Lucy and I finally emerge at the top of the staircase with a drove of people walking past us. The dry air from outside instantly dries up moister on our skin, while the light blindingly bright, I miss the cool damp comfort of the underground transport cavern. The wind kicks up red dust, causing us to shield our eyes from the incoming debris. When it dies down, I look around and scenery that surrounds opens to a large canyon encircling a large space almost completely like a natural stadium rises vertically many stories. I feel so small in comparison to the size of the space around me, like a single grain of salt in a vast sea of rocks that towers over us. 

"Where are we?" I ask rhetorically. 

"Central's transportation hub." Lucy answers anyway.

"How did you know that?" I turn, looking pointedly to him. Of course his only reply back to me is a slight nod of his head to the side, and his pupils of his eyes also indicating the same direction of his nod with its movement. Lo and behold, there is a sign that states, 'Central Station Caverns." I flash him a silly smile which he just shakes his head and starts to wander. Shielding my eyes from the sun I look around and take in the full height of the geological barrier. 

This chiseled rock barrier is stunning and I'm just in awe its natural beauty. The sandstone walls have layers upon layers of compacted stone smoothed in areas, rough and craggy in others varying in shades of deep reds to white.  After everything that has happened in the last half hour, I really can’t say I know what I know anymore. 

After taking in the scenery, I notice something was absent in this scene. Many things, actually and it is awfully quiet. I swiveled in spot and instantly realize the hoards of people around us  are suddenly gone; either that or they all walk away into nothingness. 

Where did they all go?

When I look down, there are many sets of foot steps that suddenly vanish a few feet ahead from where I am standing. It's as though they take a few steps away from the main entry and seem to suddenly blink out of existence. I look around me frantically hoping that nothing is amiss about their abrupt disappearance but I calm down once I see that Lucy is still near my side and unperturbed as he is looking for something in particular.

"This may be the way we need to go." Lucy concludes and points to the opposite side of the clearing. 

We follow a few sets of footsteps, walking the direction he points to earlier and spot a groups of people standing about waiting for something. Then a few of them vanish before my very eyes. 

"I must be missing something here." I mumble as they are spirited away before me.

"Don't take your eyes off of them." Lucy whispers as he leans towards me, his hands in his pockets and seeming unperturbed by all this. "But try not to look like a tourist in doing so."

I blink to make sure I'm not just hallucinating in the heat but watch as the last of them disappear out of thin air. I notice they all either have something on their person that they touch before they vanish this time around. Some actually crouch and or seemingly gets swallowed whole by the earth while others may stand stock still only to have the earth beneath them open up suddenly and then they are gone. Most people would vanish suddenly but there were still large groups of people scattering around the canyon base and vanish before us as though they are completely wiped out of existence.

Crazy. All this is just crazy or maybe I'm going crazy.

Keeping Lucy’s words in mind, I make sure to be a bit more discrete in my observations and gawking, and walk on. I look back towards the main entryway that, once again allow for a mass exodus of travelers. To my surprise, I can’t see the gaping maw that leads to the bellow of Central Station's Caverns. These travelers all climb out of its perfectly camouflaged entryway with the surrounding boulders and rocks obscuring the portway and people just seem to materialize, growing from the sandy soil and walking into existence around the natural borders. It reminds me of those optical illusions where using mirrors and fog to project something, but these rocky projections look substantial enough to touch from afar.

Granted, I remember seeing how the mouth of the opening narrows at the top of the stairs to a choke point. All the while it's still dark and cool until you are blindsided by the sun and heat. What I thought to be natural décor with jagged rocks actually serves as a barrier that hides the breach in the earth so well and completely that neither party entering or exiting know what's on the other side until they come through the illusion completely. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if someone looks down from a higher vantage point and their view of the chasm is completely obscured by the barrier as well. 

"Come along, Ms. Atoa. There is much to see." Lucy calls a few yards ahead. I jog to catch up to him and realize that most of the travelers that exited have taken their leave.

"Honestly, where did they all go?" I ask.

Lucy slows his pace down until he stops and waits for me. He turns to observe the people that chose not to disappear instantaneously and watch them as they choose certain paths along the canyon walls. From my vantage point, it looks as though they are walking along the wall until they find a certain spot where they turn and are not visible against the solid rock structure. 

"There." Lucy gently takes a hold of my elbow and guides me to where our destination must be. 

Let me just say walking through walls is wigging me out, just slightly. I don't want to be that awkward person that missed the spot and smacks into a solid rock. Oh, the shame! I would never live it down.

Then again, I trusted Lucy when he guided us to the Egress in the first place. I sigh and follow his lead as he walks confidently ahead of me. Lucy slows down because he must feel the hesitation in my step so grasps my hand and turns to me.

"Have I led you astray so far?" Lucy asks patiently.

"No." 

"Shall we?" 

"...We shall." I grasp his hand tighter and Lucy turns sharply into the wall face pulling me along side.

I gasp in surprise but realize that we aren’t walking through the canyon wall, but rather along side of the very sharp and narrow fissure between the two sides of the wall that is extremely well disguised. Lucy chuckles at my reaction and continues to lead us through the twists and turns of this well hidden path. 

Well, that explains why people slowly disappear into the wall. I’m guessing there are various paths that lead out of Central's canyons that many can chose to exit from. I’ll have to ask Lucy about this later.

