Golden Dawn

|Chapter 12 ~ Companions|

After a long look around the lounge, I walked to the door that lead into my supposed  lodgings. It immediately swung open to reveal a small corridor. Sudden anxiety clouded my mind, but I ignored it and stepped into the corridor anyway.

The whole room was see-through and crystal windows lined the far wall, abnormally clean and beautiful. To my right, I spotted a door leading revealing yet another area - a bedroom - I later realized. Next to it was a tiny bathroom with cream coloured walls and an oil painting of a grass field that hung from one of the bright palisades. Golden lights shone down from the ceiling and illuminated the room in a warm, orange glow. I never felt so confused in my life before.

For the past eighteen years I had lived on my own, building shelters out of rubble and rotted rubbish that left me gagging for days. I got scorched by the flaming sun so badly I wasn't able to touch my skin because of all the blisters that covered it and every hellish evening, I dreamed of one day finding someplace worth living in. 

This  was however, not quiet what I had in mind. It felt unnatural in the too clean and alien room. I  felt abnormal.

I shook my head to quickly get rid of the strange feeling that swirled inside my stomach and ran my hand over the soft linen draped across the bed that mainly occupied the sleeping chambers. I inspected the little object next to it, perched on some sort of nightstand. It was some kind of clock, but without numbers and instead, replaced with strange symbols. I gave up on figuring out each symbol and walked back to the living room that connected all the other various rooms into one big, open space. A long light blue sofa was situated right in front of the windows, almost as if it monitored the happenings outside. I collapsed on top of it, the tiredness of the day suddenly seeping into my bones. For a while, I stared at the Aliums building into the cavern walls with the help of old pickaxes and other instruments I couldn't identify. I observed the busy people that lived their lives like they would on earth. As if it was all normal.

Am I ever going to get use to all this like they did?

* * *

I remembered my way down to the dining hall well. It was after all the first scene of the underground city I saw when I had first arrived. When the view of dining tables and chairs packed with people finally entered my vision again, I immediately knew I was in the right place. The buzzing of talking Aliums hit me like a storm, the many sounds clouding my thoughts in a buzzing haze. Some Aliums were standing in groups busy with discussions of daily topics. Some, sat at tables with plates of food in front of them while a good distance away, a young man was busy filling wooden cups with a bronze coloured liquid. Real food and drinks. Not plastic produced nonsense that tasted like nothing.

My stomach growled involuntary as I walked over to where the most people were congregated. When I neared, I spotted tables full of delicious looking food on the left side of the hall and felt slightly dizzy with excitement. As I scanned the tables in absolute euphoria, I spotted the familiar brown cropped hair of Christa amidst the crowd and felt relieved when I saw her bright face amongst the many unfamiliar silhouettes. She recognized me at the same time I did and waved me over. She stood in front one of the many food tables with a group of people that looked severely years older. Christa placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder when I reached her and pointed at the people that now looked at me in curiosity.

"Artemisia! So glad you could make it. These are my friends. We met almost two years ago when we shared the same table for dinner one evening." She introduced the group of strangers and then motioned towards a large guy that towered over all five of us. The man's short brown hair was neatly cut and a silver dog tag hung around his muscled neck. He wore a white shirt that seemed too small for his large chest and black army pants accompanied with black boots.