The Hider

Chapter Thirteen

As we flew across the desert, I let out a deep sigh of relief. We were finally somewhat safe. Safe from the desert and all of it's troubles at least. I don't know about the village we're going to though. They could be working with the City for all we know, but I don't care. I just want to go to sleep in a warm bed, which they hopefully have there. Just sitting here in the copter was nicer than sitting on the sand. As I looked out the window, Lizre scooted close to me.

"Do you think we can trust them?" She whispered in my ear. I turned to look at her, and she had worry written across her face. 

"Obviously. If Gretchen and Steph think so, then I think we can too," I told her. She then nodded her head and crawled away. Was she right? As we started to slow down. I looked out the window again and saw a place thriving with light, which hasn't been around for the rest of our journey. 

Once my eyes  got use to the lights, I could see a village that looked exactly like the City, but with no walls or no guards pacing around the streets. I could also see some of the houses made of metal, but most of them made of stone and sand. The helicopter started to go down, landing near the biggest metal building. Once it hit the ground, one of the men from the front got out and opened the doors. He then signaled for us to follow him.

I stood up and got out of the copter, following the man inside. Once us two got in, we waited by the doors for everybody else to get in. 

Once we were all in and the doors were closed, the guy ushered us to follow him again. As we started to walk, we then started to take in everything that we saw. On the sides of us were different kind of shops you would see on the streets in the City. There was a clothes shop to the right and a salon to the left of us. The doors were glass and they had windows, so I could see people getting their hair redone. 

The building had to be miles high, because when we looked up, we could see chandeliers hanging, some of them over others.  The ones on the bottom layer were white while the ones above them were pastel colored. It made a beautiful color honestly.

Suddenly, the guard made us stop, so we did. In front of us was a fountain, spraying out a gorgeous shade of red. At first, it seemed a little darker than the normal red, but then the lights started to shine more, and it became a rose red, which was beautiful.

"The fountain of everlasting," A man walking up to us said. He was about 40 years old, and wearing a robe that had the same color as the fountain. It looked like it was made of silk, but I couldn't tell until he got really close.

"My name is Sebiano, but you can call me Seb," the man - Seb - told us.

"So, you're the leader here?" Lizre asked him. I turned my head to look at her and then saw Steph hit her. As I turned around, I saw Seb laughing.

"You truly are funny. But to answer your question, no. The village of Tehised doesn't believe in the rule of one person, but we also don't believe in the fate of anarchy. We believe that we need to be our own people. I'm just here to make sure there is no uprising or anything," he explained to us. I heard Lizre take a breath to start talking again, but then Sebiano clapped his hands.

All of a sudden, the tiny platform we were on started to rise. We all got spooked, but then Seb started to laugh again. 

"Do not worry, the platforms are an easy way to travel around the Commune," he told us.

"The what?" Trech asked.

"The Commune is a communal space where this entire village thrives. There are 6 different floors. The first is Leisure Lane, the second in Restaurant Road, the third is Job Joint, the fourth is Homes for the Alone, five is Weapon Wing and the final is for the Boss, which is me," Seb told us all.