locked away

I shift and open my eyes. The light from the sky light drilled through layers of rock, makes everything grey. The automatic lights have not yet been turned on. The awaking bell has not rung yet, so I stay in my bed, pulling the grey blanket a bit further up. Its scratchy, though, so I grab the sheet from where it is crumpled, and make sure that there is a barrier in-between me and the blanket. Like every morning, I savor the moments before waking up. For some odd reason these seem to be where your bed is the comfiest.

A loud clang, and then ringing echo's throughout the cave. Moans of other girls waking up fill the once quit corridor.

"Its that time already?" mumbles Sylvia from the bunk above me. I smile to myself.

"Yup, so get your lazy ass out of that bed." I say, smirking.

"But my lazy ass doesn't want to get out of this bed" She moans. Uh, I love her, but she has to be one of the biggest whiners I know. Come one.

I swing my legs over my bed, and slowly get up, stretching my hands out to the roof. My back crack, and I wince at the not so lovely sound.

"That's so gross" Sylvia complains, cause apparently that's all she is useful for.

"Ok, hurry up, or Leader Xoni is going to beat you." I say. Leader Xoni is one of the many white robed, red covered face, leaders that keep us in line, and make sure that we are faithful to Edmund.

"Ok, Im getting up. Sheesh, you are way to aggressive for this early in the morning" I roll my eyes, and walk over to where the clothes are stored, and place on the uniform of a white T-shirt, and grey sweat pants, and slip on my pair of sandals. They come in big boxes every once in a while.

Once I am finished, I look around to see where Sylvia is at. She is just finished shoving into her sandals. I looks at her annoyed, knowing that she know I am just joking around, and then we walk together to the dining room.

In the center, is a statue of Edmund. He is ugly, but I would never dare say that out loud. He is portrayed as a strong, muscled man, with flexible, bat like wings, and ram like horns sticking out of the back of his head. And he looks angry, with his mouth wide open, fangs pointing out, and his eyes squinted into slits.

Like every morning, as it required of us, I stop in from of it, and bow. Sylvia bows beside me, and then we continue on our way to our table. It is long, and made of wood. We made it ourselves. Some of the strong men had ventured out of the cave, in order to cut down the wood.

It is a dangerous job. There are the sick ones out there. The people with the plague, that makes you slowly die. They dry out, turning yellow, as it there liver had failed, and then shrivel up, looking a bit like a raisin. Their hair falls out of their heads. Not all of it, the rest turns stringy and white.

I push the unpleasant thought out of my head. That is the very reason that we are in the bunker, so that the plague does not affect us.

Breakfast it toast with butter and strawberries. I am very glad that it is summer, because in the winter we just have plain butter on out bread, without sweat juicy strawberries. We also are given a handful of walnuts, and a piece of cheese. The dietician in the bunker closely monitors our diets, and makes sure that we are eating enough, and our getting the proper nutrients. She also makes sure that we are not wasting food, and that we can run as efficiently as possible.

After breakfast is tending to the chickens. That my job. We all have our own. Underground we have cows, goats, chickens, pigs, and gardens. We also have gardens everywhere, so that oxygen is throughout.

Greg lopes up to me. Oh, dogs are also allowed. Greg is mangy and grey. He is ugly, but I love him. Most dogs get kicked around, and not highly valued, but I protect Greg from them.

Greg is also the only dog allowed in the chicken coop that I am assigned to. He just lays there, keeping an eye on me and the pecking chickens.

I make sure that the trough is filled with clean, clear water. I also make sure that grain fills the feeders.

Then my favorite part. First I look in the hutches, where most of the eggs are usually laid. When I have collected a basked full of the one from the hutches, I carefully place them onto the belt, and watch as they disappear.

Then there are the chickens who think that it is acceptable to lay their eggs all over the place, so I have to search a while for those. Would it not make more sense to just lay them in one place, and make the job so much easier for me?

I sigh, and then let myself out of the chicken coop. Greg gets up, and follows me out, being the loyal faithful dog I love. I look around to ensure that there are no leaders around, and then go to one of my favorite places. Its in a garden, with green plants feathering out, right beneath a sky light. I love it at night, with the stars. But now it is day time.

I looks up at the sky light. Even though it is advised against, I allow myself to think about the outside. It there like savages running around, trying to find food? I heard rumor's that some of them ate people. Thats so gross that I do not know if I believe that. I do not care how hungry how you are, but that just seems cruel. The only way that I would do that would be if Edmund told us too. But I wonder what the world used to be like.