The Ranch

Arrival (1)

The children walk in single file line onto the platform and form columns. A man with one purple and one red star face the crowd of children before speaking up,"Welcome to the Ranch. You will be led around by you senior soldiers to memorize the layout of the island. They will tell you everything you need to know and if you have any questions, ask them. You will be given two days to get accustomed to your new environment. Good luck."

Murmurs start filling the room. Worries and shaky voices can be heard amount the crowd of children. A whiny voice speaks up,"When can I go home?"

The man stares at the child for a moment, scaring the boy, before saying,"You will be living here from now on, so you better get used to it." He then marches away and soldiers with no stars step forward.

The soldiers lead their own groups through different tunnels. The groups are separated by what train capsule the children were in.

The soldier in charge of Kai and Tih's group speaks up after separating from the others,"Welcome to the Ranch! It might seem scary at first, but you'll quickly get used to it." He says in a straightforward but comforting way.

"What kind of place is this?" One of the children ask.

"Hmm...how to explain. We're on an island called the Ranch that's not on any known maps and is only known to a select few, including us, that live on it. Children are brought in from all over the world to grow up on the island. Once one reaches the age of fifty, they get to leave the island. But before that age, were never allowed to leave."

"Never?! So we'll be stuck on a small island until we're adults!?" Another kid shouts.

The man laughs,"Haha, No of course not. You're sorely underestimating the island. The Ranch is large enough to house over a million residents, ya know." Then the man says in an almost inaudible tone,"and you'll have to survive till that age first..."

The children's eyes grow wide,"A, A million!! Are you for real?!"

"Yep! And the housing for soldiers doesn't even make up half the island!"

"WOAHHH!" The children start getting excited as they start to imagine their new living environment.

The group made their way up ground as sunlight shined in their eyes. Used to the darkness of the ocean, the children squinted as they followed the soldier along a trail. "Well anyways, we can talk about that later. For now, I need to show you around so you don't get lost when I leave you alone later. There's a trail that passes through all the important places on the island, so we'll take that. Let's see...its about...so we should do half today and half tomorrow. Ok! Let's stop by the housing district first so you guys can drop off your luggage."

The children walked west for about half an hour until they reached a cluster of small, stacked houses that looked similar to two-story apartments big enough to fit four people. The soldier stopped in front of a large, electronic board. He took one of the IDs from the group and inserted it through a slot.

Information about the child quickly loaded onto the screen, including name, age, date of birth, status, wallet, housing number, etc. As the information appeared on screen, the soldier exclaimed,"Wow! Looks like I was lucky enough to grab the best group. Getting a sixty percent completion is pretty good. During my trial, I was only able to snatch a forty-seven percent. So...ok everyone, we're heading to housing district A. It looks like you're guys luck is pretty good too, getting the district closest to the cafeteria.

The soldier led the group along the edge of district B and headed north to housing district A. Some children admired the beautiful sea to their left, a ocean that they've never seen before because of the area they lived in previously.