Playing God

Chapter 4 Back in Hell

I walk up onto the stage my head held low, I can't feel my body. I don't know whats controlling me to do this but I don't like it. I feel as if I have no free will. I am greeted by Carls smiling face and Quintons angry face. Next to him his bunk mate, who looks scared out of his mind. I stare into the crown without emotion, I feel as if I've just once again realized I'm having a nightmare. I am taken back to a dreadful day, emotion pours out of me. Silently.

Dazing out I try to block out all information coming to me. The sounds of Matthews great speeches. The daily messages, food supply, lunch menu, all float past me. I open my eyes widely over and over trying to wake up. I am going to die. We are going to die. The worst part is we are just the start. Once we die, they will send more people. For what? To save the people who don't have to go. Then they will rot here without power because we all failed. Who wins?

I am escorted off of stage by guards. I hear them talk to each other saying things like, "Four people is too much! Think of how many lives that is compared to how many people here." or stuff like, "Better them than me, I would never do this!" I try to ignore them but I can't, its like the noise wants to invade my head.

We walk into a room I have never seen, the armory. I stand in awe at the weapons and gear we have here, stored, ready for anything. A man comes in and gets right down to business, "I am Sergeant Donner, I will be training you for the next three hours before you go to the surface, do not talk. It isn't a lot of time, I know. But you need to up and out asap! Any questions?"

Quinton speaks up, "Who will mourn for us?"
Sergeant Donner looks at him and says quietly, "Your families are right now." He looks down, he isn't lying. That means I am mourning for myself today, I have no one. The silence is broken soon after, "I am here to make sure at least one of you come back, I can't guarantee that though. Only you can."

We begin with basics, terrain, what to do when you get to radiated areas, and how to find food and water. It's all basic but I doubt it's all accurate. No one goes out of our area, we don't know whats out there. But we need to travel to the East Military Naval Base, then into the city. But even checkpoint A is in between here and the base, and it is pretty far. That gave me an idea of the journey. The feeling came back up when Sergeant Donner began about the journey to checkpoint A. It should be the second hardest part, the hardest part is coming back from checkpoint A to our home. Not all of us will be there, and we will have to carry a heavy power supply and even heavy generator on our backs. If we survive until then of course.

A loud lunch bell rings but today's lunch will be different, yesterday 126 people were in the cafeteria at this time. Today only 122. I gear up, not saying one word, I haven't seen sunlight in at least eight months. I walk through a tunnel big enough to pack one hundred cars. I see a large door. A loud alarm goes off as a red button is pressed and the door opens, people working there run, not knowing what is waiting for them. We are the only ones in the tunnel. I stare out into the vast worn out land, no life ahead, just sand and dirt mixed together. I see wrappers and loose trash blowing around like tumbleweeds. Piles of concrete that used to be buildings scattered across the plains. The door begins to shut automatically and we all take our first steps into the wild. My eyes open wide, I wake up from the nightmare, the apocolypes, my brothers death all gone, I am back in hell.