"Life Under" - A Short Story [✔]

Chapter 9

I bent down and tried to open the door, but it wouldn't open. There was a lock locking it. Wyatt and Nick got the message to go find a key or something to break open the lock. Nick came back with a set of keys, Wyatt with a crowbar.

"Nick, hand me the keys," I said, holding out my hand.

"No! Crowbar!" Wyatt pouted. He walked to the opposite side of me and started banging on the lock with the crowbar.

Nick was confused. "Or we could just use the keys to unlock it. That would be easier, you know..."

Wyatt stopped, feeling defeated. I grabbed the keys from Nick's hands and try about eight of the keys before the right one finally worked, unlocking the hatch.

There were very steep stairs leading to the dimly lit area. I climbed down the stairs first, then Nick. Wyatt wimped out, not knowing what is in the room, so he decided to stay upstairs.

Inside the downstairs was a very mysterious room. There were cages of human beings so skinny, they looked like skeletons with just a thin layer of skin over their bones. I was shocked to see this. Nick was looking around, following me with horror on his face.

I bent down to meet eye level with a weak woman, slumped up against the wall.

"Are you okay?! What's happened to you?" I asked, looking her up and down. Nick walked up next to me and crouched onto his knees.

"The terrible people locked us down here. When people were coming to live down here years ago, we weren't allowed down here. A while later, they came up and captured us to use us as sacrifices to get resources to bring back down here. They don't want their lungs to become damaged which is why they do so. Not only that, but they feed each of us only twice a week," she said slowly, using everything she had to say those words.

Wyatt's dad has been participating in this secretly. Adding to that, what if they captured my mother as a sacrifice?

"Was a woman named Julie used as a sacrifice? She has blonde hair and brown eyes," I asked, hoping the answer is no because she would never deserve that treatment.

"Yes, actually. She cried in her cage every day about her husband and her daughter who's name was Renee, I believe," she responded.

That was my mother alright. My mother was captured from above while we were down here, living a much better life. She was starved in this cabin that no one knows about. Her lungs were probably so black and damaged from being above Earth several times as a sacrifice to get resources for us.

"She died of starvation about four months ago though," the woman added.

I put my hand over my eyes and I started to cry. I held my breath so I wouldn't make any whimpering or sobbing noises. Nick looked at me and started rubbing my back, wrapping his arms around me into a hug. He was so comforting.

"We should go, Renee. Wyatt is waiting," he said softly.

He helped me stand up and as we started walking away, he whispers a thank you to the woman. I wished we could have helped those poor people and give them food so they wouldn't end up like my mother; starved to death. I now knew what happened to her. It was the thing I wanted to happen to her the least.