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Chapter 3: The S-2605

Up ahead, in the hazy distance, stood a huge structure of complex design. The exterior was an almost godly white, and the windows danced in the extreme heat. In large, thick black letters, was S-2605 written along the side of the building.

"Wow!" Matteo exclaimed. "It's beautiful."

"What is it?" I asked. I had never seen anything like it before, and the mystery was filling me with bursting anticipation.

"Not sure" he answered, he pressed his eyebrows together.

By the green men, everyone including from the other airships, were led along a wide cobble pathway towards S-2605; the sky darkened and enclosed around us. As we approached, I looked up in utter amazement at the phenomenal size of the building which I guessed to be around 1,000 feet tall. A door opened smoothly, welcoming us to the fascinating interior that awaited us inside. I gaped at how extraordinary the inside looked; it was like a magical palace from a fairy tale.

"Hello again, my children." The voice was terrifyingly familiar, as everyone turned quickly to see the man from the voting hall. "Call me Abasi" he announced as a wide grin grew on his face. Crooked like branches on a tree, his teeth glimmered yellow in the lustrous lighting.

"I will be with you on this ship as we fly ourselves to Gaia" he grinned.

"This is our ship?" someone from the crowd questioned.

"Of course this is our ship. You didn't think we were flying in some 26th century space junk, did you?" he humoured. No one else dared to speak again and the silence felt so deafening. "That is where you will be staying for the next few months" he pointed at an area high up. "Living quarters have already been assigned to you, to check them, go to one of the screens upstairs."

Everyone looked up at where he pointed and when we turned back around to the man, he was gone. Something about him was off and I could feel it in my bones, I just couldn't pinpoint what the issue was. It was like something pulling on my sleeve again and again, screaming in my ears.

I followed Matteo up the stairs to a room labelled 'Community Room'. Like a forest, tables were spread out across the room, with no visible pattern, like blue towers in a jungle of yellow. The colour schemes were unpredictable, making everything seem alive when it really wasn't. To my left was a wide doorway without any doors leading to another area labelled 'Canteen'. It was closed off by some rope that hung across the doorway, saying 'closed'.

"Hey Enya" Matteo called.

"Yeah?"

"Come look at this" he suggested as he pointed his scruffy finger at a screen. "I'm staying in room 074 with two other people called Azazel and Kai. Come check where you are staying and who you are staying with."

I stood beside Matteo and entered my details to find out that I was assigned to room 208 with a girl named Gertrude and another girl named Imara.

"I hope I'm staying with nice people" I said.

"I know someone called Gertrude, she's from my block back at home on floor 22. She's nice so there's not much to worry about" Matteo replied.

"I hope so" I sighed.

Suddenly, the floor rocked and out the windows, I saw the ground get further away. We were in the air. Like before, I could feel sick rise from my throat, forcing an unpleasant taste onto my tongue. The polluted clouds enclosed around us, trapping us in its grasp like a prison, seeming as if the iron bars were falling and we weren't moving at all. Before I could realise, S-2605 had carried us out of the atmosphere, and we were instead, surrounded by a beautiful jet-black blanket covered in billions of elegant crystals.