Svetlana Popova Eternity

[CN: Description of death.]

The lift in Bibere – the Church of the Sun – has been out of order for a century. And yet there is something nagging at the High Priestess, making her itch to investigate its every familiar corner just one more time. She tinkers, toils away, steals supplies from the power plant to aid her own work, and finally the old metal beast heaves a shuddering breath, and the lift works.

Ecstasy. There’s no better way to describe the feeling as she ascends. Closer and closer to something, at least, and the flames of the candles flicker as they are disturbed by air. Air from Overground, and then –

Then she is in another dark tunnel, but there is something different about it from every other part of the Underground. There is a light. And she follows it, trembling slightly in anticipation, up the steps, along another hallway, more steps, and then out onto a desert landscape.

The sky is dark. An inky black, dotted with tiny white suns. Svetlana cannot hold back a joyous laugh as the wind softly rustles past her. She turns to her left.

There is someone there.

Someone who did not expect her. Someone who shouts out, a confused yell, and then pulls out something metal that reflects in the meagre light of the stars and –

BANG.

Svetlana falls in slow motion into the embrace of the sand. She is so cold, but her head feels warm, and she is losing sight of everything so quickly, vision blurring. Something is crawling up the horizon, though. Slowly spreading its rays to cut through that inky black.

Svetlana takes her last breath as the dawn breaks.