Interior Blessing

That’s the thing about this city.

You would die if you go outside.

The nuclear war took place twenty years ago.  And since then, families have been living in cower, hiding in the deep dark caves of our former cities’ shadow.  We used to carry banners for sports teams, yelling with glee as our favourite player took home the game.  Now, we carry banners to symbolise the dead, their empty homes ripe for the taking.  We used to go across the street with our friends for a cup of hot chocolate in the cold winters.  Now, we freeze, alone.  The sun used to shine to every corner of our vast city, warming up even the terrible people from their cells in Harklamb.  Now, all we feel is the solid heart of the earth.

And I would know.  Because we always have a day to commemorate it.  The day we lost everything.

The day our city became a wasteland.

And now, all we know is the dark cold truth: We’ll never go outside again.

“Hey!  Get back here!” a screaming voice shrilled through the echoing catacombs.

“I’m good!” I shouted, leaping over a bag of sand and almost dropping the very thing I had risked my life to get.

An apple.

You might think that this apple was some godly apple or magic.

But nope.  It was just a normal apple.

“He’s stealing the ripes!” the lady shouted, making everyone in the entire shelter hear.  Everyone turned to look at me.

Oh no.

If there was one thing that could get all of the attention of the townsfolk of Hypogeon, it was a ripe fruit.  And they were going to want it.

Everyone within ear range suddenly rushed at me at once, desperate for the fresh fruit.  Whether it was to return it or to have it for themselves, I didn’t know.

All I knew was that I had to keep it.

A full grown man suddenly dived at me, his hands held out in front of him.  I side stepped and ran down a hallway to the left, gripping the apple with my sweaty hands.

I glanced back at the hordes of people griping for the fruit.  I had a solid head start on them.  I could easily outrun them.

After running for quite a bit, I eventually reached the east side living quarters, which was basically a giant hallway with beds everywhere, where your only privacy was a very see-through curtain.

Which meant that I couldn’t hide behind one of them.

The horde had reached the entrance to the living quarters.  They were practically drooling.  I knew that they had an unspoken rule.  Whoever got the kid could get the apple.

And they were going to do anything to get it.

I looked around, hoping for a place to hide.  I felt a pang of defeat.  There was no outright place to hide, which meant that the only way I could hide was in plain sight.

Oh, and I forgot to mention one thing.

The east side living quarters were for women.  Pregnant women, to be precise.

So there was no way I could hide.

I looked down at the ripe fruit in my hand.  Staring at the horde, I gulped.  This was one heck of a way to go.

“So, young Atlas.  Carrying the whole world on your shoulders?” a stern voice voice spoke to me.

I looked up at the voice.  “If I was, then I should at least get an apple.”

I was in an interrogation room.  One with a bright light, and a surprisingly cold presence.  Deep underground, it was always hot, since we were right above a flowing amount of magma, which also provided quite a lot of earthquakes.

A woman was talking to me.  But not just any woman.  The commanding officer, the person in charge of all the citizens in the trash hole.

“Very funny,” she said without a trace of a smile on her face.  “How many times have I told you that fresh fruit is for the first class citizens?  Not underground dwellers like yourself.”

The fresh food was always for the rich.  Us “underground dwellers'' never had fresh food, or clean water.  I guess this is what happens when everyone is forced to live underground.  The rich get the good stuff, while the not-so-rich get their scraps.  That’s why I tried to take the apple.  Too bad that nobody likes a modern Robin Hood.

“And, unfortunately, you’ll be going into custody,” she said.

I stood up off of my chair, surprised.  “You can’t do that!” I shouted, pointing at her.  “You’ll kill me!”

“Unfortunately, most people don’t get through our intensive custody.  But it’s what happens when you steal food twenty times,” she said, flipping through a notepad, most likely about me.

“I was doing it to help!” I shouted.

“You were only helping yourself,” she spat on me.  “Now, you’re going into custody, or so help me God, I will drag you outside and make you find your own scraps to eat!”

I threw my head down.  There was nothing I could do.

The commander smiled and opened the door.  “Now let’s get you changed.”

I slowly nodded and got out of my chair.  I felt a sense of relief as I left the room.  It was just too cold to be natural.

“This way,” she said, facing deeper into the catacombs.

I bolted the other way.

What did you expect me to do?  Die?

I rushed past everyone in my way, who was apparently trying to just do their jobs.  I suddenly stopped, my heart racing in my chest.

I was at the exit.

The exit to the outdoors.

Headquarters was this close to the exit.  I guess they wanted to enforce their threats.

“Get back here!” the commander shouted.

I took a deep breath.  There was nowhere to go.

But out.

I raced to the door and opened it.  There was no security, as no one wanted to die a painful death.

Besides me.

I got into the room in between a double air lock.  This was it.  I was going to die.  Might as well see the outside for the first time.

I opened the second door and stepped outside for the first time in my life.

The first thing I felt was nervousness.  Then relief.  And finally, wonder.

I was outside.  And I wasn’t dying.  There were trees and flowery meadows.  The buildings were all destroyed, but I guess the plants had regrown.

And there was a wind.  A nice breeze in my face.

Wait… I wasn’t dying?

What happened to all of those stories of the terrible death that would fall upon any who would dare to exit the catacombs.

Were they all a lie?

Would you really die if you left the city?