Dreams

The Dune Motel

Elias moaned slightly as he opened his eyes and tried to blink away the blurriness. A soft hand covered his eyes quickly. A young voice spoke to him, “Not now, you need to rest.” Elias didn’t object at first and started to relax again, but once he thought about it, where was he? Elias’s muscles stiffened and he pushed the hand away and sat up, suddenly doubling over in pain. “See? I told you! You aren’t fully recovered yet!” Elias clenched his jaw and looked over to where the voice was coming from. “Well how do you expect me to react? A strange person telling me to rest when I don’t even know where I am?” he shouted. Instantly he regretted it. His expression softened when his eyes focused on a little girl, probably a little older than Emi with dark brown hair in tight, kinky curls, deep brown skin and pale pink eyes that were now wide. Her small bone structure shook slightly and her voice wavered with anger as she talked. “Watch how you talk to me! I may be little, but I’m stronger than I-” Elias cut her off by holding out his hand. “Listen, okay? I’m sorry for snapping at you. Just tell me where I am and where my friends are.” The girl seemed a little more at ease now. She gave him a big, proud smile before replying. “You’re at the Dune Motel, where we help escapees survive. No one knows about our existence, we need to keep it that way or we’ll all be toast. As for your friends, they’re being healed as well in their own time. You have the worst injuries so we’re tending to you now. You’ve only been out a few hours. I haven’t had much time to fix your bones yet.” Elias blinked. “Fix my bones?” The little girl nodded. “I’m Carrie, the healer here. That’s my power or ‘ability’ as they called it back in the Vault.” Elias looked confused. “The Vault? What’s that?” “Oh, I forgot you aren’t familiar with the terminology here. That’s what we called the Facility for Special Cases.” Elias nodded and tried to move to face her, other than just turning his head, but the sharp pain shot through him again. His shin and hip were aching so much that’s all he was able to concentrate on. Carrie moved forward and guided him to lie down. “Don’t worry; you’ll be fine in about an hour or so.” Elias couldn’t say anything in response before he had passed out again. Elias woke up again a few hours later with fresh, folded clothes beside him. He looked at the dusty orange jumpsuit he wore now. Well, he could say goodbye to that forever. He changed quickly and scanned the room around him. There wasn’t much, but it did look like a motel room: Dimly lit, hard tan floor and walls, a springy bed, small chair, and a tiny bathroom. It didn’t quite smell like a motel, more like sand and dust rather than cigarette smoke. This was the first time since he lived at home that he’d had a room to himself. Instead of a door, there was an arch made out of the same stone as the ground and walls. He walked out into the colorless hallway and looked both ways. One way led to a dead end with another archway and the other direction turned into a large sitting area. Elias could see movement; he couldn’t quite make out what it was until he saw the girl with long white hair and ruby red eyes staring back at him. Elisa looked so different when she wasn’t in her jumpsuit. Her white t-shirt was just about the same color as her hair. He smiled and practically ran toward her. She moved toward him at a slower pace, but she still had a smile on her face. Once they met, Elias enveloped Elisa in a bear hug. She laughed a little and hugged him back. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.” Elias smiled even bigger as he pulled away. “Yeah, me too.” He put his hand behind his neck nervously. “Elias! You’re okay!” Emi ran toward him, her arms wide and her pale pink hair flowing behind her. Elias gave her a big hug and spun her around. “How are you? Are you feeling better?” Emi smiled and nodded. “Much better now.” Elias ruffled her hair. “Good. I’m glad.” Elias turned to Elisa. “So, how did we get here?” Elisa opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the healer girl from before, Carrie. “Elisa carried you both in with a broken femur. She stayed conscious long enough to make sure you two were in good hands before losing consciousness herself. She’s real determined, she is.” Elias looked at Elisa and raised an eyebrow at her. She just shrugged. Of course, all emotion gone again. Maybe it was because she didn’t like to take full credit for things, not even at school. Carrie began talking again. “You three are lucky that I was here. You,” she said, gesturing to Elias, “had a shattered hip bone and your right shin was snapped in half. Your friends were lucky enough to have fewer injuries. Elisa only had a broken thigh, not too serious but very painful. Emi had a fractured humorous and torn muscle behind her shoulder. Of course, I was able to fix all of it.” Elias just stared at Carrie. Had simple bullets really caused that much pain? Maybe he should have moved faster, but he couldn’t leave Ignatius.  It still hurt his heart to think about how they left him. Who knows what would happen to him? Elias also couldn’t help but be a little annoyed by this girl. She seemed to be bragging about how she’d saved all of them. Were their injuries even that fatal? Elias straightened his bandana around his neck and turned to the others in the room he had not met yet. There were three people in the room, two were facing him and one sat in a chair, facing a wall. The first two were a teenage boy and girl, about the same age but completely different. The boy had deeply tanned skin, shiny black hair, and deep blue eyes. When he smiled, Elias also noticed his pure white teeth. They were practically perfect in every way. The girl was a little bit shorter than the boy, with dark blue hair and pale green eyes that stood out against her porcelain skin. They both dressed basic, like the rest of them, basic t-shirts and long pants. The colors were different for every person. The tan boy wore a light blue shirt, which fit snugly over his well-toned torso, with dark jeans. The girl wore a soft yellow shirt and long black cargo pants with basic black combat boots. They came over to Elias. “Hey, I’m Levi and this is Darius. Glad to have you here.” Levi gave them a big smile and the boy, Darius flashed a charming smile at Elisa. “Glad to have you here.” He had slight accent, but Elias couldn’t place it. He just looked both of them over, trying to figure if he liked them or not. They didn’t seem too bad. The girl, Levi, was little too sweet for his tastes, but he liked Darius. He seemed cool and strong. Elias gave him a nervous smile. Darius smiled back, his white teeth practically gleaming. Levi took the girls’ hands and led them to the hallway by the seating area. “C’mon! I’ll show you around.” With that, they disappeared behind the corner. Elias crossed his arms, gazing after them. He seemed to be thinking about something. Darius looked him over. “You ‘right mate?” Elias gestured in the direction the girls went. “How come we’re the only guys here? Please tell me there are more of us.” Darius laughed. “Someone hasn’t been paying attention in his genetics class.” Elias looked confused, but he nodded anyway. “The mutation is more plausible in a female’s genes, therefore there are more girls running around with these special powers,” Darius explained. “Oh.” Elias felt something uneasy about the air of the room. He scanned everything in the area. All he could see was Carrie sitting on top of what looked like a check-in counter reading a book and the back of some girl’s head. Her hair was jet black and it was almost hard to see that she had it in a ponytail as it was so dark. Elias nudged Darius. “Hey, who’s that?” Darius’s face seemed to turn solemn. “She doesn’t have a name. Not a soul knows it at least. We just call her Captain, as she’s in charge here.” Elias nodded. “Okay then.” It seemed odd to not have a name, especially when you’re in charge of a group. The girl stirred. “So, I’ve heard we have some newcomers here. It sounds to me as if one is in the room now, am I correct?” There was something too familiar about the voice Elias had heard. Darius stood at attention even though the “Captain” was turned around. “Correct, Captain.” Elias swore he could feel her smile. “Good.” The Captain stood up and turned to face Elias. She had messy jet black bangs that covered one of her surreal jade green eyes. “Welcome aboard, Elias.”