by James Huff
As I reached the source of the light, it stopped flashing and began to glow in a dim orange color. There was a large iron door ahead, through a corridor. Above the door I could barely make out a sign that read, “Chamber of Future Initiates, with fear and submission thou shalt heed the call of the Alphae.” Seemed like a pretty ominous message. I shrugged it off and walked up to the door. There was a button next to a calling monitor that said “press for entrance.” I pressed the button and a man appeared on the screen wearing a black hood, his face hidden beneath the garment. His voice was deeper than normal, masked by some kind of electronic technology. “State thy name child.” I hesitated for a moment. All of this seemed pretty creepy to me. “John Crawling.” The black form in front of me subtly flashed a bright white and then returned to its normal dark color. “Quarter of origin child.” I could feel a sense of dread creep up my spine and my voice trembled as I answered. “East Quarter Metropolis.” Again the image flashed, this time a golden color. “What dost thou seek?” I really did not understand the language they were using. Grandfather spoke of this type of language before but he never connected it with Institution in any way. There was something about it that made me nervous.
I knew the answer I was meant to give, and though I could rebel, fear gripped my soul and I simply wanting to get this over with. “I seek to serve that I may be served.” At that the iron door opened with an ominous, low-pitched creek. There was a long tunnel-like corridor ahead that was lit by the same dim orange lighting as was above the door. Suddenly I noticed that I could hear no other children. Well I knew that the building of Institution was massive. There were levels upon levels. And I was not ignorant or naïve. I had a feeling that much of the building itself was underground. It seemed that they wanted to keep the children separate for the processing. The tunnel grew colder as I got further down and still I could not see where I was going. The walls were plain stone and the building itself looked ancient for our times. I was surprised to see no depictions of the Alphae in this place at all.
Finally I heard an announcement, again coming from an unknown source. “Continue down the corridor to door number 1134C. You will find it up ahead to your right.” I wondered how far up ahead it was. It seemed like I had been walking down that dank corridor for hours. Finally I saw some doors on either side of me. I went up to one and tried to listen to what lie beyond it, but I could hear nothing. Afraid to linger, I continued down the path. I began to look at the marked doors ahead to my right. 1133A, 1133B, 1133C…I was getting close. Finally I came up to my designated door, number 1134C. There was no calling monitor on the door and nothing but a small latch to open it. I figured there were probably hidden cameras in this area, so I knocked first. Immediately after the knock, the latch came undone and the door slowly creaked open.
The environment I found inside the door was totally different. The door sealed shut behind me and I appeared to be in some kind of clean room. Everything was white and lit by fluorescents. I was approached by a man in a white lab coat. He was bald, looked unnaturally youthful, and had strange gray eyes. He spoke in a dull, eerie monotone. “I shall guide thee to thy processing room.” Again he was speaking in this strange form of English. What was the Alphae’s agenda behind this? I shrugged off the thought and followed the odd man into a small room to the left. “This is the purging room. Strip off your clothes and give them to me so that I can dispose of them. After the completion of the purge, step outside and I shall issue you your uniform. Thy will be done from darkness unto light child.”
I had to admit, Institution thus far was nothing like I expected. The man left this small room after I got undressed. I wondered why I was left in there alone. I was about to find out why. Suddenly I was hit by a blinding white light followed by a burning sensation. I could smell the first few layers of my skin being burned off as I cried out in agony. I doubled over on the floor and began to cough up blood. My entire body was burning to its very core and I thought I was going to die. Then, as suddenly as it began, it ceased. The blinding white light was gone but I was left temporarily blind. I heard the strange man come in the room and kneel down beside me. I felt a sharp sting into my eyes. I had my sight back and he picked me up and ushered me out of the room. I was still naked so the man left me in the hallway of the main clean room and went over to a small closet and grabbed what looked to be a uniform. It was a jumpsuit made of some kind of strange rubber/cloth fabric of some sort. The top part was a light gray color and the bottom was white. There were also some shoes in the bundle that were plain white and looked to be of the same type of strange material. Some socks were bundled up on top of the clothing.
