No Where To Go But Up...

Chapter 1- Cruel Thing

Kyla Avarado

I hear birds chirping outside.

For a sweet second im overcome with a feeling to look outside my window and find it. To bask myself in the sunlight and to wave good morning to the world around me.

Then reality slaps in the face. None of this is real. Not the trees or the air or even the damn lake in the middle of the Grove. The bird noises are fake. They are just background sounds coming from the federal speakers placed all over town.

God, even the damn sky isnt real. Its merely a halogram to give us less fortunate people a treat of what those get above. To make us feel like normal people. What our beloved leader doesnt consider is that his whole plan is psychotic and cruel. We are trapped here. In a fancy scientifically advanced hell.

But i still hope.

Hope. What a cruel thing.

I sit up in my small bed a ruffle my hair. I look around my own private cell. Its like a demedicalized hospital room. 4 white walls. Walnut wooden floorboards. White dresser. One plain window. All clean and prestine. No signs of any culture or emotion on the walls. Nothing but another dollhouse in the presidents playroom.

I push my blanket off of me and onto the floor. I get off my bed and let my feet hit the cold floorboard. My white t shirt falls back down to my thigh as i walk towards my window. I live on the sixteenth floor so i wasnt exactly worried about anyone peeping through my window. I look out of it and gaze down at the scene below me.

Two kids playing on a tree, laughing and pretending together. So joyful and calm. Some people were born here so they have no idea that they are being hoodwinked daily. They dont know that their whole existence has an expiration date.

But i wont be the one to tell them. People down here deserve that at least. A sip of peace and normlity.

Im pulled out of my thoughts when a buzzer goes off at my door. I walk towards the door and open it to reveal Dr. Constantin. She was a smaller woman with ginger hair and olive skin painted with freckles. Her white rimmed glasses made her her green eyes sparkle like emeralds. She was put together. Almost robotically. Not a hair out of place. Not a crease in her lab coat. She smiled at me. I stood aside allowing her to walk in my room.

"Good morning Kyla" she greeted me as she crossed the room to set down her white leather bag on my dresser. I mumbled a quick morning and sat down on my mattress and rolled up my sleeve. I watched as she placed a tube of clear substance on the cabinet and grabbed a sterilized needle and poked it through the tubes lid. She grabs a cotton pad and walked over to me. She gave me a questioning motion which i gave a slight smile to show that i was ready.

With that she nodded and injected the clear liquid into my arm. It doesnt hurt as much as it did a few years back, but i guess when you do it every morning for 17 years you get used to it at some point in time. She checks my vitals and something on her thin device and looks back at me again and smiles

I swear this woman is always smiling. I cant tell if its suppose to be empathetic or threatening.

"I'll be back again tommorow dear" she tells me as she packs up her stuff and walk towards the door. I smile and give a small thank you and watch as the door locks behind her. I walk over to the mirror and look at my arm and see that its still the same. I look at myself in the mirror and i look the same. Same curly chestnut hair that reaches my waist. Same tanned skin. Same hazel eyes.

I dont know why i think ill look different. I dont know why we get these injection every morning. I just know that they are mandatory and bad things happen when someone doesnt take it. Dead things. I dont know about you but i dont hate my life THAT much.