Foundation
I tensed up as I saw the tapes. It was horrifying. We all agreed it was a good introduction to whatever we were about to face, but I was still more scared about what I saw than the others. I was always a pretty fearful person; fidgety, chiefly paranoid, ever since the evacuations and everyone losing everything. Why did I sign up for this? I had no idea. Why did people even have to do something like this? I don’t think anyone knew why, but in the end, we didn’t really have a choice. The static brought me back to my senses, though, alongside Adam’s call for me to follow him.
“C’mon, man, we gotta go before they take all the good beds! I’ll race ya!” he yelled from across the room.
“Crap, you’re right! Wait up!” I shouted back as I stumbled up after him, my only friend ever since the evacuations, through the sea of enlistees. Couldn’t let him beat me there.
We were a little late to the rooms, but there were still some good spaces for us both. Adam was my best friend during training, and even if we were all pretty crammed together, it was at least better than what we were leaving behind near the outskirts of the Shield, a border between us… and them. That place was truly a hellhole. All of a sudden, the loudspeaker blared intensely, silencing all the murmurs amongst the crowd.
“Dear tarnished, please report to the Island by dusk tomorrow, or else consequences will be faced above all else,” the voice boomed overhead. I shivered.
No one knew who was running this operation, so the fact that it had this much funding was astonishing; alas, it was all the same to everyone: do something, get paid, repeat – an endless cycle in this life some call a successful society. It’s not. Those born into fortune stay with fortune, and those who aren’t stay forgotten, a way of life adopted ever since the Earth collapsed in on itself, or that's what they say. No one truly knows what happened except for the result, so the fact that we’re going back to what used to be our old home without any information or precautions? Sure, why not? So stupid. I just hope this operation doesn’t collapse in on itself, too. At least Adam helps keep me sane; talking to him was always nice.
“Hey, you. Number 4. You idiot, GET UP.” He picked me up and slammed me against the wall. The flock of my peers instantly turned to look at me.
“Do you already wanna be ejected too? I told you to MOVE ALONG, not sit and stare out into that vacuum of nothingness. GO!” said the guard, as he shoved me forward with the others while swearing under his breath, still threatening to hurt me more and to “obey like the rest”. I didn’t even do anything. I did leave a dent in the wall, though.
Everybody came from fairly similar backgrounds: lost and broken people who had once had something, but no longer do. All oppressed, all just wanting something. No one wanted to be here, no one wanted to talk to anyone, no one wanted to get their privileges taken away. Everyone just wanted to get this over with.
As soon as we got to the entrance to the Island, our deployment center, we all knew it was time. We marched across the silver bridge, changed into the gear we used to see in our dreams, and steadily descended from the floating platform, through the airlock, onto the surface of debris. We were split into four squads.
The ground was unstable, and everything was scattered. We saw satellites ripped in half, this weird brown substance drifting right in front of us, — dirt, I think? — and the sun closer than ever. I could practically feel its rays on me. So, so warm. My legs on the silver floor of our minicraft trembled. What were we even doing here? Everything felt off. It almost felt fake… not natural. What was really going on here? Without warning, a voice resounded through our communications, similar to before.
“Dear subjects, please scour Sector 5 for labs in the sky. Once found and searched for [REDACTED], report back if found. If not, continue to explore. Only one team may leave.” Those around me lost their minds. Was this some type of joke? Was watching people either run, freeze, or kill their way to victory enjoyable? I hope not.
As soon as everyone understood what was happening and the ship backed away a great distance from us, Adam and I immediately bolted from the drop-off zone and confusion alongside one other castaway, Jacob. He seemed dazed, but we knew that if we had left him there, astray, he would’ve fallen victim to the others in this place no one knew. We were a trio now.
Just like us, Jacob, from what we could assume, was practically a nobody. A nobody with no friends and nothing notable to him, from what we could see. But isn’t that where we all come from? That’s what Adam and I have known for all our lives, and we would’ve loved to ask him a bit about himself and the slight difference in his upbringing, but, you know, in the midst of possible death isn’t the greatest time for conversation.
