Anna's memory

Prologue

She remembered the journey in the box as if it were yesterday. The rumble of the machinery as it took her up. How slow it went. And the constant hum of the lift and of course also the darkness. She felt well in the dark, she didn't know why, but she felt safe. Even though she did not know where she was, or how she got there, the dark helped her, gave her solace. It always did, then, and after.

After the long climb the box finally stopped, and she waited for whatever might come next. There wasn't anything else she could do she'd been around the box a couple times after she woken up, to see if there was a door, or some switch, just anything. But there wasn't. Only cool metal. And so she sat and waited.

At last the door above her head opened and bright light flooded inside and she had to cover her eyes. Blinded she could hear voices above her. She couldn't really tell how many, but obviously they were discussing her, laughing.

She tried to look but the light hurt her eyes and she had to shield them again. But after a while she tried again, still shielding herself, and saw a little over thirty girls standing around the box, pointing and laughing. She turned around in a circle to take them all in until she felt dizzy and fell back down on her butt. The crowd laughed, and then they lowered a rope into the box, but none came in. She looked at it and noticed that at the end was a loop, a loop for her foot. She stood up and went over and stepped into it, her hands grabbing the rope, and just as she did someone gave the command to pull her up.

When she came to the edge she felt hands grab her and pull her out, letting go of her when she was fully out. She lay there looking up at the faces that, once more, crowded around her. Her panic rose, and she started backing away, but there wasn't really anywhere to. She only bumped into the legs of people standing behind her, and when she did the crowd laughed again. Someone touched her, presumably to help her up maybe, but she jerked away, got up and broke through the crowd running, eyes closed, concentrating only on getting away.

"WE GOT A RUNNER!" Someone shouted after her.

She ran and ran, not looking where she was going. After a while she heard people shouting after her that she had to stop, that she can't go there. That she cannot go out. She opened her eyes and stopped dead. Before her was a giant opening that lead into some system of corridors, it seemed. At that moment she turned around and for the first time looked around where she actually was. She saw giant walls encircling what seemed to be a square area, with some trees and buildings. Each one of the three remaining walls had also an opening like this one, before which she now stood. She then looked at the crowd and saw several people were running after her, still shouting. Her panic rose some more. Where was she? And more importantly, who was she? All she could remember was her name, Anna.