SILVER EYES (GXG)

Chapter 51: A New Her

When we approached the town's entrance, the man shook his shotgun as if it were a warning. Heather instinctively put a hand on Will's back, protectively, and Jen held my hand tight.

I took a few steps forward, leaving the rest behind. "Hello, sir. Sorry if we startled you." I said, trying to sound polite.

"Who are you?" The man said frowning in distrust. He was tall as a tower and thin as a wire. He didn't seem like a bad person, but really scared.

"We're just passing through to our hometown, and we need to cross if that's alright." I replied.

The man took a moment to scrutinize us as if he could decipher our intentions by analyzing every inch of us.

"What hometown?" He asked.

"Oakvale." I answered.

"You're from Oakvale?" He questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"We are." Heather said. 

We had meticulously studied all the towns in the area for the mission, although I remembered them all quite well. Oakvale was a good, feasible lie. It was a big town, well known by everyone on the other side.

"What are you doing outside Oakvale then?" He probed.

"We needed supplies and got lost." I said.

The man gazed at Jen and then at Will who was still sleeping on Heather's chest, unaware of all that was happening around him.

"Well, you're lucky I'm feeling generous today. Normally, we don't let outsiders pass through, but you seem harmless enough..." He said.

"Thanks sir." I said

"Don't think this makes you immune to the rules of this town, keep to yourselves and don't cause any trouble." He warned, stepping aside to let us through.

We all nodded and crossed the entrance. Once inside, I was taken aback by how big the town was. It was much larger than I had expected, much larger than our maps had indicated.

Houses of all kinds were scattered throughout the place, almost as if they had been dropped haphazardly. They weren't like the ones in the Reg Society, but they were new and sturdy. This meant they had resources, and that they were prospering. It was shocking because all we had been told for the past years was that the other side was more dead than alive.

However, that wasn't the strangest part of it all. What left me almost breathless was seeing that they had advanced technology. A tower filled with antennas rose in the center of the town.

"Did you know this type of tech had reached little towns, Stella?" I asked her while walking through the main road of the town.

"No, not at all. We haven't detected any of that ever." She said, as surprised as I was.

As we moved forward, we could see they had stores of all kinds. The people weren't dressed poorly like I remembered from my time as an outsider. On the contrary, they looked calm, even happy.

"How is any of this possible?" Beverly said, echoing the confusion we all felt.

The smell of baked bread wafted through an open window, making me take a deep breath. Where the hell had we ended up? It felt like an alternate reality. I could hear the distant clucking of chickens and the low hum of conversation from a nearby market. The streets were simple but clean, the houses modest yet well-kept.

At the end of the road, there was a little shop surrounded by children. Jen and I were curious, so we decided to approach. It turned out to be a small, makeshift workshop filled with various tools and gadgets at different stages of assembly. In the midst of it all, an elderly woman sat, skillfully manipulating wires and gears with surprising dexterity for her age. The children were captivated by her.