The Million Mile Apartment

A trio of women trudged alongside a set of old, rusted train tracks. Their flasks were empty and they were miles into the dead middle of the arid wastes of the Illamini scar, nothing but flat, dry, cracked earth with tufts of dead grass for miles in every direction.

Salinae wiped her brow, the rifle slung around her shoulder feeling heavy. They had seen a speck on the horizon over an hour ago.

The closer they got, the more they hoped it was genuine civilization.

Before long, they saw a station platform next to three buildings, all sat in the middle of nowhere.

A train and a hand car sat in some sightings out of the way of the line looking polished and new and there were lights in the windows of the buildings.

The building was an engineer's rest stop for train drivers to sleep and conduct maintenance before heading back out on long cross-country journeys.

The rest stop had a workshop, a goods store that was routinely stocked and, of course, an inn.

A team of engineers milled about in the center area on chairs and tables laid out, sipping liquor and smoking yaja seed as the three women passed. Rest stop inns were technically open to the public, but their prices were dictated by the Jatvsoe Railway: they were very expensive.

Without any choice, of course, Salinae's team forked over more Roppi stones than a room at this inn was probably worth.

The old wooden inn was cheaply made, of course, being a part of the railway operation. The inside was musty with no upkeep, the workers paid very little.

The three women took their key, heading up the creaking stairs to where they would stay, passing by what few other rooms there.

Curiously, in the center of the hallway was a unique set of double doors, taped off with signs of condemnation. The room seemed to be under repairs.

As expected, the conditions of their room were appalling. The wooden walls were cracked and chipped, the paint long since cracked from heat and peeling away.

And that's not to mention the sour scent that permeated the upstairs.

By the time the women were all settled into their room, night had fallen outside and the wastes were completely pitch black all around.

The sour scent was a continued problem. Oushiqae, the largest of the group, poked around saying she'd hardly be able to sleep with such a smell.

The women opened the door to their room, trying to track the scent, coming to the center of the hallway, where the condemned double doors stood.

A sign on the door warned of toxicity, which worried the women.

Even more curiously, however, was the bright light shining from under the door.

Nexakii, the tall and proud crow women, wet three rags in the washroom to cover their faces as they cracked the door open to see just what was inside so they could hopefully complain.

Salinae cracked the door open and saw something strange.

She saw clean walls.

She pushed the door open more and saw a polished wood bar, stocked with drinks. She saw a clean carpet. The lights here were bright, not dim like the rest of the inn.

Finally she shoved the door aside, stepping in suspiciously. She pulled the mask away a little, sniffing.

The sour scent had completely disappeared.

She stood a moment then walked a little more into the room. It was quiet inside. Her friends followed behind.

The room looked to be a huge, luxury room. There was a balcony with a cards table on top and a common area underneath, with four open bed rooms. The foyer they entered indeed had a fully stocked bar, though no seats.

The luxury room continued down an extremely tall and wide hallway to the left, looking like a rich person's suite.

Nexakii excitedly hopped over the bar, having not seen good liquor in well over a week of travel. Oushiqae pulled aside a wood chair to light her pipe.

Salinae stood at the entrance of the massive hallway, squinting at the far end while Nexakii rummaged through the alcohol.

It looked as though there was a massive public pool area at the far end of the hall. But something else struck her as odd.

"What *is* any of this?" Nexakii's voice interrupted Salinae's thoughts, the lizard turning around to face her companions.

"What's wrong? Aren't you going to pour me one?" Oushiqae asked Nexakii while the crow woman squinted her one good eye at the bottle.

"Pour you one of what? I can't tell what this is." Nexakii grumbled, pulling another bottle off the shelf, staring at it, then shoving it in Oushiqae's face with a huff. "What's that say? I can't read Illamini much."

"W...womo...what?" Oushiqae attempted to read aloud. Her eyes scanned over the letters. "Womo Yuva Tuddan?" She started at it another moment, Salinae approaching to pick up one of the bottles off the coutner.

The bottle's name was gibberish, but most good liquors had strange names, typically the name of whatever eccentric businessman first made the brand.

But what caught her attention was the rest of the text. The small informative text on the front label, the back label, it was all gibberish.

"Is it Quayoffi?" Nexakii asked.

"Maybe? It doesn't look like it. Quayoffi usually has more zs and xes in it."

Nexakii popped the cork off of one of the bottles, huffing the contents.

"It's sweet..."

Oushiqae popped the cork off a bottle of her own, doing the same.

"This one, too."

Salinae set her bottle down, turning back to look down the hallway, towards the pool area. Something seemed odd to her.

"Where you going, Sal?" Oushiqae asked, getting up from the bar.

"Seeing what's down here." The lizard replied. "Doesn't this place seem kind of...big?"

"You think this is where the engineers are staying?" Oushiqae asked.

"From what I've heard from Engineers and their misgivings about these rest stops? Doubtful. But look."

Salinae walked about halfway down the hall, waving her arm.

"Shouldn't this be where the next door room is supposed to be?"

Oushiqae pondered, following Salinae as she walked to the pool, Nexakii staying behind to look over and test the alcohol.

As Salinae got closer to the pool, her strange feeling was validated.

The pool area sat on the other side of a set of indoor windows. On the far end of the pool area was another set of windows facing the outside.

It was high noon outside, the sunlight shining into the pool area.

Oushiqae's brow furrowed, the both of them looking closer.

The vista outside was the strangest part.

It was ocean. Nothing but ocean for miles. No islands, no landmasses.

They were thousands of miles inland, in the Illaminian scar.

The two women stood in silence, staring through the window until Salinae looked to her right.

The hallway took a turn and continued, many doors on either side. At this point, just this one 'room' dwarfed the entirety of the inn.

Salinae began to feel a chill.

"Oushiqae." She said, feeling disoriented. "We should get back to our room."

The cow woman silently agreed, turning back, their footsteps the only sound in the dead silent hallway.

Nexakii protested at first when they told her to come, but the tinge of insistence in their voice convinced her quickly, though taking a bottle with her as they made their way out of the double doors, closing them.

The sour scent was back.

When Salinae woke up the next morning, she found Oushiqae already gone, down in the lobby and talking to the manager.

"It's just the paint in the old storage room." The manager angrily huffed. "If you don't like it you can go to ANOTHER inn out here in the middle of nowhere, if'n you can find it."