We ran for hours. Hopping across breaks in the debris to conserve our zero-gravity charge —we wouldn’t have it forever— floating across chasms when needed to, and hiding in shattered homes was now becoming the norm. A normal I didn’t really love. We had to be careful, everything here was significantly different than to what we were used to. On the other hand, Adam loved this new sense of adventure and “fun” compared to Jacob and I. Jacob was still too disoriented to actually even think or express anything in the first place. Besides the innate ability to run, he was gradually regaining his senses. We both just hoped he would have enough time with everything going on. Who knows what happened to him before all of this.
Suddenly, we ran into one of the labs. Just as they described, it seemed… pretty uninhabitable; Definitely the worst we had seen amongst all the rubble. We looked around. No people around us. Good. We walked up the oxidized steps and reached the door. We all went to open it, but then didn’t. We were all terrified. So, we agreed to play rock, paper, scissors—at least, only Adam and I. We let Jacob process where he was. What a poor soul.
“Okay, on two, ready?” I said.
“Sure, on two,” rebutted Adam with a devilish grin. “Two times you’re losing!” Good old Adam. Idiotic, but smart. I lost both.
“Cheater,” I uttered back jokingly.
“You WISH!” announced Adam, laughing louder than ever.
Unfortunately, a little too loud.
We heard creaking in the shafts underneath us. Was someone following us? From nothing, four other men who we had once considered comrades burst out of a vent right next to us. They had been searching for someone to ambush this entire time, and now we were the losers. Instinctively, Adam jumped in front of us, trying to negotiate with the enigmatic men, but they didn’t care to listen. They knew we had found a lab, and wanted to make sure it was going to be them to earn the credit in this sick game, not us. They wanted to escape. They wanted to live.
Greed. That’s what they possessed inside of themselves, especially during this treacherous confrontation. Or was it a hope for survival? The drastic actions taken to perhaps continue living when faced with the possibility of no longer being able to do so? Is that what forces someone to throw a person off the only solid, dependable structure around them and into the infinite abyss of uncertainty around us? Kicking them over and over again, blood splattering and flying everywhere around us, even when begged to stop with agonizing screams? Mercy? Maybe. I don’t think I’ll ever understand that. I feel something against my head – and then, a sharp pain. Darkness clouds my mind.
I arose from the ground in a quite stunned manner. Everything stung. What had happened? Oh… right. Adam was gone. Suffocated somewhere in the pit of mystery we call space. The yelling reverberated in my head. How CRUEL. THIS WASN’T WHAT I SIGNED UP FOR. I yelled out a scream of pure agony, unintelligible to whoever might’ve been out there. I was distraught. He didn’t deserve this.
Jacob startled me just as I had probably startled him. He had been cowering in the corner the entire time, presumably watching me during my fit of rage and despair. He looked dead. He began to whisper like a madman.
“A-As soon as the men had finished looting the laboratory, we all heard the roar of engines and saw the ship depart without warning. S-Someone must’ve won, but we’re not even sure if someone did. Might’ve all been a facade. Three of the men jumped off behind our friend as they gradually plummeted, accepting their fate… Lastly, the fourth disappeared into the horizon. They spared me. I think it’s just us left now. I’m scared, man. What do we do?”
“It’s gonna be okay, I promise. We just gotta stick together, alright?” I said, slowly, for him to understand clearly.
“O-Okay, I’ll try my best. Sorry if I don’t,” he mumbled back.
After starting to walk once more, just with one less member, I felt a breeze a few yards away from the lab. It got… cold? I proceeded to investigate the surrounding area, and saw… a flash of light? How peculiar. I reached down for it, and my hand went right through.
“W-What’re you doing?” questioned Jacob nervously.
“I think I might’ve found us a way out of this wreckage, so give me a second,” I reassured back. I thought of Adam, what he hoped for with all of this, and went right through, risking it all. I had nothing left anyway—Besides Jacob, really. A guy I’d just met today.
Nothing until now. I fell hard and spotted greenery. It seemed real.
“Welcome to Indiana, weary traveller!” read the sign. The paint was faded, and I could barely see the letters. I took off my mask… and began to breathe true, fresh air. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced before.
Where was I?
By Julian L.