Episode Forty-One - The City of Lights

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The sound of rain woke Alex up, slowly, like someone was softly tapping her on the shoulder. She blinked a few times to register what was going on. Sure enough, water was pelting down on the window her temple was resting against.

"What's happening?" Her voice trailed off as pure wonderment took over.

She had never seen rain. Real rain. The skies hadn't let go of a single drop in the almost twenty-one years she'd been on Earth. Sensory rooms could only imitate so much. Seeing the rain in front of her, knowing it was really falling from the sky—Alex was speechless.

Her fingertips pressed against the cold glass. She watched as the water droplets ran down the glass, joining each other as they grew bigger and bigger until bursting into nothingness.

The Glider's windshield wipers were going at full speed, combating the rain that battered them like marbles being thrown from the sky. They only had the lights of the car in front of them to guide their way.

Alex tore her attention away from the rain. It was hard to tell exactly where they were. Outside it still looked like a desert, but there wasn't as much sand. Rolling dunes had been replaced by roads and buildings.

"How long have I been asleep?" Alex asked. She shifted around so her back was flat against the seat.

Cicero shrugged and leaned forward, peering up at the sky. The heavy clouds obscured the sunlight.

"It's hard to say. I don't think the clock in this car is even for our time-zone." He tapped the dashboard and a holographic image of a clock appeared in front of Alex. It said the time was almost midnight. "Maybe only a few hours," Cicero added.

"We're a long way from where we started," Alex said. The rain still mesmerized her.

Lightning flashed in the distance, partially illuminating towering skyscrapers not far off beside them.

They made a turn to enter the city. Ominous neon signs appeared the closer they neared the buildings. The lights reminded her of the ones in the city where they met Vida. Still bright and full of long-lasting energy.

A giant arch stretched over the entire road. Dancing lights flickered from one end to the other, multi-colored shapes that took the form of fish as the vehicles approached. It appeared as if they were swimming. Blue light danced like flowing water across the road.

Alex's eyes widened, completely enthralled with how realistic it was. The rain momentarily stopped when the Glider passed under the arch. The interior was illuminated with lights. Alex raised her hand, twirling her fingers around the image of an orange fish that swam across her lap and over Cicero's arm. Only a few seconds later, the lights disappeared behind them, and the rain pelted down on the windshield.

"We're stopping here until the storm passes. You can barely see anything in this rain," Edric's voice crackled over the radio. "The good thing about this storm is that it's probably masked our trail." 

"Probably," Cicero muttered, shaking his head. "This place gives me a bad feeling."

"Stopping here is better than driving off a cliff," Alex reassured. She wasn't sure if she was trying to convince herself. Nowhere they had stopped so far had turned out to be anything close to safe for them.

Cicero only sighed at what she had said. He didn't seem persuaded.

They drove on, passing under a rail that held the remains of a sleek-looking train. The train was partially toppled over the tracks, and the cars had to drive cautiously around it. There was barely enough room for them to all fit between the train car and the railing on the edge of the road.

Lightning flashed overhead, and as the light cut through the windows of the train, Alex could have sworn she saw the outline of a person.

"Uh," Alex hesitated, craning her neck as they passed the train. The rain engulfed the train car, and it disappeared from sight.

"What?" Cicero asked.

"I thought I saw someone."

"Someone, as in a live person?" Cicero turned his head to look in the side mirror. "I didn't hear anything."

"I don't know. I know I saw something in the train car, though."

The Glider hitched over an object. It was hard to tell what they had gone over, but the cars in front of them slowed down. Another bump rocked the Glider. Alex looked over at Cicero curiously. The blood had drained from his face.

"I don't think we have to worry about anyone being alive in this city." His words were suspiciously dark in tone.

Alex leaned to the side. The rain was too thick for her to see through; her senses were no match for his. She looked at him for an answer, but noticed the wince Cicero made as they bounced over something else. It was easy to deduce that the speed bumps were human bodies.

"Please tell me they're at least not recent," Alex said. Her heart fluttered in her chest.

Cicero shook his head. "No. They're just bones and cloth now. But something definitely happened here."

Relief broke up the tightness in her chest. Not that dead people were a good thing by any means, but at least they'd been dead for some time. That meant whatever had happened was years before they pulled into the city.

Alex distracted herself with the neon lights passing by overhead. Advertisements and holographic images danced around the peaks of the buildings. One of the taller structures to their right swarmed with fish.

Two, large whales encircled the very top of one of the buildings as if in a dance. One of them glitched through the rain. It would stutter ahead, darting through the storm clouds, pectoral fins fanning out in wide bursts at its side with each appearance.

"Do you think we're near an ocean?" Alex asked without turning away from the window.

"I don't know. We could be. The roads took us south. But if we are, that means there's more danger out here," Cicero replied after a moment.

She fell silent, taking his warning seriously. In the city, they didn't have a compound or a bunker to run to. No wall to hide behind.

The cars navigated the streets of the city as carefully as possible. Bumps and scrapes against vehicles left on the road were inevitable. One of the larger armored cars up front pushed most of the obstacles out of the way.

Rain fell even harder. Thunder and wind shook the Glider. It was with the best of timing they passed into a parking garage as the storm picked up.

A sharp silence was overpowering. From the loud thunderclaps and pelting rain, to a muffled garage, Alex almost jolted away from the window. She'd become so used to the droning sound of the storm, she forgot what the world around her sounded like. Alex glanced sheepishly over at Cicero as she leaned back in her seat, then looked at the looming shadows and overgrown levels of the garage in front of them.

They drove up one more level before parking in empty stalls.

Alex climbed out and stretched her arms over her head. Something popped in reaction, and she winced at the pain. She turned her head to regard the others exiting their cars, everyone except those in the armored van, at least.

"How long do you think we'll be stuck here?" Rollo asked as they all regrouped.

"I don't know. I haven't been in a lot of storms to know how long they usually last," Vida said, frowning.

They all followed Vida's gaze out into the streets below them. A gray haze had settled over the city. It was covered in a sideways sheet of rain and low hanging clouds that had no sign of dissipating anytime soon. Thunder rumbled close enough to rattle the concrete barrier separating them from an asphalt road about twenty feet beneath them. A road they couldn't even make out in the fog.

I don't think we're going anywhere anytime soon.


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