The Shack

After a lifetime’s worth of crawling, Aurora finally found herself in front of the dark, fireproof door of the suit shack. She was extremely hot and had no clue how she was going to make it inside. It’s not like she hasn’t done something like this before. She’s crawled into places she shouldn’t have countless of times before just to get some extra food or water for her sisters. She’s no stranger to this. But that doesn’t make it okay.

After what seemed like an eternity, Aurora finally found the gap under the door that Jerome told her about. Honestly, the Serpent expected them to behave and act like they were innocent when he can’t even be bothered to provide proper security. Everything about him was fake as hell. His smile, his fangs, his voice, his everything. It was all an act. Everyone knew he just wanted to conquer the goddamn world and take over, making everyone his loyal subjects. After all, that’s all everyone was to him; things. Toys to play with until he got bored and found something more fun to do. Aurora couldn’t wait for that.

She slowly dragged her heavy body under the tight gap, gasping when the hot rock touched her visible skin. There really wasn’t much that she was revealing, but it was still enough to be burning her skin painfully. She should have thought it through before running half-cocked across the Flame room like a headless chicken. What did it change? Aurora knew this was a decision she was going to regret for the rest of her life. Or maybe not, who knows? Anyway, it barely took her a few seconds and she was in the cooler room.

The shelves were stacked with hundreds of suits. According to the Serpent, it was one size fits all. Aurora didn’t know how that worked. All she knew was that she had to grab two and get out of here before she turned into cooked bacon. So, she quickly grabbed one off of the suits and staggered to her feet, trying not to pass out in the process. Yes, she should have gone to Jerome first, but she figured she would be faster is she just got hers on first. She was right. It took more than a few minutes, but she struggled into it fast enough. The fresh, cooling breeze was hitting her body like a tsunami. A long sigh of relief left her lips, taking long enough for her to realise that Jerome was probably baking. She got another suit and sprinted back over to the door.

Once again, Aurora found herself wiggling under and out into the scorching hot cave- well, whatever you want to call it, really. She righted herself instantly, practically teleporting bac, towards Jerome’s body on the floor. He was still conscious. And that’s when the thought struck Aurora: she forgot the water!

‘’Here.’’ Aurora mumbled, quickly crouching down as Jerome tried to sit up. The sweat continued to run down his body, only getting more prominent when they got his destroyed suit off. It still took him a minute to recover when he got the new one on. Thankfully, everything seemed to be out of the danger zone…for now. ‘’Uhm…I kind of forgot the water, by the way. I’m really sorry, I was dizzy and panicked.’’

‘’No, it’s alright. We can stop by the water trough. It’s a bit risky, but it’s not like the Leaders as smarter than us.’’ Jerome said calmly. Nodding, Aurora got up and brushed herself off. They headed back the way they came. They both knew they were going to get out of this…they just didn’t know how. Maybe this is what the Serpent wanted all along; for someone to finally snap and break the rules, hurting their loved ones in the process. The Serpent liked to play games…maybe this was just another one of them.