Silence

“Today we get breaking news about two projects escaping from organization S.U.N. This has never happened before, and no one knows what this means for the future of S.U.N., and for the future and safety of Ajambo. Stay tuned for future information on the projects that have escaped and exactly how they did this.”

Earlier that day:

“Will project Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten report to medical ward two please.”

A sickly sweet voice rang through my blank room. The metal cot I was lying in creaked as I stood. I looked at myself in the mirror and made sure my black uniform was perfect. Wincing in pain from last night’s wretched mission, I walked out of my room, the sliding door closing behind me. I strolled down an empty white hall with nothing but flickering lights above. 

There were floors and floors of these gloomy hallways with living quarters so that the hundreds of projects had a place to sleep. As I made it to the fork in the hallway, I watched as Eight, Nine, and Ten joined me in the middle. Their faces looked drained and feeble, the uniforms sagging off of their thin bodies. 

We reached the end of the hallway and were met by the large iron doors to the medical word on our floor. As we drew nearer, they swung open revealing a dingy room of beds lined up one next to another. Some empty and made nicely, others with projects receiving treatment from the nurses. The nurses each wore a black mask and long black robes to conceal their identity. I went first and stood on the circle and let the tube drop around me. A blue figure of my body popped up in front showing my slender figure and detecting the few injuries I had. 

I was lucky not to have broken anything like eleven did last night but I had a few bruises and one large cut down my leg. The tube lifted and I limped towards a bed. I plopped onto the side of the uncomfortable cot, and a nurse walked over and silently started to clean me up. I saw Eight receiving the same treatments as me wincing in clear agony as I was. We weren’t allowed to talk and screaming was said to be a sign of weakness so we had to clench our mouth shut. I watched as his nurse and inevitably mine took a long blue strand and tucked it into his cut to look like a vein but we all knew they were wires. 

By the time we were eighteen and stationed in the city, they would have full control of us due to our wires. The nurse left taking her tray of supplies with her. I got up and walked next to Eight who was still in pain. Just as we left the ward the announcer came on.

“For all projects in group three hundred and four, you are on free time, enjoy your thirty minutes in free space zones.”

“I hate the way she talks, all bright and cheery like nothing is wrong in this world-”

“Shh!”

I jabbed him in the stomach as he started to ramble on more. I looked around the hall frantically checking over my shoulder. I looked over at him rolling his eyes at my comment but reluctantly kept his mouth shut. As we reached the end of the hallway we climbed up the red metal ladder to a balcony. Ever since Eight and I were seven we have been going here in our free time, but the view made me breathless yet again. The world was busy, aircrafts flying above, people walking in the city, lights shining in the skyscrapers that were everywhere, each one taller than the last. The most remarkable thing about the city was how eerily quiet it was. Even with the space crafts, the people, the hover cars, there was absolutely no noise. As I looked up I found myself staring at the starry night sky. Here in the city of Ajambo, it was always night no matter what time. 

“Isn’t it magnificent?” I asked walking up to the rail that kept us from jumping. 

“You say that every time,” Eight commented sitting on a bench surrounded by plants. I walked back to sit next to him admiring the plants that brushed upon my legs. 

“They were able to create plants like this!” I said pointing to the large-leafed plant that had glowing specs on it.

“They don’t even need the sun!”

With that last remark, Eight grimaced. S.U.N (Scientific, universal, network) was the organization we lived and would die in. It was the organization that imprisoned us. 

“Sorry,” I said looking down at my feet.

“No it’s okay, I just hate it here, I mean who doesn’t they are controlling us not only by telling us where to go and what to do but they are installing wires in us!” He jumped up and pointed to his leg where his wound was fresh, and a blue wire peeked out of his flesh.

“Yeah, but we are strong we will survive.”

“Here? Yeah good luck with that, their point is to kill us, and I am done surviving. I want to thrive.”

He turned his back to me and looked out at the city. I stood up and walked over to where he stood. Even though we were the same age he was still inches taller than me. They had worked us so hard he was already stronger than most adults and I could feel it when I placed my hands on his arm. They haven't modified us like they have some older projects but I doubt it will be long before they do and Eight and I become entirely different. I watched as a teal ripple ran through the black sky, reminding me that we were trapped in here. 

“Don’t you ever just wanna run?” Eight said staring blankly into the darkness. 

“Not here, I hate those treadmills they hurt-”

“No not here, but somewhere else just run until there is nowhere left to run. And this stupid organization is far behind us.”

“If it means leaving here I would love it but I guess we don’t have much of a choice for escape do we?”

“I mean, we do, we just have to come up with a plan.”

“You know it isn’t possible, they have thousands of the Black-Masked around here.”

I said pointing at a floating road around a hundred floors down, where three people stood, black guns held by their sides, black face masks up, black uniforms perfectly tailored to their bodies. 

“You lack so much imagination, we could find a way we just have to try,” Eight stared at me holding both my hands a desperate look in his eye. 

“But I don’t want to get caught and have to have you go through the punishment,”

“But we won’t get caught. Don’t you want to be free? Don’t you want to break free from these chains and see the world as it is without them telling us how to live?” 

“I don’t want to become them,” I said pointing at the Black-Masked who were terrorizing a family shooting their guns near them, laughing as electric blue lasers shot from the end nearly missing a child. 

“I can’t”

“This is why we need to get out of here.” 

“But I don’t want to get in trouble.”

“You don’t see the bigger picture, do you? If we just stay here not trying we are most definitely going to turn into them!”

