Locked Out of the World

Chapter one

Eva had been awake for a few hours now, at first she was trying to find food for her to eat today. When she couldn't find any, she instead spent most the morning fixing a part of her tent with a strand of thread she had managed to find and a needle she made out of a small bone. Her tent was made completely of salvaged items, some old clothes that she was not able to wear, some animal hide, and some sheets. Just anything she could salvage that would be able to shelter her. She had just put the needle into her little wooden box, that she had made from a trunk of a fallen tree, and sat the box down when she saw it. Something ran in front of her tent, casting a shadow over her. Whatever it was, she wanted to know. Eva stood up, picking up her bow and bag of quivers, then she pulled back the newly fixed opening of her shelter and walked outside. She looked to her left and saw the behind of a gazelle galloping and leaping to get out of her reach.

"Where'd it go?" Eva asked skeptically while looking out her tent in the direction the gazelle went. Eva ran out of the tent, chasing the gazelle onto a patch of dirt where grass used to lay.

Eva stood watching the gazelle gallop across the dirt, looking for food. Her eyes slowly estimated how far away her prey was. She gripped her bow in her hand letting the feeling of warmth from the oak wood fuel the flame inside of her until she realized her knuckles were pale. The gazelle quickly turned its head at hearing a rustle of leaves and took off running. Biting her tongue so she could not mutter profanities she started to run after the gazelle.

She had been hunting alone for years and knew that the best way to stalk prey was to run upwind so that the prey couldn't smell you. While she was running she saw the dome ahead, it was hard to miss from the outside and she couldn't help but wonder what was happening inside it. She thought back to the last time she was in there, thinking about before she was exiled to the unknown outside the dome.

Eva clearly remembered the last time she saw her family. Growing up, Eva was always told she was special but when she was found to be a Mecha she could not believe it, she assumed the test had made a mistake. The Jokalsa, or leader, had tested her. himself. She remembered the day clearly when she had been told the secret that ruined her life. There were men in suits standing behind the Jokalsa, who had been the one to tell her the news while her family stood behind her. She heard her mother weeping while Eva was told that she had more brain capacity than normal humans.

Eva had no idea what that meant nor did she try to understand, she never wanted to be a Mecha. As the Jokalsa finished the men in the suits started to approach her. She turned to her mom but all of her family had turned away; it was too painful to watch their only daughter get kicked out of the world. Two of the men grabbed her, one taking each arm and pulling her back towards the glass dome. They opened it and pushed Eva out while she yelled out objections. She shouted one last plea to her mom as the dome door shut, secluding her from her family. Her older brother stared at her through the glass, eyes glazed over with tears before he too turned away. She opened her mouth to scream again but her throat started burning, her head started pounding. Eva tried to breathe but she couldn't find the air, her eyes started to water and black spots started to cover her eyes. Eva passed out and when she woke up, with her head aching, she was in an area that was new to her, in between three trees. She couldn't seem to remember what happened, but after years of trying to she began to, she remembered seeing someone carrying her in that memory. She didn't believe it was real though because in all her years out here she had never run into another Mecha. Eva was starting to believe she was the last one around.

Eva shook her head, making the thoughts exit her mind and forcing herself back to reality as she observed her surroundings trying to find the gazelle. The Earth around her, the real Earth, had been mistreated for years before she was born and left untouched afterward. People had used the trees and land for their own selfish purposes, making most of the natural resources disappear. Then they just left, not trying to restore the Earth, moving on with life as if the Earth was nothing to them but disposable. Most of the trees were gone, and the ones that remained were dying off quickly; when they all died Eva would have no oxygen and she would die off too. There was almost nothing left of the world around her that looked normal, all the colors were duller than they used to be. The ground was completely covered in dirt and rocks, the sky had become a darker shade of blue, the sun barely shone through the darkness, making most of the day look as if it were night.