Chapter Four: the Team

“So, where are we going now?” I asked Terry.
“ I want to introduce you to the rest of my team.” She said. “ They were with me when I found you.”
I was really glad that she was here. Otherwise I don’t know how I would have taken this. We walked a little further until we came to room full of people. “ This is the cafeteria. While we wait for the others you can get something to eat I’m sure your hungry.” I was and I guess I should’ve been, after all I hadn’t eaten in about a thousand years. “ Just a sec.” She said. “ I’ll go get you some.” She turned and walked away into the crowd of people. I waited patiently, but my stomach started to growl in anticipation. She returned only a few minutes later, but she wasn’t carrying anything. I raised my eyebrow and asked.
“Where’s the food?” She smiled and reached into her pocket and pulled out what looked hauntingly like another mineral card. I took it and looked it over. Again I asked. “Where’s the food?”
“That’s it, crazy.” she laughed. “ Go ahead try it.” I sniffed the cracker like thing suspiciously. My stomach roared fiercely in rebuttal. Timidly I bit into the cracker… The Flavor was like nothing I had ever experienced! I was overwhelmed! It was delicious. I devoured the rest of the cracker. Intantly, I felt more energized than ever. Plus I felt like I had just eaten a full meal.
“What on earth is this!” I exclaimed. Still blown away by the sheer taste and energy of it.
“ You like it?” She laughed. “ It contains an exact 24 hour dietary supplement of nutrients, minerals, and calories. Plus a few additives that stimulate the taste buds energize the nervous system, and simulate fullness.” She smiled as I continued to lick my lips. “ Hey there are the others.” She said pointing over through the crowd. “Come on. I’ll introduce you.” We pushed through the hordes of people and proceeded to a table on the far side of the room. Three people were seated around the table two guys and a girl. Terry called to them. “ Hey guys.” She shouted waving at them. They looked up and waved back as we walked up to them.
“Look who is finally awake.” one of the guys said. He looked to be about my age, but he was much taller than me at least half a foot. He was lean and muscularly built like an athlete. His blonde hair was buzzed short in a military fashion. He wore all black which seemed to be the tradition for the men in the dome. His shirt was tight, obviously to show off his muscular arms, and the sleeves were short cut off just before the elbow. He wore loose baggy pants that came down and covered his shoes. Around his waist hung something that resembled a snake or an eel of some sort, at the time I thought it must be a belt.
“That’s Caulin.” Terry said pointing to the guy who had just spoken. “ He has been with us since the beginning.” To the side she said to me. “ Don’t take him too seriously he can be kind of umm… slow.”
“ Hey! I heard that. I am not.” Caulin said jumping up quickly and banging his knee on the table. “ Ouch!” he cried sitting back down quickly to nurse his sore leg.
“Right.” The other guy said drawing it out sarcastically. “ You just keep telling yourself that.”
Terry smiled at the joke. “ and that is Gohn.” She said referring to the guy who had just spoken. “ don’t take him to seriously either. He has a tendency to be somewhat sarcastic.”
Gohn raised his eyebrows in fake offense. “ Me?” He said pointing to himself. “Never!” Gohn reclined in his chair nonchalantly. His posture seemed to match his personality. Gohn was clearly two or three years younger than Caulin, but also clearly had a keener wit as well. Gohn’s dark brown hair was longer than his older friend’s and was also a little unkempt. He was about my height maybe a little taller. He had a medium build. No where near the muscular tone of Caulin, but definitely not out of shape. He wore a black sleeveless vest that hung open revealing a black tank top underneath. His pants were less baggy than Caulin’s and you could see his black boots at the end of his legs. Around his neck hung a white breathing mask of some sort that appeared would cover his mouth and nose when worn properly. But overshadowing all his other features was definitely his arms. They were bare of clothing, but appeared almost deformed. Encircling the bicep of each arm were three fleshy sacs that appeared to be able to inflate, but were flat at the moment, and hugged tightly to his arms so that they were not too noticeable. From the sacs veins lead to small hollow tubes like things that ran down the length of his forearms stopping just before the wrists. This structure was obviously part of him, but at the same time looked somewhat foreign to his body. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, but decided that I would put off asking until later. In case it was a sensitive subject.
