Zone 47

Chapter I.

 The scent of dried berries and herbs drifting in from the adjoining room stirred Maya from a restless sleep. The rays of the rising sun fell across her feet poking out from beneath the covers, highlighting the almost-healed wound above her right ankle. The injury still ached in places, but with each passing day, the pain became more bearable.

She had told her mother and father that she had injured herself on a rusty nail in the barn, where she occasionally helped feed the livestock. If they ever discovered where the scar had really come from, they would most likely never let her leave the house again—not to mention the uproar it would cause among the other citizens. The Council of the Highest would likely respond by imposing even stricter measures. She needed to be more careful. Otherwise, her excursions beyond the Safe Zone would be over for good.

"The Safe Zone. Listen to the rules. Follow the measures. For the good of everyone. For your safety. Do not cross the boundary. Stay inside. DO NOT TRY TO FIND OUT WHAT LURKS OUTSIDE."

These warnings echoed in Maya's mind every day. She heard them from her family, her neighbors, and the Council, yet instead of instilling fear in her, they only deepened her curiosity with each passing day.

What is hiding out there?

The creak of the door pulled her from her thoughts. Her mother cautiously poked her head into the room and blinked at her daughter.

"Sweetheart, come have some breakfast. And get yourself ready so you're not late," she called in her honeyed voice before disappearing into the kitchen.

Maya reluctantly untangled herself from the bed and looked around her modest room. She grabbed the neatly folded hospital uniform that had been laid out for her, quickly changed, and packed a stack of blank sheets of paper into her bag alongside her ID and writing supplies. Then she followed her mother.

In the kitchen, the familiar scent of berries and herbs mingled with the aroma of fried eggs. Maya's gaze came to rest on the empty chair by the window.

"Has Father already left?"

"Yes. He's in charge of the new members of the Supply Unit today. He wants to explain everything to them before they set out on their first trip."

"Oh..." Maya lowered her gaze. "I wanted him to see me in my uniform today," she said sadly, nervously clutching the hospital clothes.

"You can show him tomorrow, sweetheart." Her mother gave her a warm smile and handed her a serving of eggs and half a slice of bread.

They then sat in silence, quietly eating their breakfast. The only sound in the kitchen was the soft clinking of cutlery.

"I should get going now. Thank you for breakfast."

Maya rose from the table, grabbed her bag, and headed for the door. She glanced back at her mother one last time. Her mother gave her a warm, if somewhat worried, smile and nodded goodbye.

On her way to her practical training class, she kept going over the advice and lectures her mother had given her the night before, concerning the Serious Conditions and Intensive Care Unit where she was due to begin her training.

"Be careful around Head Nurse Ravenwoods. Change your gloves regularly. If you're unsure about something, ask. Stay close to Mrs. Soren. She'll help you."

"Honestly, you'd think I hadn't heard it a hundred times already," she muttered under her breath, frowning.

The truth was, though, that her mother's nervousness wasn't entirely unfounded. When she found out that Maya wouldn't be doing her training in the laboratory, surrounded by herbs and ointments, but in the Serious Conditions and Intensive Care Unit, she had nearly had a breakdown.

But Maya couldn't help it—the thought of spending entire days grinding roots seemed unbearably dull to her. She was looking forward to doing real work. To patients, machines, medical instruments, and everything new she would learn—and to everything this place might have to offer her.

The journey passed in the blink of an eye, and she was already nearing the crossroads. The sound of approaching footsteps that weren't hers made Maya stop.

"I was starting to think you weren't coming, Avalen."

........................

She recognized the familiar voice, turned around, and flashed her friend a sly smile.

"Good to see you too, Tovio. I would've been here sooner, but you know... the leg."

"Still hurting?"

"It's better, but it starts acting up after I've been walking for a while. By the way—thanks for covering for me."

"I'd feel a lot better if you stopped going out there," he sighed worriedly, even though he knew how futile the request was. He simply shook his head in resignation.

"If you're so worried about me, you should come with me next time," she shot back calmly, as if excursions beyond the Zone were the most ordinary thing in the world.

"Not a chance," Tovio laughed, though a more serious shadow flickered across his eyes for a moment. "My place is here."

They continued along the gray concrete road, which was beginning to fill with weary workers making their way toward the factories. The morning smog stung their lungs, while the noise of the Zone slowly drowned out their voices. Maya lagged slightly behind, easing the strain on her aching leg, but Tovio wasn't in any hurry. He kept pace with her.

Then, all at once, he stopped dead.

Maya took two more steps before realizing she was walking alone. She turned around and saw Tovio kneeling on one knee beside the wall of a half-collapsed warehouse.

"What the..." Maya sighed and looked at the corner by the ground in disgust, where her friend was staring so intently.

"Where did you wander off to, little one?" Tovio whispered, his voice completely calm, as if he hadn't found an ordinary garden spider, but the greatest treasure in the world.

The enormous spider thrashed its legs as though calling for help. Trapped inside a drainpipe that would soon be carrying hot water from the cooling system, it could only wait for its rescuer.

A shiver ran down Maya's spine, and she instinctively took a step back.

"Tovio, leave it alone. It's seriously creepy. Come on, or we'll get written up for being late. Besides... all it would take is just one..." She gestured toward it with the toe of her boot, mimicking a quick stomp.

Tovio looked up and gave her one of his characteristically gentle looks.

"Look at how helpless it is. We can't just leave it here to fend for itself."

He held out his hand and, with a patience Maya had never encountered in anyone else in the Zone, waited for the spider to crawl onto his finger. Then, careful not to hurt it, he carried it a little farther away and placed it in a dry crack between the bricks, safely out of reach of both human feet and the scalding-hot water.

"There you go. Run along," he murmured, brushing the dust from his knee before returning to his friend with a smile. "We can go now."

Maya gave the eight-legged creature one last disgusted look, then let out a loud sigh in Tovio's direction. She threw her hands dramatically into the air and continued down the road.

"You're crazy, you know that?" she said with a small smile, glancing at her friend from the corner of her eye.

"I know." He winked at her.

After a while, their paths diverged, and each went on to face their own responsibilities. With every step, the massive concrete hospital building loomed larger before Maya. Dozens of identical little windows covered its walls, while a set of imposing metal doors stood at its center, thrown wide open like the jaws of a starving beast, ready to swallow anyone who dared to enter.

Spherical cameras were mounted every five feet or so. The all-seeing eyes of the system—relentless, unforgiving, impossible to overlook. They were there to make sure every citizen felt watched, and that no mistake would go unpunished.

Maya stopped for a moment just before the hospital entrance, took a deep breath, and stepped straight into the gaping maw of the hungry beast.