by A. R. Wise
Finally, the terrifying sound stopped, and a few girls dared to speak as they glanced around to see what their friends thought of the shrill cry. We never had the chance to consult one another before the single worst event in any of our lives occurred.
From high above, beyond the ceiling tiles for which we never imagined something might stir, a human body came crashing down toward us. The body flipped and spun haphazardly, its arms flailing before it collided in the center of a table a few spaces beyond my own. The person crashed down along with fragments of the ceiling that struck the floor and then shattered into shards of plastic and white dust.
After the initial shock wore off, the Common Room erupted in panicked screams from the hundreds of girls that had witnessed the gory death. It was hard to see what the body looked like from my vantage, but the Yellows that ran past me were covered in blood as they shrieked in horror. Some of them were bleeding from cuts caused by the falling tiles, but others were smeared with the dark blood of the body that had splattered on the table.
Red lights started flashing just before the regular lights shut off. The gore was lost now amid a hectic strobe of red light and I found myself being pushed back as the girls fled the horrible scene. I backed up against the wall and let the others move past me. The lights temporarily faded, as if they lacked the power to stay fully lit, but then their strength returned and the scene's chaotic flashes continued.
I wanted to see the body.
Hailey stayed with me, but kept trying to pull at my arm, convinced that I actually wanted to leave with everyone else but was simply shocked into inaction. She was yelling at me, but I didn't hear what she said above the shrieking cries of the girls that ran away. My view of the shattered body got better and better as the other girls left.
It was a man, which I knew from the hair on his face, and his features fascinated me. He was the first man I'd seen besides the digital representations that the Administrators showed us. It was promised that we would meet men once we achieved Surface Status, but that any introduction before Graduation was impossible - they never bothered to explain why. At first I wanted to see a dead body, but now that I realized the body was that of a man my curiosity couldn't be quelled without examining him further.
I stepped away from the wall and Hailey mistook my movement for a desire to escape. She pulled at me to head toward the door, but I pulled away and walked toward the body. Now that the other girls were nearly gone I could hear Hailey calling out at me to stop.
The flashing red light turned the scene into a nightmarish vision as I tentatively inched closer. My boots squeaked on the wet floor as I walked into the growing pool of blood. The man's body was twisted at the torso so that his head was facing up but his legs were backward. His right arm was missing and his left curled up around his neck with the fingers splayed out to the side. His lips were thick enough to be seen through the shaggy hair on his face and his nose was wider than I'd ever seen. His head was turned away from me and I had to lean over him to get a better look. It was hard to tell in the flashing red light, but I could have sworn his skin was black, which was something I never knew was possible.
I leaned over him to get a better view while Hailey cried out for me to leave. I ignored her, fascinated by the morbid lure of death. I couldn't be sure, but I thought I heard him breathing.
That's when the dead man turned and saw me.
His eyes were milky and I could hardly make out his retinas as they lay beneath the translucent layer. He had wide eyebrows that nearly connected above his nose and short, curly black hair like nothing I'd ever seen before. His entire brow was raised slightly, as if the top of his head sat slightly ajar to the rest of his face, although the feature might have been caused by the trauma from his fall. He opened his mouth and a black tongue flopped out as if it had been lying against the back of his teeth, waiting for a chance to be free.
He growled and a mass of blood bubbled out of his throat, drowning his voice as it flowed across his cheek and slopped to the floor in syrupy strands. It seemed as if he was trying to reach out to me, but one of his arms had been severed and the other flopped loosely, apparently damaged to the point of uselessness. He rolled to the side of the table, causing the entire piece of furniture to tilt and then collapse on its side, sending the man splashing down into the fluid that fell before him.
I had to leap back to avoid him and discovered that Hailey was standing close behind me. She caught me and pulled me back as we both screamed in terror.
"Step back," said a deep, mechanical voice. Hailey and I turned to see a group of tall people in armored suits with frightening masks equipped with a breathing apparatus. Their masks hid their faces behind black glass, but the sheer size of them convinced me that they were also male. Hailey and I looked like children beside them.
The one that spoke was carrying a large flashlight that he held with both hands. The beam of light coming from the front of the tool seemed to be activated by a trigger that he had his finger on, and when we moved aside he pointed the light at the man that was writhing in the blood on the floor.
Other men grabbed us, separating me from Hailey, and we were swiftly lifted into the air. I was slung over a man's shoulder, my belly pressed against his metal shoulder pad, and carried toward the Common Room's entrance. I glanced at Hailey as the red lights flashed above and she looked back at me with tears in her eyes as she flopped over the man's shoulder just like me. Beyond her, I saw that there were more men in similar gear walking into the Common Room from a door I never knew existed. It seemed that there was a secret passage on the side of the wall that must normally have appeared nondescript from this side but was now open, revealing a brightly lit hallway beyond. I was only briefly able to glimpse the area where the men had appeared from and saw that the walls were unpainted and lined with wires and pipes.
