They moved again.
The iron maze guided them forward under heavy guard, and Iyisha felt watched at every turn as they passed through narrow corridors and controlled gates until finally they reached the last barrier and stepped beyond it.
She blinked through the eye holes of the mask.
She had expected concrete walls.
Towers.
Something that looked like a high security prison built for containment.
Instead, what opened in front of her looked like a contained but functioning community.
There were beds of shrubs arranged neatly under tall trees, and the soil looked freshly turned and well maintained. Benches were placed along walkways, and several small buildings stood in clean rows, their paint new and their structures solid, as if they had been built recently and with care.
It did not look abandoned.
It did not look desperate.
It looked organized.
