Journey

Lorelei

I can't believe all that has happened in the last few hours. Elijah told me his problems with Sun's Peak. I don't see it but I won't oppose him because the last time I did half of the people in the camp ended up dying for it. On a much brighter note I now have a son named Eden and uh I'm still fifteen. So I have that going for me now.

Elijah and I walk through the bunker with Kourtni. She wasn't very happy to know that I have a foster son. I don't know if I'm ready for it but whatever. We walk to the control room and people are staring at a screen that has a blip on it.

"What is that?" I ask Kourtni.

"That's what I brought you to see," She told me.

We stare and the blip. Kourtni now stands right next to the screen with a pointer.

"This square is us," She says pointing to a large square.

We all nod.

"This blip is an unknown thing to our screen. According to our screen the source of the blip is three miles away from us. It isn't moving so it leads us to believe that it is a camp of our enemy." Kourtni tells us.

"If it is an enemy camp than we should attack," Says a person in the room.

"No. We won't attack. It might be a camp but it might just be a straggler from Sun's Peak," Kourtni tells them.

"Does this machine not give any indication of how big the blip is?" Elijah asks.

"No. We are trying to get it up graded but it is kinda hard when all the the scientists are burnt to a crisp." Kourtni snaps.

Elijah backs off after that. Then it happens. The blip moved. It moved forward just a little bit but it was enough to catch Kourtni's attention.

"What in the worlds?" She murmurs.

"Well I don't think it's an enemy camp now is it," Elijah says smirking.

I want Elijah to stop poking the bear. Kourtni sighs.

"Send a small group of six people to the source of the blip and bring the person back," She says exasperated, "Elijah you are going."

Elijah nods and a group of six people get picked from the group. It included me and four other people.

We walk out of the bunker and into the open. The brisk air that used to bring me comfort now scares the heck out of me. I clutch Elijah's arm and he hold me against him. His back is tense. We march forward through the burnt crisps of houses.

"Where is your house?" I ask him.

"We are coming up on it soon," He says.

We walk through the neighborhood and I notice that it isn't burnt. They missed it I guess. Elijah stops in front of a house that is kind of smaller than I expected but it is cute. It has a garden of flowers that sit in front of it withered.

"My mom grew them. She was so good at gardening it was ridiculous. These flowers were the only flowers anyone had ever seen because she was the only person who could grow them. And without her they died," He said morbily.

A glow catches my eyes.

"Not all." I say.

From underneath the others I pull out a glowing bloom and hand it to him.

"I always wondered about this flower. It never bloomed. I asked my mom why she was growing them and she said to give it time and look at it now. It surpassed the others because of the moonlight," He tells me.

He is physically here but his eyes are in a faraway place in a different time. We continue our walk down the road. In the distance I can see the smoldering remains of the castle. I've seen most of the colony but it is in ruins. Except for where Elijah lived. It makes me think that this was intentional.

"What are you thinking about Lorelei?" Elijah asks me.

"This attack doesn't make sense. The whole colony was decimated accept for your neighborhood. It's like they wanted to preserve it. Maybe because they wanted to use it. Or they needed something from it possibly." I start ranting.

"What would they want from my neighborhood?" Elijah asks me.

"I don't know. Something important obviously or else they wouldn't have risked exposing themselves," I tell him.

"More important than anything in the castle," Elijah replies back while looking at the smoldering castle.

"Maybe they wanted the Princeps," I suggested.

"No the Princeps died before this even happened," Elijah said back, "He had a terminal illness and died soon after Alaina left. Apparently they had a big funeral and the people from Orion a and b reached out to them. They started trading and became allies."

"Were you planning to tell me this?" I asked.

"Eventually, but you were busy with everything else in you life that I didn't want to burden you again," He replied.

We walked in silence. It wasn't awkward but it felt nice just to be in each other's presence in the dark. I started looking up at the planets. They are so big and bright in the night sky. This place is worth fighting over. We exit the city and march through the desert. It is interesting to see what Elijah has seen his childhood. He didn't see this barrier as protection he saw it as a cage and thought about escaping. Which he did end up doing but everything fell apart when he left.

"What an interesting view," I tell him.

"What? Oh yeah the view," He answered.

"The flowers are beautiful," I tell him.

He reaches over and picks one up for me.

"My desert flower." He sighs.

He runs his fingers through my hair.

"I thought I was you deadly nightshade," I tell him.

"Desert nightshade," He tells me.

I laugh. I love him so much.

I wrap my arms around him and reach up to kiss his nose. He picks me up in his arms and I squeal.

"Put me down!" I laugh.

"With all do respect. I deny your request," He says laughing.