take me home and show me the sun {joshler}

iii. learning

"Welcome to initiation." A firm voice said as Tyler and another girl with long brown hair were led into the room.

Her birthday was the day before his and so they'd been grouped together for the initiation process, when Tyler had been told on his birthday that he would be given a job working for the leaders he had almost passed out from shock. Josh had been thrilled for him, working for the leaders was a very important job, they didn't just ask anyone.

"This is the control center, where we manage all the bulletins, cameras and such." The man, Chris leant against one of the large consoles, gesturing with his head towards the wall of screens displaying camera footage from all over Columbus. "Jessica?" He questioned looking at the girl and she gave a short nod. "You're going to be helping with this stuff. Maxine here will take over inducting you now." He said with a smile as a woman stood up from one of the chairs and headed over to teach her how to do her job.

Tyler stared at the screens nervously, eyes flickering between the changing viewpoints to see if there was a camera pointed at the door he'd been frequently using, he didn't see one, in fact, he didn't see a single camera at any of the possible exits to a world outside Columbus. The corners of his lips tugged down into a frown.

"You're with me." Chris said a firm hand clapping Tyler on the shoulder, he almost jumped a foot in the air. "Woah, you alright?" Chris asked ripping his hand away.

"Uh yeah, s-sorry was just thinking." He mumbled and Chris gave him an expectant look to explain himself, Tyler sighed. "It's just... Why aren't there any cameras on the doors to the outside?"

"Because no one is stupid enough to go outside, kid." Chris scoffed, but an unreadable expression overcame his face, his eyes searching Tyler's intently causing him to almost flush with embarrassment. Slowly he nodded and let Chris show him to his own office.

"We'll be working here together, you assisting me in doing whatever she needs." He said as he began shuffling objects in an attempt to clean up his messy work station.

"She?" Tyler quirked an eyebrow, awkwardly bouncing on the heels of his feet.

"Oh, sorry, I mean the Chancellor." Chris brushed it off like it was nothing but Tyler almost choked. She was the spokesperson of the Five Leaders of Columbus, the others often stayed in the dark, silently ruling over the people, only interfering when necessary, but the Chancellor was who they hid behind when they did. Some people often theorized she might be the only leader, but there was evidence to suggest otherwise.

"Don't look so terrified, kid, if you keep your head down and get your work done life will be very easy for you." Chris said finally finished clearing Tyler a work space. Tyler resisted the urge to role his eyes, yeah everything was easy when you behaved like a mindless –what was it his brother had told him they were called, oh yes-zombie.

Just then the Chancellor herself, walked in. She was a slender woman with neat straight shoulder-length hair and a sharp nose. She had black hair but piercing cold blue eyes. Tyler almost immediately cowered in her prescence.

"Welcome to the Hub of Columbus." She smiled and on anyone else it might have looked fond but on her it just looked scary. Tyler shook the hand she extended to him.

"I have your first task, I need information from the archives." She handed over a tablet to Chris which he instantly clicked a few buttons, reading something before nodding and handing it back to her. "Chris here will show you what to do." She said firmly, straightening out her grey uniform that was standard issue for all citizens and walking out of the office.

Chris went about showing Tyler how to access the archives located with the Keepers in the lowest levels of Columbus, sending him down there to read and record the necessary information.

This often became Tyler's job, and over the weeks he'd always come back to tell Chris something else exciting he'd discovered and when Chris rolled his eyes and said "I know, I've read the archives too." Tyler gave up talking to him and waited for Josh to finish his shift at the medical wing to recount everything to him. Josh was much more interested, almost vibrating with excitement when Tyler told him about planets and space and things called aliens.

The weeks carried on and the more Tyler learned about the world before Columbus, the more calm he seemed to be about the Outside, that was until he started learning about the weather and he realized he had no idea what rain felt like, or snow. The itch in the balls of his feet seemed to return but he didn't dare try the door again, not when he was so close to the Chancellor.

Chris seemed to notice how antsy Tyler was getting, he'd had suspicions ever since Tyler's first day, but today was different, today he tried to broach a conversation he knew he shouldn't, all because of a hunch.

"Hey kid, don't you ever wonder where the water in the pipes comes from?" He said while the two were working on something in his office.

"From the plant, I thought everyone knew about that?" Tyler raised an eyebrow as if he'd been asked the most obvious thing, head cocked to the side.

"No, think about it." Chris flicked Tyler across the forehead. "The water supposedly gets filtered at the end of the piping and sent back to the beginning in a cycle, but that would mean we have a finite source? That makes no sense. Columbus has survived for nearly five hundred years there is no way that any finite water source could last that long. Not all the water gets sent back, we drink it and use it for things like washing clothes and ourselves, we use it up and yet in five hundred years we still haven't ran out yet? Impossible."

Tyler furrowed his brow moving in closer to Chris to make the conversation more private. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying," Chris grit his teeth. "They're lying to us, something isn't adding up here, there's something they aren't telling us. The power, the water, the supplies it's not adding up we shouldn't have been able to sustain life for this long."

"Chris. Even having this conversation could get us killed." Tyler snapped, his mind whirling at the information. He immediately went about completing the work he'd been set by the Chancellor.