Eyes Up, Guardian

Chapter 2

"The Tower."

I awoke a few hours later, sprawled out on the floor. I had a vague memory of taking off my gauntlets, chest plate and boots while I was half asleep, for they weren't the best thing to sleep in. I lay on my stomach wearing a black tank top and my leg armor, my boots were tossed aside and my armor was tucked under my head as a makeshift pillow. My hair was a matted mess and my mouth tasted foul, my body felt grimy and weak with hunger.
I sat up, feeling pretty worse for wear, having just fallen asleep on the floor in clothes that were probably multiple centuries old. I hadn't eaten in multiple centuries. And– I'm no clean freak, trust me, but the fact that I hadn't showered in multiple centuries made my skin crawl. I wasn't sure how I even had skin, I mean surly my body should have decomposed, right? Regardless, I wasn't going to ask how the Ghost did it.
I stood slowly, getting dizzy, I placed my hand on the wall, which didn't help much, seeing as I was in a flying ship. I regained my balance slowly and headed towards the front of the ship. I reached the cockpit, bumping into multiple things that would surely leave me bruises, and sat down in one of the chairs. The Ghost was manning the controls, but he seemed happy when I came along.
"You're just in time, we're about to reach the city." The Ghost said pleasantly.
"Good, I'm starving." I said, which was an understatement.
Outside, rain smacked against the windshield, the Ghost, or the ship itself, maneuvered out of the way of clouds and lightning strikes. Suddenly, the clouds cleared and we burst forth into the light of morning. Below us was a mountain range, in front of us was the most magnificent sight I'd ever seen.
A huge city sat below an enormous tower, so tall it nearly brushed the clouds. Floating above the city was the Traveler. I'd only seen it once in my past life, and never this close. The bottom seemed to be breaking slightly, patches of darkness clinging to it like leaches. We circled around to the large tower, realizing we were landing, I made my way back to where I had dumped all my stuff and shoved my feet into my boots, pulled on my chest armor and gauntlets and lastly, pulled on my helmet, mostly to hide my mess of hair.
The Ghost and I vanished from within the ship, appearing in a large plaza area, Guardians milled around, but I was too fascinated with the view to even bother paying attention to them.
"Welcome to the last safe city on earth. The only place the Traveler can still protect." The Ghost said, looking out at the city and the Traveler. "It took centuries to build. Now, we're counting every day it stands. And this tower is where the Guardians live."
I looked around, a few Guardians had noticed me, but none of them seemed to mind. I had begun to feel sick with hunger, my head felt funny and and I had to brace a hand on the railing for support.
"Ghost." I said, looking over at him, "Can you take me to some place where I can get something to eat?" I knew I had my helmet on, so the Ghost couldn't see it, but I felt like my skin was getting hot, burning, I reached up, pulling off my helmet and looking at the Ghost again.
The Ghost looked at me in worry, then led me across the plaza, down a short, wide flight of stairs that a bunch of Guardians were running down, leaping over the railings around it or jumping the whole flight all together. The landing of the flight was larger, width wise, than the flight itself, in front of the stairs was a wall. The wall was the same width of the flight and on either side of the wall were two short sets of stairs leading out to a hall. The hall led to a large room with an entire wall of glass. All I could see in the room was a huge table with three people standing around it, Guardians ran two and from the three, probably taking orders, though many of the Guardians enjoyed jumping on their table. The three didn't seem to mind, Vanguard leaders, I assumed, must be a lighthearted bunch, but right now, I wasn't worried about that.
Going down the flight of stairs straight and facing the wall with the two staircases on either sides, there were the right and left walls on the landing. Each wall has a set of stairs built into it, heading down. The Ghost led me to the left set and guided me down the flight of stairs. The stairwell went down a little, then leveled out into another hallway.
"Everything that involves training and equipment to a major extent is on the right side," The Ghost explained as we went, "The gyms, training rooms, equipment workstations, you name it. On the left are the residential things, Guardian's rooms, the dining hall, things like that."
We headed into the hallway and the Ghost led me into a large hall that I understood to be the dining hall. The hall was like a cafeteria, only more restaurant like and homey. Guardians sat all around, talking at table with each other, being everyday normal people, only with Ghosts and half of the people in armor.
"Guardians can eat basically whatever they want here, but the Ghosts do monitor diets and help suggests things that would help a Guardian." The Ghost explained, hovering over my shoulder, "I suggest you get a balanced meal including meat, dairy, grains, fruits and vegetables, but that you take it to your room so you're in a calmer environment."
I had begun to feel a little better, my feeling of hunger had gone away and my head had cleared a little but I was shaking slightly. I followed the Ghosts instructions and soon I was leaving the dining hall with a plate of steak, potatoes, watermelon, broccoli and glass of milk. I know I didn't have any grains, but potatoes were a starch, so I was going to count it.
The Ghost led me down a hall where we passed a bunch of Guardian rooms and multiple common rooms. From what I could see, the common rooms were large and comfortable. Some were sleek and modern, others were of an older style and more homey. I saw a large fireplace in one, the fire crackling on the fireplace nearly drew me off my path. I'd always loved warm fires. Unless they burnt you, those were mean fires.
