Chapter 5.1

"Don't shoot. My name is Ezra Anderson, do you know my dad, Sean Anderson?" I held up my hands in surrender, to signal we weren't any threat. My heartbeat throbbed in my head.

"Stay where you are. Do not move." The gun said from the darkness. I felt myself relax a little when I heard his accent- not Garlantian. I hear him talk on the radio, and the radio crackle in response using a sort of code. Then the gun disappears, and the voice adds "climb down, but don't try anything. I'll shoot." He sounded like someone who didn't expect to encounter anyone. I looked down and saw the beginning of an old ladder protruding into the darkness. It couldn't have been much more than six feet, I slowly knelt and twisted to ascend the ladder, partially due to the gun pointed at us, but also because I couldn't have moved much quicker anyway. My fingers shook as I gripped the rings. The ladder was rusted and rough, it dug into my hands as I desperately tried to balance. With the light from above, my eyes were yet to adjust, and I couldn't see a thing. My feet felt blindly in the darkness to find the next ring. I was grateful to quickly meet solid ground again, but my knees almost buckled underneath me, and his gun suddenly shifted to my head at the sudden movement.

I raise my hands up in surrender, which he ignored and barked at the other two to hurry. It took a few seconds for our eyes to adjust to the darkness, in that time, there was the sounds of rapid footsteps echoing down a tunnel.

"Who are you and how did you know about this place? It's not a location civilians' simply stumble across." A female voice bellowed in the darkness.

"My name is-" I begun again.

"I know who you are. One of Sean's kids. He thought the sun shone out of your arse. So how did you get here?" she hissed.

"It's a bit of a long story." Theo started.

"Well then, give me the short version." She demanded. The darkness was disorientating, I couldn't see the floor, so it felt like it was spinning, and my stomach knotted. I lent on the wall to steady myself. "What's wrong with him?" She asked bluntly.

"He's sick, we came here for help. We think it's some sort of virus that they put in the bracelets they made us wear." Theo quickly explained.

She sighed, "ok, you better all come in then." She reluctantly beaconed us in. I felt Theo reach for me, and I was thankful to lean on her as we followed behind at a rapid pace. The corridor was shorter than I thought; when it ended, there were passport controlled double doors that opened into a dimly lit maintained tunnel, that twisted and turned in multiple directions. Soon, I wasn't sure which way we'd even come from, "My name is Raven Harris." She exclaimed without turning around to introduce herself. "Everything has been quite crazy these past two weeks, we've been on edge more than usual. So you have to imagine we were quite surprised when someone came knocking on our back door." She explained, although her words could be considered a type of apology, her voice was cold and clinical. We stopped suddenly, and when we hear a series of tones like someone pressing a keypad, I realised we'd reached another password protected door. The wall draws apart, leaking bright light into the corridor that blinded us. Even though it must have shocked 'Raven Harris' as well, her expression is one made of stone, without a second faltering she strides toward into the light. I screw my eyes shut against the light, and Theo slowly edges forward after, dragging me with her. The light is warm, like sunlight, and I slowly ease my eyelids open just as I hear Theo gasp and stop midstride.

I was sure we were still under ground, but the scene that welcomed us could have fooled anyone. We stood on a thin strip corridor overlooking a large expanse of living and working space below. Natural light flowed in from above, but the ceiling was so high I couldn't understand where it was coming from and how it stayed hidden in the abandoned village. At the centre there was what looked like dozens of hanging shards of glass of varying sizes, starting from about eight inches to the height of a person. When I looked up, I couldn't see where they were fixed, but assumed the ceiling was there somewhere. It may have been decorative, or it may have served to reflect the light into the offices below; either way it was impressive.

Everything was white or glass and strangely clean looking. It looked like the cleanest shopping mall I'd ever seen combined with a large science lab. Instead of shop cubicles, there were offices and laboratories. There were dozens of people- some in military uniforms, other in lab coats, rushing about in a frenzy. There were also several people in ordinary clothes sat on the floor which seemed a bit out of place to me, but I was too exhausted to care too much.

At the time I didn't have the energy to feel amazed, but Theo gaped and stopped mid stride.

"Little miss I think you friend could benefit from a doctor." One of the guards prompted her to follow Raven Harris.

Although ordinarily she would have resented being called little miss, she startled when he spoke.

"What is that? I've never seen one of them before." Tommy tugged at Theo sleeve and forced her to look at something on the floor below. We didn't get to see what had caught his attention because at the sound of his voice, our entourage abruptly stopped, and a wave of hostility washed through the group. As someone who barely given thought to give us a second look since picking us up, she suddenly turned and studied us critically. Two of the soldiers that came with her had their hands resting on the guns in their holsters, ready to draw.

"Where did you pick up the Garlantian kid from?" she hissed.

Tommy's grip on Theo tightened, he coward at her tone, hiding behind Theo as much as he could without breaking his view.

"His name is Tommy, and he's not a Garlantian kid." Theo spat back, openly offended at her tone.

"Girl don't take an offended tone with me. It's the security of this country we're talking about."

"Yeah and you're doing an amazing job at that." Theo shot back sarcastically without a second thought. Raven Glared at her enough to make her flinch. The atmosphere got even heavier and there was several seconds where nobody dared even breathe. I could feel Theo begin to shiver under her gaze, but she doesn't look away.

Then, with a cool and uncaring gaze she ordered, "take the kid to Raymond." The next moment, the two men behind us reached forward and ripped him from his grip on Theo. He resisted and there was a struggle where Theo tried to keep hold, if it weren't for the fact she was holding me upright, she might have succeeded.

As he was pulled away, his expression looked like he might cry, but he held back.

"Where are you taking him!" Theo yelled.

"Don't worry. He'll be fine." She says but her cool tone wasn't at all reassuring.

"We wont let them hurt you!" Theo called as he was pulled away and marched off in the opposite direction. Rex began barking and yapping at the men's heels but of course no one could see other than Tommy and I, and his attempts to save his master fell flat.

There was no way we could influence what happened to him now. I felt guilty. I should have known that they wouldn't take kindly to us turning up with a Garlantian kid. But what could we have done otherwise? Abandon him? "Please don't hurt him." I pleaded, "he won't do any harm."

"I think you should worry about yourself first. This way." She ordered coldly. I wanted to believe that they were less brutal than Garlantian soldiers, but I wasn't sure. Theo hesitated, watching nervously as he disappeared from view. Then relented and followed after her.