Then a violent explosion came from the front of the first man's flashlight and shattered my concentration. I yelped and covered my ears as I gazed at what had transpired. The machine that the man held wasn't a tool, but a weapon. When I looked back at the body on the floor it took me a long moment to realize that his head was missing. It was a sight that my mind seemed unwilling to accept and I watched as a stream of blood spurted from his headless throat.
Hailey vomited and her bile dripped down her captor's back as we headed for the Common Room's entrance. The men dropped us to our feet and stood as a blockade to keep anyone else from entering. The other girls from the Facility were crowded in the hall, weeping and trembling as they gazed at the men that blocked our way. The red lights stopped flashing and the view screens that lined the walls blinked on, washing the corridor in blue light as an Instructor appeared.
"We need all Dawns to return to their rooms. We've experienced a breach of security, although everything is under control. The Administrators will be unavailable for the next few hours, until this matter is dealt with. We may experience a short power failure, but we assure you that everything is under control. We will bring you back to the Common Room once this has been handled. Thank you for your cooperation." The woman in blue spoke calmly and repeated herself over and over. Usually the Instructors would have conversations with us and respond to our questions, but this seemed to be a recording on a loop. Many of the Dawns tried to ask her about what happened, but most of us understood that we wouldn't get an answer. We shuffled to our rooms, rattled by the event and frightened of the men barring our entrance to the Common Room.
Hailey was shaking and had bits of vomit stuck in her hair. I held her hand and stopped her to try and speak, but the explosive noise of the men's weapons erupted again and silenced me. They were still shooting at something, though I couldn't guess what it could be. Was the man on the floor still alive, even without a head? Or were there more of them? Neither option calmed my nerves.
"I don't want to go to my room," said Hailey as she trembled.
"We have to."
"Let me go to your room. They said the Administrat
ors will be gone for the next few hours. Please let me stay with you."
"I don't want to get you in trouble."
"I don't care about being in trouble. I just don't want to be alone. Not after that. Please." She cried as she pleaded and I couldn't turn her down.
I held her hand and led her to my door. I placed my hand on the identification screen that kept my domicile locked and waited for it to scan me. It chirped as the door unlocked. I pulled Hailey in with me, a clear violation of protocol. Dawns were not supposed to bring others into their domiciles.
The door sealed behind us and I felt suddenly exposed and vulnerable as Hailey stood in my Readiness Room, the first person other than me to ever be here. She was timid and still frightened as she stood with her hands held in front of her.
The Readiness Room was small, with barely enough space to contain one person and the vanity table. The wall opposite the mirror was a closet that contained three identical jumpsuits, the same that we all wore, and the steam shower separated this area from my room. It was required that we disrobe and step into the steam shower before entering our bedchambers and I wondered if it would require that today, despite it not being bedtime.
"I don't think it'll let us in there unless we shower," said Hailey.
I stepped into the steam shower and put my hand against the opposite wall to see what would happen. The glass shower door closed behind me and the entrance to my domicile slid open just after. I turned and set my hand on the opposite door that now separated me from Hailey to signal it to open, initiating the exchange in entrances again.
"It's okay. They're letting us into our rooms without having to take a shower first."
Hailey walked into the shower with me, a tight fit in the small area, and I placed my hand on the door to my room. It slid open and we stepped inside, relieved that the shower didn't automatically turn on like it normally would have.
I went to the only chair in my room, beside my reading table, and sat down with a heavy sigh. Hailey gazed around the room curiously, but frowned when she looked down at me.
"It's the same as mine."
"What is?"
"Your room," she said. "It looks exactly the same as mine."
"Did you expect something different?"
She shrugged and sat down against the glass wall of my lavatory. "I guess I just hoped everyone had a unique looking room. It's kind of disappointing to see that they're all the same." She looked at the tips of her long, wavy hair and cringed when she saw the wet vomit. "Can I use your sink to wash this out?"
"Sure, go ahead."
I watched as Hailey went into my bathroom. The walls were glass and I was able to see her as she leaned over the sink and started to rinse her hair.
If she'd come into my room on any other day the act of defiance against the Administrators would've been exhilarating, but my thoughts centered on what had happened in the Common Room. I suppose I should've been devastated by what I'd witnessed, and the horror of seeing the man squirming in his own blood, but there was something else that I couldn't stop thinking about: Beyond these white walls were grey passages.
I set my hand on the wall of my domicile and tried to imagine what lay behind it. Were there men in armor patrolling the corridor beside my bed? Did they peer in and watch me as I slept? Would they hear me if I called out to them?
"I can't stop thinking about his body." Hailey appeared, her hair dripping wet, and startled me as I was lost in my own thought. "I keep seeing his mouth opening and his tongue flopping out. And all that blood." She shook as if the memory was a wetness that she could simply shake off.
"I know. It was pretty awful."
Hailey sat with her legs crossed in front of my chair. "Why were you going towards him like that? I thought you'd lost your mind."
"You weren't curious?"
"No, I was scared. I just wanted to get out of there."
"Not me, I wanted to see what he looked like."
She sneered and her sharp nose scrunched up as she shook her head. "That's gross. I never want to see anything like that ever again."
