Through the Night

[Aster]

Danielle Baumgartner was lost.

She was lost in a multitude of senses, though at the moment she was most concerned with its literal meaning. London was a massive city, and the prospect of navigating the streets left her overwhelmed. In the end, she just wandered aimlessly, going wherever her feet took her. A part of her felt like she was annoying her chaperone, but the soldier behind her was good at keeping a cold look on her face.

The city was a lot different from what she expected. As she thought about it more, Danielle wasn’t even sure what she was expecting. When she’d seen London in American movies, it was always a dark metropolis underneath a bleak grey sky. It was like a dystopian New York City. However, the street she was on now was narrow, lined with low buildings painted in soft browns and whites. The sky was a clear, cloudless light blue. For all intents and purposes, it was a pleasant day.

There was something was wrong, though. Danielle couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was causing it, but it was intensifying a sense of unease that was burning in her chest. It had been here since she landed in London, and the initial shock of rescue wore off.

Even though she was technically saved, Danielle still felt like she was in the hands of the enemy. The soldiers and doctors had been nice enough, but they all spoke in unfamiliar accents that painted them as villains in her eyes. As well as she was treated, Danielle couldn’t help but feel like a bird trapped in a cage. She spent her days cooped up in her room, only leaving to eat or use the bathroom. Danielle couldn’t stand being around the others; after conditioning yourself to seeing your peers as competitors to kill to ensure your own survival, it was hard to make small talk with them over dinner. The solitude was maddening.

So when she’d heard that they were allowed to roam the city, Danielle jumped at the opportunity. But the walk was doing nothing to ease her mind–in fact, being around more Brits was only exacerbating it.

Danielle felt like she wasn’t supposed to be here.

Her train of thought was interrupted by her stomach growling. She turned around to her chaperone. “Um, excuse me, ma’am.”

“Yeah?” The soldier responded.

“Could we stop and get lunch?”

She gave a non-committal grunt that Danielle took as a yes. “Where do you want to go?”

Danielle craned her neck, scanning up and down the street. She guessed that most of the buildings were apartments, with a few convenience stores in between. At the end of the road, on a corner, there was a restaurant. Its sign caught her eye.

She pointed at it. The soldier followed her gaze and snorted. Of course, she thought to herself, that the American girl would want a burger for lunch.