Pyrrha

Episode 7: Life on the Inside

It was a completely different world underground. Imagine living in a gigantic dome filled with impenetrable blackness. Just to live in darkness and never see light that wasn’t made artificially. The entire Hollow was illuminated by the light of torches. At least this part of it was. The entire base of the cavern was filled with a huge lake of Imulsion. The unnatural yellow glow provided a slight amount of light.

The sky was replaced with a darkened stone ceiling that was dotted with countless Kryll vampire bats.

There was a city was etched into the walls of the gargantuan dome. Gothic buildings lined the walls and somewhere in the centre of it all was a tower. A huge tower stretched away from the bright yellow glow of the Imulsion lake below it. Yes. The tower was suspended in mid air by countless stone bridges and the whole thing was blazing brightly by the light of flame-lit torches. It was like the Locust’s version of a beehive, but the tower was a marvelous feature

It was massive in size, easily twice that of the Empire State Building. Its sides were lined with arch windows, some were hollow, others had stained glass filling their spaces like some kind of gigantic church. It looked like the Coliseum, only it stretched high into the ceiling.

Nexus. The Locust capital. It looked like something the ancient Romans or even the British would have built. Stone walls, castle towers and even stone houses. Everything was stone or steel and everything was occupied by the Locust.

Except for one corner of Nexus.

It was the corner reserved especially for the humans. Reserved especially for the mercenaries.

The air was filled with reverberating shouts of joy. A bon fire was in the centre of a small plaza. The city wasn't completely lit by fire, there were some floodlights the mercenaries had been kind enough to salvage. There was a giant U-shaped building made entirely of stone, but in the courtyard in front of it was a circle of happy mercenaries. They were celebrating their victory.

They had just been paid.

Of course dollars and cents meant nothing to them, no, the mercenaries were paid in luxuries. A small stack of beer crates lied somewhere in the middle of them all. It was a good incentive to stay on the Locust's side.

Alex was close to the fire. He wasn't wearing his blue COG armour anymore. He was dressed casually. He wore a black double-breasted coat with a set of jeans. He still held the Remington shotgun on his lap. Alex placed his feet on the small table in front of him and casually leant back on his chair, observing the dance-crazed people and immersing himself in the joyful din. He savoured the sweet taste of a Cuban-sized cigar. He took the cigar on drag by drag, smiling approvingly with each one. Mercenaries danced all around him, some gave him the congratulatory pat on the shoulder as they passed. A smile spread across his weathered face.

Pyrrha was eating her dinner. It was the most frightening meal of her life. She sat at an impressively large oaken table that was filled with a buffet of food. Half of it didn't look edible. Living in Baroque, she learnt what a steak and what a side of venison looked like, and none of the meat on the table looked familiar. There was no telling what creatures it all came from.

Her plate had a palm-sized, circular piece of meat on it. The meat was pure white with some splotches of red on it. There were unhealthy looking leaves surrounding it.

Myrrah had changed upon arrival in the palace. Instead of wearing her red, leathery armour she was now white-clad in a gorgeous dress that hugged her slender figure. It had an elaborate collar that crept halfway up her neck and two short sleeves. Her long white gloves completed the sleeves by creeping halfway up her arms. The elegant dress was covered in an elaborate pattern, no telling what any of the symbols meant, but it could be assumed that they were royal somehow. Her bright blonde hair was tied up in a cute bun and it was accompanied by a loud tiara.