At the end of the hall there was an elevator, simple, but not as boxy as I remembered them to be. This elevator was more sleek, larger and rounded. The walls were glass, even the outside of the elevator shaft was glass, giving a brilliant view out at the city. I wasn't afraid of heights, but even being so high up made me reach out and take the railing with my hand.
We descended multiple floors, as we went down, I watched a pair of birds flying up from the city below, flying past the elevator and up towards the top of the tower. I assumed the birds must like it here, it was probably less crowded than in the city.
The Ghost must've seen me looking, for he spoke up, "The earth doesn't have very many animals left. Humans have made it their duty to keep birds and other animals like them to try to keep the insect populations from going out of control. Ghosts could revive some of the lost animals, but we don't have the time, we have to tend to our Guardians." He explained.
I glanced over at the Ghost, inspecting it for the first time. They way it moved its shell to show emotions made me happy, for some reason. I felt at home with the Ghost, though I wasn't sure why.
"Why did you bring me here?" I asked it after a few moments, "I'm not a Guardian, I'm not supposed to be here."
The Ghost seemed to have trouble replying, he looked at me for a moment, seeming about to reply when there was a soft ping and the elevator doors slid open.
"I'll explain once you're fed and rested." He promised, "C'mon, your room's this way."
Room was an understatement. The Ghost led me down a hallway and to a door, it opened with the simple touch of my hand on the doorknob. Inside there was a short entryway, branching off to my left was a huge closet, looking the size of about two normal sized bathrooms– including showers and baths– combined. The closet was for armor and weapons. Half of it was a number of racks and hangers and a few dummy things to put armor on, the other half was a peg board were pegs had been arranged to hold certain weapons. I put my rifle and sniper rifle on the pegs, as they had been slung over my shoulders. I then slid off my boots, put away my helmet and took off my gauntlets and chest plate. I carefully hung them up on one of the dummy things, though I wasn't sure exactly how, but I managed.
I then left the closest, heading down the short entry hallway. To my left was the kitchen, big enough for me, as I didn't know how to cook. The kitchen had a little bar that led out to a nice little sitting area. There was a desk, a nice fireplace and a few couches, arranged artfully. The room was completed with a few nice looking blankets and pillows. I was tempted to go and flop down on it the couches, but I figured that if the couches were this good the bed would be better.
From the sitting room there was a door on the right side of the room, I opened the door, finding a large bedroom. The bedroom was large, in the middle was a giant bed, probably no less than a king. Also in the room was a dresser, and two more doors, one leading to a normal sized closet, another to a large bathroom. The bathroom was complete with a shower, a tub, a washing machine and dryer, and of course a toilet and sink. I headed back to the dresser and pulled through, finding some normal clothes that would fit me, tucked among some of my clothes from my past life.
"Ghost," I said, glancing up at him, "How did you get these? They must've been destroyed in the collapse."
"I was able to get some information on you and recreated them." The Ghost explained, "I found a pictures of you wearing them, they're not perfect, but they are quite close."
I nodded in understanding then sat down on the edge of the bed, I had still been carrying around the tray of food I had gotten, and I started eating, my hunger catching up to me again. I ate quickly, practically stuffing my face with the food. I ate so fast I hardly even tasted my food, though what I did taste was great. Once I was done I put the tray on the dresser and grabbed some pajamas and headed into the bathroom, eager to take a shower. The Ghost followed me into the bathroom, explained what all the buttons and knobs in the shower did and then floated back out of the bathroom.
Once he was gone I peeled off the rest of my grimy clothes and tossed them in a heap on the floor. I turned on the water in the shower and stepped inside, adjusting the water pressure, temperature and even the angle of the water flow with the knobs. I pressed a button and a little pocket in the wall opened, containing anything anyone might need to clean themselves in a shower. The shower seemed to remove the chill from my bones, I could've stayed in there forever, eventually, though, I got out and dried myself off, pulling on the pajamas I'd brought. I was planning on flopping straight in bed– I was tired, death does that to you– but before I did that, I brushed my teeth, glad to get the terrible taste out of my mouth. I then left the bathroom, flopping down on the bed, the Ghost watching me, seeming concerned.
"Are you alright?" He asked, flying down towards my face.
"I'm fine. Turn off the lights, I'm tired." I told the Ghost through a yawn. I'd never actually seen a Ghost turn off the lights, but I assumed he could do it, and if he couldn't do it wirelessly it would be funny to see him ramming into the lights switch, trying to flip it.
The lights flicked off– wirelessly, leaving me slightly disappointed– and I crawled under the puffy blankets, heavy and long enough that I could easily pull them up to my neck, my favorite. I rested my head on the pillows and closed my eyes.
"Goodnight, Tessa." The Ghost said, and oddly enough, the sound of my own name was a comfort as I drifted off to sleep.