Anokhian: Invasion

Nineteen

I was astonished at the amount of comfort provided by the woman's unit. These women were given everything they could want. To my left was a cylindrical room full of comfortable couches with throw blankets and pillows. The curved walls were covered with continuous shelves full of books. Yellow-colored lights emitted from lamps strategically placed around the room. 

To my right was a large dining area. Table's full of women consuming an array of delicious-looking foods. My stomach grumbled. I wasn't even sure how long I'd been on this ship. How long has it been? Four or five days at most?

In front of us was a long hallway full of doors. Most of them were closed but some were left open to reveal a full bed adorned in thick comforters and useless pillows, beside the beds were tables with lamps and a comfortable-looking chair. Each room provided its own private bathroom.

We passed by a few women, their bellies slightly swollen under their cotton clothing. Everything in the woman's unit seems to be earth-based, instead of the foreign materials I had been surrounded by during my time on the Anaxis.

We entered a familiar room, the same medical room I was brought to when I was first taken from earth and brought onto the ship.

"Remove your clothing and stand in the chamber." Renasha pointed to a tall cylinder in the corner, the outer shell was made up of small empty hexagonal shapes and was made of the same black stone material as the Anaxis, a clear glass was layered inside sealing the chamber.

"What is this?" I asked as I touched the chamber entrance, suddenly feeling a tension I didn't before. Something about this chamber made my heart race.

"Think of it like a microscope. It allows me to see everything about your physical composition, each and every cell." She waited for me to enter. I did so slowly, cursing myself for being so willing to comply, but part of me felt like I needed to do this for some reason. That reason was beyond lost to me.

The door shut, the thick glass closing me off from the outside. I could see my breath due to the sudden cold. I could hear my blood echoing inside my corroded artery, it felt thick and heavy as it traveled through my veins. The bottom of the chamber quickly started to fill with Nanex.

"Renasha!" Panic filled me and I began banging on the glass. My hands smacked the glass leaving an echo inside the chamber.

"Hey, get me out!!" I pleaded with her though it seemed she couldn't hear me through the glass.

"Don't panic." I heard Phaèryon's calm voice penetrate my head, I looked around the room, searching for him, curious as to why I could hear him inside my head. I couldn't see him but his voice alone helped ease my nerves. There was something hypnotic about him like he had this unseen force that compelled others to do as he pleased.

"I don't want to die," I spoke to him quietly in my mind, unknowing if he could hear me back. My lips quivered from the intense cold of the liquid pooling at my hips.

"You won't." I heard his claim as the cold nanex covered my shoulders. I took one last breath as I became completely submerged. Within seconds I felt intense cold, followed by indescribable pain, and then darkness.

***

I held my naked arms tightly, every once and a while rubbing them up and down to try and create some warmth. The ice popped beneath my cold bare feet. The alarming sound of ice fracturing beneath me had me blinking in confusion.

How did I get here?

My breath came out in thick white clouds in front of me. There was a stillness in the air that made my hair stand at end. The icy tundra that surrounded me was completely white, save for whisps of blue light in the airborne ice crystals and dark formations that resembled mountains farther off.

I wondered for what seemed like miles, barefoot in the freezing weather, miserably cold. My feet no longer felt the cold, but instead held a dull ache. My eyes caught a castle of sorts in the distance. I could tell it was of royal descent due to the long golden runners that lay down the sides of the watch towers. A flag that proudly showed their crest waved gracefully in the wind.

I rushed down the frozen hill, my pace faster than before as I was filled with the hope that I would find kindness and heat inside this enchanted lost castle.

I slowed as I was met with an impossibly dark treeline. Huge black bows of needles hung low to the ground, towering above me, blocking the blue light given by the moons.

Moons...

This was the same place..

The mysterious black foliage. The blue light from two huge moons. I've been here before... Not here, per say, but I've been here, in this world.

I was in a dream again...

"Viviana." I could hear someone's faint voice calling me.