Actually, looking at him made me a little uncomfortable. Not because of his arms, but because he resembled my little brother, both in appearance and demeanor. He was about the same age, and his hair color and style was similar. Gohn was a little more muscular and the facial features were different, but he definitely seemed to have a similar personality. Thinking about it made me sick. I knew I would never see my little brother again, or the rest of my family for that matter. I quickly put it out of my mind. I couldn’t stand to think of all that yet.
Terry then turned to the other girl. “ This is Scylla, but we usually just call her Scyll. She just joined the group a few weeks ago, but I don’t know how I ever put up with these other two without her.” To be honest I had almost forgot that she had been sitting there. She was very quiet and seemed more than a little embarrassed at simply being introduced. She sat very straight and kept her hands in her lap. She exuded a kind of politeness and innocence. She was clearly the youngest of the group probably only 19. Her hair was short and layered coming only just above her shoulders maybe an inch shorter than Terry‘s. It was a bright blonde color that sort of shined even in the dimly lit room. She had it styled so that it fell over one eye completely covering it in a way that only magnified her shy appearance. She wore a flowing white dress tied at the waist that came down just below the knees. It seem the style for girls to wear all white. The dress, interestingly, at one side was sleeveless revealing her long slender arm, but on the other side was a long sleeve that came down past her hand hiding that arm completely. Which she seemed to keep awkwardly close to her body as if she was ashamed of it, or afraid of revealing it.
She looked at me for only a moment then quickly turned her eyes away and said hurriedly. “Hello, it’s nice to meet you.” We all talked a little while longer though Scyll said little, Caulin more than made up for her share of the conversation.
After a few minutes Terry finally said, “ Well, I have to go fill out some paperwork about our last trip. You guys don’t mind taking David back to his room do you?”
“ Of course not.” Caulin said grabbing me and pulling me next to him then putting his arm around my shoulder. “ we’ll all be getting along fine.”
“Great.” Terry said with a chuckle. “ Well then I’m off I will meet all you back here in the morning, ok?. Gohn make sure you show David how to get back here from his room.” He nodded. She then turned back to me, “Well it was nice meeting you, David. I hope you have a good night.”
I smiled and nodded, “Same to you.” We all said goodbye and Caulin, Gohn , and Scyll immediately started to walk. I quickly jumped up and fell into step behind them. We talked a lot as we walked down the long dome corridors. I asked questions about what life was like here and they responded, clearly amused that I seemed so intrigued by what they had known all their life.
After a while Caulin asked me. “ So I guess you don’t know anything about this place do you. I mean considering the world you remember was blown away a while ago.”
Scyll and Gohn stopped and gave Caulin a dirty look. “ Wow, that was possibly the stupidest and most insensitive thing I have every heard.” Gohn said to Caulin.
“What?” Caulin said in defense. “ I can’t help it if his home and everyone he knew is gone.”
“Wow, I stand corrected.” Gohn said shaking his head in disbelief. “ you are such a moron.”
Caulin threw his hand up in confusion. “ What did I say?” he asked looking around. Scyll and Gohn just put their hands to their foreheads as if fighting off a headache.
After a few minutes of thinking Caulin must have realized what had happened because he started to blush and smacked himself. Muttering the word “stupid”.
“ Don’t be offended by him.” Scyll said quietly as she came to walk beside me. “He really does mean well. He just seems to talk before he thinks.” She paused for a second. “long before he thinks.” I forced a smile. I really wasn’t offended, but I couldn’t help but be reminded by it. I really was in a strange world, and my world… well as Caulin had put it, my world had in fact been blown away.