Behind the Walls

The sky was as blue as a cerulean lake, with a yellow sun standing protectively at the top. There were a few white straggling clouds floating carelessly above me as I took in the beauty of the day. In front of me was a sea of grass, dancing to the beat of the warm wind as it drifted through the plain. I could smell the alluring aroma of grapes, and oranges as the scent of the flowers traveled across the wind and into my waiting nose. I fell back into the grass, letting their soft arms catch me and gently lower me to the cool ground. Everything was perfect. A few birds soured across the sky, cutting through it like a hot knife to butter. I let out a refreshing sigh and closed my eyes to enjoy the warming light of the sun on my otherwise cool face.

After an eternity of just lying in the grass, something hit me. It was cold and wet, another drop, this time on my forehead. I lazily opened my eyes and saw a dark cloud dropping barrels of rain to the north of me. It was coming this way. I got up from my paradise and started to run. I sprinted to the safe edge of my once bliss and looked behind me. The storm was approaching, faster and angrier then ever. I sprinted further and further away and watched in horror as the cerulean sky was being engulfed by swirling black clouds. There was no escaping from the swirling black monstrosity that loomed over my head. I stopped, facing the monstrous storm and helplessly watched as lightning stroke the once peaceful field, igniting it an a crimson flame. The storm laughed in its triumph with a thunderous boom and continued to destroy the world in its hideous rampage. I stood there, not knowing how to save the field, not knowing if I was crying, or if rain was falling on my eyes. I just stood there for a split second watching the storm send its lightning onto my helpless mortal body.

My eyes snapped open and I quickly sat up on my bed in a cold sweat out of breath. I threw my terrified gazed at my bedroom window. The sky was black and red with only bare trees to interrupt the hideous view. Rain pounded against the dome, and thunder laughed at me, happy it was able to invade my deepest thoughts. “Another dream of the outside” I muttered angrily to myself. A tear rolled down my cheek, “Another sardonic taste of freedom.” I said disillusioned.

Five hundred years ago daemons from another world came. They came, and wiped humanity out without so much as a second thought. One by one, human by human, family by family they came and slaughtered us all like helpless sheep. The entire Earth itself was pushed to the brink of extinction in a matter of months, and then the Masters came. The stories tell that they descended from the heavens and fought off the daemons that killed us and offered us security; however, they were no different. We were forced to retreat under the dome the Masters had constructed for us. There, the Daemons that invaded could no longer reach us as we handed ourselves over to another.

Within the dome there are four floors, all together there are 5,000 people living within. The first level holds two thousand five hundred people, the second holds one thousand five hundred people, the third holds the remaining thousand, and the fourth holds the Masters themselves. Of course, there is a catch, at the price of safety, comes freedom. At a predetermined age based on which floor you live in, the Masters will kill you as payment for the peace they created for the rest of humanity. On level three, where I live, you live to be thirty five, on level two you live to be twenty five, and on level one you live to be the pitiful age of seventeen. There is no real reason (besides the idiotic one they tried to tell) why the Masters kill you; most say they eat you on the fourth floor, although it doesn’t matter to me. I refuse to live as a caged bird, a cow waiting in horror for the day the Masters come to slaughter me. One day, I will forsake this pitiful world.

I rubbed my eyes and the last remaining feelings of the dream away. Rain pounded against the dome as if trying to break it, and lightning illumined the sky with an orange glow. I rose out of my bed and walked out of my room, across the hall and into the kitchen. My older brother Leonardo (I call him Leo) was waiting for me, having already pancakes and happily enjoying it. Leo was 27 with auburn hair, deep steely blue eyes, and stood at around six feet. Still scarfing down the pancakes he said in a muffled voice “Hello Raphael.”

“Hey” I replied back. “It’s your pretty perfect pancakes again?”

“Yes, it’s the only thing I can cook that even remotely lacks insipidness.” After a few moments of me just listening to the hideous sound of Leo eating pancakes he saw my staring and invited me to join him. “After we eat I’ll continue your lessons.” I sat down with three medium sized pancakes on a glass plate. The pancakes were still steaming, and the butter was sliding down the mountain of dough.

