Beneath A Honeysuckle

"We shouldn't be out here, Solaer."

"If a Guardsman catches us, we're dead."

"You mean they'll send us for reconditioning."

"Same thing."

Solaer sighed and glanced over her shoulder to the two bickering behind her. "You didn't have to come along."

Marz snorted. "Like we'd miss out on the opportunity to go outside the Perimeter."

"Exactly," Marzi concurred. "Besides, you promised to get us back before anyone noticed."

The twins bobbed their heads in unison, their blonde curls bouncing with the motion.

"And we will," Solaer said. "If you two would be quiet for more than five seconds…" The two imitated zipping their lips and locking them before tossing the imaginary key over their shoulders. Solaer rolled her eyes. "You guys need to stop watching those Old World sit-com tapes in your down time." They shot her a grin and shrugged. Turning back to the path ahead, Solaer caught a faded number '85' on the wall. "The door should be right…about...here!"

A massive pipe was welded to the wall on their left, which rattled ominously as they passed, and Solaer caught sight of a dull, gray door that practically blended seamlessly into the wall just on the other side.

"Finally," Marz mumbled under his breath.

Solaer ignored his little 'oof' as his sister elbowed him in the stomach as she pulled out Orion's skeleton key from her pants pocket. The smooth, jagged-edged piece of metal glinted in the low light of the service tunnel. She wished the handsome Guardsman could have accompanied them, but he had said the risk was too great. Better they go alone. Pushing him from her mind, keeping her head turned from the twins so they couldn't see her blush, Solaer slid the key into the lock. She turned it in a complete circle as Orion had instructed her to do, and with a great hiss of air the door popped open.

The three of them grunted as they were momentarily blinded by golden sunlight and a gust of warm air washed over them. Solaer took a slow, deep breath. It smelt like… honeysuckle. And grass.

Fresh.

Overcome with eagerness, Solaer shoved the door open with a little too much force so it slammed against the wall with a clang. She stumbled over the threshold and her feet immediately sunk into something plush. Blinking the sunlight from her eyes, Solaer glanced down, wiggling her toes in her shoes. Vibrant green grass blanketed the ground underneath the soles of her feet. It looked so… soft and inviting.

Solaer vaguely heard the sounds of awe from the two behind her as she toed off her shoes and ripped off her socks. She sucked in a breath as the velvety cool blades of grass caressed her skin. It was… wonderful. Nothing like the stiff, ugly astroturf they used inside the Community.

"S-Should you really be doing that, Solaer? Isn't this stuff like… radioactive?" Marzi asked hesitantly, her voice quiet and uncertain.

Before she could answer, Marz snorted incredulously. "Puh-lease. You really believe the crap the Council spews? 'Oh, don't go outside the Community! The plant life is toxic and eats men alive and- Ow!" The eldest twin by one minute turned burning blue eyes on her as she retracted her hand.

"Knock it off," Solaer scolded, trying hard to keep her lips from trembling as she fought a grin. "It's alright, Marzi," she assured her friend. "The radioactivity dissipated many years ago. If it hadn't then the plant life wouldn't have grown back."

"O-oh! I suppose that's true," Marzi said as she twisted her fingers nervously. "I'll be keeping my shoes on though."

"Suit yourself," Marz muttered. He stood back up, a sock and shoe in each hand. "Well! Come on then!" He thrust a hand out in front of him, using the toe of his shoe to point in a random direction. "We've only got an hour out here. We're wasting time."

Both Solaer and Marzi glanced at one another and grinned. "Alright then," Solaer said. "Stick close though, yeah?"

Satisfied with a nod from each of them, Solaer turned back to the beauty that lay ahead of them.

A great forest stretched before their very eyes. The trees reached for the sky, their branches fluffy with emerald pine needles. Patches of moss grew from the ground and up the bark, and when Solaer touched it she was amazed at how it felt so similar to the grass: soft and cushy, just a little more…moist. She leaned in and took a sniff.

"Hmm…" she hummed softly, the scent of fresh rain and dirt filling her lungs.