"His skin was black."
Hailey squinted as she tried to recall the scene. "Are you sure? I couldn't tell with the red lights blinking."
"No, I'm sure. I was right next to him and his skin was black."
"Do you think it has something to do with being on the surface? Maybe everyone's skin turns black up there."
Our milky skin looked shockingly pale in comparison to the dead man. I'd never considered the possibility that other people in the world might have a different skin color. It was a revelation even more startling than when we discovered that some people had brown hair.
"I don't know." I knocked on my wall, suddenly intrigued by the hollow sound. "I don't know about anything anymore. Do you think they're watching us from the walls?"
Hailey looked at me, confused by my question. "What do you mean?"
"Didn't you see where those men with the flashlights came from? They were in the walls."
She shook her head. "No, I didn't see anything. I was too busy screaming and throwing up."
I knocked on the wall again to cause the hollow sound. "There are passages behind the walls. That's where those men came from."
Hailey frowned and pulled her legs up against her chest. "That's creepy."
The view screen on my wall clicked on and my heart seized. The Administrators were about to find out that I'd allowed Hailey into my room, which would be a direct violation of the rules - my second of the day already. I was prepared for the lecture, but was pleasantly surprised when a mass communication was transferred instead of a personal one. An Instructor appeared on the screen and stared straight ahead as she spoke to us.
"Due to possible contamination, we are suspending all further activity for the day. Food will be delivered to your rooms soon, but in the meantime we are requiring that all Dawns disrobe and put all clothing they are currently wearing into the incinerator before taking a shower. This is an important safety measure and we thank you for your compliance."
The shower's door clicked open and I looked down at Hailey in surprise. She looked back up at me with wide eyes.
"What should we do?" she asked.
The lights in my domicile waned for a moment, but then returned to their full brilliance as Hailey and I sat in nervous silence. I felt my cheeks and ears burning as I blushed.
I wanted desperately to shower with her. Her admission that she'd been dreaming of me in ways that were embarrassing for her to talk about had ignited a lust in me that I'd temporarily forgotten after what happened in the Common Room. Now we were together, already breaking the rules by staying in a domicile together, and the Administrators themselves seemed to be leading us to explore our curiosity.
Hailey's pale skin, green eyes, and fire-red hair were alluring to me as she sat at my feet. I looked at her neck and then down at the curve of her jumpsuit that sat above her breasts. She had freckles on her chest, like many of the Reds, and I wondered if she had them all over her body. I wanted to see, but I was too frightened to admit it.
"You go in first and I'll wait for you to finish," I said.
She looked as if she didn't think that would work. "The doors lock though. Won't the Administrators only allow you to take one shower?"
"I don't know. I've never tried to take one after another."
Hailey's cheeks blushed as she stumbled on what she wanted to say. "Maybe, well, I don't know. Maybe we should take a shower together." She set her fingers on my shoe as if trying to intimate that it would be okay if we let our bodies touch.
"I don't think that's a good idea." I don't know why I was so resistant. I wanted nothing more than to disrobe and get into the shower with her. Despite the horror of what we'd witnessed, my lust superseded all else. Our entire lives had been spent avoiding the stimulation that suddenly presented itself to me.
"They said we needed to decontaminate. Who knows what we might have gotten on ourselves afte
r what happened in there." Hailey stood up and reached out to take my hand and lead me to the shower. I stood and she smiled as she watched me. "It's okay," she said as she let go of my hand and reached for the zipper on the side of her jumpsuit. "Let's take our clothes off."
I looked up at the corners of the room where the cameras were located. I wondered who might be watching.
"No," I said as Hailey slipped her arm out of her suit. She was moments away from revealing her breasts when I turned away. "You remember what happened to Echo and Paris. They got thrown out for something like this. We can't."
I heard Hailey's jumpsuit hit the floor. She was silent for a moment and I clenched my eyes shut as if that might prevent me from turning to look at her. Then I felt her hand on my side.
She took the zipper of my jumpsuit and pulled it down. I asked her to stop, but didn't move away. I allowed her to continue. She slid her hand over my bare stomach, beneath my jumpsuit, and placed her body against my back. I reached back and set my hand against her bare thigh as she placed her lips against my right ear and whispered, "I've been dreaming of this."
I slipped out of my jumpsuit and turned around.
CHAPTER 3 – The Devil’s Plan
BEN WATANABE
I hid in the tall weeds between the colony and the road. A pickup truck had run over my spike strip and I was trying to spy on the driver. The rain had stopped, but black clouds still rumbled above. I slid through the wet earth as I tried to get closer to the road without making it too obvious that something was moving in the weeds.
"I ain't got all day," yelled the owner of the truck. He was an older man, grizzled and thin, with grey facial hair that was a couple weeks past shaved. He was balding but the hair that he did have was long and curly. He had it tied in a ponytail that flopped over his right shoulder as he leaned against the front of his vehicle. He'd been yelling out at the owner of the spike strip for the past ten minutes as I inched closer to the road. "If you're planning on robbing me, I'd like to get it over with. I've got shit to do."