Thomas
After a long, peaceful sleep in my room, I woke up and decided to check on Elsie. I slowly sat up and ran a hand through my messy dark hair before I left the room.
I was quite tired, to be honest, even though I had gotten a nice night’s sleep. With all that was happening, I was stressed out to think about it. But, it was impossible to go back to sleep even if I wanted to.
The halls in my area were somewhat dark. There must have been a breeze that went through the hall or something else that I don’t quite understand that blew out all the torches throughout the area. One of the people down here was running down the hall, a torch in his hand that he was using to light each of the dark ones. He was going faster than me, though, so I was able to get the light I needed as I wandered through the area.
As I passed by one of the curtains, I heard Molly’s voice through it. “You’re here?” she asked someone, sounding surprised.
“Yeah. You saw me fall down here anyway. Of course I would be here,” a male voice replied. It sounded familiar, and at first I couldn’t quite identify who was talking. It bothered me, in all honesty. But I chose to continue listening, just to hear what was going on before I possibly went in.
“And you were taking care of my sister. You were doing this,” Molly said, her voice small. I could hardly hear it, but the echoes from the surrounding halls helped me hear it by bouncing the sound towards me.
“Elsie is such a sweetheart. How could I not help her out while she was down here? She was scared and confused. She needed someone to help her out, you know?” the voice replied.
Then it hit me. Was it really Mitchell? Well, it made sense. If all these people had survived their falls, of course he lived through it too. But the fact that it was really Mitchell, that was the weirdest piece of all of this.
There was a moment of silence, and then a slight rustle before I heard something mumbled in my sister’s voice. “Thank you for doing this,” she said.
“No problem,” I heard Mitchell’s voice reply. His voice was clear, unlike my sister’s, as he spoke. Then, his voice dropped a bit lower. “Anything to help you guys out.”
At this point, I chose to check on what was going on. I pushed the curtain aside and entered the room. What I saw was a bit surprising to me.
Elsie was laying in the bed by the far wall, sleeping peacefully. I was glad to see that. She was fine, and it was great. Neil and Shailene stood by the other wall, right near the door I had just come in. They were both smiling, even though both of theirs were faint on their lips, but it was still a smile.
Molly and Mitchell were sitting in front of the bed, and Molly had her arms thrown around him in the tightest hug possible. Her head was buried in his shoulder, and Mitchell was holding her, whispering to her to help her feel better about what was going on. It looked like it was working, actually, which surprised me because I could never get Molly to feel better about anything, even when I tried to comfort her in a way similar to what Mitchell was doing. What did he have that I didn’t?
Molly looked up within a few seconds of when I entered and looked at me. “Thomas. I thought you were sleeping,” she said softly.
“I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep so I thought I should come and look around. Plus I wanted to see Elsie, but apparently she’s asleep,” I said, looking at my little sister with a small smile. She was so innocent and sweet, especially when she was asleep.
“Ah, okay,” Molly replied in a small voice. She glanced back at her sister as she let go of Mitchell, sitting down normally again.
Mitchell turned to look at me and gave me a small smile. “Good to see you, man,” he said softly, in a way that I could tell was sincere. We hadn’t had a real conversation in a long while, so this was different.
“Good to see you too, Mitchell. Glad you’re alive,” I said in a joking manner, to which he laughed.
“You really haven’t changed much, have you Thomas?” he teased me right back, and I laughed a bit myself. Then he stood up, and looked around at everyone. “So, I’m going to get a snack from the mess hall. Want me to bring anything back for you guys?” He offered to everyone.
“No, we’re all good, but thanks,” Neil said, to which Molly and Shailene nodded.
“I bet Elsie will want something when she wakes up. Here, I’ll come to help you pick something out for her,” I supplied. Maybe this would be a good opportunity to ask him about what he had gone down here for. I was just so curious, and so was Molly. This would be a good time to ask him about it, wouldn’t it? I stepped aside to let him exit the room.
“That would be great. Thanks, man,” he said and walked out the door. I followed behind him quickly and caught up to walk beside him down the, now completely lit, hall.
We walked in silence for a minute. I wasn’t entirely sure what to say to him at this point. How exactly do you start a conversation about why a person was convicted of a crime and sentenced to “death” that didn’t actually kill him?
Mitchell looked over at me as we walked. “So, what did you want to talk about? I know you wouldn’t have volunteered to help. That would have been Shailene, or someone else. So what is it?” He asked. I remembered how intellectual he was, and how well he could figure things out, so this didn’t surprise me.
I chewed my lip and looked at him. Here goes nothing. “So, before we jumped, we were also trying to figure out why you got sent down here in the first place. Molly and I couldn’t remember you being a bad person in any way, so we went to check out your records,” I began. “But when we got there, the description of your crime was so plain, and we couldn’t get more details than the few words on the paper. I wanted to find out what happened from you,” I said.
Mitchell sighed and looked up towards the cave ceiling. “I should have seen this one coming, shouldn’t I have?” he mumbled, walking beside me. Then he spoke up, a bit louder so I could hear it. “It’s a long story.”
“Well, I’ve got time,” I said, shrugging a bit. We turned a corner into another lit hallway, and continued to walk together.
He nodded slowly and glanced around. When he found that nobody was there, he spoke again. “Okay, well, I had heard about those families that were sent down here, especially the ones that I later found out were the Greens. I was kind of curious about what they could have done that got them sent here.”
