awareness, her eyelids flew open, and she shot upwards into a sitting position. Tana felt as though she had just awoken from a dream, quick, abrupt. She felt cheated somehow, out of sleep or something else entirely. Dizziness swept through her, and she took a moment to steady herself, resting her forehead gently against her palm. And then it all came rushing back to her. Last night... was it last night? It could have been ages ago, for all her sense of time. Anyway, that night, she'd been carried off into the jungle by that strange man. And then they'd been brought somewhere, hooded, where her captors had had a conversation. After that, she had no memory. She must have lost consciousness.

When she felt steadied enough to look around, Natanah lifted her head away from her hands to take in her surroundings. She was surrounded, for the most part, but jungle. That was where the bird noises were coming from, obviously, and by now it was a familiar site. But there was something else. Off to her left, there was some sort of building. It looked like some sort of military facility or something, outfitted with slightly rusting metal. A curious symbol was printed on one of its walls, a sort of octagon with a shape in the middle which she couldn't quite make out. And then Tana realized that there were lines in front of her vision, seperating her from that facility. The lines were actually bars. She was, quite literally, in a cage.

The girl got shakily to her feet, still feeling slightly dizzy. She reached out and held onto one of the bars to steady herself, and the metal felt cool in her warm palm. It was only then that she realize there was a bandage of the inside of her arm. She tore it off with a wince, and inspected the area. It looked as though perhaps someone had used a needle on her. And then she understood; she'd been drugged. "Hey," she croaked weakly, her throat dry and weak, "Is anyone out there?"

[Richard Alpert]

Ever since the first night of the kidnappings, Richard has been busy. They were having some difficulty with some of the people they had kidnapped; some of them hadn't been drugged enough and since they haven't been in contact with anyone else or would know what was going on, they may be confused or even violent. Some, but not all, were temporarily in the cages on the Hydra island. Ever since the night of their return, Mikhail and the others have been working hard to get all of the information they can about each of the kidnapped people.

Richard had made the trip over to the Hydra island to help get some things sorted out. Some of the others were confused on the orders they were given about what was happening with the people they had kidnapped and they weren't all sure on where they were supposed to be kept. They didn't want them all together, so one or two of them were in the cages and the rest, Richard assumed, were held in either the underwater section or the Hydra facility. He didn't know for sure-some other things had come up that he had to take care of all morning so he hasn't had a chance to talk to Ben or Tom.

Over the past few days there has been more activity on the Hydra island. They were starting to plan out the runway project, which Richard wasn't sure if it would get started right away or if they were just planning out the location. When Richard finally reached the island, he headed for that area first. Richard had forgotten his walkie on this island the day before, so picking it up was another thing he would have to do that morning. After locating and picking up his walkie, he heard someone calling out. The voice was quite unfamiliar, though sounded quite weak. He hesitantly headed towards it; none of the tail section survivors should be waking up by now unless they haven't been drugged again.

[Natanah Laurel]

As Natanah began to become a little more conscious, she attempted to take in some of her surroundings. She seemed to be in an old cage of some sort, though it was fairly spacious. As her vision straightened, she could see that there was another one directly across from it, though this second cage held some sort of metal casing in the back of it and few odd contraptions within it. Her brow furrowed slightly in wonder. There was someone else in that other cage, she noticed, but they were slumped on the ground, apparently still unconscious. "Hey, you awake over there?" She spoke loudly enough so that she thought her voice would carry that far but not really in a shouting voice. It still sounded weak from her parched throat.

A moment later, however, something else entirely filled her vision. It was a person, a man, coming closer and closer to where she stood leaning against the bars at the front of her cage. He was fairly tall, with dark eyes and hair, and he certainly appeared as though he belonged here much more than she did. He obviously wasn't a prisoner like she was, so perhaps he was one of the ones who had done the kidnapping... whoever those people even were. She was starting to think that they weren't on the plane, but that didn't make sense either. This place appeared to be uninhabited, but then again... she was standing in a metal cage. And that didn't just spring up of its own accord.

