The Land We Live Under

The Alarm Wasn't Supposed to Go Off Yet

I lifted myself up using my elbows, glancing at my desk where my phone was plugged in. No sound was coming from the device. In a drowsy state, I shifted to a sitting position and looked up at the fire alarm. Silence. The alarm seemed to be coming from outside. I slid my feet into my slippers and walked to the window, peering out into the dark city.

Suddenly, my phone rang, startling me as I thought I saw a group of people running. It was Gabe, my best friend. “Gabe, are you okay? What’s going on?” I asked, putting him on speaker.

Maybe I didn’t sound too worried, because he said, “April, it’s the alarms! The Grid’s broken. I just stepped over someone already dead…” His voice was muffled by the sounds of panic wherever he was. “Gabe, I can’t hear you. Where are you?” The call dropped, but a text came through.

April, listen. There should be masks hanging from the ceiling in your kitchen. All the buildings in Northpass have them. Put yours on NOW. Grab your sister and meet me at the old library. They’re evacuating people underground. I’ll be waiting.

Dropping my phone, I ran into the kitchen just as Emerly, my sister, came rushing down the stairs. “April, what’s happening?”

Yanking two gas masks from the ceiling, I handed one to her. “The Grid’s collapsing. It’s a fallout.” I grabbed my shoes from the rack.

“But that wasn’t supposed to happen for a long time! Those alarms weren’t supposed to go off!” she whined as I shoved the mask into her hands.

I nodded, sliding the mask over my head. “They weren’t. Gabe says they’re evacuating us underground. He’s waiting by the library.”

Emerly stared at me in shock. “Are you sure we’re going to the city?”

I glanced around the living room, likely for the last time. “Yeah, we’re going to the underground city.”

Northpass was built 30 years ago over what used to be Raleigh, North Carolina. Cities like ours were designed with nuclear power in mind. Precautions were in place, like these alarms—called the Ellis Alarm—that would go off in a major Grid failure. They told us in school it was a myth, but now it felt too real.

“Emerly, put the mask on and grab whatever you can. We have to go.” I left her to pack as I threw clothes into my backpack, not caring if they matched. We learned in school that, in a situation like this, jets would be sent to destroy the remaining Grid infrastructure, which would be too radioactive to approach. The city would be obliterated in the explosions.

As I finished pulling on my shoes, there was a loud knock at the door. I opened it to see an officer standing there. “Ma’am, I need you and all residents to evacuate now,” he said urgently.

The lights flickered and went out. The Grid was officially gone. Emerly screamed from upstairs and hurried down with a heavy backpack. The officer switched on his flashlight, motioning for us to follow. We joined the stream of people evacuating the building.

When we finally found Gabe, he was arguing with someone trying to get him to leave. “Gabe, we’re here!” I called through my mask. He turned, relief flooding his face as he motioned to us. Emerly ran to him.

“Move forward,” said the man who had been arguing with Gabe.

Gabe hugged us both. “Are you okay?” he asked, his voice muffled by the mask.

I nodded, and Gabe said “We should get moving. They’re taking us to Ellis.”

We merged into the crowd and moved toward a large tunnel. Suddenly, screams broke out, and our heads whipped around. Three black jets streaked across the horizon. They were early. Pure panic surged through the crowd. Gabe scooped up Emerly, and we both knew what to do—run.

People sprinted, shoving, trampling others in the chaos. I stayed close to Gabe as we moved along the edge of the street. “One at a time!” an officer yelled as we approached the tunnel entrance.

We barely made it inside before the first explosion. The crowd surged deeper into the tunnel as another deafening boom echoed behind us.

How do I describe nearly getting blown up? It was terrifying. The jets had bombed the entrance and the crowd behind us. When the ringing in my ears subsided, I could see the damage. The tunnel was packed, and a single-file line of people moved down a steep staircase.

“Did they blow the entrance?” I asked, brushing the dirt off my shirt.

