Iris

by Nick Whitesides

  I repeat the last sentence out loud. “A thousand different entrances along its edges.” Seeing these words in tangible form negates my skepticism about Jathom’s story. “It’s true! Kalen really did find a way out!”

  I walk from one end of the room to the other, bursting with excitement. “If I get to the edge of the Sphere, I can find my way out.” I press my hands together in front of my mouth. “It shouldn’t be much further now, if I follow the direction the bunker doors face. I can do it… I can get out.”

  My mouth curls up into a smile. I’m surprised I remember how to. “I can get away.” Optimism is a rare feeling. I’m used to having it ripped away, which is what happens when I have to then ask myself how I will survive until then. I only have food for two more days at best.

  TWACK. I plunge the black knife into the nearest box; disemboweling the items inside. Each container holds nothing but old contracts, letters, reports and newspapers.

  Useless knick-knacks lay strewn atop the sea of documents. I close my eyes in disappointment as I empty the last one. Nothing. The unsuppressed emotions are exhausting! A constant rise and fall of good, bad and everything in between.

  It drains so much of my energy. I check my BAND again out of force of habit. Still turned off. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to this.

  With a swish, I scatter the endless pages into a cloud with a kick. As they descend, I spot the corner of an indented square peeking out from the bare cement. I bend down shoving over another pile to reveal a hidden compartment.

  My dirty fingernails scrape the edge of the square tile as I remove it. It’s full of non-perishable foods. Relief sweeps over me. There’s dried apples, beans, and other canned foods I don’t recognize. Inside are also three large bottles of water.

  With the additional supplies, I can last up to two weeks with strict rationing. This will only buy me time. I rest my head back against the end of the bed. Guilt intrudes, showing me disturbing thoughts. Jathom’s bullet riddled body, Maxis sent to Cleansing, Leina torn to pieces by Brutus.

  They didn’t make sacrifices just so I could live. I owe it to them to do the impossible. To escape the Sphere. To leave safety and sovereignty behind, knowing I can never repay the debt. I turn my head towards the stairs where a large binder catches my attention, resting out of place on a shelf.

  Blue sketches of building designs, numbers, equations and measurements cover every page. I spend a long time scouring through them, until I find what I’m looking for. Sphere Exits. These are the plans that my father hid, the ones Artemis meant to destroy.

  Notes fill the empty spaces on the sides. Drawings of giant circular doors at different angles. I skim across the annotations. “Instructions: All doors are powered remotely from the mainframe located in the center of the city. In case of an emergency, a fail-safe override will open up the doors.”

  I practically throw the blueprints into my brown pack along with the new supplies. A barrage of questions assault me while I rest on the cot.

  What will I find outside? Are there any people still alive? What will I do about food and water? And the most important question of all. What will I do once I’m out? Imagined scenarios paint possibilities in my mind.

  I open the Sphere doors to a luscious world full of color, nature and sunlight. Real sunlight! A river with clean water, trees with green leaves and fresh fruits. It’s been over three hundred years since the last bombs fell.

  What if there are people? What will they be like? Do they have cities? Will there be any danger? I mull over these questions again and again while they lull me into a hypnotic rhythm from each wheezing exhalation. My throat and voice are hoarse from the dry air, and it hurts to breathe.

  The full weight of sleep dominates me as I surrender fully to fatigue and shock. All at once I hear voices. A prick of fear stabs me to the core. I try to move but my limbs won’t respond.

  A loud bang comes from the bunker entrance. The stress of my wounds have finally caught up with me since I’ve only been relying on the SIO pills for main sustenance since I left my rations. I’m helplessly thwarted from moving anywhere fast in this state.

  Someone yells from above, “We found it!”

  Another loud bang. Wake up. I can hear the sound of metal crashing. Come on, move. Come on! Footsteps move down the stairs. Krys, move!

