The Joy Thief

Three - Willa

To say our current situation confused me was an understatement. This Ironhide, Fifth, had gone against everything I thought I knew about these beasts, all in a span of one hour. Isaiah had tried to talk me out of what we were doing. We had been waiting in the sewers for some time for Fifth. That had to be a rank, not a name. After all, Fifth wasn't much of a name. Isaiah had been quite adamant that he believed that we were walking into a trap. Part of me was inclined to believe him. Why would any Ironhide go against their orders and risk everything to help us escape? It made no sense. I couldn't explain it, but I had a gut feeling. One that made me believe he could be trusted. Sitting in that closet and coming face to face with Fifth as he opened the doors, then again when he returned to sneak us out, I could not shake the feeling he genuinely wanted to help us. Something in his eyes gave off a sort of empathy. It just wasn't possible to gauge a reason for his kindness.

"Get ready, we are about to breach to the surface. I will climb the ladder first. When you reach the top, you must act like I am your master, like I have authority over you. Do you understand?" Fifth asked as he approached a rusted ladder.

"Where are we?" Isaiah asked quietly.

"Do you not know?" Fifth responded, surprised. "This is Nexpernon."

Nexpernon. The colony?

Fifth did not give us any more time to think about what this meant or ask any questions. He had begun climbing the ladder. Isaiah looked at me, horror and fear stretched across his face. Nexpernon was far from Earth. Very far.

Fifth forced the cover of the sewers open and climbed out of the shoot to the surface above. Taking a deep breath, I started my ascent to follow his lead. Loud voices and several shouts echoed from above and I stopped halfway up the ladder. My gaze drifted down, meeting Isaiah's as his nervous hands clenched on the rungs. He gave me an encouraging nod, and his lips pulled to either side with a slight frown.

Della, we're coming for you.

Taking one large gasp of air, filling my lungs, I forced myself to breach the surface.

The landscape on the outside was like nothing I had ever imagined seeing. The buildings of the colony were run down, and in disarray. The familiar architecture that was so advertised on Earth, "The Settlements of the Future," had decayed to the point of total disrepair. Tears stung in the wells of my eyes. The buildings, shaped like white cubes of sugar, placed ever so neatly side-by-side, were stained with mud and filth. Ironhides roamed everywhere, many patrolling the streets, wearing full combat gear, very similar to the type Fifth wore. The worst sight, however, was that of other humans.

There were humans everywhere, covered in dirt and all wearing the same clothes: a tanned brown shirt and pants, but attached to them were highly sophisticated looking shackles. Lines upon lines of them, chained to one another were laboring underneath the hot, Nexpernon sun. We had surfaced in the middle of what resembled a street, and there were clusters of humans everywhere, tirelessly laboring. Some were digging up soil, while others were laying down more material to repair the roads. In the distance, more humans slaved away at building large structures. But the buildings were of a design foreign to me, pillars and walls of ivory and bone. They'd taken our sophisticated cosmotropolis and turned it into a domed colony of rock, skeleton fragments and an element resembling hardened lava.

Fifth stood beside the hole we had emerged from. He grabbed both my arm and Isaiah's before yanking us down the street.

"As I said, keep quiet if you plan on surviving."