Gabe nodded grimly. “Yeah, it’s gone.”

We continued descending the metal stairs, the walls shifting from dirt to solid concrete. Eventually, the staircase opened into a white room with four clear glass chambers. Officers moved through the line, taking names.

“Name?” an officer asked when he reached us.

“April Sway,” I replied. He jotted it down and pointed me toward a table. “They’ll take your vitals,” he said before moving on.

At the table, a woman took Gabe’s fingerprint and directed him to wait in line at room two. “Don’t lose each other,” he said, before moving away.

Emerly was next. The woman pricked her finger and sent her to room one. “I want to stay with my sister!” she protested.

I knelt to her level. “We’ll see each other soon. Just do what they say, okay?”

She nodded reluctantly as an officer escorted her away. When it was my turn, I let the woman prick my finger, and she pointed me to room four.

Inside, the nurse gave me a light blue robe and instructed me to change. After a quick physical exam, she injected something into my wrist. A small, painful mark—two horizontal lines—appeared. It was proof of my citizenship in Ellis.

When I left the room, I found Gabe and Emerly waiting in matching robes. “Did they take anything from you?” I asked.

“Just my switchblade,” Gabe replied.

We followed the crowd through a white corridor. “All citizens must proceed down the tunnel. You will be assigned a residence upon entering the city,” a voice announced over the intercom.

"I guess we start walking," I mumbled.

As we moved forward into what was supposed to be our salvation, the heavy weight of everything we had almost lost—and what we actually did—hung in the air. Gabe took my hand, and Emerly clung to my side. The city stretched out before us, our new reality.

That was three years ago. Now, Ellis was all we knew.

***

I woke to the same dim, artificial light that filtered through the underground tunnels every morning. The faint hum of the city generators reminded us all of the delicate balance we depended on. Three years had passed since we arrived, three years since our lives changed forever.

Ellis was our home now, a place that had fallen into a steady rhythm. Citizens worked assigned jobs, traded for goods, and did their best to live lives of normalcy in a place that never saw the sun. The world above was not capable of creating life or maintaining it, it was safer down here, especially enemy cities of governments, they couldn't find us here. I was an exception. I had taken the position of a scavenger, someone who would go to the surface with a team and breach out just a little farther each time to gather supplies. Scavengers were rare but necessary. The world we were supposed to merge back into had truly fallen apart; it was incapable of sustaining life anymore, which is why Ellis thrived.

As a scavenger, I gained rank quickly, and with rank came benefits. We had a two-bedroom apartment with a kitchen and small living space. Gabe lived with Emerly and me, though he was rarely home due to his position as well. He worked on maintenance crews, going deeper into the earth, building more to sustain life and keeping the fragile infrastructure from falling apart.

Today would be like all the rest. Gabe would be gone, Emerly would be in school, and I would check in with headquarters to find out what my mission would be today, if I had one.

Little did I know that today was not like the rest.

I climbed out of bed when the delicious smell of breakfast wafted from the kitchen. I slid on my robe and walked out of the shared room to find Gabe over the stove with pancakes sizzling on the flat top. Emerly sat at the bar table, sipping on orange juice. In Ellis, we didn't wear many colors; we donned plain brown, white, black, and gray shirts, along with jeans and shoes. Emerly wore a brown shirt with black jeans, her hair tied up in a ponytail. It was hard watching her grow up so fast; she had turned 13 a few weeks ago. I still remembered scavenging some pink food dye to make icing that we drizzled over a pancake for her birthday.

“Good morning, April! Are you leaving for the surface today?” she asked, her eyes bright with hope.

I shrugged as I walked over to hug Gabe. “I’ll check in later. Do you need anything from the surface?” I raised an eyebrow.

Gabe wrapped an arm around me, squeezing gently before handing Emerly her pancakes. “Can you find me another book?” she asked, taking the plate gratefully.

