Vitality In A Wasteland

13

Dalia had been walking for eight hours now. During that time Claire never let her eyes off the endless sands before her. Her mind raced to bright glimpses of her life in Capital. From when she first became a pilot trainee to the time her parents... No, that memory was always a blur. Whenever they popped up Claire's attention quickly shifted to other things. Like Dalia's warning that system cooling needed to reset, her systems needed to update to the long journey. It seemed her upgrades had not fully set in yet, she needed to come to a stop for an hour or so. Despite Claire being hyper focused on nothing more than her journey she knew it was for the best. Her eyes were stinging, she could feel her legs growing limp. Perhaps a break would be good. Besides her passenger had been far too quiet the last few hours. With night fall slowly looming, Claire hoped Dalia's core had not been tampered with by her strange accented 'friend.'

She came down the lift and flashed her ID to the door panel of the new cabin. At first, she was worried when she peeked through and Madeline was not on her bed, but she was found crouching down by the floor. When Claire entered, she turned around, she slowly rose with her hands behind her back.

"What do you have there?" Asked Claire.

"Nothing," said Madeline with raised eyebrows.

Claire stepped forward; Madeline took a step back automatically. Claire held her hand out, Madeline sighed and pulled forward a small book. Claire took it, her eyes lingered on its cover written in strange symbols. She flipped to the first page and found an image made from black pen, a perfect sketch of the lower city in Capital. Every detail was considered, the flexibility of light, the movements of the lower class and the rusted panels of roofing. Claire flipped through more pages, each holding sketches of different parts of the lower city and a few of the Greentech laboratory. A few of machines and old cars, all of which drawn with such detail that it was almost indistinguishable from a hologram.

"Did you do these?" Asked Claire.

"Oui..." said Madeline, looking to the ground and slowly rocking side to side.

"Your... Not so bad at it," said Claire trying to find a compliment knowing fully well that her drawing skills were below toddler grade.

Madeline looked up for a moment and her face flushed. She quickly turned away and said, "Oui."

Claire set the book on the bed and said, "Don't let me find you doing anything more than drawing pictures in there. Now, are you hungry?"

"Oui."

"Come along then, I'll let you out of this room for five minutes and five minutes only."

Claire had only noticed that her once cramped lift was slightly larger, only by a meter, long enough to have the two able to climb in together, their faces a little too close for comfort. They both avoided eyesight and Claire kept her fists ready in case of the chance that Madeline would strike her while they ascended. It was the most awkward thirty seconds of Claire's life, she swore she heard Madeline's heart racing, and a sweat escaped her brow.

They arrived back at Claire's cabin, she narrowly pulled herself out and walked to her ration bin. She pulled out two parcels and awkwardly re-joined Madeline. She swore she would never do this again; she would deliver parcels to Madeline if it meant she never had to be this close to her in such a tight space.

They arrived back to the control pod; Claire kept a careful eye on Madeline to ensure she didn't hijack command while they walked to the shoulder hatch. She pulled it open, bright afternoon flare filled her sight. She descended small stair gaps; Madeline followed. Upon Dalia's massive shoulders, just looking below made her feel like she was the top of the world. The sands below would not be a pleasant landing if just one step was miscalculated. A simple pinfall into a haystack of death as Gallio used to call it. It's always crossed Claire's mind whenever she ascended to Dalia's shoulder but in a way, it was reassuring. It would certainly be a more merciful death compared to what a Denjura would do.