Naraka - Ch.2

 Her hand feels strange – not the coldness I'd expected. The skin felt like rubber again, and very strong.
 As I shake her hand the only thing I can think, over and over again is: What in the world am I getting myself into?
 Outside the cabin I can see it's well past midnight. Maybe four or five o'clock.
 There, a great mettle thing stands waiting for us. I recognize it to be a car, though I've never seen one before. Not in real life anyway. I was told they are supposed to be very fast. About five times faster than the fastest horse. And since the quickest thing in my world is a horse, to me this thing seems unearthly.
 I have a dubious moment before I get in it, at the opposite side of Alexis. The car makes me feel uneasy – like it's a great threat. And I most certainly am not glad about letting myself be imprisoned by it.
 But I do get in, eventually – I've made a choice, now it's time to stick by it.
 I open the door and slide in next to Alexis. The seat feels good. Even better because it's nice and warm in the car. Alexis takes a key out of her pocket and slips it into a slot next to the wheel. She turns the key and an odd kind of purr sounds from the car. The car trembles for a second, and then settles.
 Alexis turn her eyes to me. She smiles as she sees my discomfort. ''Are you okay?'' she asks.
 ''I'm fine,'' I snap at her – the edge this freak machine puts me on makes the fear I feel for Alexis grow less.
 ''Alright, let's go,'' she says as she pushes one of the paddles down by her feet.
 The car reacts instantly. It roars, not very loudly, and starts rolling. Swiftly, like it's nothing at all, it moves over the rough and dry ground of the wasteland. It starts riding quicker and quicker until it settles only half a minute later on an unbelievable speed. It still feels like nothing at all, but when I look out of my window, in the almost darkness, I see we go faster than I could ever imagine going.
 ''So – '' I start, trying to distract myself from our unsettling speed, ''where exactly are we going?''
 Alexis, lost in thought, glances up at me, almost like she'd forgotten I was there. ''Like I said: the safe house a two-day ride from here. And like your little cabin, it's located in the middle of nowhere.''
 ''It's not,'' I correct her spoken assumption.
 ''What's not?'' she asks, trying to understand but failing.
 ''It's not my cabin,'' I verify in a small voice.
 ''Oh,'' she says, and then she understands. ''Ah, your friends. Yes, that was a pity,'' she says, referring to the dead bodies we left behind.
 ''They weren't my friends,'' I correct her again – though I wish I hadn't spoken. I'm in constant dubiety of what to say, because I'm desperately in need to distract myself, and what not to say, because I want her to know as little as possible about me.
 And she's making it hard; she starts asking questions.
 ''Then what were they?'' she asks.
 ''Just . . . people I met while travelling.''
 She looks at me sideways, making up her mind about something. ''You were travelling on your own?''
 I sigh – so much for telling her as little as possible. Well, I might as well . . .
 ''Yes,'' I answer her.
 Her eyes widen in surprise: she definitely hadn't expected this answer. And I know why. For a person to survive alone in these places, in these times is already a miracle. Let alone when that person is a seventeen-year-old girl like me. I am not even sure how I've pulled it off. But now I've come this far, I've only gotten tougher.
 ''Are you a good fighter?'' she asks.
 I recount every fight I've had – it aren't that many. Being practically invisible and surviving on the most limited of means, those are my strengths.
 ''I don't know,'' I answer vaguely, not telling her my inexperience in this department, and not wanting to make myself promising to her either.
 She grins. ''Have you ever been in one?''
 My cheeks burn slightly. I don't answer.
 ''It's okay: we'll teach you how to fight,'' she promises me in a certain voice.
 I like the sound of that!
 We're both quiet after that, for I feel too tired to talk – or to need distraction any more – and she, for whatever reason, holds her tong from that moment on.
 Soon my eyes feel to heavy to keep them open. Adrenaline has drained my body from every bit of energy. All I want now is to sleep. So I do.
 I dream, like every night, of monsters. They are dark and cold. They bare their teeth at me, threateningly, and snarl like animals. I run away from them, my heart and breath both frantic of fear. They follow me as I go. It takes them a long while to catch up with me, but finally, they do.
 I wake up in what feels like a pool of my own sweat. My heart and breath are as hectic as they were in my dream. Soon I realize I'm lying down. I try to remember the last thing before I fell asleep. I recall that I was not lying down then; I was sitting . . . in a car.
 I look around me, my eyes guarded; prepared for anything and everything.
 I take in my new surroundings slowly; my eyes needing the time to get used to the darkness. I'm on a one-person sized bed, lying on the covers with my clothes – and even my shoes – still on. And I'm in a small house-like room. Next to me is another bed – an empty one. And on the other side of the room stands a little table with two chairs. Above it is a window. It's open and from it comes a nice cool breeze.
 As I take in the room the first thing that comes to my mind is that it's a hotel room. But that couldn't be so, could it?
 Well, maybe . . .
 It wasn't like hotels were extinct. They were just all abandoned – like everything else – except for the ones in the safe cities. And I'm definitely not in a safe city. There's no way I could've gotten into one of those . . .
