by Scot McAtee
***
Screaming, we reached for each other in the darkness until we held hands. It was a long fall. It felt endless. We eventually stopped screaming, but we didn’t speak to each other; we were too afraid. Then we saw a light. It was a lantern hooked on the side of the hole. Then there were more, until the entire thing was lit up. The hole got smaller and smaller as we went down; the sides were closing in at a fast rate. We could see the bottom and we started screaming again because we thought we would die. The giant hole ended up as a smaller hole, still at a decent size, though. Suddenly the sides of the hole were gone, and there was a whole new layer of land. It was dark and lit up only by a bunch of lanterns. There was a small village below us, and we were still falling straight for it. We noticed some people below and they were standing around a giant tarp held up by long poles, which was placed under the hole. We were close now, we looked at each other, and then I closed my eyes prepared for the landing. We fell right into the tarp and bounced several times until we were settled. Stunned, I sat there not wanting to face the situation. Then I opened my eyes and looked at Faith also laying here flabbergasted. We got on our knees and climbed out of the tarp. People of all ages were crowding around.
“Welcome!” shouted many from the group.
In disbelief, I could only say, “What?”
“What is happening?” Faith questioned softly.
“Welcome to A New Life! We hope you enjoy it here,” said a lady seeming to be about 80.
“I don’t understand…” I said out of breath.
“Can someone explain to us what is going on? What is this place?” Faith asked.
“This is A New Life. It is our home, and it can be yours too.”
“Why are you guys down here?”
“Thousands of years ago in 2021, a group of people, sick and tired of what was happening to the world and society, just started digging. For many years, people joined in in secret. They spent the rest of their lives digging a hole to escape reality. They made a big, invisible wall to keep out others. We make cards to scan and access it. When they were satisfied with the hole’s massive size, they stopped and started digging this whole new layer to build a town. It is a good size, but we are still digging!”
“How do we get back out?”
“We have a helicopter but we only use it when we need to, but we grow our own food, run our own school, and we even have a doctor. We all just take trips up there sometimes to see above ground. We also have people who live up there sometimes; they have part time jobs and apartments up there to raise money for if we need it, but they live here most of the time. We only have a few phones down here; we try to keep away from them because they easily spread the corruptness of the real world. We always welcome new people.”
“Well…it’s amazing,” I said.
“And crazy,” Faith added.
“We know, but we have witnessed how people can tear apart a world already. So with that knowledge, we know what mistakes to avoid. We are starting over,” the old lady said.
“Can you take us back up?” I asked.
“Are you coming back?” she asked back.
“We need to talk to our dad.”
“Here,” she said pulling a card from her pocket, “in case you decide to join us.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll get our pilot to take you up, just wait here,” she said walking away.
The group of people around us watched us for a while, talking to each other, and then went back to what they were doing.