Underneath The Hidden Stars

Chapter V

As soon as the morning announcement stopped playing, Mira took her suitcase and left her childhood home. She could barely get any sleep at night as she was extremely excited for what would take place the next morning. She had already talked to her father and they had both finished exchanging their tearful goodbyes. As it was a very early morning the street-like halls were empty and quiet. Mira carried her luggage through them and looked around for the very last time. She walked past David's door and knew that he's probably saying his goodbyes as well. She walked past the bakery that only people who lived on other levels frequented in, and saw the baker already working hard. She walked past her middle school and remembered how David protected her from kids that kept bullying her. She smiled at the memory and kept going forward. She walked past the park and saw that the primary school was almost rebuilt. "Terra's gonna have a blast going to an actually new building," she thought to herself as she reached the level hall.

It stood right next to the edge of the level, making it an ideal place for transportation. She walked into the building for the first time in almost 7 years and stood there in awe. Unlike the rest of the level, the level hall looked almost luxurious. Beautiful chandeliers hung from the ceiling, it was filled with colour and exotic looking plants. Mira walked right through the main hall and reached the station. She looked up and saw that there would be a trolley to level 8 in around 5 minutes. "Perfectly on time" she smiled to herself and sat down on the bench. Mere moments after, other people started gathering at the station, all looking up to find out if they were late or not. She saw her former classmates arrive with their friends, all smiling and yet the whole place gave off a gloomy vibe, maybe because most of the people would never meet again. Mira hoped she could see David again, but according to the timetable, his trolley would arrive in around 30 minutes, meaning their meeting was unlikely.

"Trolley to Level 8 is now at door 6." a monotone voice stated and Mira jumped up from the bench. She went to the door and looked around one last time, just in case David had arrived, but he was nowhere to be seen. She sighed quietly, but shook it off and stepped through the door.

As soon as she got out the door she noticed it had gone significantly colder. She felt a cold breeze go through her definitely too thin clothes as a cable car arrived and stopped in front of her. The automatic doors opened and Mira stepped in. The top half of the walls were covered in giant monitors that displayed all the necessary information for those who have never been on level 8. It showed where to sign in and other stuff that no sane person could think of. Mira sat down on one of the soft velvet feeling seats and looked around. Already the amount of luxury looked obscene to her as she was used to living with only the things she needed and not more. She brushed her hand through the soft texture of the seat and relaxed. She realized it's going to be part of her life now, so there's no need to refuse it. She sat back and started watching the video explaining what life is going to be like on Level 8. Since it was so warm inside the cable car, Mira started getting sleepy. A few moments before she fell into deep sleep the trolley stopped and the doors opened. A couple of kids her age stepped in the trolley and sat down on the opposite ends, seemingly trying to avoid each other. The doors behind them closed in an instant and they started moving again. Mira reckoned it took around an hour to get up a level and started counting how long it must take for Mr. Snell to go from his home on level 7 to the school and back. Every. Single. Day. "They must have faster trolleys for people who work on other levels, right? I mean, it would make no sense to travel 3 hours two times per day, right?" She asked herself, hoping she'd find out the answer one day.

The cable car made two more stops before a girl with curly red hair sat down next to Mira. They made eye contact and the girl extended her hand out for a handshake.

"Hello, I'm Ava Michaelson from Level 7. I don't know anyone here so I was wondering if you wanted to be friends?" she said while smiling brightly.

"Yeah, hi. I'm Mira Fader from Level 4, and that is a request that I cannot refuse," Mira replied with a smile and shook Ava's hand.

Moments later they were already discussing the differences between their levels. They chatted about everything from schooling systems to work. Apparently, in level 7, the majority of people work in bakeries. Some of them get sent to other levels to work, which reminded Mira of the baker back on her home level.

They continued chatting about families and friends when the cable car stopped. A few guys stood up and walked to the doors, but they didn't budge. A couple of minutes passed, but the trolley was still frozen in place. A sound of confused murmurs filled the cart, but no one did anything. After more than 10 minutes had passed, a rather big man stood up and strode to the doors, making the whole trolley shake. He took one door handle in one hand and one in the other and started pulling them apart. Only after a few seconds of pulling the doors gave in and started opening, however as soon as the guy looked through the gap, he jumped back and almost fell on the floor, and with that the whole car started swinging. Curious, Mira made her way through the seats and took a quick peek out the gap.

"Okay, wow," she started, making all the passengers look at her. "We're literally hanging like 3000 feet above the ground."

Her words through the trolley into a state of panic. People started shouting, each trying to be louder than the other and ignoring common sense. In the midst of this madness, Ava took a hair tie off her wrist, tied her hair up and started stretching. She smiled at Mira who was staring at Ava as if she was completely out of her mind and climbed up on one of the seats.

"Okay, everyone-" She said in a calm voice, but nobody reacted, so she kicked it up a notch. "OKAY EVERYONE!" She yelled out and the car went so quiet, it felt like something was ringing in their ears. "Now that I've got your attention, can we please solve this in a democratic manner?" No one said a word, so she just continued. "Well, I guess no one disagreed. Then, uh, who's for closing the doors first?" Ava inquired and everyone raised their hands. "Good... good. At least we agree on that. Hey big guy, could you close the doors for us, please?"

"The name's Thomas," he replied in a grunt, but went to the door pushed it closed.

"Oh-kay, thank you Thomas. Now, does anyone have any ideas for what we could do?"

"We could all just, you know, kill ourselves. That'd make an interesting news report. '20 teenagers commit seppuku after getting stranded 3000 feet above ground'" a girl with grey hair said in a calm voice.

"Right, okay, let's keep that as a plan B, okay?" Ava offered and everyone started nodding while a few stressful giggles were heard from the back.

"Uhm, I don't know if this would help, but there's a button under this seat that says 'Emergency'... Maybe we should give it a shot?" A short boy inquired making the whole trolley let out a sigh of relief in unison.

"Little man, you're a genius."

"It's Jerome."

"Jerome, you're a genius." Ava repeated and pressed the button.

Everyone went silent, waiting for any kind of movement. When everyone was about to lose hope and grunts went around the trolley, the car shook a little and started moving. As soon as they felt it move, everyone started cheering and praising Jerome. A few minutes later everyone was sitting in their seats and and the cable car was filled with happy chatter. Around 30 minutes after the incident was solved, the cable car stopped again, but this time the doors opened immediately. All the teenagers left the trolley without much fuss, as some of them have now made friendships that they felt could last a lifetime, and Mira was no different.