After The Storm:Confidence
Before The Storm
As a young girl Samantha was shy and homely and a little awkward around people. The school bullies took her as a target and the teen years were like hell for Samantha. Secretly she dreamed one day getting her revenge. She did not have many friends, and the ones who she thought were, never felt quite the same way about her. Things changed drastically when she discovered LARPING and the role playing community. She had a real knack for acting and all her insecurities vanished when she was 'in someone else's skin'. Years doing that and all the props and equipment taught her many invaluable skills in life. Being real nerd Samantha was self-taught in technical things, which eventually lead her mother Lucy to suggest she'd get a real degree in IT, which she did
Samantha had worked in the [insert local phone company name here] for six years as an IT-support specialist. She had been happy with her job and really proud of what she did. Being really handy and creative she managed to solve most problems others would deem a lost cause.
The Storm
Samantha was sent to fix a communications network at a local medical research lab when the storm hit. She was never too keen to go there, because they did animal testing and she felt sorry for the poor critters. This time, however the lab was filled with hissing noises and various clicks and rattles.
'Do not worry, Sam' said Greg the lab technician, 'they are all safe and secure inside glass terrariums, they can't poison you' 'You mean they have their venom sacks intact???' Samantha gasped. 'what on earth are you testing?'. Samantha knew quite well Greg could not answer her, all the research in the lab was top secret. It made her feel like a secret agent, coming here through all the security checkups. 'Never mind, where's the culprit this time?'. Greg took her to the cooled cabin at the back of the lab, where the terrariums were. 'Keeping the reptiles calm and the computer array cooled', Sam thought to herself, 'who doesn't like a good win-win?'. And at the exact moment The Storm hit. The electronics burst with sparks, the ceiling lamp exploded, fell down and hit Greg in the head, he crashed on top of a cage full with mice. The animals panicked as the cage was shoved over the edge and they scattered every which way. That is the last thing Samantha remembers.
After the Storm
She woke up to sharp pain, everywhere ached. It was really dark and hard to see. Some of the glass terrariums must have been broken and the floor was a moving mass of glass and hissing snakes, She bled, was she bitten? How venomous these snakes were? She felt fine, little drowsy, but otherwise fine. She felt her way towards the door and found Greg, or what was left of him. Samantha gasped and was glad she could not see. Her imagination was vivid enough. She crawled out of the cooled room to blue emergency light. Some of the ceiling lamps were fallen here too and precious lab equipment broken. The lamps remaining were glowing ominously with blue sparks swimming inside the tubes. 'That´s not normal' she said aloud to herself and then she noticed the entire lab was empty of people. 'nononononononononooo they have evacuated without me!' she yelped and ran to the door to only confirm what she was afraid of: the emergency shut down was at play.
'Calm down sissy' she told herself 'you are a smart girl and you have watched every episode of McGyver, four times no less! You can get yourself out in no time'. She went back to the cooled room to fetch her tool case and opened it under the blue light. 'now that's my girl', she heard her mom say in her head. 'piece of cake'
