“Are you going to try to crack the combination?” I ask. I shake my head. Such a task is futile though I don’t know what else we’re going to do. Sometimes, a futile task is better than doing nothing.
“Something like that.”
A moment later, I hear a click. I glance up and watch her unwind the chain from the lever and push the metal door forward.
“What the fuck?”
Chapter 9
Aerin looks back at me sheepishly, shrugs, and discards the chain. She pushes the door until it’s completely open and begins to crawl inside.
“Come on,” she says with a sigh. “It’s a long trek to the other side.”
I’m speechless, mouth hanging open and bursting bladder completely forgotten. Her feet disappear into the dark opening before I can even move.
“You knew the combination the whole time?” I crawl to the top and follow her through the door and into another shaft.
She doesn’t answer as she crawls along the corridor for another hundred feet before reaching a mesh grating with another, unlocked latch. She pushes the latch down, shoves the grate open, and lowers her feet and legs over the edge.
“It’s not a far drop,” Aerin says. “Just be careful.”
A second later, she’s gone. I scramble to catch up and look through the grate to the room below.
The room below.
A room inside of the mountain.
It’s not a large area—maybe twenty-by-twenty feet—and the room is mostly empty save for a few wire shelves and a chair. There are electrical outlets on the wall, but nothing is plugged into them. On the other side of the room is an open door leading into darkness. My head is spinning as I look down and see Aerin shining her light at the concrete floor directly below me.
“You’re going to have to jump,” she says. “There isn’t a ladder or anything.”
“What is this place?” I ask as I swing my legs over the edge and drop down.
Aerin doesn’t answer. I blindly follow her through the door and into a hallway that continues too far for the light to reach the end. Open doors lead to additional, mostly empty rooms on either side of us, but she pays them no mind as we continue through the passageway underneath the mountain.
Her light shines off concrete and metal, casting an eerie glow around the doorways of the empty rooms. The hallway is completely devoid of any obstructions though I see bits of dirt and dust caked in the corners of the tile floor as we go by. The metal doorways have hints of rust around the seams.
I walk behind her and try not to stare at the way her ass moves when she walks. I can only just see the outline of her body with the lig
ht in front of her, but my eyes keep going there anyway. I force myself to look around, but the bare walls and floors aren’t nearly as interesting.
I have to admit that I’m intrigued by this woman. I’m also highly annoyed by her. If she knew about this place all along, why did we spend the night cooped up in that tiny shaft? We would have been a lot more comfortable inside.
Then again, I rather liked being that close to her.
I can still feel where her body was pressed up against mine. I can still hear her slow breathing and feel her warmth. I’m not used to feeling so attracted to a woman, and I can’t determine why I’m feeling this way.
She’s physically attractive, sure, but a lot of women are. Several women in Plastictown are downright beautiful, but they’ve never had this effect on me. Considering our first interaction, I shouldn’t want to have anything to do with Aerin, the thief who punched me and dropped me off a wall. I should be pissed at her. I should hate her.
I don’t.
I want to know where she saw Star Wars. I want to know what other books she’s read and how she knows about this place. I want to know where she’s from and how she knows about me. I want to know what she’s doing here, and I absolutely need to know what her intentions are.
“There’s a bathroom over there,” Aerin says, pointing down a side hall.
I blink and shake my head. Indeed, both a men’s room and a women’s room are at the end of the hall. Stationed between the doors is a water fountain, a first aid cabinet, and a fire extinguisher. Aerin hands me the flashlight, and I stare at her for a second before shaking my head again and heading into the bathroom.
I’m hit with the smell of mildew and stale disinfectant. Urinals line one side of the room and stalls the other. I haven’t seen an actual public restroom since I was imprisoned. In Hilltop, the Thaves’ homes use portable toilets which have to be emptied manually. Naughts use privies dug in the woods. I usually use a tree.