IRIS

[smile]

The slow rumble of the train speeding on the tracks would have lulled me to sleep, but my mind was too alive with worry. I know that I should try to get some sleep, because this was probably going to be my last chance to sleep on anything comfortable.

I know that I need to relax, but I feel like it’s my job to keep everyone safe. I will not let anything happen to Lizzie when she is not able to care for herself. I lean my back against the cushion of my seat. I force myself to relax a little. I hadn’t realized how sore I was. This has been an exhausting few day. I find myself falling into the most peaceful sleep I’ve had in a very long time.

🔥

THUMP! OOF!

My heart is racing as I wake from a restful sleep. What happened? My mind is a flurry of confusion. Where am I? Everything that has happened in the past few days comes back to me. LIZZIE! Where is she? Did she fall? I jerk myself upright from leaning against the window. She is still in the same spot as before. I puff out a sigh of relief.

WAIT! What was that noise that woke me up? I glance out the window and see that it isn’t as dark, and I can see the outline of many caves. I can tell that the train has slowed down quite a bit. I hear laughter coming from the back of the train. I look back and bite back a smile. Jonah is sprawled across the aisle. He seems to have face-planted!

“That’s what you get for unclasping your seat-belt when we were slowing down!” laughs Skylar. He is crying from laughing so hard. Jonah peels his face off the ground with a small grunt. His face is bright red. Whether it’s from embarrassment or the ground, I’m not sure. But I’m pretty sure I can guess. I unclasp my seatbelt and join them.

“D-Did you se-see t-that?” gasps Skylar between fits of laughter. My shoulders shake with the effort of trying to keep from laughing. Jonah is always so serious, so it makes this “incident” that much more hilarious. Jonah grumbles something under his breath. It is nice to see them relaxing after all we’ve been through. Felicity peeks her head out from her seat. There is a red mark on her left cheek. She must have just woken up. My guess is that Anneke is sitting next to her. The two of them are really close. They have similar personalities.

As if on cue, Anneke pokes out her head right next to Felicity’s head. I walk over to where they are sitting.

“May I?” I ask before joining them.

I’m about to ask them how they are holding up, but before I can say anything, I hear a yell from up front.

“Everyone we have stopped, please exit the vehicle.” The old man yells back to us. Finally! I hope it won’t be too much longer until Lizzie is healed...we all slowly exit the train. Jonah and Skylar pick up Lizzie and carefully carry her out of the train. I bring up the rear of the group.

Since I am the leader of this group, I feel like it is my job to make sure everyone is safe (well, as safe as anyone can be in this life we are living) at all times. Everyone has stopped ahead of me. I push my way through everyone to see what the hold-up is. It’s a dead-end! In front of me is a huge cave wall. It is like a huge rock wall. Now what? Ugh! I sigh with realization.

This old man doesn’t know what he is doing! Why did we even trust him? As all of these doubting thoughts are swirling through my head, the old man slowly waddles to the front of all of us. He stands in front of the wall. Just stands there! He stares intently at the wall, like he is trying to tell it to open itself.

I grunt out a sigh of frustration. When I’m about to walk away, there is a loud chime. I look at the wall and it is slowly sliding open! Everything is alive with the noise of the wall. We all stare at it in wonder. It’s incredible! When there is an opening just big enough to squeeze through, the wall stops opening.

The old man ushers us through the opening. One by one we all squeeze through. It is a tight fit. It’s pitch black inside the cave, except for the light coming from the gap. The old man stares at it again, and the wall closes itself. I’m beside myself with wonder.

Then everything goes into darkness. I can’t see my own fingers. Then, there is a bright blue glow that lights up the entire cave. I look around me and see that there is a moat-looking thing around the walls. It is filled with this blue light. It’s the only light source.

I see a table in the center of the cave. It is cluttered with all types of mechanisms that I can’t identify. My eyes glance back at the walls and I gasp with amazement. There are waterfalls streaming down the rock walls of the cave. They are pouring into a large well. My guess is that is the old man's only source of water. There isn’t very much furniture.

This room is a bit bare on the decorations. There is another, longer table pushed to the corner of the room. It doesn’t have anything on it. There is a curtain hanging on a door frame. My guess is that that leads to his personal areas. I want to explore, but I remind myself why we are here. We just need to fix Lizzie.