Authors: A.R. Wise
I wasn't fond of many Reds, but Hailey was undeniably sweet. Her eyes were large and emerald green, and when she saw me they seemed to sparkle. The combination of her red hair and green eyes, as contrasted to my blonde hair and blue eyes, made our friendship that much more unlikely, but Hailey was the type of girl it was easy to like. She had a tremendous sense of humor and a quick wit, and always seemed genuinely excited to be with friends. Whereas the other girls were constantly concerned with their social standing, Hailey seemed oblivious to such problems. She was nice to everyone, and rarely had a snide remark about any of the other Dawns.
"Hey beautiful," said Hailey as she took my hand and pulled me off my stoop and into the fray. "Ready for Junction?"
"Sure, I guess." Junction was one of many puzzle games that we played between exercises. The Administrators claimed that both mental and physical exercises were equally important and that it was impossible to reach Surface Status without a keen intellect. All of the games were played on miniature view screens in the Common Room, and our scores were tracked, with leader boards posted on display screens located throughout the Facility. The top three performers in each game were lauded with the same honors awarded to those who excelled in the physical contests.
Hailey was far more adept at the mental challenges than I was, even once breaking into the top three of a game called Xyz, which required the player to quickly identify words that could be spelled with a random grouping of letters. My talent lied in more physical challenges, like swimming and combat training. I never made it to the top three of any event, but I was still considered one of the best contenders in our class.
"You don't like Junction?" Hailey sounded shocked.
Junction was a game in which the player needed to build a track made out of oddly shaped patterns for a ball to roll through and reach a designated safe area. The track would often span gaps, requiring the player to build ramps that could launch the ball a safe distance ahead. It required a deft ability in geometry and physics, which I lacked. "It's okay, I guess."
Hailey's eyes grew wide and she smiled when she said, "I love it."
"Of course you do. You're good at it."
She smiled, rolled her eyes, and shrugged as if embarrassed. "You really think so?"
"Yes, of course I do. You're always at the top of the boards."
"Thanks." She was acting oddly bashful about her accomplishment.
"Thanks for what? You always get high scores in Junction. I'm just telling the truth."
"Thanks for noticing, I mean."
We shared an odd glance, she appeared bashful and my expression must have been one of confusion. "What's with you? You're acting weird."
She giggled and shook her head. I noticed that her cheeks had started to blush as she said, "Nothing, sorry."
There were other girls around us, all in a rush to get to the Common Room and secure a seat at one of the popular tables. Most of the Reds stayed together at a table in the back, but Hailey was often able to sit at a Yellow table. She constantly fluttered between the groups, oblivious to the discord between them.
The Common Room was the largest area in the facility and was furnished with plush couches and revolving chairs. There were short tables throughout that the couches and chairs circled, and it was expected that eight girls would occupy each table - no more, no less. Tablets with touch screens were available for any girl that wanted to practice one of the mental challenge games, but I rarely took the opportunity to do so and instead focused on the social opportunity of the gathering space.
The ceiling of the Common Room was angled and frighteningly high. I got vertigo if I stared up and we once postulated that it was at least thirty or forty feet straight up before even reaching the ceiling's slant. The ceiling rose at a single angle instead of a pyramid, making one side much higher than the other. Such a large space was rare in the Facility, and the open air unsettled me.
When we entered through the arched double doors I pulled Hailey to the side, away from the other girls, and asked her again, "What's with you?"
"I told you, nothing."
I frowned at her. "That's not true. I've known you for too long. I can tell when you're lying."
She smiled and looked down shyly. Then she looked to her left, toward the flow of other girls coming into the Common Room, and took my hand to pull me farther to the side. We sat at an empty table; a rarity in the Facility as most of the girls were in a rush to sit next to others whose friendship helped their social standing. The room was quickly filling with girls and Hailey took a deep breath as she leaned closer to me on the couch we'd taken.
"Promise not to say anything." She whispered to me while glancing around to make sure no one was close enough to overhear.
"Sure. What's going on?"
Her cheeks blazed red and she pulled her loose curls over her naturally red lips as if trying to hide what she was going to say. She held her head low while still looking up at me, her cherub eyes awash in a sea of red hair and crimson cheeks. "I had a dream about you last night."
I was taken aback by the admission and feigned not to understand what she meant. "Okay. So? No big deal about that. I have dreams with you in them from time to time."
She shook her head demurely and let go of her hair as she reached out to touch my leg, halting my response. "Not that kind of dream." She leaned in closer and gripped my leg tighter. "A different kind of dream. Do you know what I mean?"
Now it was my turn to blush. I shook my head, flustered and unsure how to react. I was titillated by her admission and, if circumstances had been different, would have loved nothing more than to sneak away with her and discuss every naughty detail of her dream. The mere thought of it quickened my pulse. I tried to say something, but the Common Room was filling up too fast and other girls were coming close to us now.
"Do you?" she asked again, seemingly saddened by my lack of response.
I was too afraid to answer and glanced away, toward the approaching Reds that thought sitting at a table with Hailey might help their standing. I smiled at them as they drew near and Hailey bristled at my avoidance of her question. She started to scoot further down the couch, mortified by my reaction. When she moved, I put my hand on her thigh and squeezed to keep her close. I hoped the action would be enough to convey my interest and when I looked at her I knew that it did. She smiled coyly before talking to one of her fellow Reds.
My heart raced and my fingers trembled. I slipped them under the soft polyester fabric of my leggings while smiling at the other girls gathering around us. My emotions whirled between excitement and trepidation as I daydreamed about the possibility of divulging my fantasies to Hailey. Then I dared to imagine touching her and, as if in response to my ignoble thoughts, someone cried out in terror from somewhere far off.
The scream was distant and quick enough that many of the girls in the Common Room hadn't heard it the first time. The buzz of conversation still dominated the area, but many of us were silenced in shock at what we thought we heard.
A second scream got everyone's attention. This time the caterwaul drew on for far too long. It rose and fell in waves, as if the source was being throttled, and was then followed with a hollow banging.
The cavernous size of the Common Room made it hard to distinguish where any noise came from, but most of us came to the conclusion that the scream originated high above - somewhere in the ceiling that loomed over our heads.
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 th
e 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.