OLYMPIA

The Outside World

After trailing Ares for a few more minutes we eventually came into view of a rust infested staircase, Ares looked back at me and I nodded at him to continue up the stairs. Once Ares had reached the top of the staircase, another hatch had come into our sight.

"POD, helmet on please" Ares said to his suit.

POD didn't reply but it was evident the minuscule computer had heard as Ares' helmet shot up and over his head, "Guess that works then." He had said to no one in particular. I did the same and like Ares, my helmet appeared over my head almost instantly.

"Okay, I'm gonna push the hatch open. I don't know whats on the other side Ath, we have to be prepared for anything" he looked at me with a cautious look on his face.
"I know, Let's just get this over with" I replied mirroring his expression with concern laced in my voice.

With one hefty push from Ares the hatch door opened, sunlight poured into the tunnel like a waterfall. The heat was felt even through the material of our suits, at least in the dome it was a reasonable temperature, this was almost unbearable and we had only just been covered by it. I made my way up the stairs trailing Ares.
"Jeez, it's hotter than me" Ares said whilst turning to look at me.
"Yeah keep dreaming Ares" I replied, his cocky smile being the only returning feature.

"Okay , remember what Muse said, we can't let anything happen to our helmets otherwise we're basically guaranteed to die. I mean who knows what could happen if we breathe the air"  Ares reminded me.

"Honestly if it gets much hotter I might just take my helmet off and find out" I joked trying to lighten the mood. It didn't work, Ares carried on as if he hadn't even heard me speak.
" Okay Ath we need to go this way" he motioned with his hand. At this point I finally looked around us properly at the surroundings we had found ourselves emerged in. A large desert surrounded us and it was all I could see, just scorching golden grains scattered on the floor for miles. Nothing grew out here anymore, the sun took care of that.

"Athena, are you listening to me?" I heard snapping me out of my gaze that was set upon the vast desert we found ourselves trapped in.
"Sorry, right let's get going then" I replied quickly knowing how impatient Ares was, a glacial and slow response wouldn't have gone down well. We started walking in the direction that Ares had pointed to just minutes before, silence was the only sound around us and after a few hours I got bored of it.

"Ares, what the hell are we doing?" I asked out of nowhere. He stopped walking and turned to me with a look on his face that I couldn't quite work out. "What are you talking about Athena? , you know why we're here. Did you develop amnesia down in that tunnel? This is everything we've been training for for the past fifteen years." A hint of annoyance obvious in his tone of voice. 

"Hey, chill out Ares. I simply meant that Zeus lied to us about our parents. Who knows what else he's been hiding from us." After a moments silence I continued "Ares, I've put a lot of thought into what I'm about to say. Ares.. we could leave. We could go and never return. Fuck the mission off and find somewhere else to stay. Another dome perhaps, we wouldn't be trapped in one building for the next fifteen years of our lives giving our blood every week, we could explore their cities, meet new people, actually live." I replied to him. 

Silence, again.

This time Ares suddenly whipped around so we were face to face with each other. "Is that all you can think about? Leaving the only place we've ever known, abandoning our friends, our second famil- " Ares started to argue however I cut him off. 

"What fucking family Ares!? , Family doesn't lie to us, family wouldn't trap us in a building for a majority of our lives and never let us leave" 

"Athena, shut up"

"Hey, don't tell me to shut up just because you know that I'm telling the truth, honestly Ares sometimes you can be such an arseho-"

"Look" Ares interrupted whilst pointing off too somewhere in the distance. I squinted my eyes and thats when I saw it, a tiny shack, I was surprised we hadn't spotted it earlier than we had, especially because its the only thing that wasn't sand for the foreseeable future. 

"Look Athena, we've been walking for a few hours, I think we should take a break. Let's make our way over to the shed and chill out for a bit. We can recuperate and check where we need to go" Ares suggested to me.

I nodded back to him "That's probably the smartest thing you've said all day" 

He said nothing but I could tell he was silently laughing from the way his shoulders bounced up and down momentarily. I decided to take the lead on this one as I walked past him quickly and in the direction of the shack, after about twenty minutes we eventually made it to the run down looking building. There was nothing special about this shack, in-fact it looked like it was on its last legs. Planks of rotting wood were somehow still held together with tetanus infused nails and the small rusty lock which adorned the front of the shed door stood out like a shining jewel against the rest of the building, even though it was far from. 

"Ath, how we getting in?" Ares said whilst staring at the lock like it was a difficult maths problem that he couldn't solve. 

"Move over" I said to him whilst making my way to the doors, I lifted my knee as high as I could and with a swift kick the door flew open with ease. "Guess that practical training came into use then" I said to Ares over my shoulder as I walked in. 

I was the first to take a gasp at our surroundings it was a stark contrast to the outside world. If we thought the outside of the shed looked awful, we spoke too soon. The smell of damp, mouldy, and rotting wood filled our noses. Broken wood from past furniture was lain over the floorboards, a small wooden cube that was probably used for a table  was the only in tact piece of furniture in the shack, a couple of blankets were also splayed on the floor. I walked around the relatively small shed and my eyes wondered to the blankets again. I bent down and picked up a small blue one that had been creased and thrown in the corner, I lifted it up to my face to properly inspect it as I did, I noticed that the blanket bore no marks of dirt or had any peculiar smell, almost as if the person that used this wasn't here too long before us. I threw that thought out the window when I realised how silly it would've sounded out loud, no one is allowed out the domes without the proper equipment and the only people with access to that was OLYMPIA which is where Muse gave us our outfits, these suits and equipment was the only reason why we've survived this long. To be blunt - No one could leave the domes unless they were important or had an important reason for doing so.

"Athena, you're not gonna believe this" Ares said in an ominous tone behind me. 

"What is it?"