“Lesson on what?” I asked to break the silence.

“Politics, mathematics, literature, history, you need to learn all of these things if you want to get the most of this world.” I looked at the wall clock, it read 10:28.

“Okay, but how about at one.” Leo gave me his ‘give me a better offer’ look so I negotiated it down to eleven thirty. I put away the empty plate in the sink and washed up. There was only one rule in regards to dress within the walls. You must, at all times while outside your house, wear a black jacket with your number stitched over your heart. The number was the apartment or house number where you lived, and mine read 4372. After putting on my glasses, I walked outside into the false peace the Masters had created. The perfect steel buildings rose all the way up to the ceiling that supported the fourth floor. Little shining lights of windows cut though the darkness of the day, and towering street lights illuminated the side walk that was in perfect condition. There was no pollution anywhere, everything was clean and starch like the Masters wanted. Everything was neat, symmetrical and perfect, even the weather. The simulators ran at a perfect seventy five degrees all year round.

I walked until I reached the great elevator that connected each floor. All in all there must be at least fifty elevators traveling down a gargantuan tunnel that leads to the floor of your choice. I opened the door to the elevator and stepped in. Most of the time there aren’t a lot of people on the elevators, the people on different floors like to remain apart. The elevator lowered me down until I reached my destination, the first floor.

Unlike the stark, cultured third floor, the first was dirty and run down. The old brick buildings that held up the other three levels look like they would give weigh to the smallest tap. The streets had holes and cracks in them, and I wouldn’t want to hang around here at night. The only reason why I come here are for my friends, Tim and Richard. They are both 13 and were really fun to play ball with. I went over to their apartment, number 1386, and asked for them to come out. Usually it is a lost cause, seeing as though they are tending to their children. This was one of those times.

I continued walking aimlessly in the broken down city until I heard a sound. Not the sound of an endless rain that pounded against the walls of the dome, but a sharp mellifluous sound that beckoned me to discover it. It was like a whistle, only more natural, that came in rhythmic beats of two and three at a time.

I followed the alluring sound to an ally, then a dumpster. What lay inside was none other than a bird! It was blue, like the cerulean sky from my dream with spots of black feathers begging at the base of its wing and goring more numerous the closer it came to the flight feathers which were stone black. The budgie parakeet sat staring at me as I stared at it. It opened its beak and sang its mellifluous tune once more as if saying hello so I returned the favor. It was the first real bird I saw loose in the dome, and I couldn’t imagine why it was in the dumpster. This quaint bird looked at me through jet black eyes as if asking for help, pleading for me to set it free and let it fly once more. I adjusted my glasses as I came up with a plan.

I placed my first finger underneath its breast and it perched happily on my finger. It stayed there for a while before starting to bite my nail. “You’re a tame bird. All you want to do was leave this place too right; to once again soar amongst the clouds and be free of the dome?” It stopped chewing my nail and gazed at me once more, letting out a loud chirp. I smiled and grabbed it, holding the bird gently in my hand while I headed for the elevator to take me to the third floor.

As I arrived in my house I found Leo still quietly sitting at the table, doing some sort of paper work. Quickly I went up to him, hiding the bird behind my back and told him I found something amazing. When he asked what it was I showed him the cerulean bird. As he saw it he put down his pencil and stared, eyes wide open. “Where did you find that?” He asked as he tried successfully to perch the bird on his finger. I explained I heard him in the dumpster, and I simply took him home with me. “That’s astounding! I can’t believe our luck! If I give this bird to the lead chairmen as a gift, then he will undoubtedly be in my favor. I can use this bird to finally gain a stronger foot hold in the government,” he said pretentiously. “We can finally move to a bigger home. It’s as Mom and Dad dreamed!”

“NO!” I shouted at him, “We can’t just use this bird as a tool to be used as we see fit. are you oblivious to the fact that this is the living creature that should be returned Outside!”

