I finish breakfast alone, returning my utensils to Darren before I find myself wandering towards Naia’s room. I’m not in the Med Ward today, and I plan to spend the morning relaxing before I have to start on my cleaning duties. Naia, Elyse, Rylan and I normally get together on our days off to play cards or dice and enjoy some free time when we’re not working or helping around the Colony.

The hallways are uncharacteristically full for a Friday morning. Colony members bustle past me as I make my way towards Naia’s housing room. At one point all of the traffic seems to surge directly at me as I plunge through the current of moving bodies. I make little progress until the crowd thins out.

I knock on Naia’s door as it rests slightly ajar, peering through the small crack between the door frame and the door. After a few seconds, Naia appears on the other side and greets me with a hug. My living quarters are a bit small compared to Naia’s. For whatever reason, her family has a much larger set-up, including two bigger bedrooms than mine.

We enter her housing area through the living room. Both of her parents, Phil and Amanda, are sitting in small chairs reading. They raise their heads to say hello as we pass through. Naia’s father has thick-rimmed glasses with heavy slabs of glass to focus his eyes properly. He’s a bit of a round man. An incredibly intelligent, round man.

The living room isn’t much different than a standard bedroom, although a few small chairs sit in place of a bed. The walls are still a solid gray, complete with the metallic, slick floor. Off of the living room are two other rooms: Naia’s bedroom, and her parent’s master bedroom. I follow Naia into the smaller bedroom where Elyse and Rylan are waiting.

Elyse looks grumpy and only grunts a hello as we enter. Rylan smiles as I take my seat in the circle. Once we’re all settled, the cards are dealt in silence. Elyse looks flustered throughout our game, tossing her nose into the air when she loses and pumping her fists wildly towards the ceiling when she wins. I see Naia’s eyes narrow whenever she’s bested by our boisterous friend. I must have missed an argument before I arrived.

“What’s wrong with you?” Rylan asks as Elyse pitches her cards wildly back towards the center of the circle.

Elyse recoils defensively. “I’m vulnerable! Fragile! And this is how you approach the situation?”

“What are you talking about?” I’m just as confused as Rylan.

“Mike, he dumped me! Broke it off. I just… don’t want to talk about it!” Elyse buries her head in her hands.

She loves it. Elyse loves the attention. She’s compassionate, intense, and above all, boy crazy. She loves them, and they all seem to love her. All of them. The one small detail about Colony life that throws her passion for passion off a little: the number of men she hasn’t loved is starting to shrink. There are only so many guys down here.

It’s always the same process: she falls madly in love with them, talks only about them for a week or two, and then ends up getting her ‘heartbroken.’ I see where her desire for attention and affection comes from, it’s lonely down here. But every guy? Every single one?

Rylan awkwardly shuffles the cards, concentrating on the routine, pretending not to notice Elyse whimpering across from him. He deals the cards slowly. Elyse’s face pokes from her hands as she scoops the cards into her tear-stained palms. I sigh, glancing to Naia seated across from me. She keeps her eyes low, lips pressed together. Her body bounces ever so slightly as she tries to suppress what I imagine to be a massive giggle. I smile, shaking my head at my best friend.

More than an hour passes as we continue our game with little conversation. Naia’s parents come in once during the card game, telling us that they have to run to the Western wing of the Colony to check a few things, but everything they say seems vague and short. The game gets boring, and Elyse’s attitude doesn’t improve as she loses the next two hands in a row, throwing her cards back towards Rylan. He shakes his head as the shuffling continues. Elyse stands to use the bathroom.

Naia contains herself until Elyse storms out of sight. “I just can’t help it” Naia says between the spurts of laughter. “It’s not even like this is a new thing. Every single guy! Every time!”

Rylan shakes his head. “Thanks for warning me, by the way. I had no idea what I was walking into there.” Naia only laughs harder.

Naia’s laughter rings around the room and I can’t help but smile. Rylan opens his mouth to speak again, but is interrupted by a blaring siren from the hallway. A pulsing, familiar sound. My mind turns to the red flashing lights that woke me a few days prior. Jeremy leaving to investigate. The hole.

Elyse comes rushing back into the room, followed quickly by Naia’s parents. Naia’s father grips a small pistol in his right hand. Weapons aren’t common in the hallways of our Colony. The unknown power packed into that little sidearm frightens me. Phil’s face, hard and tattered, frightens me as well.

“You four need to stay here. Got it?” Although he poses the statement like a question, I know he means it as an order.

