Seymour - "Quarantine" pt1

Who: Seymour Niples
Where: Quarantine Truck
When: After he was captured
Seymour was pushed into the truck before he even had chance to realise
what was going on. The moving vehicle was full of Shellites who were
deformed in various ways. At first he didn't know why he was here, but
it didn't take Seymour long to look down at costume, made from pieces
of metal, plastic and some old anoraks he'd found in the back of a
Blue Midget.
A nearby Shellite coughed on him, and Seymour cringed. He took a step
away in disgust, and ended up almost sitting on the lap of one who was
sat against the side of the container they were in. The man pushed him
away and Seymour gladly moved. There were so many of the aliens in
this small space that he worried that they might see through his
poorly-made disguise. Luckily, he fitted in here.
After a 15 minute ride, the truck stopped swaying and the back door
was opened. Light flooded into the area, and they were all pulled out.
There were about 30 in the truck including Seymour, and they were all
herded out like cattle. The guards even had cattle-prods which they
jabbed Seymour with. It caught his arm and he yelped in pain.
They were pushed through a large metal gate and into an area that
looked like it used to be a nice little suburb. A suburb that had seen
better days though, as the streets and driveways were covered with
groups of people huddled together for warmth. It was just starting to
get dark now, and so some of them had lit their own fires and were
cooking things to eat.
Seymour was pushed away from the gate and it closed with a solid
clang. A few people ran back to it screaming, and tried to climb the
metal rungs to get back over the top. They were prodded with the
electric cattle-prods and beat with sticks until hey fell down again
and accepted there was no escape.
Seymour looked around, there were only a few houses here, and
definitely not enough for the amount of people who lived here. The
four sides of the compound were tall fences with electric wiring on
top. As he watched, the turtle who he'd almost sat on on the truck ran
over to the far fence and climbed to the top – where the electric
wiring fried him until steam came from his head. The creature let go
and plopped back to the ground, his head and arms disappearing inside
it's shell.
There was definitely no way out of here.
Seymour walked to the nearest fence and tried to get the attention of
the guard on the other side. He made sure he stood a step back from
them, as he didn't want to be shocked with the cattle-prod again.
"Excuse me? I say, excuse me! I think there's been some kind of a
mistake." he said.
"Oh yeah?" said the guard in a gruff voice, whilst extending his
electric prod.
"Yes. This appears to be some sort of leper colony. Very primitive. I
can't say I belong here."
The guard laughed, and hit his workmate on the shoulder, who also
laughed. "Yeah? You had a look in the mirror lately mate?"
Seymour looked down at his badly made costume again. He desperately
wanted to take it off and show them that he wasn't actually on of
them, but he knew they treated other species even worse than this. For
now he was at least alive. "Look, I know my appearance is pretty bad.
But I can assure you I don't have a disease."
The guards laughed again. Then one took a few steps closer to him.
"Tell you what mate, talk to me again in two months and if you've not
died by then I'll let you out."
The guards erupted into laughter again, and hit the fence, making
Seymour take a step away. "The insolence!" Seymour exclaimed, and was
about to shout some abuse when a hand grabbed his arm.
Seymour's instinct was to pull himself away instantly, as he rarely
liked to be touched by the commoners on the Blue Dwarf, let alone some
colony for diseased aliens.
"Please, I'm not going to hurt you." Said a friendly voice.
Seymour turned to see a round face with soft features and round eyes.
It was definitely Shellite in features, but it was the friendliest
face he'd seen on the entire planet. It was a woman.
"The guards are just teasing you." She said in a soft voice that
sounded like doves cooing, it made Seymour pay attention as he had to
really listen to every word over the noise of the camp. "The disease
we all have will kill you in only one month's time, so that's why it's
so funny to them to make you ask them again after two months."
"But I don't have the disease!" Seymour insisted.
The woman nodded slowly. "We all have the disease. And those who don't
are unlucky enough to catch it here, and die anyway."
Seymour tensed his shoulders. "Then don't touch me!" he ran from her,
bumping into another turtle who was carrying firewood. The logs
clattered to the ground.
"Now look what you made me do!" he shouted angrily, and picked Seymour
up by the shoulders, pushing him against the fence.
"I'm sorry!" Seymour whimpered. "Please, put me down!"
The guards outside the fence noticed what was going on and poked their
cattle-prods through the wire mesh, prodding Seymour in the back.
"Ow. Hey! Ow. Don't prod me. I can't move! Ow!" he yelped as he
struggled against the Shellite's grip.
The angry Shellite pulled him away from the fence and threw him to the
ground. He was about to kick him when two males stood in his way.
Seymour was helped up by the woman who had spoken to him moments
earlier. "Please. Don't try and cause trouble here. These people are
dying too, and some of them would rather die fighting than wait until
the disease makes them weaker."
Seymour brushed himself down, watching as the angry man walked off,
and the two men moved to stand at either side of the woman.
"I'm Sandramon." Said the woman, then she pointed to her attaches.
"This is Frankmon and Bobmon."
Seymour shook their hands. "Awfully grateful chaps." He said. "But I'm
afraid I'll not be staying very long, I'm actually pretty sure I'll be
rescued any moment."
The three Shellites looked at each other in confusion, then the woman
took a step forward and put a hand on his shoulder. "It looks like
he's further along than we thought. Delusion is one of the final
stages before death."
Seymour hung his head and rubbed his eyes.
Just then, a tinny version of the tune 'God save the Queen' broke the
silence.
"See?" Said Seymour, beaming with delight. "That's my people right now."
He answered his phone.
"Hello Mr Harris? No I'm not alright, I've been brought to some god
awful concentration camp for people with a fatal disease. I know the
chance of me catching an alien disease is pretty slim, but these
people keep touching me and I'm getting worried. No, no, I didn't see
where I went, I was in the back of a lorry. Oh I'm terribly sorry but
I didn't have any breadcrumbs to throw out of the back. What do you
mean why didn't I call you? I was waiting for you to call me, do you
know how much these galactic calls cost? Okay yes, okay, goodbye."
Seymour hung up and looked dejectedly at his phone. He then looked
back at Sandramon. "You don't happen to know the exact GPS coordinates
of where we are do you?"
She looked at her friends Bobmon and Frankmon, and they all shook
their heads.
"Fiddlesticks." Said Seymour.
< Come save me guys! >