CHAPTER TWO

Four hours. We've been walking for four hours now. I can practically feel the sores of my feet touching the ground. Great, now my shoes are ruined. After the ghost town, we passed through an abandoned factory and now, for the past fifteen minutes, a forest. Everywhere. "Sebastian, are we there yet?" I ask. "Do you see any form of civilization?" "I can see a big tree up ahead." I say lightly. "No, I don't think so, it's been a while since I've been to Central." He stops. Oh boy, don't tell me he's an idiot. "It's around here somewhere though," he yawns looking around. Conclusion? He's an idiot. "You are like a child." I say. "Me, a child? I'm way older than you, aren't you like fifteen?" he mocks. I keep quiet as I search my memory. 

"As a matter of fact, I'm seventeen."I reply smugly. "You're still younger than me, I'm eighteen." Whatever. "Anyway the entrance has got to be somewhere around here, I think."

"You think?"

"Yeah, for all I know, this could be the wrong location. As I said, it's been a while." He replies. Unbelievable. "Are you telling me you've had no idea where we're going this entire time?" I ask walking upfront. "Oh. You might wanna- "Heck, for all I know, 'Central' might not be real," I say interrupting him. "Hey, Cora."

"Now what do we do?" I ask stomping my foot. Suddenly, I hear gears shifting below me and look down. My heartbeat accelerates and before I know it, I'm falling into a dark abyss.

Sebastian's POV

  I sigh, admitting my defeat, and hit my forehead with my hand. She really should have let me finish my sentence. I can still hear her screams as her voice gets more distant. I have two options; jump in after her or wait for them to come get me. The latter seems more ideal to me but I can't leave her because of the current situation. After I completed my mission, Alistair told me to check out one of the places where a group of rebels were confirmed to be hiding. But when I got there, all of them were already dead. 

Their bodies made it clear that it wasn't the work of metamorphoses because the cuts were too clean. It must have been people very experienced or maybe even one person. Immediately after that, I met Cora and her story matched the scene I found. It's definitely no coincidence. Is she one of the rebels or is there something more to the story?

"Oh, what the heck?" I say as I jump into the tube. I can't leave her until I figure it out. This better be worth it. The transparent tube swerves to the right and I go deeper underground. This infrastructure would confuse any newcomer, bet she thinks she's gonna die. I don't blame her, you can barely see your own fingers much less your destination. After a few swirls, some twists and turns, I can see the light pass through the exit. I land with a thud in a crouch position. Cora is laying face-down with her black hair all over the place. I stifle a laugh, "Are you okay?"

She groans as she sits up. "Quite visibly actually." She answers sarcastically. "Hey! Sebastian boy, are you okay? That must have been one hell of a ride!" Galand exclaims as he runs towards us. I hate it when he calls me that ridiculous nickname. I shield my eyes from the sunlight. Galand must be on duty since he's wearing his security uniform. "Does everyone here wear black?"

"More or less." 

"Boy, what took you so long? We thought you were dead," Galand yells in my ear after slapping my back, always so dramatic. "Well, I'm here now and I completed my mission." I hand him two purple vials and he places them in his pocket. "I didn't know bringing a girl here was part of it. A Wanderer?" He asks raising his eyebrow. "Oh," I look at her, "Consider her a special case."

"What about Alistair?"

"Meh, I'll deal with it. It's not really his business."

"I see, well you better hurry, boss is waiting for your report," he looks over my shoulder at Cora, "and he'll probably want to know about her." Great, another irritating person to deal with. "So does she have a name?"

"No she doesn't because she isn't capable of answering that herself." Cora snaps. I burst out in laughter as Galand looks taken aback.

Cora POV

Why is he laughing? This is seriously frustrating me. "My name is Cora," I state. "Um…I'm Galand, the security guard on duty, welcome to Central Miss." Sebastian gives Galand a peculiar look but I don't try to decipher the meaning behind it. Galand looks to be in his late twenties and has dark eyes. His hair is the opposite being blonde. I decide to look around, this is Central? It's a big cave opening; technically, it looks like the open space between two mountains but is covered. Rays of sunlight manage to pass through cracks and slightly lightens up the place but I can tell it will soon be dark when the sun sets. There's nothing significant here, I look over at the pair. "This is Central?"

"I know what you must be thinking, think of this as only the entrance. We'll walk up from here." Galand says pointing at the door. He then explains that the only way of getting to Central is by passing underground to confuse the enemies. "You just happened to use the fun way down here."

Fun, he says. "Well let's get going then," I say making my way to the door on the other side of the cave. "Always acting like the leader," I hear Sebastian say as I start the trench up the stairs. I notice the simple yet disturbing illustrations depicted on the walls as I continue climbing. One is of a man-eating monster raging its wrath on a city. Another depicts men and women alike burning in a similar city to the first. The images seem too vivid to me, I can't imagine someone coming up with them for whatever reason. What the hell is this?

"The first Great Incidence." Sebastian says appearing next to me. I didn't even notice that I had stopped. "Great Incidence?"

"It refers to the first time metamorphoses attacked and drove humanity to the brink of extinction a hundred years ago," he finishes. "What exactly is Central?"

"I'll let Galand answer that question." Galand turns to look at me. "It's a long story but I'll try my best to summarize it. Central was established when the world was in chaos, more animals were transforming and people everywhere were being ravaged. The total annihilation of the human race was inevitable. But then something changed, Edmond Wesley came into the picture. He created Central and relieved humanity of the difficult times. We managed to rebuild ourselves and things got better, well at least some things did."

"What do you mean?" I ask. "A lot of changes were brought up. For one thing, people lived in different countries back then but since so many people died, there was no point of being separated. Especially since most lands were abandoned. Camps were formed instead. We have four of them; Camp Rose, Blaze, Greenwood and Carter. All were created with the purpose of accommodating the survivors; each is ruled by a governor but still under Central."

"Uh, I'm not seeing the bad part."

"Hierarchy." He replies. "It's not like that in Central, but only the influential have real power in the camps. We can't manage to check through every single camp and their affairs."

"This has now turned into a lesson about politics." Sebastian sighs, "But I suppose you'll need to know this."

"A lot of people have been put on the streets because of it and it's quite hard to survive out there unless you're a pro." Galand continues. In a situation where the apocalypse basically happened, that would be expected. People are willing to do anything if pushed to the edge and some people saw it as an opportunity to take advantage of the weak. It doesn't take a genius to figure it out, corruption has already taken root in this society. Just like it always does.

"And the people, do they do anything?" I ask. Sebastian and Galand share a look. "There are…those who oppose central," Galand says carefully, "The Rebellion..." The name rings a bell but I can't seem to remember where I heard it from. "Anyway, let's get going, we'll be late." Galand say. As I continue walking up the stairs, I remember the distinct arising hate harboring among the people of this society.