Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 83946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“Right this way,” he says.
He begins walking, and I follow behind him, but my eyes aren’t on his back, and instead on the grounds around me. There is green grass as far as I can see, clearly carefully tended to bushes and flowers, stone monuments spitting out water, and pathways leading toward a structure that looks nothing like what I would call a home. For a second, the movement of clouds overhead draws my gaze upward. The formation of weather is familiar enough to remind me of the skies I should have been flying back into when I would have arrived at Hallalah. But that’s where the similarities end.
Without the scent of the sea, the air is sour here. And my feet on the ground can sense that it’s just now beginning to thrive again. This planet has seen much destruction, the land and air much toxicity. There is a certain … death here, and it makes me anxious to leave this place, this planet. They have not cherished the gift of water and land. You can’t trust people who misuse the very things that sustain them.
As if I needed another reminder not to trust this male before me, it’s that instead of walking towards the huge doors of what I think is the front of his home, he instead veers to the side, peeking over his shoulder to make sure I’m still following him. We continue down the road for another minute before we reach a door so stark that the sun’s rays bouncing off of it makes me squint. The general knocks twice and someone opens it from the inside. The male’s eyes widen, his mouth dropping open as he takes me in.
“Is everything ready?” the general asks.
It takes the male another second to look away from me and back to the general.
“Yes. I’ve set things up in laboratory two.”
“Ah, right near the library.” The general nods and gives me another smile. I wish he would stop doing so. Each time he does, I dislike him more. He wants something from me. That much is clear. I would have some type of respect for him if he’d just say it instead of pretending as if he has any concern for me beyond how I can benefit him.
“That will make things easier to see just how much he understands.”
The general steps through the door and I follow, even though I feel I shouldn’t. What choice do I have now, though? I need only survive here until my people arrive. I have no idea yet what survival means here.
We go down a steep flight of stairs and then I’m led down one hallway after another, craning my neck to the side so as to not hit my head on the ceiling. I look into the rooms we pass as we go, finding each one is pristine. Nothing out of place, white walls, beds that could never comfortably fit me in them. I also notice not a single one has any windows. We must be underground now.
We stop when we reach a large room, with overhead lights that blaze down on me. I guess this is to be where they’ll keep me. The room has two chairs, and a stack of rectangular cards on the table between them. There’s a sink, with a set of … tools, I think, beside them. Some of them resemble tools we use at home, but they would not be things I allow them to use on me. Between this room and the next, although well hidden within the roof of the space between them, are clearly the ends of some type of steel bars. I’m sure that once I’m in the second room, there’s a way for them to come down, caging me inside.
This whole room is a cage, really, just a nicely fashioned one. I have to fight not to tilt my head as ideas of how I could escape when the time comes fill my mind. But for now, I need to take in everything first.
I look beyond the bars and into the next room, finding a bed, which, from what it looks like is two of the beds I saw in the other rooms put together for my form. White sheets that do not look at all comfortable cover it. There’s a desk across from the bed, and a chair pulled up to it. There is also a large steel bowl protruding from the floor, full of water, with a basin on the back end against the wall. Taps of some sort sprout from it.
Surely, that is not what I think it is.
Surely, they do not use water to eliminate into.
What truly interests me, though, is what I see beyond the thick, transparent glass that makes one wall of my room. Rows and rows of books. Different colors and widths, some books open on tables between the tall shelves. The room seems endless with all the books within it from floor to ceiling. I’ve seen these things before on other planets.