House of the Morningstar: Chapter 34
Created | Updated Jul 15, 2023
House of the Morningstar: Chapter 34
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This morning when I got up from my air matress on the floor I looked out of the window, and I could see the roofs of Katastropolis, gleaming in the rising sun. We passed through a few future suburbs and could watch the movements of cranes and other machines. All this somehow made this ride through the desert less lonely already. Maybe some time I will come back to see this place alive.
When the gates of the city opened and the caravan entered the large airlock, it was a relief for me to be back in a civilised place – more or less. I was so glad to be able to leave the vehicle in one of the large halls close to the gate. It looked just like the one where I met up with a similar caravan one month ago. It seems like a much longer time has passed. When I looked around I found Kelly waiting for me not far away. She made me hurry to get my luggage and follow her out of the hall and to the next tramway station. Once we wew at what she considered a safe distance, she explained that she had seen some of the men from Bill's warehouse and she had noticed them rummaging around the cargo and asking questions to the passengers who had left the vehicle before me.
Kelly insisted on my spending the night at her place, so we dropped off my luggage there before going out for lunch together. It seems like while I was on my way back to civilisation, Kelly has been snooping around and watched the other caravan arrive yesterday. She saw how Bill's men obviously scanned their luggage and escorted them all to a shuttle to the next transport home while pretending to just being helpful. This makes clear that we have to avoid them by all means. What if they find anything I still have with me?
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Into the Mountains
With the moon at her back, Tanja rode her bike through the desert. She followed the way Rahim marked for her on the map as he and his sister chased Angela Morgenstern and her kidnapper. So far the direction seemed to coincide with the coordinates she had found in Cecilia Morgenstern's notes. They really seemed to be on the way to Eldorado. Tanja hoped that she would be able to catch up with the others and that they would be able to capture 'Mr Spencer', now that he was alone. On the other hand she also didn't want to endanger Angela Morgenstern in any way.
She had now almost reached the mountains, which lay in front of her, ragged and full of shadows. In the moonlight the world was grey – not, that it was particularly colourful during the day. Everything was quiet, as it always was, therefore every sound Tanja made herself seemed to be even louder. The only movement was from the occasional gust of wind blowing the dust around.
At the position which Rahim had marked on the map, Tanja left the road, turning north. For a moment she stopped to put a water ration into her suit. She noted that there indeed were tracks on the ground. The continuing ride was quite bumpy and at some places she had to get off her bike and push. She hoped that the others were facing the same problems and that she would be able to catch up eventually.
Slowly, the moon was making its way in the sky as Tanja got closer and closer to the mountains. She already wondered how she would be able to cross them, when she found herself on a relatively even streak of ground, leading her onward between rocks and steadily uphill. She discovered that below several layers of sand and dust there definitely was a road buried here. She was certain that she drove right in the other's tracks. The mountains in front of her were looming up high into the night sky, when suddenly Tanja saw that the road led her right into a canyon between two cliffs. Tanja hesitated before entering the dark chasm between the rocks. Somehow it made her feel uneasy. The bright moonlight only illuminated only the first few steps and although she had night vision, she still knew how dark it really was. The streets in Katastropolis never seemed to be as dark as this.
Tanja sighed and cautiously drove into the darkness. The sides of the steep cliffs next to her had just about the right space between them to fit a road; sometimes, however, they moved closer together, leaving the road rather narrow. At some spaces there were large holes in the rocks, some mere niches, some seemed to lead deeper into the rocks. Tanja didn't like them. As she passed she had the illusion of seeing movement or even a light in a few of them. She tried to focus on the way ahead but could not get rid of the feeling of being watched.
After a short while, the canyon seemed to get wider and then, suddenly, Tanja saw a light in front of her on the road. She slowed down as she noticed two people standing in the road, but she couldn't see who it was. She herself had already been spotted however and one of the people waved at her. She slowly drove over to them and saw that they were indeed Zara and Rahim.
Rahim explained that Angela Morgenstern and her kidnapper also had stopped behind the next bend. Carefully, Tanja peeked around the rocks and saw two people standing next to a vehicle. In front of them was a large arched structure on which the letters 'COME' were attached. It seemed like there once were some more which had fallen off. Behind this there was a structure, spanning what seemed to be the end of the canyon from side to side. In its center there was a large gate which was hanging lopsided on its hinges.
Tanja got out her gun and aimed at what seemed to be the larger one of the two people standing ahead on the road. Then, suddenly, she wasn't sure anymore, cursed and put the gun back again. She watched as the two walked closer to the gate.
Tanja watched as the two people squeezed through a gap in the gate. Tanja moved closer to the gate waited for a few minutes. She didn't see anything, so she decided to go through inside, too. Zara and Rahim were closely behind her, but they only fit through the gate one by one.
When Tanja had got through the gap, she found herself in the half-collapsed interior of a large hall. Moonlight fell through a hole in the roof on a small mound of old rubble, other than that it was completely dark. Tanja could only see with the help of the night vision device in her helmet. Suddenly she felt someone grab her from the side. A gun was pressed against her back.
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