“So, kind of like what we did? Like me and Molly wondering about you?” I supplied.
He nodded. “Yeah. But you jumped before they could track you down and send you down here for real,” he answered. “Plus, I actually did a whole lot more research on a whole lot more than just one person. I looked at the records for the Greens, and some other people, like Quinn, this forty-something year-old lady who was sent down here just last year. You remember Quinn Ellison, don’t you?”
I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I think so.” I definitely did. One Sunday morning, on our way home from picking up Elsie from her Sunday School classes, someone was running down the street yelling about the Zipper being open. At Elsie’s age, we chose to drop her at home before we went down to the Zipper.
Ms. Ellison was standing at the Zipper. She was another one who had committed “Crimes against the government of Restless Isle” and was given the death penalty by the Zipper. They sent her down, but she didn’t get a chance to even say any last words to anyone.
“Why didn’t they let her say goodbye to anyone? I thought that was weird,” I admitted honestly as I looked at him.
“So did I. That’s why I looked in to her conviction specifically. But there still was no information about hers. And the day after I asked about her, I still had nothing. So, I decided to start working on a complaint, and then a way to let the people of Restless Isle know what they were withholding from all of us.”
“And then they found out and they caught you,” I finished off, thinking about what was going on. “And they convicted you without a fair trial and sent you down to the Zipper.”
“That’s exactly what happened, yeah,” he agreed as we finally reached the mess hall.
There weren’t many options, as I guessed there wouldn’t be, but I was able to find a quick little treat for her to eat that I knew she would like. I picked up a cookie and turned to Mitchell. “Whenever you’re ready, I’m good,” I told him.
He grabbed a quick snack of his own and nodded. “I’m good too. Let’s head out,” he said and we turned and left the mess hall as quickly as we had arrived.
As we walked, I chose to ask another quick question. “So, what do you think they’re hiding from us? Why would they send some of these people down to the Zipper when a lot of them didn’t do anything wrong, like you did?”
He shrugged and sighed. “I don’t know Thomas, I really don’t know. But, if anyone would know, I’m guessing we need to ask someone like Quinn, or the Greens. I think they actually did something, besides researching what others had done. The best person might be Quinn though. After all, they sent her down without last words. Maybe they were afraid that she’d spill government secrets through her last words and Restless Isle would be in an uproar,” he supplied as we walked.
The theory could be correct. I think if we were to start anywhere, we would need to find Ms. Ellison. I would want Molly with me, same with Neil, Shailene, Mitchell, and Celia. Elsie was too little. She needed to be protected, so I would want her back in her room, safe and sound.
“You’re right, Mitchell. Maybe we should go talk to her later, or something. That might be a good start to figure out what we can do from down here to help the people up here,” I told him.
“I think that’s a good idea. How about after we get back there, we round up everyone and go find her?” he suggested, just like my thoughts had been.
I chose not to say that part, and just nodded in agreement. “Sounds good to me. Let’s get going.”
We sped up our walking pace, wanting to get to the room as quickly as possible. The sooner Mitchell was able to eat, and that we could get everyone ready, the sooner we could find out what they were hiding from us. After a bit of time, we were finally there. I pushed the curtain aside and entered the little bedroom for Elsie.
She was still fast asleep when I got there, her face towards the wall. Her little chest rose and fell under the makeshift blanket and a smile formed on my lips at the sight. Now that I knew she was safe, every time I saw her I couldn’t help smiling. I was just so glad my little sister was safe and sound!
The three teens turned to face us, having been involved in a conversation before we entered. Shailene was the first to speak. “There you guys are. What took you so long?” she inquired of the two of us.
Mitchell just shrugged and took a seat where he had been before we left. “Sorry. We were just talking along the way, and I guess it took longer than we thought.”
“I brought Elsie a cookie for when she wakes up,” I said, and set the little cookie down on a piece of fabric near Elsie’s bed. I knew she would find it there. These cookies were definitely store bought, not freshly baked (How could you do that down here anyway?) but I knew she would find it there. As a little kid, she had a cookie tracking radar.
“Thanks, Thomas,” Molly said with a smile. “So what were you two talking about anyway?”
“We were discussing how I got down here. And then we started talking about Quinn Ellison, and how she made it down,” Mitchell replied and started eating his snack.
“So we were thinking, how about we go talk to her, see why she was sent here, and see if there’s any way we can figure out how to get this information up to the surface to help out the people up there?” I suggested to them, a small smile on my lips.
“I think that sounds like a great idea. I always thought it’d be a good thing to talk to her sometime, but I never got the chance to, what with running around and running this whole place,” Neil said. He leaned against the wall and gave us all a smile. “I’ll get Celia. Maybe she can watch Elsie while we go talk to her. Then we don’t have to worry so much about her while we’re there.”
“Good plan,” Molly agreed with a smile.
“Hurry back,” Mitchell said. A small smirk formed on his lips as he looked at all of us. “I didn’t even tell you guys the best part, did I?”
“No, apparently not. What is it?” I asked, tilting my head in slight confusion. What had he not told me?
“Quinn Ellison was a scholar before she got down here. She was doing research at the university about the Zipper for years before she was arrested and sent down here.” Mitchell’s smirk only deepened as he looked at all of us. “She might know the true origins of this place. Not only that, she might just know how to get out.”