M.E.L.T.

•[Two:Tuesday, July 9th, 3095]•

My father wasn't paying any attention to me as usual. At this point I needed to see the surface or else I was going to die all cooped up in here.

This was it, this was the first day I'd see it for myself.

I knew for a fact the alarms were off, I had gone in and checked myself. I managed to do that by going into the main control room and asking them if they've seen my sketch pad, to which they told me no. Before I left I managed to get a glimpse of the switches controlling the alarms and they had all been turned off.

There weren't guards by the entrance, only closed off rooms which were where some of the workers lived. I slung my bag over my shoulder and neared the end of the entrance hall. This is it. No going back.

I climbed up the ladder, my shoes lightly clanking against the metal as I pulled myself up. A small door was in front of my face as I neared the top of the ladder.

I pushed the door open, and for the first time, I saw outside. I crawled out and shut the door, which happened to be in this huge, strangely realistic, artificial tree.

I can't be seen, my father would murder me. I decided it was best not to venture further than the forest.

I'd heard from some people I'd talked to around M.E.L.T. that most of these trees were artificial. The only real trees were the outer edge ones that the village had planted.

I dropped a tracker on the ground next to the entry way, so I could find my way back easily. I crept through the forest, a small sound scaring me and making me jump. Just a bird, that was a first. Come to think of it, all of these things I had only seen in books and on the internet, so it was a whole new experience just seeing the ground, the rocks, the sky, everything.

I touch the bark of the trees as I go along, and suddenly I notice that the texture changed ever so slightly. These were real trees. I saw some bugs crawling up them, and further up I saw birds feeding their young.

I looked over and saw the village. There were some buildings, a big fire, and people. I heard a small rustling and looked over to my right. About 30 feet away there was movement, more than likely the CT team. That means the alarms were just turned back on. I ducked behind a bush and waited for them to move further away.

I see them go to the edge of the forest, and then disperse in different directions towards the edge of the village.

Two stay in the forest, I can tell by the blinking light of the radios in their back pockets.

I hear rustling through the bushes and see a few more blinking lights traveling to the two who are at the edge of the forest. They're carrying people who they've wrapped in camouflage.

This process repeated once more until they had a few more people. They went back deeper into the woods and I knew that I had only about thirty minutes until the alarms went back off, so I had to stay for another thirty minutes or so.

I reached the very edge of the forest, I saw someone wandering towards the forest and I hid the best I could.

"Eunha!" She shouted as she got closer. "Eunha! This isn't funny! You know we're not supposed to go in there!"

After a while of peering into the forest she gave up and wandered back towards the forest with tears in her eyes.

I felt bad that the CT team had taken her friend. But there was really nothing I could do. Was there ?