  My eyes fly open as I launch my body upwards and pull out my gun. Pointing it at the bottom of the stairs, I wait for the SIO’s to file in. Time seems to slow while I sweat from head to toe, petrified. In an attempt to regain my courage, I call out. “Don’t move! I’ll shoot you if I have to.”

  There’s no answer. I take a step forward, my instincts howling to run away. “If you don’t come out then I swear, I will kill you!” I scream in agony unable to hold back the streaming tears. Nothing. Only the gentle hum of the ceiling lights.

  As my resolve begins to return, I approach the stairwell. The doors haven’t been touched. The hallway is empty and I’m alone. I drop the gun and collapse; squeezing my eyes shut while my body quivers.

  How much more can I take? No matter what I do I’ll never feel safe. I was born this way, born to be a slave, born deprived of freedom, to be put in a cage. Even if I escape the Sphere, I can’t escape the truth. I’m broken. My mind belongs to IRIS. I’ll always be in its control, even if I’m not under it; always feeling their eyes over me.

  Hours pass. I manage to convince my body back to the bed, slipping into unconsciousness. Curled up in a ball, I unleash a hurricane of feelings. Gasping in between the sobs, I choke out. “I can’t do this… I can’t do this.” I open my eyes wishing Kalen would materialize and stand by me. He always knew what to say. Always knew how to calm me down.

  A memory of him stirs. The sentries beat him for attempting to help another granger. I was seething with anger. He knelt down and put his hands on my shoulders. I couldn’t even look at him I was so mad.

  “Krys, I love you. I will always be here for you. You need to learn what it truly means to live. I hope one day when you’re older you’ll understand. Everything I have done was for you.” I can hear his voice in my head, like he’s speaking to me from beyond death.

  My heart fills with a warmth that spreads throughout my entire body. I awake to the dreary bunker walls, still feeling the peace of my Father’s words. I’ve never given thought about what happens after we die but this gives me something to think about.

  I rub my face now, having recovered from my emotional outburst. Managing my feelings has become almost too difficult. I feel everything with a new sharpness and I have years of blunted feelings surfacing without the mandatory suppression from my BAND.

  I decide to eat before setting off again. The meal helps, though it’s extremely stale and flavorless. I throw the empty can across the room and take two more SIO pills. Time to go. I don’t even know what time of day it is.

  I triple check my supplies before climbing the stairs and sliding the metal lock out of the door. Light spews out into the dim hallway. With another hard push, it swings open completely.

  A wave of heat hits my face as I step out again to confront the desert. It’s paved with a rich tinge from the early sunrise. I blink my eyes, my eyes not yet adjusted. My shoulder doesn’t hurt nearly as bad now that I’ve rested and eaten, even with the extra pounds of food and water on my back.

  I look down into the darkness of the bunker as I close it up forever with another loud crash. It rings out for a few seconds, then returns to silence. I scoop up large handfuls of soil, until the large metal door is covered once more; hidden beneath the dust and sand.

  With one deep breath, I journey again to find the base of the Sphere. I surprise myself with the pace I now keep. Only after numerous hours my calves and thighs begin to ache. I stop once for water and continue.

  The sun starts to fade, the temperature dropping. I embrace the brisk evening air, looking back periodically to ensure I’m not being followed. My spirits are elevated but my body is stil
l damaged from the crash. The throbbing in my gunshot wounds isn’t enough to break my concentration this time though.

  I notice the sky looks strange, almost warped. Tiny white dots have appeared. Those must be stars. The glass is thickest at the top which makes them invisible to Pura, unless…

  My heart starts racing. The end of the Sphere is coming! I break out into a run, ignoring the pain. I’m really doing this. I’m really going to get out. The dark sky brightens up as I blaze forward with conviction, the glinting of the Sphere reflecting into my eyes.

  I run with my head down, thoughts racing about the outside world and what it’s like. I can’t contain myself, I break into a faster sprint only to stop dead in my tracks. There in the dim light, just a few hundred feet away, is a huge metallic wall.

