Worlds Apart

Chapter 21

A • N E W • W O R L D

The first thing Daisha noticed was the smell. It wasn't unpleasant, must and petrichor pricking her nose. Cold seeped into her cheek. Daisha slowly came to, and found herself on the stone floor of an unfamiliar building.

What had happened?

She pushed herself off the ground, elbows aching in protest. She had taken quite a fall, but from where?

Rain filled her ears, but it was somewhere far away. Muffled. The ceiling was cavernous, at least twenty feet high, reminiscent of some odd combination of Romanesque and Minimalist but not quite. It was dark, the only light in the room from humming emergency strip lights along the floor in neon purple. It blinked rhythmically like the heartbeat of a slumbering beast. A dim shifting light came from somewhere behind her.

On her knees, she found Elin slumped a few feet away, wispy blonde hair splayed out. Daisha crawled towards her, her knees hurting from the smooth floor. It felt reinforced.

"Elin?"

She stirred, groaning. Elin blinked blearily.

"Oh good, you're talking again." She propped herself up clumsily on her elbows. "It was getting boring, talking to myself." She chuckled drily.

"Where are we?"

Elin lifted her head. "Oh." The humour dripped off her features. "I don't know."

"The last thing I remember is being attacked. So how did we leave the hotel?"

"you missed the part where everything started shaking and falling apart. It was not fun." Elin got to her feet, swaying. "The Gate... I think we went through it. We're not in Dalbyen anymore."

Daisha sighed as Elin casually dusted her cardigan. The fall must have miswired her brain because the Elin she had come to know was not this light about anything.

Consoles lined the walls, lights and levers adorning the surface, darkened screens hovering above them . They must have been white at some point, but were mottled and grey and covered in withered vines. Leaves adorned the dusty floor, blackened and brittle. The faint smell of mould filled the air. It was abandoned, whatever it was.

"It looks like a military facility."

"How do you know what those look like?"

Elin swiped some dust off the nearest console. "We have mandatory service in Norway. I thought you would know that."

"I did. It's not mandatory."

She chuckled. "No, I guess not. It is only mandatory to apply, but you do not get forced to join. Regine never served. Was not interested. Med school was enough for her."

Daisha eyed her. Her movements were relaxed, her shoulders loose as she examined the machine. "She's okay."

"Yes." A smile flickered on her face. "Regine is alive."

"But those two—"

Elin's smile vanished. "Riona and...them."

The dim light in the room rippled, the strip lights brightened. Daisha whirled around.

The Gate was bigger on this side, covering all twenty-plus feet of the room's height. A whole wall. Ornate pillars in the corners marked its edge, sheets of glazed metal that towered over their heads. It curved and tapered at the top and the room followed. There were no joints in the frame. It was smooth and seamless like it had dropped out of the sky as it was. It had none of the neon lighting that decorated the room, standing in dissimilitude as some forgotten relic of the Old World. The whole facility was clearly built after the Gate.