Up goes the wall

Welcome to D. U. L.

My heart races as I watch the city of Midland fly by outside of the train window. The passengers on the train are all silent, for all of us have been randomly selected to build a giant brick wall and we can't go home until it's finished. I know I will miss my family friends and home. Suppose there was an accident? If I was to get hurt and not return? What if there are harsh overseers who whip us when something is done wrong? Luckily some friends from school were also chosen, and I know we will have to stick together. I tear my eyes away from the window as the train enters a tunnel. All light disappears except for the dim ceiling lamps inside the train, but even they flicker when the train rattles from side to side. I feel hand grip mine. I would've been frightened, but I knew who's hand it was: Gretel's. Gretel was one of my classmates who had been chosen as well. Ruth and Kennedy were dragged along too. I reached across the table and grabbed Ruth's hand. In the dim light I could see Ruth grab Kennedy's hand and then grabbing Gretel's other hand. We all closed our eyes and said a prayer. Fluorescent light seeped through my eyelids as the tunnel opened. Not to the outdoors, but enormous stone room. It's ceiling is dome-shaped and it was big enough to hold multiple buildings. The train made a sharp turn then found the tracks circle around the enclosure. It slowed to stop when it made it all the way around the circle. I heard footsteps coming down the train car which belong to the conductor. He strolled past saying "get up" every time he passed a seat. Ruth, Kennedy, Gretel, and I all stood like the rest of the seventh grade passengers. Once the conductor finished his trek, he announced, "leave," then moved onto the next train car. Every boy and girl silently filed out of the car where we were led by red ropes to it enclosed area also marked by ropes. In the middle was a circular podium where an expressionless, official-looking man in a suit watched the other kids and I as we exited the train cars.  Once the last of the passengers were off the train and safely way from the tracks, the locomotive chugged off down the tunnel in which the entrance was next to the exit of the tunnel where our train came from first. I listened to the machine that carried me away from home rumble down the tracks until the sound disappeared. Ruth linked her arm into mine as I did Kennedy. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Madeline, Olivia, Elise, Miriam and Julia in a group looking for us. I nudged my friends and pointed to them. They saw us and waved. Both of our groups made their way towards each other, "we were on the last car," explained Madeline when our groups combined, "anyone seen the boys?". We all shook our heads know. We all began looking around as an awkward silence fell upon us. Our attention snapped to the podium where the man standing on it tapped the microphone perched in front of him. "Your attention please," his deep voice announced, "welcome to D. U. L. : Dow Underground Laboratories. You will be living and working here until your job is complete. Your job, he may wonder, is to build a stone wall that will separate the female and male laboratories. In this dome shaped enclosure, therefore laboratories one and two, the the female ones, from laboratories three and four, the male ones. In these labs, we will be conducting experiments. The division is because Dow has information that in the near future men and women will be divided in general society. You will work from 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM every day. You will eat meals on the job and your curfew is 9 o'clock, leaving you an hour of free time which you are to spend in the Square, which is at the center of the enclosure. Girls will sleep in the female labs' dormitories while the boys in the male. With that said, I will now allow you to be off. You will be guided to your dorms and your bags will be brought to your dorms at 7 o'clock. Work will start tomorrow. Don't be late, or you will suffer unimaginable consequences. Thank you," he finished with a bow then stepped off the podium. Just as he disappeared from my view, I was lurched forward by men dressed in black, bulletproof vest in the direction of lab number two.