There was something about the man that seemed vaguely familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. "Who are you?" She asked, trying to remain calm, trying to keep herself from throwing a million questions at him at once and demanding that he release her from her confines at once. She was in no position to be giving orders at the moment, and she knew it, so it was useless to try. "Why did you bring me here? Why did you kidnap us?" She figured this was the most important question to ask, really. She just wanted to know what the heck was going on, why she'd been dragged into the jungle in the middle of the night and why she was now locked in a cage. She figured everything else would come after that. It was taking all of her discipline just to stay calm.

[Richard Alpert]

Before approaching the cages, Richard held up his walkie. "Tom, it looks like Laurel is waking up. We may need to drug her again," he spoke quietly. They couldn't afford to have the survivors attempting to escape or learning too much before they were brainwashed, as he assumed that's what Ben wanted to do with them. Until they had the meeting and decided what was going to happen with the survivors, they weren't doing anything with them. That may have changed; Richard would have to check with Tom and see if Ben's orders have changed. By the looks of it, Laurel already spotted Richard and was already trying to question him on where she was. Although Richard wasn't about to give her any real answers on why they had taken them, he knew that if they were going to drug them again and brainwash them, it would be unlikely if they remembered anything he says to them right now.

"To give you a better life," Richard responded with a slight smile. He knew his answer was vague and would make no sense to Laurel, but she would eventually understand. He wasn't exactly going to explain that it as because she had been on the list and there were other reasons why they had taken them. Richard doubted they would remain in these cages for long. He glanced over his shoulder to the other cage, although the young man inside wasn't stirring. It looked like Laurel was the only one who has recovered from the drugs early.

[Natanah Laurel]

"A better life?" She repeated quietly, trying to make sense of this cryptic answer. What she found most puzzling was the man's expression as he responded. It looked to her like he was... like he was smirking at her! It wasn't her fault she'd been drugged and disoriented and locked in this cage. It was rather insulting for him to give her these nonsensical answers to her questions, as if he was trying to pacify a child. She wanted some real answers, dammit, and she wanted to be treated like a comphrehending adult, not like a bothersome child. The likelihood of that actually happening was pretty slim, she knew, but it didn't stop her from being frustrated by this whole situation.

"What sort of answer is that?" she protested, staring at him through the bars of her cage. She felt trapped, like some sort of animal, held back by these metal bars. It was not really a feeling she liked. She'd never been in this sort of situation before, where had absolutely no control over her own life and what she did. Well, certainly in the army she hadn't exactly been able to make her own schedule, but she was still able to choose where she was and what she did within a certain framework. Here, there was no choice. She was stuck in this confined area with no means of helping herself and no way to get any information except to question this guy, and she didn't think he was going to be very talkative.

Tana decided that perhaps going for a different tactic would help, so she shifted gears. "What's your name?" She asked softly, forcing a small smile onto her lips and doing her best to look like this was honest small talk, is if she'd bumped into this man in the grocery store, or some other normal means of meeting.

[Richard Alpert]

Richard remained silent as Natanah attempted to question him. She appeared to be still confused and disoriented but that was expected having just been drugged and woken up in a cage. He was about to speak when Natanah seemed to change direction and asked what his name was. He paused briefly before replying. There wasn't any harm in her knowing his name.

"My name is Richard," Richard responded, glancing over to the other cage where the young man wasn't stirring. He had probably been given a stronger dosage. He slipped his walkie back on his belt hearing no further response from Tom on it. He could hear some voices further along through the trees though he assumed that Tom was coming, or someone else.

Richard had looked over some of the information on Natanah. He knew that she was nineteen, making her one of the younger survivors from the Oceanic 815. He had read about her car accident that had caused her to total her car and end her up in the military. He wasn't able to look into further details apart from her parents and relatives and some other bits of information as more information was being collected. Over the next few days a more detailed file of her life would be made up, already in the process along with the rest of the survivors.

Richard was a bit hesitant on speaking to Natanah-he doubted Ben wanted anyone to have any contact with the survivors until they were 'ready'. However, they weren't counting on some of the survivors on waking up early, although it was expected. Things have been hectic over the last few days after the crash and things weren't going quite as smoothly as they were hoping.