  It’s over two hundred feet tall, the glass ending where the wall begins. “I did it… I did it!” I scream jubilantly, my hand covering my heart for fear that it might burst. I turn around and shout, “You couldn’t stop me!”

  I throw up my hands into the air. “You couldn’t stop me!” I yell, laughing for the first time since this nightmare began. I begin another sprint towards the daunting metal wall as a large circular door comes into view. I stop just inches away and touch it with my hands. It’s real. This is really happening.

  Quickly, I pull out the blueprints and begin following the fail-safe steps. On the outer side of the door is a bulky protruding box with a nine digit keypad. In the margins of the instructions is a code: 05091298364.

  I punch in the numbers which pops the cover and reveals a red handle with the word OVERRIDE. I twist it to the left until I hear a mechanical crack. The whole ground jerks, and I stumble. Then with a sudden shift the door moves, withdrawing into the wall.

  This is it. This is what I’ve been waiting for. The door comes closer and closer until it folds completely inside itself. “No… No, please… this can’t be.” There is just enough light to make out the far off landscape. Miles of death and decay. The lasting scar of nuclear warfare. No green, no life, no hope.

  Chapter 9

  City of The Dead

  I awake the next morning up against the wall. A gust of wind blows dirt into my eyes. I reopen them after it dies down.

  Can this be all that there is? The rolling hills outside are blackened, filled with the husks of dead trees. The ground is desolate. It would be impossible to grow food. Being a granger all my life has taught me that.

  The sun is blocked out by grim skies. The only area with unimpeded light is over the Sphere. It redirects the clouds, keeping them from covering the glass. While Pura takes all the sunshine, everywhere else is shrouded in darkness.

  I walk aimlessly, listening to the crunching of brittle soil as it crumbles into dust. A creek comes into view as I descend a small slope. The water has turned to a dark slush. I gag in disgust, crossing it quickly to keep any of it from splashing onto me.

  As I hike to the brow of a steep hill, a city barely standing appears in the distance. Without any thought my feet carry me towards it. On the way, I pass some old relics from years ago. Burnt and broken frames of cars, uprooted trees, houses that exploded.

  After three hundred years, the devastation is preserved. A likely sign that there’s no one left to rebuild. I pause for a few minutes to examine the damage. Miles of broken concrete, wood, and possessions.

  I begin to follow a dirt road that turns into cracked concrete and then transforms into a bridge; closing the gap of what was once a giant river to the city. Beyond that is the same gloomy smog hovering overhead.

  The damaged bridge hangs clumsily, displaying the giant cracks and missing chunks of its foundation. The wind blows by fiercely, dragging dust along with it.

  I begin to pass over the bridge slowly, my steps drowned out with the sound of shifting metal screeching and clunking. At the halfway point, I pick up my pace, reassured of the bridge’s strength.

  At the end is a large sign scorched by fire, the city’s name long since forgotten. Abandoned cars, covered in dust, litter the streets along with masses of debris. I step carefully to avoid the broken glass and large hunks of brick.

  The decomposing buildings along with the sky behind them gives the feeling of a graveyard. Enormous, daunting tombstones marking the place where millions of lives were lost; leaving the rest of us to remember, or in my case to not remember.

  I can almost hear the screams in agonizing fear of the thousands that perished in the flames. How many other cities were destroyed? How many people were killed? And is anyone else still alive?

  Questions I never had a chance to think about or ask. I’m surprised that they never seemed to cross my mind before. I suppose I never had reason to question it in the comfort of the Sphere.

  I read out various signs of the once vibrant metropolis. “World’s Best Hamburgers. Whatever that means.”

  In the vastness of the city, I long for company. Someone to break the silence of this ancient burial site, this homage to a massacre.

  A few blocks in, I see landmarks similar to those in Pura. Banks, supermarkets, legal services, then the city courthouse. The roof is partially collapsed, the discolored walls threaten to crumble and the front doors are ripped right off their hinges.