“What’s going on?” Naia asks.

“We’re not sure. Regardless, you need to stay here while we get it figured out. If we need you, we’ll come get you. Understood?” Naia nods as her father finishes speaking. I nod as well, not wanting to cross the man. Naia’s parents vanish out the front door in a hurry similar to Jeremy’s when the last alarm went off. It seems like they’ve only been gone for a few seconds before Rylan is moving towards the door.

Naia throws her hands up, “Where are you going?”

“Home. I’ve got to get to my parents. They’ll know what’s going on.”

“Why does it matter if they know what’s going on? My parents told us to stay here. They obviously know if it’s safe out there or not.”

Rylan shakes his head. “Doesn’t matter. My family might need me and I’m not going to stick around here to wait out whatever this is.” I move towards him with an outstretched arm but gunfire rings out from somewhere deep within the Colony before I reach him. Naia and Elyse both freeze. I close the distance to my friend, grabbing his thin, discolored shirt.

“Please, stay. Don’t go. People don’t walk around the Colony carrying weapons like Naia’s dad. Something’s wrong.” My reasoning doesn’t stick with him. He just continues to shake his head, pulling away from me while moving closer to the door.

“I’ve got to go. Sorry Aly, but you would do the same thing if you were in my shoes.” I’m caught off guard by this. Without another word, Rylan slips between the three of us and vanishes out the front door into the hallway.

“Forget him. If he’s going to be stubborn he can take his chances,” Elyse squawks.

“You’re just mad he called you out about Mike,” Naia says quietly. Elyse turns, eyes narrow, like she might retort. A man sticks his head in through the open door, panting.

“You girls need to move! Leave this room, start moving towards the far end of the Colony. Someone’s broken in through the Western wing! There’s thick gas moving through the corridors!” the strange man shouts. I’ve seen him around before, but never caught his name. He’s gone in a flash, rushing to the next room to warn more Colony members. I look quickly from Naia to Elyse, back to the open door.

“What was that?” Naia asks.

“You heard him, we need to get out of here. I’m sure it’s nothing, but I don’t want to get caught here if we have a chance to move farther from whatever might be happening.” Elyse moves towards the door.

“But my parents said…” Naia stammers. More gunfire blasts through the hallways, closer this time.

“Let’s go,” Elyse says softly. Naia and I follow into the hallway.

My arm dangles by my side moments before Naia takes it in her grasp. Her fingers brush against the small blue bracelet attached around my wrist. I’m sure she can’t feel it, she’s too distracted, but my eyes sit fixed on the small token of fidelity.

Elyse rushes out the door, making a sharp right. Her feet plant unexpectedly, slowing her solid frame to a stop. A thick wall of light fog moves slowly from the corridor ahead of us, clogging the tunnel, creeping forward. Silently, methodically, preparing to take us. Elyse yanks on my sleeve, tugging me in the opposite direction. We turn away from the fog, moving back toward the other end of the Colony. Over my shoulder I watch as Naia’s room is swallowed whole. The presence of the unknown, unrelenting gas pushes us faster.

We move through the Northern section of the Colony aimlessly. It feels like we’ve got no sense of direction, no idea where to turn next. I’m lost in my own home. Elyse leads still, gripping us tightly. Although I don’t have the slightest idea as to where we could be headed, she seems to have a plan. After minutes of silence, I speak up.

“Where are we going?”

“Your room first. Hopefully Jeremy’s there. We need to figure out what’s happening. If he’s not, then we’re going to make another check.”

“Another check?” Naia questions.

“We’re going to the Gate. If this place is under attack, I’ll bet the intruders came from there.” I’ve only been to the Gate twice during my life in the Colony. It’s located between the West and South wings. Although the Colony only stretches across a few acres under the surface, the walk has always been enough to bury my curiosity. I visited the Gate once with a group of friends when I was younger and once more a few years later with my Instruction class. Both times I saw the same thing, and both times I can remember being bored by the huge metal doors. They’re guarded by a few of the Colony members at all times, sealed tightly so no one comes or goes. The scene didn’t change from one visit to the next. I have a sinking feeling that the gates might look a little different this time.

I’ve traveled from Naia’s room to mine countless times, but I feel like my brain is sputtering, suffocating. I can’t pick out which hallways to turn down. I don’t recognize the rooms we pass. We round a corner and I see Rylan, lying limp and lifeless at my feet. I can’t process, can’t think. I want to reach out, call out, act, but I helplessly watch him fade away as Elyse continues pulling me forward. Someone screams in the distance. A choking scream.