“Would you like a pancake?” Gabe whispered to me, attempting not to interrupt Emerly. I nodded and then replied, “If I return to the surface, I’ll see what I can do. Do you care what it’s about?”

She shook her head, a smile lighting up her face. “I love anything you bring,” she said, her mouth full of fluffy pancakes. Just then, a green light above our apartment door began to blink—the school light.

“Time to go, sis. Do you have everything?” I asked as she stood, placing her plate into the sink.

She walked to the door, swinging her bag over her shoulder. “Yes! Amanda and I are going to walk together. I’ll see you guys in a little bit.” With that, she walked into the tunnel hallway, the green light turning off as the door shut behind her.

Gabe set the remaining pancakes down. “She’ll be fine, April. We’ve been doing this for three years.” I nodded as he hugged my shoulders. “Let’s eat.”

We shared the plate, and once we finished washing the dishes, a knock came from the door. Gabe walked over and opened it to reveal Aiden, a governmental apprentice whose older brother, Philip, had been on a few scavenging teams with me.

“Good morning, Aiden. Everything alright?” I asked.

He stood at attention, saluting me. “Officer Sway, Captain Shen has summoned you and him for an emergency meeting in Commands.”

I exchanged glances with Gabe, then back to Aiden. “What happened?”

He dropped his shoulders, and Gabe let him slide into the apartment, closing the door behind him. “April, you know the raiders, right?” he asked, his voice low. “They’re different from scavengers. The raiders are outpost workers and mapmakers…” I trailed off as he nodded quickly.

“The ones who go out to find any form of life,” I added, the gravity of the situation sinking in. He nodded saying “They go beyond the borders into the land we live under—the special forces units, the big guns.”

He continued, “A team called Special X departed two days ago. Their expected return was last night at twenty-one hundred hours.” He paused, letting me digest his words. “April, only one out of the six returned, and they were delivered to one of the outposts, mutilated.”

I felt my stomach drop. “So we have five missing soldiers, not just any soldiers—our best ones in Ellis.” He nodded gravely. “Shen has a proposition for you. I don’t know what it is, but he says you’re important.”

“Tell Captain Shen I’ll be there shortly. Let us get ready,” I replied, my heart racing. Gabe nodded, his expression serious.

Aiden straightened and saluted me. “Officer Sway, to Ellis of the Underlands,” he chanted.

“To Ellis of the Underlands,” I echoed, returning the salute. Aiden turned on his heels, his navy tailcoat swinging wildly as he marched out of the apartment, Gabe shutting the door behind him.

“What are we about to walk into, April?” Gabe asked, concern etched on his face.

I shook my head, my heart pounding. “I think I’m about to get an upgrade.”

As I stood there I remembered what life was like three years ago, before we found ourselves in this underground haven. There was a time when the sun warmed my skin, and laughter echoed through the air, a distant memory now. But Ellis had become a refuge, a place where Emerly could grow and thrive despite the darkness above. I had stepped into the role of a parent out of necessity, and I could see the burden of our past weighing on Emerly’s shoulders. She was no longer the ten-year-old girly girl who feared the dark; she had transformed into a resilient young woman who embraced this underground life as her new reality.

Her drive to read and learn reminded me of our mother, and it always made me feel a pang of guilt when I grabbed those books. It felt selfish especially when it made me so sad to think about what we had lost.

“I just want you to be safe,” Gabe said softly, breaking my thoughts. “You know I’ll always be here for you and Emerly, right?”

“I know,” I replied, gratitude swelling in my chest. “You’ve been a rock for both of us. I don’t know how I would have managed without you.”

Gabe smiled, a warmth spreading between us, but the seriousness of the situation loomed over us like a storm cloud. I needed to prepare for what lay ahead.

As I gathered my gear, I glanced around our small apartment. It was home, filled with memories of laughter and love, despite the darkness outside. Each corner reminded me of how far we had come—how we had survived against all odds. I thought about my parents, lost to us forever, and how their absence shaped my resolve to protect Emerly at all costs.

