Fools of us All - Chapter 30

I stood behind Caz for a long time, yawning and stretching, wishing we had spent more time sleeping. The past few days had been hectic and I was starting to lose energy. It eventually dawned on me that we had been standing in the same spot for a long time. I looked at her and noticed that she was hugging herself, rocking back and forth on her feet. Her shoulders were hunched and seemed to be shaking a bit. I stepped closer and realised that she was crying for some reason. “What’s the matter?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she replied tearily.

I stepped around so that I was facing her. I felt this was important, even though I could not see her face in the dim light. “Nice to know that even in the future women are still the same. Now tell me the truth, what’s wrong?”

“We’re lost,” she said simply, sniffling softly.

“Oh.” I looked around intensely until I remembered that I had never been in this year before and was of little help. “Well, I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we sneak back to the surface and scope things out. It might be nice to see the sun again.” I put a hand on her shoulder. “I think we both need that right now. It’s been a tough few days.”

She nodded, but didn’t reply. Silently, she turned around, heading in the direction we came. I could tell by how she was carrying herself that she was still extremely unhappy.

We headed back up the tunnel until we reached the nearest offshoot. I followed Caz, not saying much, wondering what was really bothering her. Sure we were lost, but that was not overly surprising. Neither of us had been in these tunnels before and there were no landmarks to help us on our way.

I was so lost in my musings that I almost ran into Caz, dancing to the side at the last second. She had stopped at a bend in the tunnel, the first we had come to. She was peering around the corner. I stepped back, hoping that there had been no one around to see me. Caz looked at me and rolled her eyes. “Smooth,” she said.

I stood behind her and looked around the corner myself. The tunnel came to an abrupt end ten feet away, but there was a glowing outline of a door in the wall. We watched and listened for a long time, but heard and saw nothing. Finally I whispered to Caz. “What’s the plan?”

“I…I don’t know.”

“Ah.” I waited for a moment and then came to a decision. Moving quickly, before Caz could stop me, I walked up to the door and flung it open, stepping to the side to avoid the hale of bullets I was sure was coming my way. When nothing happened, I peeked around the corner and had trouble coming up with words to say. A building was perfectly framed in the door, far enough away to be seen completely was one of the most impressive buildings I had ever seen. It stretched into the sky, it’s shape vaguely reminiscent of an ancient ziggurat. The building looked as though it were composed of gold. A huge staircase led up to a massive set of heavy looking doors. The building was surrounded by a ten foot high fence topped with razor wire. Guards patrolled the grounds and stood their post at the doors. A massive statue of a mysterious figure topped the building.

Caz stood beside me, not saying anything.

“Is that where we’re headed?” I asked, my voice quiet with awe.

“Yeah.”

A small grin touched my face. “Cool.”