Fallen

Chapter Eleven

"There are twelve floors," Demetri explained. "The residential at the top, business at the bottom. We have our own currency, two restaurants and one shop that is half coffee house and pub, and a school."

The size of the place alone impressed me, but they had a school, own currency, and shops. They had a whole miniature world underneath the dirt. Why they would leave Compound at all confused me, or why they would attack York. The people down here were rebels, it made little sense to why they would attack us when they had all of this.

Demetri waved us over to the staircase that curved with the bowl-shaped wall down to the bottom. There were no railings built for safety and the hairs on the back of my neck spiked up at my irrational fear of heights.

"There's an elevator," Demetri said, "but no one uses it, or well more like no one trusts it. It's been sketchy since we moved in." He turned on to the stairs.

"You didn't build this place?" Audrey asked behind him.

Demetri turned to her, he continued to walk down the stairs, not fearing that he may slip and fall to his death. "No." His eyes brows rose and his face distorted to a 'you should already know that' sass look. "People built this place before us, we just invaded it. We had to rebuild a few things, but mostly it was all here when we arrived about sixty years ago." His attention returned to the stairs and he skipped down a few at a time.

"Okay," Audrey lowered her voice to us, "he's kind of a jerk."

"And you are just figuring this out now?" Alec shot from behind me.

Audrey halted before me abruptly and my body slammed into hers almost resulting in us to fall down the entire twelve flights of stairs. "Go," I snapped, pushing her forward carefully, "Talk at bottom."

Whatever rebuttal she had for Alec, she closed her mouth and followed Demetri. More Demetri talked, the more I got the sneaking suspicion he was an asshole underneath his charm. Just the way he spoke and acted toward Alec earlier gave me the first notion.

The willow tree was massive the closer we got. How a magnificent tree grew underground, I had no idea. The tree protected the garden underneath like a leafy green waterfall, the white floors of the Compound circled the garden and stone paths cut into the garden between the explosion of colorful flowers. The reds, purples, oranges, pinks, and yellows appeared to be extraordinarily vibrant verses the flowers above the surface. In no way I had a green thumb, the dead garden Dad and I tried to raise back at home was a testimony, but I could spot roses, marigolds, and petunias in the labyrinth of other flowers I did not know.

"You found them," a voice tore my eyes away from the garden to one hallway. Thomas walked through the open glass door. The bridge of his nose, the corners of his eyes, and his jawline were still purple from the punches he took in the warehouse, but his smile was genuine as he walked up to us. Without blood coating his face and matted hair, his features were much like Demetri's, even their height was the same when Demetri walked to him. The difference between the two men was Thomas' brown hair was sported like Demetri's blond. Thomas' long bangs barely reached his left ear, the look must be a trend with the rebels.

"I hope my brother was not too rude. I am Tom." Well, that explained their similar appearance. Tom shook our hands, asking for each of our names. "I am glad you made the trek over, I was worried you wouldn't be curious about us and would not come and visit."

"Why have you been expecting us?" I asked.

"I knew you were from York," Tom said, "Or guessed that you were. Roger and I both never seen you before and people of the Outskirts do not meddle in things." The way he said it, in the matter-of-fact tone was just like his brother, but unlike his brother, he left out the sass.