The man looked at me. “Please carry your uniform into the medical testing station ahead on your right, room number 132A. You may get dressed there and wait upon the operation recliner. Thou hast perfected peace with subservience.” That man did not seem human. He really made me feel uncomfortable. I did as he said and walked down the hallway until I reached the medical testing station room. I walked in and got dressed quickly. The suit felt unusually cold and sterile against my still burning skin. I sat down on the recliner, unsure of what to expect next. A calling monitor came down from the ceiling in front of me and the Alphae rose to greet me, this time surrounded by the Abyss.
“Citizen John Crawling. Congratulations on your induction behind the walls of Institution and welcome to your official processing. All of the Inductees must go through this process, although there are variances with each child who enters this facility. Since you are already aligned with the first protocol of the BMF, your experiences thus far are reflections of that. At this time I cannot explain anything further, but while you wait for the medical examiner please enjoy this educational video about what to expect in your three year stay behind the walls of Institution.”
The Alphae dissipated and was replaced by a great hall or temple. There were huge stone pillars rising up all the way to the high ceiling and a massive altar at the front of the hall. The Alphae sat upon a throne behind the altar and thousands of children were seen on the floor of the halls prostrating before him. A voice could be heard on the monitor. “Welcome worthy citizen to the walls of Institution. Be ready to embark upon a quest of spiritual liberation, for when you leave these walls you will be eternally bound forever as a child of the Alphae and bask in the limitless light of his divinity.” The scene shifted and showed what looked like classrooms, with instructors leading their students and teaching them about the history of the Alphae and his love of Metropolis. “There are six grades of initiation that each child shall pass through on his way to spiritual liberation. Throughout this process you will be instructed on the history of the Alphae, along with the ethics of proper conduct as a citizen of Metropolis. Our curriculum is state of the art and we have gathered here the greatest instructors that this city has ever seen. Be prepared for the journey of a lifetime.”
I knew there was more to Institution than all the grandeur that this video was describing. I knew that it was simply propaganda that the Alphae and his agents dished out to us to make us feel comfortable and safe. I trusted Grandfather’s warnings far more than the pleasantries of this video. I chose to ignore it and attempted to go off into my imagination for some escape. I managed to visualize Vaena, but each time I would see the elders and my grandfather among them, somehow the Alphae would rise up and destroy them all and mock and laugh at me. So I gave up. Anger grew in my heart, but no sooner could I dwell on it than the monitor returned to its original position and the door to the room was opened. In came another bald man with the strange attire and demeanor.
“Good day, citizen,” he began. “We must run some provisional medical tests at this point. First we need to take a sample of your blood.” The recliner moved backward and the man went to a monitor next to it and seemed to be activating a machine. Suddenly a robotic arm descended from the ceiling and a needle went up to my arm and pierced it, pulling a sample of my blood up through some tubes. The strange man
took the tubes and ran them through a centrifuge. Then the robotic arm reached down to my hair and pulled out a sample. Then it took a layer of my skin and continued to take samples from other parts of my body. Each time, the man took the samples and ran them through various machines until he had compiled a computer profile of them all. “I have sent the results to the medical director for analysis. Please accompany me to the evaluation room number 132D where we will begin with your psychological evaluation. Thou art dark only without thy submission. Submit and it shall be revealed to thee.”
I was really beginning to wonder who these men were. If they even were men. Something about them just did not seem human. Why did they keep speaking in these strange riddles? What was this all about? I just hoped that whoever it was that was to give me my psychological evaluation was not one of them. I followed the odd man to another room down the hall took my place on another recliner. This room was filled with various depictions of the Alphae, and I wondered why such depictions were not seen in any of the other areas I had seen thus far. The man left the room and it was only a few moments later before another man entered. This man was not bald like the others and has a long white lab coat with the same kind of circular object fastened around his head as I had seen with the BMF. He wore glasses and had medium length brown hair with brown eyes. He looked to be about my father’s age.
