Walls

Chapter 7

It was like stepping into another world.

  To put it in simpler terms, it looked like a circular underground skyscraper (if that makes any sense). The walls and floors were made of concrete, and on every floor there was a sort of railing that you could look over into the middle of the 'building'. I shuffled away from Darius and his dog, all my anger towards Darius slowly melting away, and my curiosity growing still.

  I peeked over the edge and immediately regretted my decision. While my stomach was doing flips, I managed to count about thirty floors below me. At the very bottom there seemed to be some sort of hall. Looking up, I noticed there were only four or five floors above mine. The ceiling of the 'building' was a giant glass dome, currently sprinkled with rainwater and showing off a gloomy sky.

I backed away from the railing and
stood back by Darius and the border collie. 

'Welcome,' he turned to face me, 'to your new home.' Darius's tone was bright and his smile was wide, but his eyes were solemn and tired. 'If you could follow me, I'll try to explain everything.' He gestured to a door a little ways away and started towards it. The border collie, who had been trotting alongside Darius for the last little while, had stopped and came running back to me. He collided with my legs with a soft thump, almost causing me to fall over.  

'I'm sorry about Bo, he's just exited to see a new face.' Darius called Bo back. I followed closely behind him, eventually turning into a door slightly larger and darker than all the others on this floor. Inside were staircases going up and down. We turned left and took the stairs down, maybe going three or four flights. We then turned off into a smaller door which led to another circular 'hallway' just like the one I woke up in (both littered with people I've never seen before, all giving me a welcoming look). I peered over the railings once more and ran my hand along them until we reached yet another door. Darius paused before opening it, and turned to face me.

'Try not to freak out anymore, we're only trying to help.' He smiled and disappeared behind the door. I stood there momentarily, thinking back to my little outburst and feeling slightly shameful. I quickly brushed the feeling away, stood up straight, and shuffled into the room.

Inside, there was a long table, probably used for meetings, with a blank screen at the end. Sitting at the table were four people-Darius, Liv, and two people I didn't recognize. One looked slightly older than me, maybe nineteen or twenty. He had wavy dark brown hair, piercing blue eyes and an overall sharp appearance. He was wearing a simple grey t-shirt and jeans. The other, like Liv, looked to be about my age. He had hair the colour of light, warm toffee and brown puppy-dog eyes. He looked like he had just walked home from school-he had on a light blue t-shirt and jeans with the cuffs rolled up. His arms were covered in small cuts and bruises, his left arm had a bandage wrapped around it. He, frankly, looked the friendliest out of everyone in this room.

It seemed that everyone had been in conversation before I stepped in, but when I entered the room had gone silent. All eyes were on me. I shuffled around awkwardly for a second, then turned to take a seat. I sat down next to the friendly-looking guy (facing Liv) just as Darius stood up and lumbered over to the front of the table.

'Everybody, this is Blair. Blair, this'll be your team for the next little while.' He walked over to the side of the table I was facing and stood behind Liv. 'You've already met Liv.' He patted her on her shoulder and she nodded her head at me. Darius shuffled to his left a little. 'This is Felix." Felix nodded slightly, his wavy brown hair bouncing a little. 'And this-' Darius shuffled over to the other side of the table and started to address Friendly, '-is Ducky.' I looked over to see Ducky sigh loudly. He looked very exasperated. 'I told you guys-' Ducky looked around at the others, 'it was one duck. And it was forever ago! Did I mention it was one frigging duck?' Felix chuckled, Liv smiled and leaned forwards.

'Yeah, sure. One duck. As in one flock of ducks.' She leaned back. Ducky turned towards me almost desperately. He was speaking very quickly.

'It was one flock. One! And I didn't mean to, it was an accident! Now I have this stupid nickname to remind me of that stupid day!' Ducky paused to breath. 'My name is Peter, not Ducky. Peter.' He extended his hand to shake. I returned the gesture and looked around at the others to see if Ducky was actually making any sense.

Felix leaned forwards. 'And what did you do to get your nickname, Peter?'  Ducky's cheeks got very red very fast. He sunk into his chair.

'We were testing out new weapons and I blew up a flock of ducks with a grenade launcher,' he said very quickly and quietly. 'it was an accident. I didn't mean to..' He shrugged weakly. 'The ducks just got in the way I guess, I don't know..' Ducky sank even lower. Darius made his way back to the front of the table smiling.

'You'll be spending a lot of time together, so maybe don't kill each other, okay?' Said Darius with a smile, talking mostly to Liv. 'Now let's get this straight-' Darius was now directly addressing me. '-why're you here?'