The handshake went way longer than was socially acceptable, but I didn’t want to be the one to let go, it wasn’t for any weird reason it was just that I once again felt like I was on the losing end of future negotiations if I let go first. It didn’t take long for her to pull back and began gesturing for us to head for the door. I quickly grabbed my notes and a few other items, throwing them in a backpack before flinging it on my back. Then without a word exited my room to see two guards inside next to my front door, it seemed like they were prepared in case our discussions went south.
“Alright, let's get out of here, I assume you have everything you need?” She motioned towards the door, and as she did so the two guards moved to open the door, causing a gust of wind to enter the house. I silently looked around and my eyes came to the kitchen where the Jolly Ranchers lay hidden. Part of me wanted to take them with me but the other part wanted them to stay here until Lucas finally got home.
“I have everything, but I have one requirement for me to go with you, I live with my best friend, and I want him to be allowed to come with us when he finally gets back,” I felt like that was a fair request even if it would remove a lot of my negotiating power down the road. I just couldn’t do that to Lucas. He had been with me for the last ten years; the woman is clearly taken aback by this but doesn’t take too long in her decision.
“Not at this time, if you turn out to be a valuable member of the team later on then maybe, but you truly have to ask yourself if you want him fighting supers or if he's better off the way he is now,” she says finally breaking her silence, it wasn’t the exact answer I was looking for but it was good enough for now, I just nodded and headed for the door, the woman close on my heels as I exited.
The wind had picked up since I had entered my house and the sun had gone down much more than I was expecting, it was just slightly above the tree line at this point. Most forms of telling time had gone to the wayside years ago, watches and other forms of timekeeping were all that was left. I didn’t have any of those, from the look of it it seemed to be around 4:00pm. My attention was quickly diverted from the sun’s position to the woman as she tapped me on the shoulder and began walking in a direction. Only one guard followed behind us, I assumed the other was following further behind, watching from the shadows.
It was sad to finally leave the old place, it was all I had left of my mother and father, but it was time to put these things behind me and finally start moving towards the future. Even if that future was with a sketchy rebel group that I knew little to nothing about. The walk went on for quite a while, the scenery quickly changed from a normal rundown neighborhood to a sketchier part of town that looked like it was most likely considered bad before Atlas took over.
“I guess I forgot to introduce myself earlier, my name is Alice Gradon, care to tell me yours?” She asked, finally breaking the silence as we walked. It wasn’t that I hated the silence, but it was nice to see a more human side of her, and I liked the name Alice. It reminded me of the few memories I had before Atlas took over. Something about those memories seemed to ease my mind when everything was going wrong, and as time went on it felt like I was constantly searching for more ways to remember them.
“My name is Aster, it’s nice to meet you Alice,” I said after taking a second. It wasn’t that I cared about her knowing my last name, but I still wanted a way to feel like I was in control. I knew it didn’t matter in the long run but as long as she didn’t press then I figured it would be fine, besides I was pretty sure they already had my last name, and this was a way to see if they would spill that information or not.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The walk didn’t take much longer, soon enough we came upon what looked like a house completely in ruins. It didn’t give me much hope for what was to come, if this is what they were using as a base then they were in way more trouble than I thought. Still, I followed Alice silently as she began going around to the back of the collapsed house, before long she stopped in front of what looked like the doors to a storm shelter, with a gesture she motioned for me to open them. While skeptical I still didn’t have any reason not to trust her so with a mental sigh, I pulled both doors open revealing a massive drop with only a ladder to guide me.
I hesitated, my mind struggling to process the unsettling scene before me. The sight was so at odds with reality that it took a glance at Alice's face, set in a mask of seriousness, for the truth to sink in. Every fiber of my being screamed at me to turn and run, to flee this place that reeked of danger and deception. Yet, a cold, hard logic insisted that I had no other choice but to descend the ladder. With a deep breath, I ignored my instincts and gripped the rungs, beginning the descent into the unknown. Alice followed close behind, her presence a small comfort in the face of what lay in store.
“So what's your deal? Was it your father the one that started all this?” I asked after a few moments of climbing into the dark, I knew the question wasn’t the greatest but after thinking for the whole trip I hadn’t found a good way to ask it. I figured she would at least appreciate the bluntness of my question or at least that I didn’t try to beat around an imaginary bush, it took a few moments but eventually she responded.
“Well that's one way to phrase that, I was wondering when you would get around to asking it though, guess now isn’t the worst time,” she said as we climbed ever down into the dark, honestly at this point I was concerned for how deep this thing actually was, it wasn’t that I had gone down very far but the pitch blackness of the hole made it hard to gauge a sense of depth, I could only assume that's what they were going for when they designed this.
“My backstory is nothing out of the ordinary, I was just a little girl when Atlas took power, my mother and father were your typical hard-working people who just happened be in site during his first rage, it didn’t take long for my parents to become casualties, it was after that, that I meet the leader. He took me in and raised me into who I am today, without him I would most likely be dead in a ditch somewhere,” she said as we climbed down slowly. Her story probably wasn’t the most unusual in the city we called home, but it still hit home.
“Ya, my story is pretty much the same, my parents managed to stay alive for the first part of the takeover, then one day they said they were going to go look for a way for us to escape this city and maybe even make it to another city, I guess they found a way out because after they left one day I never saw them again,” I knew the story was depressing but considering how she had just shared her whole life story I felt like it was only fair to share mine. It wasn’t long after that I could finally begin making out the shape of the floor, after that it was just a matter of dismounting the ladder without accidentally falling like a dumbass.
After taking way longer than I wanted to dismount the ladder Alice quickly followed making it look like the easiest task known to mankind. With that she didn’t say anything while the two guards did the same and she pointed behind us into what looked like a pitch-black tunnel. With a heavy sigh I began the march, if they hadn’t killed me at this point, I couldn’t think of a reason why they would start now. The walk didn’t take very long. Just a few moments before we came up to a massive looking iron door, Alice quickly took charge and walked over to the side of the door, messing around with what looked like a keypad.
A loud clicking sound, followed by a deep rumbling noise, abruptly interrupted my thoughts. The heavy doors slowly swung inward, releasing a thick cloud of dust that billowed out into the otherwise quiet tunnel. As the doors creaked open, a beam of light spilled into the passage, revealing its surprisingly short length. My eyes gradually adjusted to the brightness, allowing me to finally get a clear look at the hidden rebel headquarters.