Zoldia: The World Beneath

Part 3 - The Crowd's Bar

The cabin stopped moving after a few seconds.

"Opening door," said the robotic voice.

Deborah was eager to see what heaven looked like. But when the door open, what she had in front of her didn't look like heaven at all. She was at the end of a small alley. She had heard the voice in the cabin saying she was going to 'Finap', but she had never heard of that place. She got out of the transporter, and the door shut behind her. She looked around to try and find clues as to where she was.

A sign indicated 'Camryn Alley'.

Not very helpful. Deborah had never heard of that name. There seemed to be a bigger street at the end of the alley. Her curious side wanted to go check it out, but her cautious side wasn't sure it was a good idea to wander at night in an unknown place. She thought for a while and decided she would go back to get her exploration team. They would probably be eager to explore this area as well, and it would be much safer with them around.

She turned back but the door was closed. She put on the floor the candlestick that she was still holding in her hand, then she checked out the cabin from where she came, which was embedded in the wall of a building. She was hoping to find a button to open the door, but there was none. She touched it all over to see if it would trigger something, but nothing happened.

"Open door," she said out loud. For all she knew, it could have been voice controlled. But nothing happened.

She thought about the person that had been following her on the castle premises. Did that person intend to make her come here? That would explain the red light that had been moved. But, if that were the case, there should have been people waiting for her at the end. And why would someone use such a method to send her here, instead of talking to her directly? If invited properly, she would have been delighted to have the occasion to visit new places, for once.

But, on the other hand, the chances of randomly finding a hidden world while being chased by a serial killer were slim. Extremely slim.

Unless someone knew the killer often chased people around there, and had set up this escape way on purpose? But if that were the case, why not arrest the killer right away?

Enough! she said to herself. Her theories went too far. She decided to stick to reality and what she actually knew to make a decision. What she knew was that the door behind her had shut, so she could not go back the same way she had come. The only option was to move forward. As far as she could see, there was nothing that indicated immediate danger in this alley. The sleek walls of the buildings around her and the cleanliness of the pavement told her she was in a wealthy neighborhood, and Deborah knew these usually had a lower crime rate than poor ones. Therefore, there was nothing that compromised the 'moving-on' option for now.

She decided to go in the main street and try to find someone to tell her where she was.

When she arrived, it was a very bizarre sight. The street was illuminated by light balls. Not light poles, just light balls floating in mid-air, just high enough so that people's heads wouldn't touch them. She rubbed her eyes to make sure what she was seeing was real. The light balls were still there. She went under one carefully, expecting to hit an invisible pole, but there was nothing. It was really floating in the air.

She had never heard of such a thing, but it might have been a new invention that they had started installing in Los Angeles or New York? After all, with a system of magnets, it was not unthinkable. There were trains that could move forward by hovering a few inches above the tracks in some countries, so static light balls were plausible.

She took her phone out of her pocket to check her location. There was no signal.

I must be abroad, then, she thought. Maybe Tokyo. Or Shanghai. Or Dubai.