Upper-ground

Year - 2069

Hi, my name is Mavis and I'm 13 years old. I live in a pretty stable house with my two brothers Auris and Cruz and my caregiver, Zuly. I've lived here ever since I was about 4. I would say that life is pretty great, I've got everything. Family, food, and even a dog. Her name is Hope. The sky is always bright blue with little puffy looking clouds. The grass is always green and the birds singing nice songs all the time. Well... that's what I hear at least.

"Mavis! Come down stairs." yells Zuly.

"What is it? I say as I'm slowly coming down the spiral staircase.

"Come help with dinner please, the boys are nowhere to be found." she explains

I finally make it to the kitchen and start cutting the carrots for the salad. I put them in the bowl and go over towards Zuly.

"What are you making?" I ask as I slightly bump into her

"Your favorite! Spaghetti." she exclaimed

It's been forever since I've had spaghetti, my dad used to make it all the time when we lived on the Upper-ground. He'd always put this cheese on top that just it so good. He's been gone a long time with my mom. I don't know where they are, but Zuly says that they're in a good place. Oh, Zuly, I haven't told you about her haven't I? Well, she was brought to us when our parents left. She has been great, she plays games with me and tells me a bunch of stories of the Upperground. She has this bright purple hair with gorgeous green eyes, I could swear that she was once a mermaid that had to come to land for some reason. Every time I asked her I get the same response. Just laughing. She's got this very sweet sounding voice that calms me down when I'm scared.

I'm sitting on our yellow colored couch when I hear thumping from upstairs, I look over towards the stairs and see the two boys coming down lighting fast. I bet they smelt the food!

"Where have you guys been?" Zuly and I ask when blank expressions

"Ummmm, just goofing off in the tunnels, getting all our energy all out before dinner." Auris explains while looking at Cruz with a grin

"Well come sit down, dinner is ready." she jokingly snapped

We all sit down and start eating, I start to look over at the boys. Auris is a semi tall boy that is very skinny while Cruz is much shorter and kind of chunky. They're laughing at each other and whisper so softly that I can barely understand them. We finish eating dinner and head in different directions. I go with the boys upstairs.

"Where were you guys?" I ask with a concerned face

"None of your business!" Smirks Cruz

"Guys, come on! Please tell me"

"Fine, we found a way to the Upper-ground. But you can't tell anyone." He explains as he puts his pointer finger on my lips.

"Woah, woah, woah! No freaking way! I thought ---

"You thought what?" Auris interrupts

"I thought there was no way up there?"

"Well, there is, there is an opening in Zuly's room." Cruz explains, "We found it while she was making dinner."

As I'm trying to process this all in my head, I realize that I could finally figure out some things, like, what does it look like? Is anyone up there? Or Are there any monster up there, is that why we're down here? So many to ask. I head down stairs and sit next to Zuly, she is reading this strange book that she's been reading for a while, I haven't had a chance to ask about it. While we were sitting, I keep glancing over at her than back at Hope. I want to ask Zuly so many questions, but she might just stare at me like I have a penguin on my head. But, I finally build up the courage.