The Network ( Book One of the Grounders Series )

3

Dedicated to ItsMiaFrench for being a great friend over the years.

My feet slap painfully against the stone as I leap over a runnel and sprint across the Artery toward the doors of my own clan.

My clan, Daws, is the education primary. All student go there for school. Just like Nevex is known for partying, and Verro is known for war. All of the seven clans have a primary.
Before the six thousand people came, Alvus Constantine wrote a decree of the laws and left it here for them to find. The first law was that the we should be divided into clans with a specific purpose to the Network. Education, defense, entertainment, industry, agriculture, culinary, and maternity. The people live in the clans they were born in, then when they're sixteen they choose which clan they'd like to work in.

I slip through the door of Daws and race through the corridors to the schoolroom, dreading every second.

I have to take my back entrance. I'm going to be late. I slip behind the paper mill chamber and into a crook in the stone. The air is frigid here. I feel comfortable here, safe and secure.

I slip deeper into the crook, the walls squeezing tight against my torso and legs.

The crook gets tighter, pressing into my thighs and butt until there's barely enough room for me to squeeze through the crack in the end that leads into one of the school's storerooms.

The storeroom is made of stone, with a single, unlit torch near the door. I step over and around the boxes of supplies and pull open the door that leads into the hallway. The main hall of the school is paneled with wooden tiles, floored with beige saxony carpet. Up above is a chandelier with a lit bowl in the center, making the setting a bit comfortable.

Class hasn't started yet, I can make it. I rush down the hall to my grade's schoolroom, and pull open the door. People are getting into their seats. Educator Alexia stands at her desk.

"Take your seat, Mister Constantine, class is beginning," Alexia drones, her nasally voice ringing in my ears.

I am in the very front of the class, right next to Cicada and Jonah, my only friends. Carter is just across the room, surrounded by his blind followers.

"Aboveground history is very important to us," Alexia says, "can anyone tell me why?"

I shrink back in my seat instinctively, hoping I won't have to draw attention to myself.
Hands fly up but Alexia ignores them. "Alaric, why is Aboveground history so important to us?"

I silently curse Alexia's soul to hell and sit up straighter. "Their history is important to us because we'll return their someday."

"Correct. Same goes for current events. Now, let's start at the beginning."

She pulls down a map of Aboveground. The map shows a large mass of land. "This is what the Above-Grounders called Eurasia." She circles a little peninsula near the left of the map, in water stuck in between the land. "That is called Italy. That is where the Vonican capital was. They ruled all over the other continents, but Europe, Asia, and Africa were where they lived. Then the wars broke out in the other continents.

"Millions and millions of people died in the beginning of the war. Some people refused to believe that Constantine was divine.

"They tore down those go were loyal to Alvus, taking ships across the sees in hopes of invading his home territory. When they reached the edge of Eurasia, the last remaining loyalists fought hard, but were eventually wiped out as the rebels marched into Italy. When they got there the Vonicans were gone, and nothing of Constantine's capital remained.

"Some of the six thousand people in the tunnel with Constantine wrote of him glowing and feeding the power that sealed off the tunnel. It is said that he sucked the existence of Vonica out of the Aboveground and transferred it into divine power. He used all of his power to make sure that we were secure here in the Network. It is also said that his power is what lights the Hearth every morning.

"At any rate, the rebels were so confused at the absence of Vonica, that they completely lost all recollection of anything. Thus humanity restarted, the Stone Age began. Then humanity progressed all the way to the civilized, technology dependent society is is today. Of course most of you already know what the world looks like today."

I know her banter is directed toward me. I silently damn her to the depths but sit, wearing a passive facade of stony features.

"Today Italy is rich with history of the world, history that is false. In the Aboveground they believe people became from science, from molecules that, through evolution, became humans. But in reality the Vonicans were the first human, born from the ancestors of Alvus Constantine. It's too bad his bloodline has been tainted."

I clench my teeth, three second from walking up to Alexia, and beating her to a bloody pulp with her own disciplinary wand. I refrain from the violent corner of my mind and return to my neutral, uncaring state, hoping she can't tell that she's getting into my head.

My thoughts are interrupted by a stabbing pain in my temple. The sensation crawls through my skull, cutting pinpricks of pain behind my eyes and across the nape of my neck. I wince and press to fingers to my temples as the headache intensifies.

"Are you alright?" Cicada ask, placing a hand gingerly on my shoulder and looking at my worriedly wit those big brown discs surrounding her pupils. I see a familiar golden streak across the left side of her right iris. This happens after children have The Dream. It is said that a trace of Constantine's divinity is left behind after The Dream. The only mark I have is the lyre on the back of my hand. It was a birthmark but it shows I am related to Alvus himself. I hate it nonetheless because every time I look at it it makes me feel like I'll never have The Dream.

"Yeah," I say, but the pain is still apparent, though it's dropped to a dull throb. That's weird, I've never had a headache like that before.