Fortuna

4

After Aeolus left, I stood at the entrance of the hub nervously, waiting for someone to approach me. The door behind me was now gone - the artificial membrane walls had eaten it up. Which meant that I was trapped in this place with no exit. I'm so screwed.

I was in a large room, like an atrium, and there were a few neatly aligned cafeteria tables arranged in the center with a couple dozen chairs surrounding them. The walls were painted a healthy shade of green and the floor was littered with pots filled with a variety of plants and flowers some of which I recognized. The hub seemed to be trying a little too hard to imitate Earth. The ceiling was high though, at least a couple of stories tall, and it housed a few round shaped windows that would probably filter light on a nice day from the sky. It was of course dark now as both the night and the storm were approaching so instead, the oval lamps along the walls were in use.

I heard the soft whirring of the inner mechanics within the artificial membrane like it had a life of its own. A few clunks echoed as the remnants of the first wave of hail fell upon the roof. Otherwise, it was quiet.

The atrium was mostly empty, save for two middle-aged men playing what looked to be like cards at the end of one of the tables. They glanced at me for a moment when I first walked in with Aeolus but it seemed to be a force of habit as they quickly lost interest and continued on with their game. Occasionally, a sigh or a "dammit!" could be heard coming from their direction.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a guard approached me and handed me a pile of green fabric. He instructed me to change into my new attire and leave my old ones in the bathroom. Dinner was going to be in fifteen minutes.

I walked through the atrium to its back wall and as I heard each footstep echo in the silence, it was the first time in Fortuna that I truly felt alone. The time spent with Sally and Aeolus provided a necessary distraction to my cause but now that they were both gone, it truly hit me that I had absolutely no one on this foreign planet. Hopefully, that would change.

I could see that the wall had three metal doors - it didn't seem to be an artificial membrane - and on them were signs. I pushed open the one with a blue tag attached to the front, assuming it was for males.

I locked the door behind me when it closed. I started removing my clothes and caught a glimpse of myself in the reflection of the mirror; I looked like a walking blueberry too. But besides the hideous outfit, I didn't look half-bad. My brown hair was a bit messy, ruffled out on the top, and I looked a bit worn out, my under-eye circles dark. Why the hell was I here?

I closed my eyes and thought about Earth and wondered how long I was gone for. Did time even move at the same rate here as Earth? Did my mother realize I had disappeared? Were my friends at school wondering where I was? Did mom break up with Greg yet? Greg...he must have played a part in getting me to my current predicament. It felt like yesterday when I first met him.

I could still remember the last thing I thought of when I was on Earth. Greg wasn't that bad. It was weird, like a message someone had engraved in my brain. Why did I think that? Who cares? Earth's problems didn't feel like it had much of a significance anymore. Maybe this place was all an illusion?

I opened my eyes again and saw my hopeful reflection staring back. Hayden, you are so, so screwed but you'll get through this. You'll get back to Earth before you know it. This place isn't too bad, right?

There was a sudden, noisy rapping on the door.

"The new guy in there? I gotta use the bathroom!"

"Yeah...uh I'm just changing. Give me a second."

I hurriedly took off the ugly navy suit and replaced it with the equally ugly green one though it was much less heavy and bulky. Shit. The green suit didn't have any pockets for my x-disk; I would have to bring my blue suit with me. I bunched together my old suit and carried it under my arm.