Iris: The Games

Chapter Nine "The car ride"

I looked around to find Peyton but I couldn't find him. Instead of finding him in the line I founded someone else. I founded Iden. I gave her a look. The type of look that lets you know that we need to talk soon. I turned away from her and she kept looking at me. The door of the ship had opened. They opened up very fast. When they opened a blast of light went into my eyes. I could barely see anything or anyone. Everyone had the same reaction as me when the doors opened. The lights from the outside may have blinded us for a minute but after it was worth it. When vision went back to normal I knew we were all in for a real treat. We all started to walk out of the ship and on the platform. When my vision went back to normal I saw the skies of Titan. It was so beautiful. The sky was filled with white clouds all across the sky and a beautiful baby blue background filled the sky endlessly. You could see stars and planets from far away and the rings of the planet were amazing. It was truly a beautiful world. The military base was an exact replica of the one on Taboo. It had everything that the military base from back home had. But this military that we were at had so much more. The area didn't have nearly as much snow as we did back on Taboo. The environment was very different, but that's one of the things I liked about the planet. I was different from my homeworld. Nothing about the two worlds was similar. Taboo's atmosphere was cold and snowy while Titan's atmosphere was a good temperature and open to life. The military base was in a huge forest of spruce trees. The walls of the base covered the outside world from the inside. When we went through the gates of the base in the car I started to wonder about who I would soon meet. I went off and thought about it for a while. But then after we left the forest we started moving over a mountain range. Acacia looked over to me and told me that we were approaching the capital city. I started to get overwhelmed. I tried to keep calm and I barely got through the car ride to the city. The mountain was steep and narrow, but we had managed to make it to the top of the mountain range. When we peaked on top of the mountain I saw probably the most amazing thing I would have ever seen in my whole life. I saw the capital city. On the outskirts of the city, there were fields of flowers and grass. A giant lake was on one side of the outer city and a mountain range on the other side. The city's architecture was beautiful. I was unlike anything I had ever seen. The buildings were mostly made of concrete, gold, and glass. Most of the buildings looked the same with only every other one being taller than the other. Only a few buildings were created differently from the other buildings. Most buildings in the capital city were residential and the others were usually governmental housing and governmental organizations. The streets of the city were laid out in squares of buildings. Every block of buildings had eight buildings with a small park in the middle of the eight buildings. Every street was the same and the buildings were all just different heights. As you got towards the center of the city or better known as "the city circle" governmental buildings started to appear. Some more famous than others. The area that was between the city and the military base was heavily guarded by the Calen empire. There were gun towers and anti-aircraft gun towers everywhere in between the city and the military base. Along with heavy defensive weaponry, the city had a massive one hundred foot wall around it. Isolating the city from the outer planet. The wall was lined with guns and had an astonishing shield generator to create a seal around the city in case of an emergency or if an assault was to occur. I told Acacia Nova that the planet of Titan was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen before. She responded with something dark. She told me to "look past the beauty and look deep within". I wasn't sure what she had meant. I asked her what she had meant when she said that, but she responded saying "ask me that when we're in a private room with no one else". I thought only about that for the next couple of minutes. But then after that, we approached the wall of the city. When we reached the wall, the wall was tall. It was grey and intimidating. The gates of the wall were huge. The gate was made up of two massive stone doors. These doors could withstand pretty much anything that was thrown at them. The doors crept open like two elevator doors. I thought when we passed through the door I could get a better look at the city but no. Instead, the doors led straight to a tunnel that went to the contestant center. The contestant center was near the city circle and was close to the E.C.A headquarters. The E.C.A headquarters was a big building, it was split into three different wings. The south-west wing, the central wing, and the north-east wing. Each wing had the same number of floors. The building was about fifty floors high. The building was grey and bald. We drove through the gates and proceeded through the tunnel. The tunnel had weird lighting. The walls had warm-yellow lights and you couldn't see much after entering the tunnel. I hadn't really noticed that Iden Starr was sitting across from me in the car. I looked at her in the eyes and she looked at me in the eyes. She slipped me a folded note that said this. "Dear Jaxson Iris, I know we don't really know each other but I was wondering if you were to want to maybe partner up with me for the games". As I read the note she looked at me waiting for me to respond. I shook my head yes and she put a smile on her face. She was so happy and thrilled that she began to cry. After she stopped crying she said lightly under her breath, "thank you". When we reached the end of the tunnel we came to a coldly lit up garage under the contestant center. There were elite guards at every door. The driver pulled the car up to space and stopped the car. When the car stopped guards started to cuff people on the car. Peyton was cuffed, then me, and then Iden. The doors of the car opened. When we were taken out of the car we were greeted by Acacia. She looked at all of us and told us this, "You are all about to see the other forty contestants". When I looked away from Acacia I saw a girl with black hair and tan skin. She looked and smirked at me. I knew I had already made an enemy. When Acacia finally finished her speech one at a time we were sent to our apartments. I was sent first, then the others. I was escorted by two elite guards to an elevator along with Acacia. To get to the elevator I had to go through a hallway. When we reached the elevator I walked into the small elevator. I was now standing with Acacia and two elite guards. As the door closed of the elevator I could hear the thrusters of the elevator turn on.