I’ve seen death before. Stillborns, natural deaths, people have died within these walls. Rylan, he wasn’t just dead. His eyes were distant, body lifeless. There’s a difference between death and murder.

My section of the Colony seems untouched. We see a few frantic Colony members running towards or away from us, but none answer our questions. No one can tell us what’s going on or what we should do. They seem just as confused and exposed as we are. More gunshots ring out around the Colony, and they continue to creep closer. I’ve never fired a weapon before, and I’m not sure I would know what to do with it if I had one, but for some reason, I wish I was carrying one like Naia’s father was.

We’re almost to my room when we hear heavy footsteps ahead. Thick-soled boots against the metal grated floor. Elyse acts quickly, pushing open a door resting slightly ajar on our right, 1706. It’s a single bedroom much like mine, equipped with a small bed, a dresser, and a bedside table. The closet sits in the far corner of the room, and I make my way towards it without hesitation. I feel a hand on my back, pushing me towards my destination. Elyse guides me towards the open doors. Naia slides under the bed. Elyse and I cling tightly to each other as we close the closet door. Darkness envelops us as we step onto scattered clothes on the floor, ducking under hangers in an attempt to shrink as far into the closet as possible.

A loud thud echoes down the hallway as we hear the pair of heavy boots kick down a door a few rooms over. Silence fills the minute as I assume the intruder searches the room. There’s another bang as the next door is kicked in, this one slightly closer. Like the inevitable spread of molten lava the intruder approaches our door monotonously, breaking down all of the doors along the way. I feel my body shake violently as the room next door is breached. Familiar silence accompanies the breach. Maybe he’s decided it’s not worth it to continue looking. If he hasn’t found whatever he’s after yet, what’s to say he won’t give up? What is he looking for?

My thoughts are interrupted by the destruction of the door to our hiding place. My hand flies to my face, clamping down around my lips. I do my best to keep my screams welled deep inside my body. Silence fills the room and I feel my head start to sway. Fear grips me tightly, seemingly dangling my sanity by a thread in the dark. Elyse quivers next to me as we hear thundering footsteps move about the room. Without leaving the door cracked, I’ve got no idea where the boots are headed. They stop suddenly, and are followed quickly by a chuckle.

“Ah, what have we got here?” a man murmurs. Naia screams. I feel Elyse tighten her grasp on me as I move towards the closet door, trying to push my way past the clothes and clutter. Elyse covers my mouth with one hand and grips my waist with the other. Naia’s shrill scream pierces through the air, only to be cut short by a small popping sound. I’ve just witnessed another friend die. Two of them in one day. She’s dead, I’m sure of it. The male intruder speaks again.

“Krog, this is Toryn calling Krog. I’ve got another female captive. She’s been sedated. I believe I’m in the Eastern wing of the Colony. I’ll bring her outside as soon as possible,” the man calls out. His voice is deep and smooth. In any other situation he might sound relaxing or pleasant. He’s met by a crackling response from what I’m assuming is a handheld radio. Static fizzles through the speaker for a second, and then clears to make way for a rough, older voice.

“Krog calling Toryn. Nice work, kid. Bring her out, we’re waiting for you.” I hear the man strain as he lifts Naia from the ground. The darkness continues to nip at my psyche, and I feel as though I can’t trust my brain to tell me if my eyes are open or closed. I sit in silence as the man leaves the room and moves back down the hallway. Elyse lets out a small sob.

I push the closet doors open wide, stumbling out into the empty room. Elyse follows slowly, eyes fixed on me.

“What’s wrong with you? She’s gone, and it’s your fault!” I can’t help but shout.

Elyse moves towards me. “Keep your voice down! I just saved your life, don’t be stupid. You know just as well as I do that he would have had no problem dealing with you just like he dealt with Naia. You rushing out there would have condemned the both of us. Naia wouldn’t have wanted us to give ourselves up to try and save her.” I stumble back against the wall, stammering. I don’t want to agree with her. Naia’s gone and we did nothing to save her. But what was I hoping to accomplish? My head feels heavy again as I watch Elyse take my arm in hers.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” she says.

“And go where? If you’ve got this all figured out I want to hear it.”

“We’re going to the surface. We’ve got to get far away from here if we have any chance of surviving.” I feel my mouth drop open.

“Get away from here? This is our home! We can’t just leave!”