She could get used to this…

The bark tugged at the pads of her fingertips as she drug them down the trunk to move further into the trees. It was noticeably cooler under the canopy, the sun unable to breach the thickly overlapping branches. A gentle breeze weaved in and out of the tree trunks, rustling the leaves above them and scattering them along the forest floor. And there! Just a few yards ahead sat a rather unassuming bush with beautiful white flowers. Honeysuckle… They were oddly shaped though, nothing like the pictures she'd seen in the Memory Bank. These flowers were twice the size as they should be, the petals wide and spongy, and the long stems from the center were an odd pink-ish color.

"Must be a mutation from the radiation…" Solaer murmured to herself as she caressed a petal with the tip of her finger.

The flower shuddered at her touch, and the entire plant shivered in response before it drew in on itself so that none of the flowers were exposed. She gasped and took her hand back. A defensive response…? Solaer stepped closer to get a better look, but something stabbed the bottom of her foot.

"Ouch!" She grumbled, stumbling back a step before falling onto her backside.

Solaer rubbed the bottom of her foot with a grimace. Serves her right for walking barefoot in a forest of all places, she supposed. What had she stepped on though? A thorn? A root? Rolling onto her knees, she crawled forward to peek under the bush.

"Oh my…" It took a moment for Solaer to truly register what she was seeing, eyes wide with awed horror.

A skull…

Eyeless sockets stared up at her, its jaw slack in a silent scream. The majority of it was buried beneath the dirt, and a few of its teeth were missing or chipped. What she'd think would have been a polished white was in fact stained brown and littered with cracks and fissures along the surface. It was as grotesque as it was fascinating. She shouldn't touch it… But she found herself brushing off a little bit of the dirt along its forehead. The surface was rough and pitted all over. She wondered if that was because of its age or damage from radiation. Or perhaps both.

As she brushed away the dirt covering the corner of its jaw, her fingers brushed something hard and cold that tinkled when it moved. Head tilted to the side, Solaer swept away the dirt and leaves to reveal a heart shaped metal trinket attached to a rusty old chain.

Huh… It looked… familiar. It was obviously a necklace of some kind.

Solaer took it between her fingers, the chain giving way easily, and twisted it around. It was thick, a hinge on one side, and decorated with tiny, whimsical engravings. She traced a fingertip along the edge, feeling the crease from one end of the hinge to the other.

Oh! Locket.

It was a locket. That's what they called it in the Old World. They didn't have anything like this anymore. Not in the Community.

It was beautiful in a simple sort of way.

Solaer tucked her thumb nail into the crease and popped it open. Some dirt fell to the ground as she opened it, and she brushed the rest of it out with a finger. One side was empty, just rusty metal, but the other side had a jagged little picture glued to it. It was of a woman. She couldn't tell any true defining features because the picture was black and white and a little faded, but the woman was smiling, her eyes soft. Kind. Solaer's gaze flickered to the skull and back.

Could this...skull be…her? Or someone this person knew in life?

"Solaer!" Marz's yell startled her enough that she nearly dropped the locket. "It's been an hour! We have to head back."

Clutching the locket to her chest, Solaer glanced over her shoulder to find the twins hurriedly waving her over. "O-oh! Yes! Coming!" It had been an hour already?

She opened her hand to look down at the tiny trinket in her palm. There was an urge to curl her fingers around it, to tuck it away in her pocket, and keep it. To remind herself of their adventure beyond the Perimeter. But she couldn't. It wasn't hers to keep.

Her eyes trailed to the skull at her knees. It wasn't a proper resting place, but it would have to do. Solaer carefully laid the locket down at the jaw of the skull, and layered it with dirt until neither the locket nor the skull could be seen.

May you have found peace wherever you are…

"Solaer!" Marzi cried.

"Coming!" Solaer shoved her feet into her shoes, not bothering with her socks, and stood up.

As she followed the twins back to the wall, she cast one last glance over her shoulder to the honeysuckle bush. The bush shivered and unfurled, seeming to breathe a sigh of relief at her retreating presence, and covered the freshly turned dirt. It seemed only skeletons belonged to this strange world beyond the Community.