Don't Be Afraid

Chapter 8

Issac's POV

"Welcome to Paradise." I look around the place and see people, food, huts, and animals. This is the size of a whole town. Linda's smile goes from ear to ear and makes me smile as well. Her face could light up a whole room in seconds.

"Let me show you around." Hunter insists. He puts his arm around Linda's shoulders and starts walking forward. I feel something weird in the pit of my stomach so I cross my arms and follow closely behind, making sure he doesn't make any moves. I don't trust him and I hope Linda feels the same way.

He points to a hut that's about the size of an apartment.  "Here we have a market with vegetables, fruit, meat, and even some sweets."  

Linda lets out a little squeal. "You have sweets? I've missed eating junk food. Lately I've only been eating beans and canned peaches." She rolls her eyes.

"Well, here we know how to care for people and reward them." My heart kinda sinks. I didn't know how bad the food was. I was just trying to keep us alive. My footsteps get slower and I put my head down.

About an hour later, our grand tour is over. Hunter and Linda are laughing about something, but I stopped listening halfway through the tour.

"So I'll show you to your rooms and then you can feel free to do whatever." He leads us down a couple of hallways and stops at the end.

He points to two rooms. "Linda you're on the left, number 207, and Isaiah-"

"Issac." I interrupt.

"Sorry. Issac you're on the right, number 206, and if you guys need anything my room is right beside Linda's. Number 209." I scoff. Of course he'd put her beside him. Hunter looks at me and narrows his eyes, but only for a second and goes to his room. Linda stares at me for a second and then enters her room leaving me alone in the hallway. May as well check out my room.

I open the door and my mouth drops. This isn't a room. It's a whole house or may as well be. I regain myself and close the door behind me. The room has its own kitchen, a queen sized bed, a sitting area with a flat screen, and a bathroom. I run my hand over the couch and its soft. It's nicer than I've ever had. And bigger. I sit on the couch and run my hands through my hair. A motion I only do when I'm  stressing.

"I'm sorry." I whisper to myself and squeeze my eyes shut. Some tears fall and I let them. I don't try to hold them back. Every day I've held back tears and now that I'm alone I let them out. And trust me there's a lot to let out.

I hear a knock on my door and wipe my tears away. Looking in the mirror to make sure I look normal, I plant a bored expression on my face and open the door.

"Hey Issac." It's Linda.

"Uh... hey. Do you need something?" She shrugs her shoulders.

"I don't need anything. I just wanted to see if you wanted to walk around and explore the place. Make sure it's as safe as Hunter made it out to be." I let out a breath of relief. She's concerned about this place just like me.

"Yeah. Good idea." She smiles and puts her arm around mine.

"So do you remember how to get out of this place?" I ask her. To be honest I didn't pay attention when Hunter lead us down here. I was focused on his arm around her shoulder.

"I think so." I laugh a little. She didn't seem sure, but I didn't call her out on it.

She began leading me down a bunch of hallways stopping occasionally to look at key things so we could get back. Eventually she lead us out of the maze and back onto the main street. I must admit this place is impressive. A town under a town. Who could've thought of that?

Linda leads us towards the market and stops at the sweets. She's looking at everything like it might disappear at any moment, but I wouldn't blame her. In this world anything can happen. And I do mean anything. She picks up a Debbie cake and studies it.

"Do we need money?" Linda asks quietly. I shrug my shoulders. She purses her lips and places the Debbie cake back on the shelf where she found it.

"I'll just ask Hunter later if I see him. He should know."

"Of course he would know." I mutter to myself. Good thing Linda wasn't paying attention. She had her face almost pressed against the glass, gawking over the pastries. I stared at her face taking every detail of it in. But when I looked closer I noticed her face was sunk in and she had dark, dark circles under her eyes. I looked at her body and it was small. Her collar bones stuck out a little bit and her waist was very small. I hadn't noticed this before. Before I just noticed her glowing personality even though she hid it with sadness.

"Let me go talk to someone about the food and money thing." I say. She nods her head and continues to look around. I walk around the market, which is surprisingly big, and search for someone who works here or something. Finally I spy a girl wiping down a table and she has a name tag. I walk towards her and poke her shoulder, nicely of course, to get her attention.

"Hello. How can I help you?" She looks tired, worn out almost.

"Sorry to annoy you," I look at her name tag. "Cleo, but I just got here today and I don't know if we need money or what." She wipes her cheek and sets her cleaning supplies down.

"You don't need money, but we have a certain amount of food items. So we have a system where every day a person can get two things, not including drinks. Your two items can be any food item, but only two. That's it."

"Thanks, but how do you know if everyone gets two or more things?"

She giggles. "They check out of course. Why do you think we have those things?" I feel a little stupid and start blushing.

"Well thanks. And by the way I'm Issac." I extend my hand and she shakes it.

"Nice to meet you Issac, but sadly I have to get back to my shift. Maybe we could talk more some other time?"

"Sounds good." She turns and walks over to the table she was cleaning. I make my way back to Linda. She's looking at fruit and vegetables. I tell her what we're aloud and she jumps up and down with joy. After about ten minutes we have our items and make our way to the check out line.

When we get back to our rooms it's 9:30. We say our goodnights and part ways until morning. I grab a bowl from one of the kitchen cabinets and pour some cereal in it. Oh how I've missed cereal. When I'm done eating I rinse my bowl and settle into bed. For once I feel safe and might, just might, get a good night's sleep.