Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
“Go check what out?”
“You know.” She nods her head at the steel door. “Whatever’s going on behind that door.”
“You want to go inside?”
“Don’t you?”
I mean, honestly, it hadn’t even occurred to me. So I say, “No.”
Which makes Clara chuckle. “Why not? We’re here. In a strange world. Even though it is my world, this was all hidden from us. We need to check it out. What if the terrorist is in there?”
“He’s not.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he—” I almost say he started out at Tau City and couldn’t possibly have gotten this far yet. Which would’ve puzzled Clara, to say the least. “Because he’s on the other end of the line. Near the Outlands.”
“Well, I’m curious. I want to see inside. I was never given the opportunity to explore my world, and now I have one. If those bot things don’t care that we’re here, then I want to take a look.” And then, before I can answer so we can have a discussion about this, she hoists herself up onto the platform and starts walking towards the door.
I follow, catching up with her and taking her by the arm. “What are you doin’?”
“I told you.” She pulls her arm out of my grip. “I’m going to look. You only live once, Tyse. And I don’t know what the future is going to bring, but I just have this feeling that I’ll never be back this way again so this is my only chance. What if all the other stations don’t have bots, but people? We can’t go in those.”
She’s right. But I don’t think the other stations are manned by actual people. These bots explain how Finn Scott is able to infiltrate the cities on the line and blow up the towers. They just… don’t see him. Don’t care about him, either.
“Fine. You’re right,” I say, givin’ in. “We might never get this chance again. We’ll look.”
She beams me a wide smile. “Thanks.”
“But I go first.”
“Lead the way, my captain.” I catch her snickering at me good-naturedly as I open the steel door and peek inside.
6 - CLARA
I’m holding on to Tyse’s shirt as he peers inside the station. “Well?” I ask, trying to see around his hulking frame, but not having much luck.
“No one’s here.” He opens the door wider, stepping through.
I follow, but pause just inside the door, trying to look at everything at once. It’s nothing spectacular—just a white-tiled hallway, really. But it feels… otherworldly. There’s a hum in the air. Like machines are working in some distant part of the station.
It’s all very… I don’t know. I don’t really have a word to describe the style of this place. Hard. But functional. There are white pipes running both left and right on the ceiling. There are even some coming down the walls and disappearing into the floor. Everything is covered in the same white tiles as the train tunnel outside, which reflects the light pouring out of lanterns that line the hallway at evenly spaced intervals. But these lights don’t appear to be powered by spark the way the ones in the Maiden District of Tau City were. The glow is mostly neutral white, with a bit of yellow.
“Which way should we go?” I ask, finding myself slightly out of breath from all of the excitement.
Tyse shrugs. “One way is as good as the other.” He chooses right.
I let go of his shirt—reluctantly—and follow. The hallway curves to the left as we walk and soon, we come to another door.
Tyse stops, his fingers gripping the handle of the door, and winks at me. “Moment of truth?”
“Do it,” I nod. Still a bit nervous, but forcing myself to sound brave.
The door must be very heavy because Tyse puts a lot of effort into opening it, and the moment the seal is broken, the noise of machinery is so loud, I see Tyse’s lips moving, but can’t hear him talking.
He starts pointing. Then grabs my hand and we enter the new room.
It’s massive. When I look up, it’s like being inside a tower, that’s how many floors there are above us. But it’s nothing like any tower I’ve ever been in. It’s dark, and wet—many pipes are dripping—and there is a lot of metal.
Metal stairwells, metal steps, metal railings.
There is a lot of glass as well. Massive containers—all empty—line every wall. They look like enormous jars. Each one has tubes coming out of it, which disappears into the walls.
The setup reminds me of the UpCity brewery Finn used to take me to in the Canal District that year I was part of the Extraction. Before I was chosen and sent to the Maiden Tower to live and my days were filled with duties. Only those vats weren’t made of glass, but copper. And they weren’t this massive or complicated.