Elias sits up, his hand landing on his alarm clock.
'Another dream...'
He thinks as he pushes off his heavy covers and places his feet on the cold stone floor. He fixes his oxygen mask that he keeps on at all times and transfers his tubing to a small tank so he could bring it with him to his morning class. While his mask is mostly like the ones you'd be used to, it is a bit smaller and it attaches itself without the need for a band to keep it on thanks to technology. Dragging his tank behind him, he heads over to his wardrobe. He reaches for his basic outfit, a neat navy blue, two-piece suit with a crimson red tie. "High-class people must dress like high-class people", as his father would say quite often. He slings the tank over his shoulder and wears it like a backpack. He catches sight of his reflection in the mirror on his wardrobe door. People often say that he looks like his mother, with the same blond hair and blue eyes, but his face is chubbier than his mother's sharp features. He used to eat with his mother all the time, but now he barely sees her anymore. Most residents of the caves eat in their designated cafeteria, one for each sector. But the elderly, the sick, and children under 2 (accompanied by a parent or guardian) eat in their rooms. He goes to the door and picks up the covered tray waiting for him outside. While it is difficult to eat with a mask on, Eli eventually found a way around it. Once he is finished he places the tray back where it sits before and after every meal and heads out for a walk. He always liked going to the guards' quarters and talking with them. He likes to talk to Ambrose the most. Ambrose has been his father's best friend since they attended school.
"Ambrose!"
He exclaims as he runs up to him.
"hey there, calm down. You can never be too careful"
"Yes, you can! You're always too careful."
Elias argues back. Ambrose chuckles in response. He is very outgoing and knew pretty much all the guards in sector A by name.
"I had another one of those dreams"
Elias admits. He saw a dark look in Ambrose's eyes for a split second, then they return to his usual glowy eyes that somehow smile on their own, Elias was still trying to figure out how he does that.... But Eli thinks nothing of the look and simply brushes it off.
'Must've been some bad news about one of the units...'
"Which one? Those ones? Or thooose ones?"
Eli stares at him confused for a moment before Ambrose chuckles again.
"I'm only pulling your leg kid. What was it this time? Another one where you're riding the Kharaneae? Or one where you're fighting a war against people in the suits?"
"You're making fun of me aren't you?!"
"I'm not! I'm not! I swear it!"
He says laughing, his hands up to surrender. Eli crossed his arms and sends a pair of daggers at him.
"So what was the dream about?"
"Are you actually gonna listen?"
"Yes"
"You won't laugh at me?"
"I would never"
"Do you swear to the gods?"
"Now that's a heavy burd-"
"Do you?"
Eli interrupts, staring at his face to get an answer. Ambrose places his right hand over his heart, his left sitting behind his back as you would do while fencing.
"I, Ambrose Corodine, swear to thy gods that if I shall laugh, I am to be struck done by one of thee where I stand"
"Overdramatic much?"
"Not at all. Anyway, get on with it, what did you dream about?"
Elias pauses for a moment, rethinking if he should tell Ambrose about what he dreamed about this time. When he told him about the Kharaneae he saw in one dream, apparently, he was spot on about how they looked, but he never talked about the people he saw even though Eli thought that they would spark a question from him. And when he did ask if there were really people who could live on the surface, all Ambrose said was that it was impossible.
"... This time I think I was a child. Like a really young one, a toddler. I was holding a lady's hand, I think she was supposed to be the child's mother. We were walking towards a nest and there were Kharaneae and people just walking by. No one was attacked. People were going into the same nest as the Kharaneae, and they didn't seem to mind like you say they do when you get close to one. I got a look at the inside, only the entrance though. It was amazing. Like the nest that bees used to live in. I remember a book about bees. In the distance, I saw a bump of grey among a field on simply nothing, and on the other side was a dense forest of twisted trees, the trunks a dark green, and what was on them didn't look like leaves. More like... Moss? I think it looked like moss. I know it's crazy Ambrose. But what if these aren't just dreams? What if we can live on the surface again? We can be at peace with the Kharaneae? Then no one else will have to die."
Ambrose stays quiet the entire time and when Eli looks over at him his head is down, his hands folded on his legs.
"A-Ambrose?"
"..."
He stays frozen. Then he begins to move a little.
"Ambro-"
"BWAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Elias turns beet red as Ambrose throws his head back laughing as hard as he can.
"You said you wouldn't laugh! Ambrose! It's not funny!"
"HAHAhaahaaa. You gotta admit, it's kinda funny. Kharaneae letting people into their nest? People living on the surface? You're too old to be thinking of these wild things. That's what children say when they learn about the history of Mankind. Come on Eli, you have to get back. Your teacher will be waiting for you."
He got up and went to join the other guards while Eli sat there...
'They're just dreams Elias. Caused by all the stories you hear.'
He stands up and starts back to his room, hanging his head low. Ambrose was the only person he could tell about these dreams, and he had never actually laughed at him like that before. It... hurt, it hurt a lot.