The Flawed

Chapter 1: Aurora

As I wake up in excruciating pain, looking around frantically for anything that I can hold on to that's within my reach, I desperately bellow out the name of my...my, what on earth was I screaming about. As I pondered, all the memories faded, all the reasons I just woke up screaming at the top of my lungs for, left my mind. I couldn't quite put together what had just happened. I got up out of bed to go through to the kitchen to get a drink of water. I wasn't thirsty, but in the kitchen, there was a clock. I had to check the clock. I distinctively remembered waking up the previous nights at this exact time each night. As I reached the kitchen and glanced up at the clock, I saw it read 02:30am, just like all the nights prior to now.

The kitchen was more of a cafeteria, except this place was always immaculate. There were guards everywhere. No one ever dared to make eye contact with them, it showed a sign of disrespect, we were taught.

I started walking back to my cabin, still very shaken up, trying to get my head around what had just happened. I was completely and utterly wide awake, I knew I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. I searched through the cabinet under my bed for NightMist, a strange sort of medicine used to make people tired, but if you were to take too much of this stuff, it would kill you straight away, like poison, I had heard, while eavesdropping on the guards. I found my last capsule of NightMist in my cabinet, and drank it desperately. I always took this after I had woken up each night, deprived of sleep. Usually the NightMist knocked me out almost suddenly. But what I couldn't stop wondering about was why had I woken up at 02:30 each night. What had made me wake up in such panic. Could it have been a nightmare, I thought to myself. A nightmare I had somehow forgotten within seconds of awakening. It did not make any sense and I knew I needed to find out.

Finally, it was morning. I was awoken by the sound of the sirens pounding through my body. They were set off in the mornings to wake us up, like alarms, but much louder, making sure everyone heard it. This was our life. 70 of us, boys and girls, living here every day, all together, from as far back as I could remember. We called it 'TheZone', or so we had heard it was called. TheZone was our home, just a big enough area for all 70 of us to live. We each had our own cabin, which was where we slept, equipped with a toilet and sink, everything automatic. However, we did not get our own shower, there were separate quarters designated for everyone's use, fully equipped with automatic showers, not giving us much privacy, but this is how we had always lived, not knowing of any other way of life. TheZone was completely underground. Between us and daylight, was TheDivide. TheDivide was some sort of barrier forcefield stopping anyone or anything from passing through, only the guards knew the way passed, but the guards never spoke to us. The only time they opened their mouths to communicate with one another was when they were sure none of us were around.

I left my cabin as I heard the siren go off for Meal1. We got three meals a day, Meal1 in the mornings, Meal2 at noon and Meal3 in the evenings. There was no one around to serve us our meals or care for us at all, we brought ourselves up and always had to fend for ourselves, it was second nature to us. In the kitchen, there were long tables, each sitting place there were built in screens into the table where it read, 'Meal1 Meal2 Meal3'. These were called 'TableTops'. You would select the one appropriate to the time of day. The sirens blared at the start of each meal, so everyone would gather in the Kitchen to eat.

I searched for a seat at one of the tables that didn't look very crowded and sat down as I heard a familiar voice coming from behind me. It was Cressida, she was my best friend, here in TheZone. She was tallish, very smart, with a dirty blonde buzz-cut hairstyle. Although I, was about average height, with long dark brown hair, it was always messy as I never bothered to brush it or anything, people were often weirded out by me not doing this. Cressida always seemed to know all the gossip and what the guards had been talking about. I got a lot of my information from her about the world above, the land beyond TheDivide, which I was always eager to find out about.

"Oh, hey Aurora." Cressida's voiced boomed in my ears. Ugh, I had always hated my name. Aurora West.

"Hey Cress, what's up?" I replied.

"What's up? " she mimicked. "For real. Where were you last night, you said you'd snoop around the guards with me and you never showed up!" I could tell Cressida wasn't too mad, she just sounded a little concerned and bummed I wasn't there to eavesdrop with her.

"Oh, I guess I wasn't feeling too good, sorry cress, I hope you don't hate me." I joked.

"Ah, I don't really care to be honest, don't sweat it. Although I did get some juicy gossip from the guards! Apparently two of the boys attempted to escape last night, but failed, miserably." Cressida chuckled as her words spilled out her mouth. It was obvious she couldn't wait to tell me all the details she had found out last night, during my absence.

"Wow, that's crazy. I guess boys will be boys though, huh?" I replied, knowing she'd agree. No one ever left TheZone, some feared it, and some wanted to know desperately what was up there, but they had to keep their thoughts to themselves. Anyone who wanted to leave TheZone, or contemplated what was beyond TheDivide, was severely punished, or in some cases, executed, that is if they were caught. Although there was a small percentage of us that did spread rumours, that got away with it. Most of the rumours going around, people had heard from snooping around the guards, but some people just made up what they figured was on the other side. It was hard to tell what were plain old lies and what was the truth.

There were rumours circulating for a while that beyond the divide, 'the world above', as some called it, was called 'The FLAW System'. No one knew what it was like, or what it exactly was, but most of us were eager to find out. We knew we needed to keep our mouths shut about our eagerness though, because we knew we would soon be executed if the guards found out.

"Right." Cressida replied, as we both selected 'Meal1' on our TableTops. Almost immediately after, both our TableTops' sunk into the table, creating a hole in its place. Our Meal1 emerged from the gap in the table, with our TableTops underneath, supporting them and as they reached the top and resumed their place. Our Meal1 resting on top. The food was always the same, each meal. A sort of mushy grey slop, with a glass of bright blue liquid perfectly placed next to one another. The meals didn't taste of anything, so it in fact, didn't feel like you were eating at all, although it was just enough to keep us from starving. These meals would keep us all perfectly the same weight. Whoever created TheZone and put us down here, certainly made sure everything was flawless. Our weight, our amount of sleep, the way we ate, even the way we slept had to be perfect. We had to learn not to move while we slept, so we wouldn't wrinkle the bed sheets. We didn't have any blankets or pillows while we slept. Just a mattress on top of a cabinet, where we kept our belongings even though we didn't have a lot. We were made sure to eat without dropping any food or making any sort of mess. Everything had to be, and was immaculate. There were no mistakes made, and if god forbid someone made a mistake, it would cost them their lives. This rule applied as soon as we were 10 years of age.

It was quite clear to me that we were put down here to be made sure we turned out perfect, but I wasn't entirely sure about all the ins and outs of my theory. Everyone else was obsessed with making sure their every move was perfect. I however wasn't too keen on the idea. As  for Cressida, she didn't really care what anyone thought of her, although we did have to show our perfection in front of the guards so we wouldn't lose our lives.