“Good day Mr. Crawling and welcome to the walls of Institution. Your former BMF counselor has transferred your case file to me and I have just finished reviewing it. This evaluation will be a bit different than most of the children here, since your BMF protocol has been activated. Your file shows signs of anomalous behavior and your diagnosis of Dissent Deniability Disorder. But that is not what your evaluation will be about today. We will merely be determining if you can cope with the minor stressors of this new environment behind the walls of Institution. Let us begin.”
I was hoping this evaluation would not just be a repeat of the one before with the BMF. He asked me various questions about my personal life; how I got along with my family, how I saw the Alphae, the place I felt that I fit best in the society of Metropolis, etc. I mostly lied. Of course I could have just as easily been honest. They already had a file on me from the BMF. Upon completing the assessment, the man smiled weakly and ushered me out of the room. “There is a lift at the end of this hallway. Take it to the 1st floor where you will be grouped with your fellow inductees and taken to the cafeteria for your first meal. Congratulations and remember, that all things done be unto the glory of the Alphae.”
I did as the man asked and as I reached the lift, suddenly Grandfather’s face flashed into my mind. My heart still ached with grief that no amount of time would heal. But how I saw him in my mind was the same way as I saw him on the train that day…when he warned me of being too imaginative in Institution. I would never forget the look on his face that day. I attempted to brush the thought aside as I entered the lift. In no time at all I found myself on the 1st floor and as I stepped outside, I walked into a shockingly different environment. I was in some kind of main hall. The ceiling was high and domed, but had these strange pyramid-like etchings on it. The walls were gray and the floor was the all too familiar gray and white checkered. The room itself, aside from the ceiling, was fairly plain. And it was bustling with fellow inductees in their uniforms, scurrying this way and that. No one seemed to know what was going on.
Before I could think twice an announcement was heard from above. “Inductees please gather beneath the central dome. You will see that the floor is marked with an arc. Please stand within the arc while we sort you into your castes.” Everyone seemed to swarm to that central location at the same time and in such a chaotic fashion that people were being trampled. I lingered behind and waited for the crowd to disperse a little before taking my place in the back of the arc. When the rest of the inductees were gathered and the chaos calmed, a whirring was heard from above as a small disc descended from the dome, spinning rapidly. It emitted a triad of yellow, orange, and red laser beams and out of that a panorama opened up and descended all around us. We found ourselves amidst the perilous Wastelands, the earth dry and scorched all around us. The Alphae began to rise up from the sands bearing his scepter. He rose up to such a height that his head blanketed the sun and enshrouded us in an eerie darkness.
“Future Initiates! Soon you will all become my children, bound eternally by love and loyalty. But first we must sort you into your castes. It will be your responsibility to work together with your group to grow in strength and fortitude through the many trials and tribulations that await you on your path of initiation through a quest for the ultimate freedom: an eternity in my many glorious Kingdoms. All who pass through these ordeals will be given all they need while living in Metropolis, and an infinite more shall be bestowed upon you in death, the final initiation where all of you will be welcome into the eternal Kingdom of your choice.”
Somehow I doubted that the Alphae would ever invite me into Vaena, because I knew a beautiful Kingdom like that had no place for a tyrannical god as the Alphae. They need no god. And even if they do have one, I am sure it is loving and accepting, unlike the dogmatic and judgmental Alphae. It sickened me that I would have to stoop to such a level with this tyrant while behind these walls. He took the one thing from me that mattered most and then dared to say that my grandfather was happy with him in his eternal abode. Nothing could quell my hatred for this cursed being. It was rising up in me again. But also within my heart was a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, I would find another inductee here among me that would understand what I am going through. Surely there had to be someone else who questioned the Alphae’s omnipotence and authority. Surely I cannot be the only one that the BMF has come after. Right then and there I made it my mission to seek out another student who was going through the same thing as me. I had to do so subtly. I knew that if there were others like me out there that they would wish to keep it a secret. Truly silence has protected me in the past, because it was all the times that I spoke out or rebelled against the Alphae that I suffered the consequences.
