Ch. 57 | New Beginning 15: Alysa

I had no idea what to say to her, so I figured the safest option was to play along with her personality a little and let her take the lead. If Alysa liked being treated like she was in charge, then fine. I could work with that.

“Well…” I say, rubbing the back of my neck. “I just got here and haven’t got a chance to see much of the place yet. Mind showing me around?”

Her eyes narrow.

“The fuck? I’m not your mom. Go find Maya if you need someone to hold your hand.” She glances around the room, then frowns. “Speaking of which, where the fuck did she go? I told her I was getting hungry.”

Alysa sucks in a deep breath, then bellows at the top of her lungs: “MAYA, YOU STUPID BITCH, BRING ME MY FOOD RIGHT FUCKING NOW OR I’LL FUCKING TIE YOU DOWN TO A FENCE AGAIN, LIKE A STUPID COW THAT YOU ARE !!!“

I stared at her blankly. She couldn’t possibly be this helpless. And to think that this was the vice captain? The same girl who’d spent the last half hour acting all high and mighty apparently couldn’t even feed herself without Maya’s assistance. I was starting to wonder whether Maya’s official position was First Officer or Alysa’s full-time caretaker.

For a moment I seriously consider leaving. In fact, I probably should leave. She made it very clear she didn’t want me here, and pushing the issue with my superior wasn’t gonna do me any favors. Then again, I had to remind myself as to why I was here in the first place.

So, I lower myself against the wall beside the door and wait as Alysa scours around the training room, looking for Maya, who was very obviously not here.

A few minutes pass by. Then a few more. I pick at a loose thread on my sleeve, glance down both ends of the corridor, count the ceiling panels, lose track, and start again. By the time Alysa crawls out from under the bench—because apparently Maya hiding underneath it was a possibility worth checking—I can’t help but yawn.

Alysa stands up, takes one look at me leaning against a wall beside her door, and freezes.

“What the hell?”

I glance up.

“Hi,” I say as I wave at her.

“Why are you still here?” Her frown deepens as she looks around like there might be a sensible explanation hiding somewhere nearby. “Don't you have anything else to do? Shoo. Scram.”

“No, I in fact do not." To her surprise, I actually agree with her. ”Nap duty, remember?”

For once, Alysa doesn't immediately have something obnoxious to say. Her expression shifts as she looks me up and down, irritation giving way to something harder to read.

Then she groans.

“Ah, hell with it. You wanna come with me?”

I blink.

“Where?”

“Does it matter?” she asks, giving me a puzzled look.

Considering everything that had happened since I arrived here, probably. Still, I wasn’t about to waste the opportunity to finally see what Alysa was like for myself.

She turns and starts walking before I can properly answer, so I push myself off the wall and follow.

“Not really,” I say, falling into step beside her.

“Good.” She nods to herself, looking strangely pleased with that answer.

We take one corridor I haven’t seen before, then another, while Alysa moves through the building with the ease of someone who could probably navigate it blindfolded, occasionally turning around and walking backward for several steps without even bothering to look where she’s going. Just a few minutes ago she’d been screaming bloody murder, loud enough for me to hear through a closed door. Now she’s humming under her breath and almost bouncing with every step, her hands tucked behind her back like she doesn’t have a care in the world.

I had no idea what to make of the sudden change. Then again, I hadn’t managed to make much sense of Alysa in general.

“So,” I ask eventually, “are you gonna tell me where we are going or what?”

“Mhm“ She hums. “We are gonna get lunch.“

Okay, that was a bit anticlimactic. I wasn’t sure what I’d expected, but part of me had imagined some underground dungeon, a ridiculous initiation test, maybe even some secret trial I had to overcome before I got officially accepted into the squad.

Turns out we were just getting lunch.

“Lunch, huh,” I repeat absent-mindedly. “I take it we are going to the cafeteria then ?“

Alysa stops humming long enough to look back at me like I'd just asked whether we were planning to eat off the floor.

“No.” She replied coldly.

“No?” I asked, confused.

“I don't eat that crap they serve in the cafeteria.” She turns forward again, her pace picking up slightly. “We're getting proper food.”

“And what exactly counts as proper food?“ I ask incredulously.

“Pizza.” She replies, completely serious.

The word comes out with enough reverence that I almost laugh.

Alysa looked genuinely excited about it, and honestly, I couldn’t blame her. I loved pizza too, though I’d rarely been able to afford it growing up. It was the kind of thing we only had on special occasions, which probably explained why the thought of it still got me a little excited. It’d be pretty funny if, after all this, pizza of all things ended up being what we bonded over.

We walk in silence for another stretch before Alysa spoke up.

“So where are you from?”

That was unexpected. Of all things, I definitely hadn’t taken her for much of a talker, but it seemed like we were already making steady progress. Maybe there was hope after all, and that made me a little happier about my decision to see things through for myself.

I pause before answering. I wasn’t exactly too eager to advertise the fact that I was from a slum, but I couldn’t hope to hide it either, so I had to come out with it.

“The slums,” I reply, trying to sound as nonchalant as I can.

“Hmm. A peasant, eh?” Alysa hums, seeming to mull that over for a moment.

“Okay, I’m poor. Hah, hah. Very funny. Can we move on already?” I say sarcastically as I wave my arms.

Alysa gives me a look before shrugging, turning away and continuing forward.

“Doesn’t really matter anymore. You’re here now.”

I take another look at her. Her expression has turned surprisingly serious, twin tails swaying behind her as she walks, there was not a trace of the screaming banshee from a few minutes ago. Which made her the second complete weirdo I’d met today who somehow talked more sense than most normal people I knew, which led me to a rather uncomfortable hypothesis: maybe I was starting to understand these people because I was just as weird as they were.

I was still trying to reconcile with the fact that the girl practically skipping ahead of me, was the one who’d shoved Maya around in the training room just half an hour ago. Now she was happily skipping in the corridor, as she was excited to get some pizza. Looking at her from the side, you couldn’t help but mistake her for a regular everyday girl.

I doubt she’s given any of it a second thought. That would certainly explain how she can be so carefree while I’m about to blow a fuse in my brain trying to figure out just what her deal is. Maybe there’s more to her than I’d assumed. Or… She’s just an asshole who happens to like my company. I haven’t ruled out the possibility that she’s completely insane, either.

Whatever her problem was, I was glad I’d followed her. I’d been ready to write Alysa off before we’d even properly spoken, and while she’d certainly given me plenty of reasons not to, now I was genuinely curious to figure out what her deal was. Strangely enough, I wasn’t even that concerned anymore with whether she was a good person or not. I just wanted to know more about her.

That realization worried me more than I cared to admit, because somewhere along the way Alysa had started to grow on me. And if there was one thing I’d learned throughout my short life, it was that getting attached to someone this unpredictable was rarely a good investment. The more I put into it, the more there would be to lose when everything inevitably came crashing down.

Alysa suddenly grabs my wrist.

“This way.”

Before I can complain, she drags me around another corner and toward a heavy door built into the wall. She takes out a keycard from somewhere inside her clothes, taps it against the lock, and marches inside.

I step through the doorway and freeze. Whatever I’d expected to find on the other side, it definitely wasn’t this.