“This isn’t our home anymore. This place now becomes whatever these intruders want it to be. If we want to live through the night we’ve got to get out of the Colony.” Elyse speaks like she’s got it figured out, like she has plans and has confidence in herself. I just want to crumble to the floor. My room, my friends, my home. She’s so ready to give it all up.

“We aren’t even putting up a fight. We’re letting them win…” I trail off.

“Aly, they’ve got toxic gas and firepower. This isn’t just some gang of slack-jawed weirdos. What do we have that can stand up to that? Get your head on straight, because I need you as much as you need me if we’re going to get out of here alive.” I want to hate her. I want to strike out, scream into her face, tell her she’s betrayed two of our best friends today, but something inside of me knows that I need her. Maybe it’s the part of me that wants to survive, or maybe it’s just the fact that I couldn’t do this alone. Unstable, unprepared, terrified, whatever I am I need someone to hold my hand. I let one salty tear plummet from my cheek before I reach towards her, silently nodding.

“I don’t want to do this. We don’t know what it’s like up there.”

“No we don’t. But I want to live.” Elyse says, embracing me tightly before leading me into the hallway.

We edge our way from the room, peaking around corner. Once we’ve determined the hallway is empty, I follow Elyse from the room, freeing ourselves from the dark depths of our hiding space. Gunfire continues to buzz from somewhere deep inside the Colony, but I pay it little attention. We quicken our pace as we shoot through an intersection of corridors. I feel as though my head is on a swivel, tossing it from shoulder to shoulder to ensure no one is behind us. The hallways seem dead, but a small part of me hopes to see the man with Naia slung over his shoulder unsuspectingly walking ahead of us. There’s not much we could do, but doing anything guarantees Naia’s odds of survival are better than they are now.

We passed through much of the Eastern wing before hearing footsteps ahead. Ducking into a room on the left, we don’t have time to hide before we hear the intruder rush by. My heart continues to flutter violently as Elyse leads me back into the hallway.

The gunfire is louder as we approach the Gate, and the body count higher as well. Many of the people lying on the ground are people I’ve never seen before. The majority of them are Colony members. Their plain, civilian clothes, as well as their lack of firepower proves that we’ve lost quite a few people already. The few intruders lying around on the ground are dressed in tight combat vests with lots of different gadgets and weapons attached to their belts and gripped loosely in their limp fingers.

My feet catch on the legs and arms strewn all across the floor, blocking my path. Elyse maneuvers herself around or over them with ease, but I continuously stumble over the bodies lying in my way. I feel my stomach churn, nausea tickling the back of my throat. This isn’t death like I’ve experienced. This is a slaughter. The piles grow taller as we near the final corner before the large open space in front of the Gate.

Blood seems to leak from every direction, staining the grated floor maroon. Elyse continues to drag me forward, but my eyes feel fixed on the bodies. I wish there was something I could do for them. I know I can’t save them at this point. I want to cover them and end the slaughter. They deserve peace. Leaving them lying on the cold floor while people trample past them is far from adequate respect. I would hope, at any rate, that someone would feel the same way if I was lying on the floor.

“The gate’s right around here,” I pull my gaze from the unblinking eyes on the floor, watching as Elyse’s finger draws an imaginary line down the bend in the corridor. We slide tight to the corner and peak towards the Gate. Large metal doors, just as I had remembered. The massive hole blasted through the middle of the formerly impenetrable roadblock was not present on my last visit. Three bandits clutching automatic weapons stand between the hallway and the Gate. Piles of dead bodies litter the floor in front of the three guards. Men, women, children young and old, all cut down at the feet of the intruders. Their eyes rest partially closed, glazed over, gazing into the distance. My stomach knots and my face grows hot and clammy. I want to vomit, but I force myself to breathe.

Shots ring out from a hallway parallel to the one Elyse and I are crouched in. Three sets of shots fire back down the hallway from the bandits. The vibration rattles around the metal corridor, striking deep in my stomach, gripping me to the core. I drop to the floor, jamming my eyes shut and scrunching my body tightly together in a sitting position. More shots continue to echo from the entrance of the Gate, but it sounds like they’re racing right over our heads. The bandits continue to let bursts of automatic fire rain across the large entryway towards their attacker, but one of them is caught by the return fire. He cries out, and I hear the metal clang of his weapon striking the floor. A deep, powdery smell fills my nostrils as I lift my head slightly, looking towards the Gate. Two of the bandits are now laying on the floor. One shifts slightly as blood pours from his chest, while the other sits completely motionless. Within seconds, the third enemy falls to the ground after taking one bullet to the thigh, and another to the face.

