What Dreams May Come

Chapter 16: wakey wakey

"Levi."

Levi rolled over in the bed as Dylan shook his arm. He sat up, blinking with confusion at the girl who was staring at him.

"Que?" he mumbled.

"Get up," she told him. "Where are your shoes?"

"Yo no sé."

Levi made to lie back down but Dylan insistently grabbed his arm and tugged him to the floor, looking under the bed to find his shoes. These she handed him and then pulled him to the living room.

"Que hora es?"

"Levi, I don't know any Spanish or French or Latin or whatever else you happen to be speaking."

He groaned and sat down on the couch. His brain wasn't fully awake yet; he felt hungover and wasn't certain why. Yesterday came back to him in glimpses, and by the time he had tied his shoes, Levi had remembered their fight and the awful things he had said to Dylan. He wanted to feel angry towards her, but all he felt was shame. Guilt that he had snapped at the one person he needed to trust the most. Dylan wasn't paying him any mind, but had slipped a pack over one shoulder and was adjusting it.

"Dylan," he managed. "About yesterday..."

Someone rapped on the door and Dylan opened it. A man entered, grinning at Dylan before giving Levi a nod.

"Someone isn't a morning person," he noted. "Come on, you two. Mischief waits for no man. Or woman."

Dylan reached for Levi's hand and she dragged him from the couch and down the hall, following the other man. Lully, Levi's tired brain supplied: the man from the printers that Dylan had smiled at.

"Where are we going?" Levi asked.

"It's a surprise," Dylan told him. "You'll know when we get there."

Levi wanted to protest, but couldn't work up the effort. He didn't know why he was so tired; he had slept for quite a while. Levi knew that he probably should have been sleeping more, but he had been so hellbent on getting Dylan to accept him that he had ignored his exhaustion. Now, his body was having its revenge.

"Alcott wanted to come, you know," Lully remarked. "I told her that this was bound to get us in trouble and she was all for it. Plus, she's just as sick of being stuck inside as I am."

"No one gets as rotated as you do," Dylan laughed. "And anyway, the more of us there are, the more likely we'll be caught. I didn't think you were coming either."

"That's absurd," Lully scoffed. "I'm taking any chance to get out of this building. They've already put me on probation, what else can they do to me?"

"Give you more community service hours," she answered. "You already have more than anyone else on the base. Probably combined."

"I'm a community conscious individual," he replied with a sniff.

Levi didn't have anything to add to the conversation. He watched the windows they passed to get his bearings, but the other two wove around the base expertly and Levi could barely identify which branch they were passing. Agriculture was easy to identify, but the others were odd and the equipment unfamiliar.

"Morning!" called a chipper voice, joining them at the next turn.

"Alcott," Dylan complained and then immediately turned to Lully. "You said that she wasn't coming."

"I never said that," Lully replied. "I said that she wanted to come. When have I ever been able to change Alcott's mind?"

"Hey Levi," Alcott grinned at him and Levi recognized her as the girl who had been with Dylan when they woke him up. "You look better, more rested. How's the planet?"

"Different," he said. "Still haven't really seen it though."

Alcott laughed and grabbed his other arm so that he was held between Dylan and her. Lully led the way and soon they stopped at a large white door. Alcott typed in a code and they passed through.

"And that's why Lully said I could come," Alcott confided to Levi. "Because I know more codes than he does."

"They change them when I learn them," he complained. "And Marcus is a venting tekcom when it comes to codes. He knows the whole base!"

"It's true," Alcott admitted.

She released Levi's arm to open up a locker with a white suit. Levi recognized it as one of the quarantine suits from the Aeneid, and wondered how they had been repurposed. Lully handed him one and Levi mimicked pulling it on over his clothes. He hadn't changed from the day before, he realized. Too late now. Out one of the windows he could see the planet surface for the first time, and realized with delight that they were going outside. He wasn't certain why there was so much secrecy, but perhaps they weren't normally allowed. That didn't make any sense; Dylan had told him about leaving the base on other occasions. He wanted to ask, but decided against it. What ever was happening, Dylan wanted it to be a surprise.

"I thought we could breathe the air," Levi questioned when Dylan handed him a mask.

"We can," she replied. "But not for the kilometer trek we have ahead of us. Being winded out there will kill you; not enough oxygen."

"Especially for you," Lully agreed. "The Aeneid had higher oxygen levels then we do now on the base. Everyone suited up? Are we stealing a hover or walking?"

"We are not stealing a hover," Alcott said. Her voice sounded muffled with the mask on. "That's more than community service; we'll be in real trouble for that."

Dylan nodded and Lully let out a sigh as he pulled his mask over his face. Levi strapped the tank to his pack, noting that it was more difficult to lift than he would have liked to admit. Dylan swung hers on her back with ease, and she was already carrying an extra bag. Levi wished he could offer to help, but getting winded walking out the door wouldn't do him any good.

"Are we ready?" Lully inquired. "Move out, people. Try to stay together."

Dylan touched Levi's shoulder and he followed Lully and Alcott into the world beyond. The sky was still quite dark, and Levi could see the stars when he looked up. It seemed so familiar that he had to blink back tears, but he took a deep breath, trying to clear his mind. Dylan had already seen him cry, and though he didn't know what the others had heard, he wanted to be done with that. He had to move on.

So he kept his eyes on the ground, marveling at how large everything seemed. There were mountains to the left of them; something he had only seen in the films on the Aeneid. There was air whistling around him, and he wondered where it came from. Inside, it came from a machine, but there were no machines out here.

"Is that the earthstorm?" Alcott asked, pointing at the dark clouds to their right.

"Part of it," Dylan answered. "The rest is still behind us; we're in the eye of the storm."

That phrase seemed familiar to Levi for some reason, and he filed it away to look up later.

"And we're certain we won't get stuck out here?" Alcott pressed, sounding worried for the first time.

"Definitely not," Lully replied. "If we don't get back before the storm hits again, it'll rip us apart and we'll all be dead. We won't be stuck out here, that's for certain."

He grinned back at Alcott who punched his shoulder. He rubbed it, but kept smiling.

"Where are we going?" Levi asked, suddenly very concerned about this venture.

Dylan pointed ahead of them, where Levi could barely make out a silvery glint.

"That's the Aeneid," she said with a smile. 

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The ship! Who's excited to see what's inside? Thank you so much for reading!