 A sound from outside interrupts my reverie. The door swings open a second later. Alexis steps into the room.
 ''Hey, you're awake,'' she counters enthusiastically.
 I just stare at her, processing again, after my deep sleep, who she is and all that happened.
 I see she's holding a phone in her hands – at least, that's what I'm guessing it is. She puts it down on the table and walks over to me. There she sits down on other end of the bed.
 ''How long was I out?'' I ask her after a while, my voice coming out a lot rougher than I'd expected it to.
 ''About ten hours.''
 ''What?!'' I all but yell at her.
 But I have to admit: it does explain why it's still dark. Or better: why it's dark again.
 She smiles carefully at me, trying to be soothing. ''You were very tired,'' she says.
 ''Apparently,'' I counter, my irritation directed inwardly – how could I? ''What time is it?''
 ''A little over six.''
 Six, that reminds of dinnertime. My stomach rumbles noisily as soon as the thought enters my mind. Alexis hears it, too.
 ''Hungry?'' she asks with an eyebrow raised and her lips forming a smile, though she already knows the answer.
 I nod, knowing there's no way to deny it now any more. Though I wish I could. I don't want to take any generosity from her. On the other hand, the practical person I am, I know very well I can't go without food or drink for two days and still function alright. I'll have to take something from her some time soon any way, so why not start right away? To keep up my strength as much as possible?
 Alexis gets up and walks over to the table. On one of the chairs stands a big bag. From it she takes a smaller paper back. She moves back to me and puts it in my hands, since I'm too stubborn to reach out and take it from her.
 I open it up and in it I find an apple, two large slices of bread with butter, a banana and a bottle of water. My stomach grumbles even louder at the sight of it. How long has it been since I've had a meal like this – all the food deliciously fresh? Weeks? Months?
 I don't care enough to answer and let my mind go blank as I empty the bag and start eating. Taking turns, each time I take one bite from the bread and a few swallows from the water, not able to simply choose which to take first. Oh, it's so delicious! And it feels so good as it goes down to my stomach!
 But as I keep going like this – finishing the water, the bread and the banana – within a minute, I start feeling uneasy. Oops! I recognized the feeling immediately, for I'd felt it many times before. It's the nauseous feeling you get when you eat too much at once after having been deprived of it for a period of time.
 I reach one hand to my mouth and the other to my stomach as I can barely hold it together. I close my eyes in an attempt to stop the spinning of my head – it feels exactly I've been circling little rounds for an hour or two, as fast as I can. In the end, after all the trying, I fail. As I scramble to my feet I throw a frantic glance in Alexis's direction. She points to her left, guessing rightly that I wanted to know where the bathroom was.
 I leap in my quickest sprint to the toilet. There I fall down on my knees and close my eyes as vomit convulses out of me. I flush it the second it's out, not wanting to risk smelling it and having to vomit again.
 When I'm done I sink to the ground completely and move to lean against the wall, still with my eyes closed. I massage my temples with the tips of my fingers, trying to stop the spinning of my head. I inhale deeply a few times, trying to ban the nausea from my head.
 I notice Alexis entering the bathroom, but I keep my eyes closed – now for various reasons. I hear her sitting down. I think she's leaning against the whole opposite from me.
 ''I'm sorry,'' she says.
 Is apologizing her go-to answer for everything? Every problem?
 I don't respond to her apology.
 Alexis laughs a short, soft laugh. ''I guess I'm still not very familiar with humans. I have a lot to learn about your species.''
 This pulls my attention.
 ''Who are you familiar with then?'' I ask her.
 I tried to open my eyes as I spook, but the bright lights on the ceiling felt like sharp spears, piercing through my mind painfully. So I close them again.
 Wait . . . lights? Electricity? How did she do that? In an abandoned hotel even?
 Alexis takes a moment to think through her answer, while I'm reveling over the fact she made lights go on. Then she answers. ''Mostly just immortals. In a place far, far away from here.''
 I push my attention away from the lights. ''What place?''
 The nausea has mainly subsided now. I slowly open up my eyes; giving them the time to get used to the piercing lights.
 ''That's too complicated to tell you in one sentence,'' she answers cryptically.
 ''So tell me in two,'' I say simply; getting annoyed with my lack of knowledge again.
 She laughs. ''I can't tell you in two either,'' she says, another chuckle slipping through her lips as she speaks.
 ''How can I fight the monsters if I don't even know who my allies are,'' I challenge her, my voice still annoyed.
 Alexis's face turns serious. ''I promise you, you'll find out. But it's better to take it all one step at a time. There will come a time you'll know everything, I promise you.''
 I snort, not letting myself put even the smallest amount of trust in her by believing and, depending on, her promises. ''You don't have to take so much effort for me: I know it's just a fancy way of saying you won't tell me anything, because you don't want to give away too much.''
 And I guess she's right about that: I would do the same thing. I'm even trying the same thing right now. But since our car ride I'm horribly failing.
 Alexis opens her mouth to speak, but I interrupt her. ''Please don't take the effort in denying it, either. Don't worry about it – I certainly don't.'' That's a lie.
 I get up from the floor and walk away.