His sudden change in emotion took me by surprise but I knew what he was saying was right. 

“I don’t know Eight,”

“Don’t you dare call me Eight! You know my name is Leo!”

With that, he stormed off dropping my hands flying down the ladder and was gone in the blink of an eye. I was taught to be strong if we showed any signs of weakness in training or our missions we would be punished but right now I didn’t care. I dropped to the floor and laid on my back looking up as my tears blurred stars in the sky. I had been in S.U.N. since I was five and through those years we were brutally worked, told how to act, and what to do. Eight was right we had to get out. 

“Can those in free time please put these headphones on and report to their rooms for quiet time.”

With shaky hands, I placed the noise-canceling headphones on that just made the announcement. I slowly got up and headed down the ladder, through the blank hallways, and into the main hallway. As a Black Masked patrolling the halls passed by I quickly nudged Eight to get his attention.

“What do you want?” He said in an annoyed tone after we both slipped one ear out from under the headphones.

“I’m in,” I said, grimacing after, “I’m in, now tell me the plan before sense gets knocked into me.” A small smile crept on his lips before he told the plan to me.

“Okay, they trust you more than they trust me, head to the bathroom, and after they leave you alone come straight to my room”

“Got it.”

 “Here is my passcode make sure no one is around when you come.” He gave me a piece of paper that had his passcode written down on it and I slipped it into my pocket. 

“Now when you get me I’ll tell you what to do from there, deal?”

“I can’t believe we are doing this, okay deal”

I shook his hand and with one last smile, we put our headphones on and focused on our own paths. Kids of all ages walked out into the hallways some muscular and larger than any human could muster, others small enough to get stomped on. Eventually, I left the crowd of tired projects and found my hallway. The floor shook as something underneath awoke, probably another experiment gone wrong. A Black Masked stood outside of my room waiting to close me in. I held up a four to signal I needed the bathroom, and the Black Masked nodded escorting me there. I walked past countless labs and rooms where projects were being tested and experimented on but I kept my head down and stayed walking.  After I reached the bathrooms and saw the Black Masked leave around the corner. I walked into the tiled room and pulled out the paper slip and read the number, 123784. Before leaving for Eight’s room I made sure no Black Masked were in the halls. After I decided the coast was clear I walked over to the G hallway and three keypads down. With shaking hands, I typed in the passcode and with a tiny ding, the door silently slid open. There Eight stood a mischievous smile on his face. I took my headphones off and laid them around my neck and he did the same. 

“You ready?” He asked me to give him a fist bump as he checked the hallway. 

“Sure.”

“Follow me”

Being as silent as possible, we crept around each hallway making sure no one saw us. The Black masked had off because it was quiet time but we didn’t trust they were all gone. We reached the Z hallway and before peeking over the corner to check, Eight held up a fist to signal me to stop.

“Alright, there is one guard at the door to the mothership. I am going to take them out, and you will steal the key card located at their belt holster, okay?”

“Okay,” I said suddenly feeling charged and more awake than I ever have. On the count of three, we sprinted down the hallway seeing a Black Masked at the end, their eyes shut, gun at their side. Eight quickly snatched the gun and shot the Black Masked in the torso. They fell to the ground, hunched over in a pile on the cool floor. I quickly searched their holster for the key card and found the tiny white card. 

“Got it. Let’s go!”

I swiped the card, and two large iron doors slid open revealing a huge room. The mothership, (the ship the leader of S.U.N. uses to get around the city) was stationed in the center of the dull room. There was no time to gawk at the room though. I met Eight at the mothership, both painting and out of breath.

“Nice work now we have to just figure out how to drive that stupid ship.”

We both got on the platform that was dropped down allowing access to the ship. I kept watch over the room waiting for Eight to figure it out.

“We got company!” I yelled, looking towards the door where a dozen black masks marched in searching for us. 

“I got it going let’s go!”

I left the bench I was sitting on and headed for the co-pilot’s chair next to Eight. He pushed a red button and the platform to the ship closed behind us. I could feel a vibrating coming from below us as the engines started. 

“Hold on!”

He held what looked like a paper manual to the ship and pressed another green button. All the force sent me back into my chair stuck against the black fabric. I looked out through the black tinted windows that covered the ship entirely and back where dozens of Black Masked stood aimlessly shooting at the ship missing terribly. Once we got into a grove the silent ship glided through the beautiful city. 

“I sure won’t miss S.U.N but this is one beautiful city.”

“Yeah.” He said, his face pressed against the window. 

“Hey, Leo?” I saw a happy smile spread from cheek to cheek. 

“Now that I am not in S.U.N do you think I could have a new name?”

“Duh!” He said, swiveling in his chair to face me. 

“What do you think about Aelia?” 

“I was thinking more like ‘Weirdo’ but that will work.”

“Oh shut it!” I said, punching him in the arm. 

“Well, now we are free. What do you think about that?”

“I think you are insane for coming up with this plan but I can’t say I’m mad.”

I ruffled his brown hair and smiled leaning on his shoulder.

“Well, we are all that we got now.”

“I’m fine with that.”

“Family?”

“Family.” He held out his hand for a shake to secure the deal, but I smothered him in a hug. 

“Alright Aelia, you ready to see our new life?”

“You bet!”

I sat back in my chair and looked out at the almost clear border that kept everyone in the city. I took one last look at the stunning city before I held Leo’s hand, and a crisp, bright, blinding white light filled every space in the mothership.