  “What kind of people were we before?” I bend down and pick a tattered article, smoothing out the crinkles. “World at war!” The wind blows it out of my hand as I let out a deflated sigh. The sky grows darker with every second.

  “I better set up my camp.” My voice is nearly devoid of all hope. What else can I do? I risked so much to end up here and for what? To find out the rest of the world is in shambles? That Pura is the only surviving city left? That thousands of people were put to death because of the flawed nature of the human condition? What difference does it make now?

  All this goes through my mind as I climb the stairs to the doorway of the courthouse. “This will be a good place to camp.” It’s only a few miles from the Sphere and the outer section of the city.

  There’s no light inside. Looming shadows cover the walls in the main room. Two large marble staircases run upwards to the next level. One side has collapsed in, blocking the stairs completely while the other remains untouched. I maneuver through a barricade of old furniture and office appliances to the center of the courthouse.

  There’s a large white room with a long wooden table in the middle. “This must have been a conference room,” I say, throwing my pack down on the table. Then, I make a fire using wood from a broken chair tipped over in the corner. The fire takes easily, the flames strobing up and down and casting shadows on the silent walls.

  The smoke rises to the ceiling and spreads out along its top. Large chunks of stone lay all around the room from the marble that fell from the roof. I quickly check my supplies and assets. I still have two large bottles of water left. Good enough for a few days. And I have food enough for at least another week, which was all I could carry from the bunker.

  My shoulder still hurts and my muscles are sore from walking so much. I count the remaining SIO pills, only fifteen left. They stare back at me temptingly. It would take at least a dozen to put myself to sleep. After a minute of contemplation, I pour out ten into my hand and swallow.

  Then I scrunch my pack into a ball to use as a pillow, huddling my knees to my chest as the full weight of misery collides into me once more. This entire thing has been nothing but ups and downs.

  It devours me whole and I let myself be taken. I keep aware of my surroundings but shut myself off completely.

  Minutes turn into hours and hours meld into seconds. The next thing I become certain of is that I’m dreaming. I wake for a moment, no memory of having fallen asleep. I let the sound of silence slowly turn into ringing in my ears.

  My eyes dart back and forth as slip back into my dreams. In my dream, I feel nothing, know nothing, think nothing. I am as lifeless and still as the walls which would become my grave.

  I would revel in the apathetic trance were
it not muting my ability to actually feel. I can’t ignore my body’s desires for sleep, food, or anything else. Through the stickiness of my delirium, I hear faint words being spoken.

  No doubt my mind playing tricks on me again. I fall back into the nothing. But the tone becomes more audible, pulling me back from the brink of non-existence. Words spoken that I cannot understand. I know this. I know these sounds, I know these words.

  My brain begins to reboot, returning to its basic function. Suddenly, I’m sucked into the present. My eyes barely open when I realize I’m being held up, my legs dangling to the ground.

  Two men speak with one another. I can’t see them since my head is hanging down. “I don’t care what you think!”

  A voice yells back from further away. “We found him on our territory and the punishment for crossing Blooder grounds is death. So do your job and kill him.”

  People. There are people still alive! But what’s a Blooder? Why does it sound like they want to kill me? I have to stay calm.

  The man to my left responds, “I’m sorry, Fash, but we know the rules. All I’m saying is he got this food somewhere. Maybe we could find out. No one needs to know.”

  The man who must be Fash runs up aggressively, causing them to drop me. I suppress the urge to let out a pain filled groan.

  “If you ever question one of my orders again… I’ll kill you myself. And you know how I like to do it. Slowly. I’ll keep you alive for days and I won’t finish you off until you beg me to. Then when I get bored, I’ll cut your throat and watch you bleed to death. Do we understand each other?”

  The man who dropped me stutters, “Y-y-yes, Fash. Und-understood.”

  I realize whatever bargaining that was going on is finished. They’re going to kill me. I can feel the gun Jathom gave me sticking into my lower back. The two henchmen stumble as Fash continues to berate them, but I’m so focused on my plan of action that I don’t comprehend him.