When we round a corner that leads us beyond the narrow path we have been following for the past few minutes, I look backwards and see that this entry way is another well disguised wall that could potentially hide us from view of the main outgang. This place is completely fortified in its illusions and natural camouflage making it difficult for people that don't know what they are looking for to find their way around. 

The path opens to a rocky enclave with a width only wide enough to allow two people to walk side by side comfortably, if at that; the walls were claustrophobia inducing. Luckily, enough light filtered through the openings at the top of the cave so we don't have to worry about tripping and falling on in the enclosed area. It was musty along the path and bird calls - likely bats and swallows - echoes throughout the long walkway and I'm grateful that we are out of the blazing sun. 

After a few yards, it seems like we hit another wall. I started to become nervous as it seems like it had not opening to lead us out. Once again, Lucy must have sensed have known that I was starting to get antsy because he squeezes my hand in reassurance and motions with his head to the left side of the wall. Upon closer inspection, a sharp corner turn would open up another path that, thankfully, widened into a larger unroofed cave system. I breathe a sigh of relief as I suddenly feel free to breath easy once again. 

This is a first for me. Nothing has made me feel quite as uneasy as walking into these caves or tight pathways. It’s funny to think about the affect the walls had on me, as I’ve never encounter something like that before. I was stuck in a hospital for days in a small room and that did not perturb me, nor did staying at home for weeks on end. 

Maybe I’m experiencing sensory overload after everything I’ve seen in the past hour. In a way, I can see why Lucy had a hard time adjusting if everything was new to him just as all this is new to me. This'll take some getting used to but at least I have someone that knows the ropes of this area and we're not the blind leading the blind.

Speaking of blind, I follow Lucy blindly out of the cave, lost in my thoughts when light at the end of the tunnel brings me back to where we are. I feel like we are exploring a new territory but I have a feeling he's been here before based on his confident stride forward. The cool, damp air of the caves mix with the humid warmth of the outside temperature and we slowly climb our way up and out of the cave. Once we walk out of the cave, we walk a few yards to the cliff's edge and have a lovely panoramic view of what is around us.

"Wow." I say to myself in awe of what's around us. "I had no idea this area would be so beautiful."

I obviously have not concept of how far are going in elevation or away from Central Station but coming on this ledge puts things into perspective. I'm guestimating that we were within a mountain in Central's hub and as we went up, we were either on a plateau or at ground level with the canyons surrounding us. As Lucy and I meandered our way through the canyon, we went though either the same mountain or mountains of the same range as Central and the cave system brought us to a point where the mountains dips into the valley that we are currently looking into.

On either side of us, there are more mountains forming a high barrier for the valley below.  The wind has a bit of a chill up here, mixing with the cool damp cave air and everything else that is swept up from the valley and along the mountains around us. I can't help but think about the stark contrast between the arid deserty canyons, the dark and dank caves to the mountainous cliffs leading down into a very lush and green looking valley floor. There are two sets of stairs leading away from the cliffside we are standing upon and it seems they meander down towards the valley below.

"It is a welcome sight." Lucy says finally; I'm sure he is busy sorting out his own feelings and reacquaintance with something familiar at the moment.

"Hey~!" A feminine voice comes from afar.

Lucy and I look at one another before looking around for the source of the voice. 

"Down here!" It calls and we look off to the right side of the mountain to see the stairs that lead another cliff's edge before splintering off in two directions down and another two up the side of the mountain.

I take initiative and grab a hold of Lucy's elbow and lead the way to the woman's voice, roughly two stories below where we are standing. When we make it to the other cliff outlook, what looked like another cave opening from our vantage point turns out to be the entrance to a building carved into the mountain face. There, sitting in the front of the entryway is a young woman, roughly early to mid-twenties dressed in a long, woolly, robe-like outfit to stave off the cool mountainous air. Her long dark locks are braided down to her midback, adorn in beads and trinkets and a few silver chains draped about her neck.

"I thought I heard someone up there." The woman comments and throws her braid behind her nonchalantly. She has her hands at mid-torso level against her stomach, palms up and then bows slightly as a greeting, saying, "Welcome."

I follow in suit and mimic her gesture as best as I could and thank her. Lucy does so as well once I finish my bow, but his greeting comes a lot more fluid and natural that my own. I'm starting to suspect that this is definitely not Lucy's first time in this neck of the woods but return my attention to the woman before us.

"I hope your journey has brought you joy." The woman comments. Just as I was a bout to comment, Lucy chimes in automatically, "As your vigil has secured warmth and hospitality unto your name."

The woman smiles brightly and opens the hands outwards, gesturing for us to go into the stone complex. I wait for Lucy's cue and watch as he nods and offers a polite smile before following the woman inside. Once through the door, I was happen to see we didn't have to go through more narrow pathways, but instead the building was more of a gate or guard station that lead to an large almost hallowed out mountain with stone huts peppered throughout the inner walls not that dissimilar to those I've seen in Mesa Verde National Park. Each building is accented differently with lights and water features that gave each hut-like building a different style. The highest concentration of them are on the level we are standing at and towards the middle, all connecting with rope suspension bridges and ladders so that no one was excluded or isolated.

"Would you like some chai?" The woman offered.

"That would be delightful." Lucy accepted and followed her to a blue shop not to far from this entrance.

Finally, some normalcy with tea.