Arcadia | Chapter One

Introducing the underground safe-house of Arcadia.

I was in some land that I had never seen before. There was grass swaying in the cool, gentle breeze. The wind smelled of pine. Full, healthy trees stood tall in the distance, covered with snow, even though it felt like spring in the fields. The sun was shining brilliantly over head, and small wisps of clouds were scattered about the bright blue sky. I had never seen anything like it. I knew it wasn't real, but I enjoyed it anyway.

I turned the other direction, and saw desert ruins. The green fog that shrouded the ground spun around my ankles, and I could smell the carcasses of the dead, animal and human, rotting in the distance. I closed my eyes, hoping to wake up, or at least see the beautiful hills that lay behind me. I turned.

A dark figure stood before me. It was too far away to see who it was, but it looked like a human; perhaps a man. I called to him. He didn't move. Suddenly, it grew silent, like all the noise was just sucked into a black hole.

The man raised his finger to point behind me, and at the moment I began to turn, my eyes opened.

I was back in the reality I had grown up in. My sector mates were already out of bed. I rolled out quickly, finding my sweater and wiggling my arms into the sleeves. As I pulled my trousers on over my night pants, Sophia came in through the door. 

"Harper, come on!" she whispered excitedly.

I tripped, catching myself on the cool stone floor. "Why are you guys up so early?"

"Captain's letting us all go up top today. You better hurry up." She tossed my boots to me.

"Is he letting everyone go out?" I asked, but when I looked up, the doorway was empty. I sighed and laced up the rest of my boots. 

"This never happens. Why of all days?" I murmured. I grabbed my crossbow and quiver, tucked my dagger into the sheath, and jogged out of Sector 6.

It seemed as though all of the sectors that the teenagers and the young adults stayed in were empty. As I approached the Welcome Sector, all of my neighbors and sector mates were talking excitedly, all showing off their weapons. We had only used them in the Arena for training, so I guess everyone was anxious to use them on the mutants. I approached Sophia and Thomas, who were standing to the side.

"About time you got up," said Thomas. I punched his shoulder, laughing.

"So what's the deal with everyone going up top?" I asked.

Sophia drew her dagger, polishing the blade with her undershirt. "Captain says he thinks it's time we see what we're really going to deal with soon," she explained. "Once we become hunters or scavengers, we're gonna be seeing these b******s all the time. Better learn to defend ourselves before then, know what they look like."

Thomas laughed. "What do you think they'll look like? Regular humans? They call them mutants for a reason. Those ugly freaks who just didn't make it out of the bomb radius in time. Now they're just creatures with five rows of razor sharp teeth, claws, maybe some tentacles sticking out of their heads--" 

"Shut up, Thomas. You'll scare the younger kids," I interrupted him. I noticed the thirteen or fourteen-year-olds were all nervously listening to Thomas, and they quickly turned their gaze back to their weapons. One of them had her head tucked between her knees. Her back heaved up and down every now and then. I suspected she was crying, and I felt angry at Thomas. He had obviously scared her.

"Sorry, Harper. Didn't know you were afraid of mutants," he laughed.

"I'm not, but other people are. So have some respect for once."

Sophia gave me a look. "You and I both know that they are going to be scared either way. They'll get over it eventually and maybe be excited to kill those things."

I shook my head. "My mom could be one of those things, maybe even my dad. Hey, maybe they'll come out holding hands." 

Both Thomas and Sophia looked down, not saying a word. They knew the story.

My father had connections to the government around the time that the threats from the enemy nations were flooding in. He knew that President Downs was handling the situation poorly, so he created a vast safe house underground with the help of hundreds of other citizens; it was later named Arcadia. Word spread to the president that people in my town were building a shelter to avoid the draft, and my father received a disturbing call from the president himself that if he didn't tear down the shelter, he would be considered an enemy. He made a ballsy move and hung up. Later, he got another call from a former colleague who still worked for the FBI. He said a rogue-alliance was planning to drop a nuclear bomb on the White House, and they were evacuating the president. My mother, being extremely distrusting of the FBI, thought it was all a hoax and didn't believe the nuclear bomb claim. Next thing I knew, my father was strapping me into my car seat, throwing some suitcases into the trunk, and leaving my mother at the house. The shelter was my home ever since then. We were joined by hundreds of other families in the shelter, and the bomb dropped a couple of days after the shelter was filled. A week after that, my dad left in guilt to find my mother. I never saw either of them ever again.

I felt a hand hit my shoulder, and turned to see the Captain smiling at the three of us.

"You guys ready for today's challenge?" he said happily. 

"Yes, sir." We all shot into position.

He laughed. "At ease, at ease. You three are my best, so I expect nothing but success and bravery." He walked through the pathway created by the group, all of them standing at attention. Captain reached the front and faced the crowd.

"You all have trained extremely well for the past couple of years, and it's time you see what reality you'll be facing out there. It's not going to be pretty. I know you've been told this all your life, but you never realize it until you're actually up top, looking at the creatures that you've been trained to kill.

"We will go up to the gate, and you will all get a chance to stand on the guard bridge and kill a few mutants. I will have you up there in groups of three, and judge your assault techniques. There is no way that a mutant will be able to harm you on the bridge, so you have no need to worry about getting hurt."

I glanced over at the girl who was crying. Her tears had been wiped away and she was standing at attention as everyone else was. I hoped that Captain's reassurance had given her some comfort.

"I would like Sophia, Thomas, and Harper to go first, since they are the oldest," Captain continued. "The rest of you may choose your groups. I will be back for another group in about ten minutes."

Sophia and Thomas both glanced at me. I quickly moved between them and headed towards the exit ladder, where Captain was waiting. The other two followed behind silently.

"Let's head up." Captain started up the ladder, and opened the hatch. 

A gust of cool air exploded through the hatch opening. I drank it in, hoping to detect the scents of a forest, or a gorge, or something more natural than the earthy, dense smell of Arcadia.

Instead, I smelled death.