“What are you talking about my insolent little brother?” Leo asked with a serious glair. “We can never leave this dome, or else the daemons will come and wipe us out again. Only under the protection of the masters can we-”

“NO! I don’t care what the old legends say about the monsters that wait outside the wall. I refuse to be stuck in here just waiting to die! What kind of life do we make in here? What good will buying a house do for anyone but yourself? Why do you think it’s best to live in here like animals, just waiting to die? Don’t you see Leonardo? Our life, our very existence means absolutely nothing! If we were to die right now, right this very second who would care? I refuse to let my life be meaningless to anybody, to be just a number, a faint memory, to be forgotten as soon as I’m gone! That’s why… That’s why I’m leaving the walls, and I’m taking this bird with me so he too can be free!” I yelled, hastily taking the bird from his finger.

I anticipated that Leo would take a few seconds to recover from that, but like the politician he is he was ready with a response. “When mom and dad died, they told me to take care of you. To protect you with my very life and that is what I intend to do. You are now forbidden to leave this apartment!”

“Mom and dad, you bring them up? What are they, nothing more than forgotten memories barely even a footnote in history! They worked their lives away and for what? Just to be slaughtered without a second thought, to become nothing more than a forgotten memory!” Tears were now streaming down my face uncontrollably and my eyes hurt as if they were being stung by five thousand bees. “Leonardo, I refuse to be a memory, I don’t care what the government, mom, dad, or you have to say about it. I would rather fight to the death with a demon then be slaughtered without putting up a fight!” I ran out the door without looking back, the tears blinding me as I ran toward the elevator.

As soon as the door opened I ran across floor one in a full sprint, the bird in my hand. I took a train to the outskirts of the city, and walked to the great door that remained closed for five hundred years.

Do I really want to go outside? To fight the demons that almost wiped out the human race in a matter of months? I wouldn’t last a day, but it would be the happiest day of my life. Free from restraints, free from limits, free from time. I would finally be free, and I would pay any price for that, even my life.

I arrived at the door quicker than I would have liked and stared at the massive gates. They must be fifty feet high and made of solid brass. I took a big gulp and lay my hand on the cold handle. The rain picked up and beat on the dome like an old drum. Lots of people were gathering behind me, asking things like “What is he doing?”, and “What’s going on?” Another tear ran down my face and I turned around and screamed at the large group, “I refuse to be slaughtered like an animal, I want to soar free!” I held up the bird still in my hands to show everyone, then, opened the humongous door.

CRRRRREEEEEKKKK the door said as it slowly opened, ending in a loud thud. Immediately my legs turned to solid lead, and everyone’s hopes of freedom were put on my shoulders crushing them. I could feel the eyes of the world looking, staring at me, and watching what I would do next. There was no going back now.

I walked through the long hallway for about a quarter mile until I came to a different door, this one normal sized. With my eyes sealed shut, I put my hand on the frigid old rusted door handle, and pushed.

The door opened, and I expected monsters waiting for me, for the rain to spit all over my face, or even to be blown back by a tornado… but it didn’t happen. I opened my eyes, and rubbed them again to be sure I wasn’t dreaming. What waited behind the walls, was a sky as blue as a cerulean lake, with a yellow sun standing protectively at the top. There were a few white straggling clouds floating carelessly above me. In front was a sea of lustrous green grass, dancing to the beat of the warm wind as it drifted through the plain. I could smell grapes and oranges as the scent of the flowers traveled across the wind and into my waiting nose. I could feel myself start to bawl again. Outside the walls, there were no daemons, no destruction, and no death. It was peace. All of it, from the very start was a projection, an illusion, a trick the masters placed on humanity to lure it into a false sense of security. A trick so the masters could feed on the fear of humankind. More tears slid down my face with the realization that if I hadn’t left, my life, and my death would have been meaningless. That Mom and Dad’s lives were taken not for the benefit of humanity as they desperately believed, but for the sinful wishes of the Masters. That their death aided the despicable creatures that maliciously slaughtered all of us and denied the freedom we were born with!

I opened my hand and let the bird fly free, melding with the sky until it faded to nothing. We were free.