Page 44 of Twisted Empire

Above us was a massive fake skylight. At first I thought there was a painting or a giant photo of the night sky up there, but then I saw stars twinkling.

“Wow,” I breathed.

“It’s a high-def screen playing a video,” Elias said. “It changes depending on the time of day. In the morning, it’ll be blue sky with floating white clouds and flocks of birds.”

“That’s so cool.” With wide eyes, I walked around and took in the rest of the atrium. It was four stories high with sweeping cream stone columns for support. The ground floor had what appeared to be several restaurants, coffee shops, a whiskey bar, a cocktail lounge with a neon sign and a large casino with crimson carpets, along with wide corridors presumably leading to other parts of the level.

Above that, on the higher levels, there were wide balconies with carved balustrades and hanging gardens. The plants were probably fake like the shrubs around the fountain, but they looked just as real. Beyond the balconies, I could see large wooden doors.

“That’s the apartments up there,” Elias said, following the direction of my gaze. “Most of the community amenities are down here. There’s a tram that runs around this level with a few presses of a button.”

I gaped at him. “A tram?”

“Yes. This level is by far the biggest. It would take an hour to walk from one side to the other. So if a resident wanted to get in a workout at the gym and then hit the books in the library afterwards, they’d need to take the tram. Unless they really liked walking.”

“Wow,” I said, still marveling at everything. I waved a hand at one of the restaurants. “It all looks so… real. I feel like I’m standing in some sort of European plaza.”

“They got psychologists to help them design everything in a way that would make people feel as comfortable as possible. Like they were still out in the real world. Apparently there’s only so long humans can withstand being in a gray concrete box before they start to lose it.”

“Don’t I know it,” I muttered.

He stiffened. “I’m sorry.”

A jolt of guilt hit me right in the guts. Elias was doing everything he could to help me and make me feel safe right now. I couldn’t make him feel like he had to apologize for the past forever. It wasn’t fair.

“I shouldn’t have said that.” I took his hand and smiled. “This is seriously incredible.”

He squeezed my hand and nodded at the restaurant I’d been looking at. “I’ll finally be able to take you on a real date. Except I’ll have to cook.”

“That’s good enough for me. Besides, not everyone can say their first date was at an Italian restaurant hundreds of yards inside a mountain, right?”

“Right.” He stroked my hair. “I can give you a longer tour tomorrow, to show you where everything is. But for now, let’s go to our apartment. It’s pretty late.”

I followed him to another elevator. This one had dark red carpet inside. “How many people does this place fit?” I asked as we rode it up to the third level.

“Probably around a thousand or so. The apartments can fit between five and fifteen people, depending on which one the owner bought, and there’s eighty of them. Then there’s also the staff quarters back down on the level we just came from.”

“Wait, there’s staff here?” I widened my eyes and looked behind me as if I actually expected someone else to suddenly materialize in the elevator, mop bucket in hand.

“They don’t live here. They’re trained by the development company and paid a stipend each year to make sure they keep living within close range of the shelter. If shit ever hits the fan, they have to make their way here. In return for helping out with the cleaning, cooking, maintenance and hydroponics, they get a free place to ride out the apocalypse.”

“Oh.”

There was a pinging sound, and the elevator opened. “I can’t remember exactly which one I bought, only that it was along here,” Elias said, striding ahead of me. “I’ll try a few doors.”

He pressed his fingers to a scanner outside each apartment, and finally, the wide mahogany door to number twenty-four swung open.

“After you.” He held an arm out in front of him.

I stepped inside and looked around our temporary home. It was much bigger than I expected. Directly ahead of us was a living room with a wide-screen TV, black leather modular sofa, coffee table and bookshelves stacked with reading material. To the right of that was a spacious bedroom with a king-sized sleigh bed and a tall fake window with thick curtains, stretching from one wall to another. A small door on the far side of the bedroom led to a walk-in closet.

On the left of the apartment entryway, wide arched passageways branched out, each one leading to other areas of the apartment. There was a kitchen with marble counters, an enormous bathroom, smaller spare bedrooms with built-in closets, a study, and a playroom. There was even a small room for pets, complete with toys, little beds and litter trays.

“Not what you expected for a nuclear shelter, right?” Elias said, amusement lighting his handsome face as he looked down at my wide eyes.

I shook my head. “I know it’s worth a ton, but still, I never expected it to be this nice.” I swept a hand around. “I mean, this apartment is twice as big as the house I grew up in and ten times as pretty… and it’s inside a mountain! It’s crazy.”

He nodded. “There’s something else I have to show you,” he said, taking my arm and pulling me back out to the main area with the master bedroom and living area.

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