The Alphae continued. “Each individual will be tested according to their aptitude with the curriculum and dogma of my Divine Order. Accordingly, these scores will be tallied up and averaged among each caste. Upon graduation, the highest scoring caste will be awarded with a ten day retreat with the elders of the palace at an undisclosed location. I cannot explain more on this, but I assure you that it is a real privilege and may enable some of you to work within Metropolis’ most inner circles. This is an honor of the highest sort. I wish each of you the best of luck.”
With that the scene dissipated and we were approached by the high priest along with his consort of six lower ranking priests. The high priest stood in front of the arc, some ten feet away from us and, holding his scepter in one hand and a scroll of some kind in the other, he began to call us out by name. There were six total castes. The Alphae had chosen the castes based upon our aptitude as determined by our psychological evaluations. That sounded good to me, since I wanted to meet some like minded people. There were six total classes, each according to the Alchemical metals. These were ranked as Lead, Mercury, Tin, Iron, Copper, and Silver, with the Alphae alone bearing the Gold. My name was one of the last called into the Silver caste. I took my place behind one of the priests and noticed that the girl I had seen at the Induction Ceremony was standing right next to me. I turned to look at her and smiled. She shot back a quick, half-hearted smirk before walking to the outer edge of the group. She seemed to be somewhat of a loner. I decided that I would try to reach out to her later. Maybe she was just like me. There had to be a reason that, out of all the thousands of students to be grouped together, I was to run into her again.
After the sorting ceremony we were ushered by the priest to the dining hall. He took us out of the large domed room and down a long corridor that descended downward subtly like a ramp. After turning a corner to the left we found ourselves in a slightly smal
ler room than the one previous. There were six rows of tables so long that they stretched out the entire length of the room. They must have been 500 feet long or more. There was a large throne to the North of the hall, along with many ornate depictions of the Alphae painted on the walls. Some of them looked to be depicting the ancient past. The Alphae himself was seated upon the throne, unmoving and still as if in some kind of trance or slumber. I wondered how he could be in more than one place at a time, but I supposed if he really was a god that that made sense. Still I questioned it. I could see no food preparation area and no bar as I expected. The priest instructed us to take our seats and to turn so that we could see the Alphae. He walked toward the throne and knelt down upon one knee and struck his staff on the ground hard, seeming to wake the Alphae who then stood up, mighty and opulent above us. This time he was about 75 feet tall. As soon as he stood everyone fell to their knees and began beating their breasts and going into convulsions. I knelt down reluctantly but remained still and silent. The priest turned and took notice of me and appeared to whisper something under his breath. I could see his lips moving. Just great. Now the BMF would be notified that I did not fully participate at dinner.
The priest stood up and turned to us students and raised his scepter once more, signaling silence. A deadly quiet took over the entire hall that I could feel to the depths of my soul. “Welcome to the # 613 dining hall, dedicated in memory of the Great Prophet and King Zeado. He lived in dark times when the Alphae and our people were being persecuted and hunted down by the evil rebels. He died while proclaiming the ultimate divinity of our god, and it is in his honor that we give thanks for this bountiful feast that the Alphae has bestowed upon us.” Suddenly the Alphae struck down his scepter and all of the tables were filled with enticing meats and exotic fruits and vegetables. An aroma of tantalizing spices and herbs filled our nostrils and we could see steam coming off of the food. Even I was lost in the allure of such a sight and smell. Much of the food I had never even seen before. But then the Alphae struck down his scepter once more and it all vanished. He opened his mouth to speak. “There will come a time, my children, when you can share in the feast of a god, but it is not this day. For remember you are all fallen in nature due to the lineage of rebellion that spoils the seed of all humans. But fear not, for I am a generous god and will provide you with all you need while staying behind the walls of Institution, as well as all you must have in order to pass through the Great Ordeal.”