The Door to Tomorrow

The First Move

When I regained consciousness, I was laying down on a hard floor. I could hear everything, but I couldn't open my eyes. My muscles felt heavy and my body refused to move for a few minutes. I heard people talking amongst themselves. Apparently, they woke up there, too. I lay with my eyes closed as light footsteps approached me.

"Charlie...? Is that you? C'mon, wake up!" A familiar mousy voice cried. I felt her foot nudging my side. "Why is he here?" she continued.

I forced my stiff body to move, trembling as I stood up. Every muscle in my body was screaming at me to stop.

"Ugh...my arm," I complained as I rubbed the aching area. It felt as if there were a giant bruise there, and I assumed it was from the man who grabbed me.

I looked at the group before me. "What. What the fuck? Hey, where are we?" I asked the short, lilac haired girl, whose name was Hina. She was my neighbor whom I hadn't spoken to since weeks before I left for Soma. I was her babysitter, and she really trusted me. I took care of her and she was grateful. However, I only pretended to care about her because her parents paid me to. I needed money that badly. The kid was so clingy that it made my blood boil.

"I don't know!" She grabbed onto my baggy shirt, which reminded me of one detail about my abduction. I was naked when I was kidnapped, so what the fuck? I thought. I had never owned a shirt that ugly shade of burnt orange, and I didn't recognize the cargo shorts either. Eerily enough, I was wearing the rose gold watch that Allen had given me.

I couldn't find words to express my feelings about the situation. It was just...strange.

The six of us stood in the white room together. There were bulky desktop computers all over the place, some were working, some not.

One of the kids yelped as an adenoidal male voice resounded through the room. The guy speaking sounded like a spoiled brat to me. I glanced at the intercom speaker on the wall as he spoke.

"Good afternoon, everyone. I hope you had the sweetest of dreams!" He sounded like he enjoyed watching us suffer. "I'm gonna be with you guys this whole time, so get used to my voice, 'kay? I'm the Narrator. That's all you need to know about me, so let's move on to you. This place is simply called the Facility. It's an underground shelter somewhere on Soma. You're all participating in a game, and not the fun kind. I will now announce the contestants' names in the order you woke up.

Robin Greyson, ten years old. Marina's best friend. Both Marina and Trevor's neighbor.

Trevor Chapel, fourteen years old. Shiloh's boyfriend.

Marina Tojo, nine years old. Robin's best friend and neighbor.

Shiloh Goldberg, sixteen years old. Trevor's girlfriend.

Hina Kobayashi, eight years old. Chuck's neighbor.

And Charles, er, Chuck? Munakata, twenty-two years old. Hina's neighbor, babysitter, and most trusted confidant."

"Oh great goddess," I gasped. "You're all just kids..." But that wasn't the only thing that alarmed me. First of all, I wondered why I was the only one who was called by a nickname. It was strange, to say the least. Next was the thing that really got under my skin—Greyson. That was Allen's last name, too.

"Wait a damn second. I'm not sixteen." The bronzed teenager, Shiloh, hissed.

"Oh, dear. Seems like you were asleep for your birthday."

"It's been that long...?" The chubby teenager, or her boyfriend, Trevor, put a hand on her shoulder as she hung her head.

Narrator moved along. "Allow me to explain this situation. This game has no official name, by the way. Not unless the boss assigns one. That's right. I'm not the one calling the shots here—that would be my boss. He's the genius mastermind, and he's right here with me, giving me instructions! You're probably wondering what you're doing here. Well, you were all brought here because you're naturally immune to a certain virus." I remembered when Allen told me about my immunity, but I never expected this. "The Europa Virus. It was made by EverStar Corp., a pharmaceutical company, many generations ago, and recently we've been trying to control it and harness its power in every way we can. So, basically, we're killing people left and right."

"Holy shit..." Trevor trailed off. He still had a hand on Shiloh's shoulder.

"That's right! Those infected will stay alive just long enough to watch their skin fall off and to taste their own infected flesh. Their bodies mutate a little too, but enough of that."

Still so gross, I thought.

Tears trickled down Shiloh's face. "It's not true, that can't be true..." she repeated as she held onto the chubby guy.

"You guys will never have to go through that! Aren't you glad. But I must warn you, if you come into contact with the infected, you'll develop psychological symptoms instead. You'll go nuts. But don't worry, none of that icky virus is down here. If you want to stay away from the Europa Virus forever, you'll have to win the game. The first one to get seven survival points wins. You get survival points by completing certain tasks for little ol' me. The last survival point is a little different, though. You can only get it if you complete a quiz. See, there's a huge library in this Facility. In that library are some books you need to read in order to pass that quiz. Also, only one of you can actually escape..."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Allen never told me that the immune could still get sick, in a way. I felt deceived. As for the survival points system, I wanted to leave. Actually, no, I needed to leave. The month time frame was closing in, and I was stuck underground in a restricted island. My mom would get worried sick.

"What?" The girl with triangular bangs shouted. "But what will happen to the rest of us?"

"Good question. If you're one of the losers, you get sent to a building called Purgatory, along with your friends. That place is crawling with the virus and the Infected. That's because we're trying to train you kids to fight for us. As an army called the Metis Army. Your minds will be so numb and scrambled by the time we're done that you won't even care anymore."

The Metis Army must be the army Allen was talking about, I thought. I prepared to fight for my life. There was no way in hell I would leave as a loser.

"Let's start the game now, shall we?" All of us looked around at each other. I furrowed my brow in frustration as I stared at Robin Greyson. He had cyan hair, similar enough to Allen's. This has to be the kid, I thought. I remembered what Allen said about his child. He mentioned that the child was indeed a boy. Robin took notice of my staring, but it didn't stop me from studying his face, which resembled Allen's wife.

"Your first objective is to find a way out of this laboratory. There's a key hidden somewhere in this room, along with a note containing the code that will unlock the door. After that, you guys will have to hurry to the Lobby, because you'll only have five minutes to do so. If you don't, then nobody will be able to accept the amazing offer we have for you. If you can find the right keyhole in the Lobby, you'll get more than just a survival point. You'll get to speak with me and my boss in person. Basically, you get an interview with us. That's all for now, so start searching. Don't keep us waiting. "