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Chapter 5: Empty

We stepped out into an empty room. I looked over my shoulder to confirm that Lily and Andy were still behind me, and I saw the hidden door swing shut behind them. Except for our heavy breathing, the room was silent. The walls were white with nothing on. Not even a mark. I felt like I was in a photo studio. A trickle of apprehension dropped down my back, and I shuddered slightly. There were no doors or furniture. Completely empty except for the three of us and the mud trail we brought in. I had a sudden urge to run out of the door, but there was no point in leaving now, we'd come this far. Despite this thought, I turned again to see where we came in. But I couldn't. All I saw is that blank room, and Lily and Andy behind me. Lily noticed me staring behind us, and turned around.

"Oh crap. I don't like this Alexander..." she moaned, and it began to set off my panic. I turned and sprinted around the room, pushing against every section of each wall.

"There's... got... to... be... a... way... out... somewhere..." I panted, before moving around again. Lily followed suit, checking around for any bumps or inconsistency's in the symmetrical room. After a few minutes of skirting around the room, staring at blank walls, we stopped and face back towards the centre. A change had taken place. Where Andy stood, there now sat a pile of sand.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit" I muttered to myself, rushing over to the mound.

"What happened? We didn't see or hear anything, how could he just... vanish?" Lily asked me.

"If I knew, dya think I would keep it from you? Let's just focus on how to get him back." I told her. "I know it's crude, but perhaps we could find something in... his... y'know... ashes."

"That's messed up. I 'spose we don't have much of a choice." she responds. And so I sifted through the pile of what-was-once-Andy and yet found nothing. I didn't want to say it out loud, but Lily and I were thinking the same thing. She broke the silence.

"He ended up just like the others."

I sat down, and held Lily with my right arm. We stayed like that. For hours. Thinking, theorising, wondering. But we had nothing to go on but the remains of a young boy. We could not tell how time passed in this room, but as we began to feel tired Lily shot up suddenly.

"Maybe we do have something to go off. The entrance to this Safehouse was extremely peculiar. How could they have expected anyone to realise it was there?" she enquired, staring into my eyes with a flash of excitement.

"Well it's obvious that it was some sort of trick now anyway. We were so caught up in our excitement to find other survivors that we were willing to believe anything. I shouldn't have let us get stuck here." I sighed.

"You told me that we can't trust anyone. Maybe you were right." Lily said, leaning towards me in anticipation for my reply.

"I don- you don't think? No, you're just being ridiculous. I know you want to believe it, but we've got to accept what actually happened."

"Alexander, look around us. Think about this whole place. It's insane. We have no idea what happened. We crash land from a plane and somehow survive, to discover a land of sand and ash, and there's a small boy, all alone, still alive when everyone else is gone? And he just happens to know exactly how to get into this room?"

"Maybe he watched a lot of Scooby Doo?" I suggested, half-jokingly.

"No. I don't know what's going on here, but all we have is a pile of dust from someone who's identity we can't be sure of. Whoever - no, whatever - is keeping us here, it's dangerous. And I'm scared."

Before I could comfort Lily, something changed.

"Look, the door!" I pointed towards the opposite wall, and Lily turned to see the entrance appearing again. "Let's go, quickly."

We sprinted out the door, running up the stairs and back out into the musky air outside. We didn't stop for hours, until we were out of the city and back into the desert. We looked back towards where we'd just escaped. I say escaped, but we were allowed out. Whatever this entity wanted from us, it wasn't to kill us. A sandstorm was brewing on the horizon, by the city. I supposed we should move onwards.