Dakota’s Background

Dakota was interested in science from a young age. Both her parents pursued STEM careers, her father an electrical engineer who worked on jets and other things he wasn’t allowed to talk about, her mother was a marine biologist convinced that not only was their life unknown to us lurking deep within the Mariana Trench, but that it was intelligent as well. Neither was hardly ever home, neither had seen the interest Dakota had taken in the natural world,  neither attended her graduation but both loved her very very much. She had a brother, who as a child she fought with constantly, but as they got older they grew closer and she knew that he would always have her back, and she his.

Dakota was an avid reader as a child, her favorites being books about people having to survive in harsh wildernesses. She graduated highschool with fairly good grades, did fairly well in college and eventually graduated from the school system and into a career. Her fathers connections and a growing public interest in mycology had landed her a job with a pharmaceutical company. It was all very easy for her, she saw the steps laid out in front of her and she scaled them. It helped that she could afford it. It helped that the company reached out to her, before she had even heard of them. it helped that she took these things at face value and didn’t speculate on the intentions of the company.

Dakota started work with the company but found it dull. The work she did being mostly data crunching, administrative, with the rare occasion of some person reaching out for her insight in the field though she thought the things they asked could have just as easily been answered by google. However, they paid her well and the hours weren’t too taxing. They had promised opportunities for growth and she was patient. They even planned to send her to Hawaii for an all expenses paid conference on the importance of Mycology in her field. When she returned they would have a new office for her and finally she would be working in the lab and doing work that she thought actually mattered.

Dakota didn’t consider the fact that she had neither heard of the people speaking nor the convention she was to attend. She was just happy for the paid vacation on a tropical island on a company jet. She packed her swim suit, a few shirts, her “just in case” book that she packed whenever she flew and a few essentials she wouldn’t have been allowed on a commercial flight. She arranged for her brother to even stay at her apartment to cat sit while she was gone. 

She drove to the private airport and remembered feeling a bit apprehensive while boarding the flight. It was a much smaller plane then she was used to, and once she sat down she noticed she was the only person in the cabin. A flight attendant had taken her to her seat and brought her an initial drink but she left promptly after and Dakota did not see another flight attendant in the cabin, no other passengers even. At first she considered that maybe she was just early, just the first person to board, but before long the pilot could be heard overhead and the doors were closed and while the captain seemed nice enough she too seemed a bit nervous. 

They took off shortly after Dakota got her drink, which was a surprisingly strong cosmopolitan. She tried opening the window shutter next to her seat but quickly gave up, it was locked and she was feeling very sleepy. She let her self drift to sleep, hoping to save her energy for when she landed on the island. The last thing she remembered was someone tightening the straps around her waist and chest, and before she could ask what they were for she was dreaming.

Dakota was awoken by the inability to breath, salty water rushing her lungs, the waves crashing around her, a parachute tangled around her legs. She kicked free from the billowing cloth and rope and swam upwards. The sun was bright above her and before her sandy beaches lined with tall green foliage stretched as far as she could see. She thought she was dreaming, but the lines of the parachute had left welts on her legs, her bag was heavy and wet and when she finally dragged herself to shore and caught her breath she knew the pain and the water she struggled to cough up was all too real. 

She looked around, no plane, no other people, not even a single building. Someone had dropped her here and she had no idea where here even was.