An eerie calm seems to spread from the entry area, and silence nips at my eardrums as they tremble after the gunfire. I see Elyse finally open her eyes, surveying what has happened, taking in the damage. The pile of bodies near the exit looks unreal, as if someone stacked mannequin-like plastic people together and squished rotten tomatoes on them.

Rushing from the parallel hallway, a tall man wearing a black jacket with a hood surveys his surroundings quickly. His head looks over his shoulder and down a few adjacent hallways before he deems the route safe. A backpack bounces on the small of his back, dangling from two straps around his shoulders, and his jeans are torn and bloodstained. He’s moving quickly towards the exit, and I think about calling out to him. Thoughts of the closet and Naia flood my brain, and I decide against the unwanted attention. Many doors and corridors cross along the path between him and us, and a shout might bring more intruders our way. I feel like Elyse would be proud of me for thinking rationally for the first time today.

Elyse grabs my hand tightly, looking into my eyes.

“We’re doing this?” I ask.

“What other choice do we have? We have to get out of here.” She’s right. We can’t stay. All the blood and the bodies, there’s nothing left here but more death. It feels ironically poetic that we flee from the safe haven after all these years, returning to the wasteland that drove us underground. If death is all that’s left in the Colony to greet us, what’s waiting in the great wide world of surface life? All of the information we’ve been taught up to this point leads me to believe there’s nothing up there for us. What can we believe anymore? I dig my foot tightly into the tip of my tennis shoe, mustering my courage.

Elyse and I stand silently, hand in hand, and rush towards the giant hole in the gate. I jump over a shard of glass from the overhead light fixture that sits smashed against the ground. I do my best to keep my eyes trained forward, not down. I’m not sure how many more sets of glazed eyes I can glance into.

We near the mouth of the Gate, staggeringly wide and menacing. I hesitate for a second as Elyse starts up a circular tunnel angled through the dirt to the surface. It serves as an angled ramp for us as I start towards ground level. Darkness coats my hands and feet as I climb the fifteen feet from the Gate to the surface. I tilt my head back to check the top of the dirt ramp, and I see millions of tiny sparkling freckles across the dark canvas of the sky. Stars. Those are stars. I plant my feet like tree roots atop the grassy surface, momentarily awestruck. The sky seems endlessly dark, but I feel as though each star sits just outside of my reach. With just a bit bigger of a jump, or just longer of an arm, I feel like I could grasp one of the precious glittering spheres, keeping it in my pocket for safety.

“He’s gone,” Elyse says, breaking my trance.

“Who?” I ask, looking down from the sky.

“The guy that killed the bandits. I wanted to know who he was.” I nod. Maybe I should have called out to him. I look to Elyse, but her outline is all but invisible in the darkness. Defining features are non-existent in this unfamiliar surrounding darkness.

“Where are we?” I ask.

“The surface, I guess. Dunno much more than that,” Elyse whispers. I jump as I hear more gunshots from inside of the Colony. “We’ve got to get away from here,” Elyse steps close. The decision to leave seemed so decided and ultimately correct, but the act of leaving feels so unfamiliar. Each direction seems to perpetuate eternal darkness, as if there’s no beginning and end to the surface. It just continues in all directions, every which way. No right answers, no wrong answers, just space. The stars don’t seem so far away, but peace and safety seem non-existent on this unfamiliar surface.

We start to move away from the Gate, but don’t make it far. My fingers are interlaced with hers, but our grip is broken suddenly, without warning. Two men step in front of us. I’m rocked hard by the hidden figures and I stumble, falling to one knee. I hear Elyse let out a screech as I see one of the hidden men wrap an arm around her and cover her mouth with a gloved palm.

“Toryn, that one!” a man shouts. His partner descends on me in seconds, grabbing me tightly by the torso.

“Don’t struggle. It’ll all be over in a second,” a smooth, deep voice whispers. I watch from my kneeling position as Elyse’s attacker raises a small black weapon to Elyse’s neck and pulls the trigger. The struggle floods from her body as she slumps limp into the man’s arms.

“Elyse, no!” I scream. My words seem to catch in my throat, seemingly jamming on my tonsils. A tiny prick bites my neck, and my eyelids droop low, feeling extraordinarily heavy. My neck rolls to the side, and I feel my feet slid out from underneath me.

“Goodnight,” I hear the man whisper faintly, just before my eyes jam shut.