The GateKeeper

I’ve tackled Colette down on to the dusty ground before she even knows what’s happened. Fortunately, she’s rather famous for her sense of humour.

I can already hear U.V.’s guffaws from the invisible tunnel that she seems to have entered.
“Bravo! Encore! That’s what happens when you’re a DIVA, Colette!”
“Vraiment, cherie! Je ne connais pas que tu te sens comme ca!”
Colette is fluttering her eyelashes at me as Miraj holds out both hands in an effort to help us up. Me and Colette are sort of tangled so we just end up pulling Miraj down on top of us. I hear Colette’s giggle, and Miraj’s sigh, “I suppose that was necessary.”

Jo kicks at us while walking past, then disappears beyond the iron gate. I feel an incredible wave of excitement growing from the pit of my stomach. I have to get in there. I disentangle my own limbs from those of Colette and Miraj, then launch myself at the gate before I have time to change my mind.
Everything is dark.
There’s a flash of light. For a split-second, it’s as though someone is peering at me from the other side of a mirror.

It’s no one that I recognize, and then it’s gone. I feel the slight pressure that occurs when passing through a bell jar. My eyes begin to adjust, and I can see what looks like an elevator door one step ahead of me.

There’s another flash of light. I see the same face again, but this time it looks a little different.

I feel someone standing behind me.
Another flash, the same face.

“Qu’est-ce que tu attends, cherie?”

Two familiar figures stroll by me as the elevator door opens. I follow them and hear U.V. saying,
“We’ve even got compost!”

We’re in a small hallway. To the right is a room with two double bunk-beds stacked in the middle surrounded by walls covered in bookshelves. U.V. and Jo are on the floor, facing-off over a brightly coloured map covered in small cubes.

“Comment -?!”
“Relax, Colette. It’s just a board game.”
“Bon. Maintenant, ou est la cuisine?”
“Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten.”
Miraj decides to stick up for Colette, “But we’ve never come in this way before.”
“Still, you have ways and means. Can’t you see I’m busy?”
“How did you already get so involved in this game? You were only about 30 seconds in front of us.”
“We’ve had it going for a few days now.”

Colette spots a mini-fridge that's been somehow built into one of the bookshelves. She makes a beeline for it, and opens the door without hesitation.
“Comme c’est mignon! Cucumber sandwiches!”

Jo yawns while reaching over the board to pick up one of the cubes. U.V. stretches out so that she’s lying on her stomach with feet waving in the air. She asks, “Can someone find me a pillow?”
“Je peux le donner a toi, si tu me donnes la route pour trouver la cuisine.”
“Cucumber sandwiches aren’t enough for you?”
Colette is about to make further complaint, when Jo cuts her off, standing up abruptly.
“I’ll get YER damn pillow, and I’ll take YOU to the goddam kitchen. Jesus. It’s like hangin around with a buncha babies half the time. Follow me folks. Lets go make some real food."
Guilty as charged. I'm hungry, and I'm not gonna deny it.