Monolith

#1 Monolith

Living here all my life I know all the nooks and crannies of this place but my knowledge has its limits too. This monstrosity of a compound stretches as far as the ocean covering the earth, or that's what it looks like. I've gone exploring but the restrictions everywhere makes its hard but never stopped me. This huge community is made up of 7 sectors each contains numerous Skyscrapers, granted not all of them are of a livable condition. We have no connection to these 7 other sectors but are only linked via sky-bridges to the The Dome. These all collectively came to be known as the Monolith. I wonder who named us and why? We have been told we are the last of humanity so why bother naming us at all. I mean whom are we going to say that "We are from Monolith". (Although I do hope I get to say that to an actual living person from OUTSIDE, even if I'm not proud of that sentence.)

"Beth, are you coming" called out Meg leaning outside the door holding a different book from last week. A HUGE bookworm she is.
"Yes, wait. Let me tidy up my room real quick", I replied.

Meghan (Meg) Mahony, another unfortunate soul to be born into this excuse of a life. A short brunette girl of my age I like to have around and, like me, she had a family. She and I grew up together and lived our entire life in adjacent rooms with our sibling. Her sister, Madeline, and I had a lot in common. We both used to hate our names. It made us sound old. So, we both decided to go by the names Maddy and Beth.

"How's it going Meg?" I asked her as I locked my door.
"Nothing new, just found this new book. Having a go at it while I still have time" she replied. 'NOT ANOTHER LOVE STORY' written in bold across the cover of the book caught my eye. Must be a book about some Love story?... I don't know. I'm not very intuitive.

We made our way through hallways and elevators and 'slides'. Yes, Slides. Two slides connect two individual buildings together. One takes you towards the Dome and the other takes you away. Finally we reach the sky-bridge where we get on this moving walkways, here we can either decide to walk or sit on one of the seats towards the center facing outside. This walkway instead of going straight one-way it goes around like a merry-go-round (Such innovation). The ride through the sky-way is pretty slow and it sure is unbearable without company and to make things slower our sector is furthest away from the Capitol hence takes the longest time to reach there.

So many cheerful people around us, all dressed in colors (Must be performers representing our sector). Once a month to cheer us up and socialize the Capitol holds a long day of festivity where we get to see performances by our fellow residents, eat our fill and play all sorts of games. Also today happens to be the day of reassignment. Every 7 years the Capitol will be balancing out the population of respective sectors by taking eligible workers from one sector and placing them where they're required the most.

Meg seems pretty into her book so I excuse myself and walk towards the ledge facing outside. What a sight to see. This my my favorite part of the ride. The whole world in one place but I am moving. The sun at its peak, glimmering all over us. Sunlight reflecting on the disturbed water creating flashing beams. "Is that a bird" I exclaimed turning back at Meg. She rolls her eye and goes back to reading. What was I thinking? That couldn't have been a bird. I should've known that. I continue leaning on the railing daydreaming until the Dome comes into view.

The Dome, our Capitol, is at the heart of this Community. It's a beautiful sight to see, nothing like the sectors. The Dome was built for the purpose it stands (floats) for, it wasn't part of the Sky-scrappers forming the sectors. It's a spherical structure with glass for walls and has no anchor to the ground, seemingly floating, held in place by the sky-bridges linking it to the sectors. The Dome comprises of a total of 17 floors with 10 of them underwater and the remaining emerging out. Each floor was designed with an objective in mind where the 11th floor, the largest floor in the capitol, came to be the Common Area. It's where the Sky Bridges leads to.

The doorway today opened up to a huge hall with all sorts of colors, people and banners but something seemed weird. Something didn't feel right.

"Beth, Beth! BETHANY BURMING"

I seem to have been lost in my thoughts. Meg came shouting at me and pointing me towards the glass walls. They were suppose to be blacked out but today was different. Today they were letting the sunlight in though some downward panels. We still couldn't see outside but only the sky. That didn't bother me, not today. What really caught my eyes were this row of Yellow bright things pointing out almost reaching the panels. I went for a closer inspection.

"Sunflowers, Meg. Sunflowers!" all in excitement I look back to see who was saying it. It was Amelia Torren.
"Mrs. Torren. What brings you here" I asked.

Why did I even ask that, I knew why she was there. She is Monolith's head botanist who also happens to live in our floor. She is the reason we have our green healthy vegetables. 'I hate her' I joked to myself.

"You see that Beth. Come take a closer look Meg", Mrs. Torren ushers us towards the flowers. So yellow. So bright.
"These flowers you see... are my latest installment. We recently figured out how to grow these."
"Why?" Meg and I blurted out.
"Well these are obviously pretty to look at and also, this should fascinate you Beth, provide seeds for Birds..."
"Didn't birds go extinct" interrupted Meg.
"Yeah but, uncle Eliot recently revived a certain species of them and we needed a food source and 'et voila' Sunflowers." She replied. "He is over by the fountain if you guys wanna see what he's working with."

Eliot Torren, head Zoologist, is Mrs. Amelia's dear husband. They really were made for each other. Married together ever since we could remember and both equally brilliant in their respective fields. The Torrens were close friends of our Parents (that's what they say us). Meg and I always used to hang around their Labs curious of their work.

Just as we reached the fountain something green, something flying hit my chest and fell to the ground. Looking down my eyes go wide and my body rushed with excitement.

"Is that a parrot?" I screamed.

Before I could reach down to pick it up, Elliot scooped it up with his caring hands and smirked at me.

"Yes, Beth. Do you wanna hold it" Elliot asked. "Oh hello Meg, Didn't see you there."

I reached out to grab the bird and just as I was about to touch, it flapped it's wings making me jump back in shock. Who would've thought that in a few minutes we would be inseparable.

After moving through the crowd, visiting almost all the Gaming station and food stalls, we were finally ready to take some rest just as the voice comm announced "Hello Ladies and Gentle man. Please make your way towards the center. The show is about to start, so grab a seat and please stay seated."

"We are all gathered here to celebrate. We are all here to enjoy and without any further unnecessary commentary let the day begin..."