Paracosm

Above Ground

Magda

Lenka helps Magda get into her hazmat suit, Magda lifts up her foot so Lenka can boot on her boot. Magda feels her heart racing rapidly, a large part of her is afraid the minute they step foot outside they will turn into dust.

Magda couldn't bring herself to say goodbye to her mother this morning. She left early, before her mother was awake. She knew if she saw her face she wouldn't be able to say goodbye. Magda also is holding onto the hope of seeing her again, 'goodbye' would've felt like she was never coming back.

"Everyone feel okay in their suits?" Magda asks.
"All good," Lenka givers her a thumbs up.
"Feels nice and tight," Joe says, leaving out a long breath as if to calm himself.
Fionn just simply nods, Magda can see it in his face that he doesn't want to be doing this. His eyes are distant, he hasn't spoken a word since they got to the door.

Magda looks up at Hayes, who's standing in the control room with one of the guards. He smiles at her and nods reassuringly. For a split moment Magda notices a look of sympathy come across his face, as if he pity's them. But maybe the fear inside of her is making her imagine things.

A loud rumble vibrates the walls. It almost feels as if the ceilings about to come in on top of them. The bunker door begins to roll opened. The sun rays appear in the gaps. Magda has to block her eyes as the sun blinds them, she's never been outside, she's never felt the sun on her skin. She remember learning in class to never look directly in the sun.

The four of them step out through the giant door. Magda waits for her eyes to adjust to the brightness, they begin to water as she squints. The door closes again, shaking the ground as it shuts tight.

Magda lowers her hand as her eyes stop stinging. She looks around at the sand, the grass trying to regrow. There's some trees with long branches. It's not really what she imagined. She thought nature would've taken over by now, that the ground would be green again, flowers of all kinds would be growing. But instead she's looking at a nuclear wasteland.

"That mountain," Lenka points up "it's snowing".

A large grey cloud sits on top of a mountain that's half covered in snow, the rest is barren and bleak.

"We don't want to go there anyway," Joe says, he looks around, he seems as unimpressed as Magda.
"Doesn't look like there's much places to go," Magda puts her hands on her hips and turns to look at the mountain the bunker is built into. It's not as high as the snowy mountain, in fact it's not much of a mountain, more like a large hill.

"What did ye expect?" Fionn finally says "I mean the world is a nuclear wasteland, people went to the bunkers for a reason".
"There'll be something," Lenka smiles "we're only seeing half of the place, who knows what's behind that mountain, it could just be here that's full of sand, we also don't know where the bombs dropped, the further away the better".

"Lenka's right," Joe says "I've a feeling it was dropped close to here, be more radiation around the blast zone so nothing's gonna grow. I think we should see what's past that mountain".
"I agree," Magda says, holding on to some hope.
"I second that," Lenka adds.
Fionn shrugs and throws his hands up "I don't care".

The walk through the sand feels as if they're walking for an eternity. The feet feel heavy, the hot sun is beating down on their heads, each one of them are thirsty but don't want to waste their water.

The greenery comes into sight. Magda can make out the trees in the distant, it's like a whole other world. More and more hope builds up inside of her as she takes a step close to the grass.

"Oh fuck," Fionn stops all of shot, he'd been walking ahead of them, he's a lot fitter than them.

The rest reach Fionn and stop at a large trench in the ground, it looks as if it reaches the Earth's core. The soils look as if they've almost been burnt time and time again. It's not as wide as it is long, but it would still be a hard jump for them.

Fionn takes a few steps back before charging at it. It's almost as if flies over it, he makes it look so effortless. He lands perfectly on his feet.

"No other choice," Lenka hypes herself up.
She takes a run at it, she doesn't jump as high or as far as Fionn and her landing is wobbly but she still makes it safely to the other side. As does Joe, even though he lands quite close to the edge.

Magda takes a step back. She can feel her heart races. She's a strong girl but she's not fit. She knows she should've put more effort into training. She takes one deep breath before running and the trench. She lifts off the ground and comes crashes onto the other side, she hears a crack before a sharp stabbing pain travels from her face throughout her body.

  Lenka helps her sit up, her face falls as she stares at Magda. Magda watches as her chest begins to fall up and down more rapidly. The rest gather around, the same scared expression on their faces.

"Your mask..." Joe quickly searches through his bag.

Magda puts her hand up to her face, the glass has smashed. She feels the the broken pieces of glass in her face.

"No, wait," Lenka stops him "you're breathing".
Lenka unzips her suit, taking it off as quickly as she can. She takes a deep breath in and smiles. The others do the same.

  For the last hundred years they never thought they would be able to breathe in the air above ground. That they'd be forced to air old suits the bunker provided. But here they air, breathing in the air.

  Fionn's reluctant to take his off. He carefully watches the others, waiting for them to have a reaction. But nothing happens. Magda watches as he hesitates to take his suit off, he takes it off slowly, bit by bit.

Joe runs over to Magda and helps her take off hers. He gets the first aid kit out of his bag and gentle touches her face for any glass.
"It's not too bad," he smiles reassuringly.
He takes the few pieces of glass and cleans her wounds before bandaging them. Magda surprises herself with how little pain she feels as he does it.

"What about radiation poisoning?" Magda asks as they continue their journey.
"I don't know," Joe looks around him "everything seems normal, maybe the rads aren't high around here".
"You know they never actually told us about it," Fionn speaks up from the front of the group.
"What do you mean?" Lenka frowns.
"Like the war, or the bombs, they taught us 'radiation is bad for you but you're safe down here' like how do they know what bombs dropped or how long recovery might be? I didn't listen in class but I never heard that".

Everyone falls silent.
Why weren't they told?
Magda never really thought about it. She never spoke to her dad about it, never asked Hayes about it. They just learned to live in the bunker and not ask questions, it was their life and the only life they knew. The past is in the past, so she never thought about why all of this happened? Or how it happened? Maybe nobody from the bunker ever knew because they were below ground and they were safe, that's all that mattered to them.

"I guess maybe they thought they could do something with the bunker, so we'd never have to go above ground," Joe says.
"Should've warned us," Fionn kicks the ground.

"Guys...." Magda stops "look".
They've rounded the mountain. A large river separates the land. Over the horizon Magda can make out large walls, they reach up high into the sky with dragons craved into them. The earth by it seems to be the sand again, as if the greenery is only in the middle of the sand, like a circle.

"That can't be architecture from before," Lenka says.
"No, it's not damaged," Joe answers "there's no other structures around, surely that would've been destroyed too".
"If there's people there, surely they're friendly," Lenka looks at the rest of them "maybe that's everyone that survived".
"No," Fionn frowns "those walls are power, you think they're just gonna up them up for us?".
"Fionn's right," Magda adds "we can't-".

In the distance there's a loud vibration, some instrument begins playing. Men begin appear in the tree line across the river.
"Run!" Magda shouts.