Eventide [ON HOLD]

CONDEMN

There was a sea of people as we neared the Poll room. There were some people I recognised from earlier in the cafeteria. They were all haphazardly moving towards the door of the poll room as they were being rushed by the camp officials. It must be some kind of emergency.

I searched for my family in the crowd. Standing on my tip toes I saw my mother pushing her way towards the door, my father following her holding Oliver close to me. He was looking around him as he moved towards the door.

"Aletheia!" He called, once he spotted me. My mother also turned to look at me and smiled.

I moved towards my family, and Rowan followed me to where I was going. Once I caught up with them, we moved together into the poll room and found a few seats which were close to the door. My mother sat to my right and Oliver on my left. My dad sat next to Oliver    and I noticed that Rowan was not with us. Maybe he was with his family. He knew this place well enough to not get lost. I looked around the poll room to see people chattering away and having their secret discussions. Even with so many people in here this place looked huge.

Captain Baker came on the stage along with a woman with light brown hair neatly pinned into a low bun. She wore the normal white uniform of the camp which made her another one of the annoying officials. Though I have not spoken to them much, their monotone and their uniformity annoy me.

"Hello camp members. We are all gathered here to discuss about a very important initiative that we seek to undertake shortly in the forthcoming weeks." She spoke into the microphone and I recognised her voice from the speaker which announced for us to come here.

Then Captain Baker started speaking,
"As you all may know, we sent Ms. Aletheia Roberts into the cave and she survived in it for more than four months with no resources for her survival. We have discovered that the cause for her survival was her locket which supplied the cave with energy."

I could not believe that he had said that in front of everyone. It made me feel exposed that he had just told everyone about something which was very dear to me. What in the world was he up to?

"We have been researching for months for a solution to counteract this destruction and we have finally found it!" He exclaimed.

The room broke into an applause and everyone started talking in cheering.

"We can get out of this misery now!" Someone screamed with joy.

Though I was supposed to be happy, I was not as I knew something was up and I was waiting for it to strike.

"Quiet down everyone!" Captain Baker spoke into the microphone, smiling.

As the audience calmed down, though their discussions continued in hushed voices, Captain Baker went on with his speech.

"To understand the nature of the locket which may ultimately save us, we have deliberated on researching more on the locket and we have devised a way to undertaking the research."

A cold silence filled the room, anxiously anticipating what was coming for us.

"We have planned to send one of our camp's youth into the cave to study how the locket essentially works on different people. As all of us are here, we shall commence the voting now."

This cannot be happening.