“Are you ready?” Gabe asked, his voice pulling me back to the present.

“Yeah, let’s go see what Captain Shen has in store for us,” I said, determination fueling my steps as we made our way to the headquarters. I had a feeling that this meeting would change everything.

Our apartment wasn't far from headquarters, and soon we stood at the iron doors that overlooked the massive underground dome of Ellis. As the doors opened, two male guards stood at attention. No, they were just teenage boys, too young to be guard dogs.

“April, I presume?” the boy in black asked. I nodded.

“I’m Daniel, and the one in white is my partner Callus. He’s a mute. We will escort you to the Scavengers wing,” Daniel said. We followed the two through the military-designed hallways until we reached a large room with an arch opening.

“We will take our leave now,” Daniel said before the two turned on their heels and walked away. I glanced over at Gabe. “You can talk now,” I said.

Gabe breathed out in relief. “Thank goodness. People like that make me feel like they’re going to pull out a gun at any moment,” he said.

I watched as many people in white lab coats rushed around the area, darting into clear rooms that would suddenly fog up. Suddenly, I saw Aiden poke his head out of one of the foggy rooms.

“Hey, April, over here!” he shouted. Gabe and I walked over to the room and followed Aiden inside.

The moment I entered, the stench of decay hit me, causing me to gag. Aiden rushed to us, handing us each a mask. “You’ll want these,” he said. He led us through a small hallway into a large, white room. Captain Shen stood in the center, flanked by two tables on either side of him.

I bowed in respect as I approached the captain. “Sir, you called for me?” I said. Shen nodded.

“We’ve just received the body of a scavenger who was dispersed,” he said. I looked over at one of the tables as a man in a white coat removed the cloth covering the body. “What the hell?” I gasped, looking down at what appeared to be a girl in her teens. Her chest was stitched up, as if someone had gone in, removed all her internal organs, and then patched her up as if nothing had happened. Her skin was gray, and they had somehow obtained a blood sample that was green in color.

“Her name was Jessie Vay Mander. She was on the outpost team and disappeared two weeks ago,” the man in the lab coat explained. “Her limbs were still intact, and she had no bite marks. This leads us to believe that she was kidnapped, and not attacked by animals. The wounds suggest she was tortured. We believe she died during the removal of her internal organs”.

“Are you suggesting there are still other living people out there?” I asked. Shen nodded. “We strongly believe so, especially now,” he said.

I looked at Gabe. “Could we discuss this somewhere that doesn’t involve dead bodies?” I asked. Captain Shen grinned under his mask. “I thought you’d never ask.”

Gabe and I followed the Captain out of the lab and into an elevator, soon emerging into his office. Shen waved his hand above a table, and we watched in awe as a hologram of the turf above us floated above the surface.

“Who made this?” I asked. Shen pointed at a small spot on the hologram. “That right there is a base. Our mapmakers live there,” he said. The base of the mapmakers sat atop a mountain, giving them a perfect viewpoint of all the land we inhabited.

“Amazing,” I said.

Shen zoomed into a specific area on the map. “I called you here because you are one of our best scavengers, and we really need your help,” he said. I studied the zoomed-in area, which was a small group of trees surrounded by a barbed wire border and a field.

“What would you have me do?” I asked.

Captain Shen removed his hat and looked at me with a serious expression. “I want to promote you to Raider Command Chief and lead a rescue mission,” he said.

I stared at him, dumbfounded. “You want me to lead a suicide mission? Did you not see what those THINGS did to that poor soldier?” I protested. Gabe’s face turned red, his anger simmering just below the surface.

“It will not be a suicide mission. We have developed the best gear, the best weapons and traps, and we have backup. These THINGS want to fight; we will fight on our turf, our rules,” Captain Shen asserted.

That’s when Gabe lost it. “Don’t you understand that she has someone to look out for? April is not one of your war toys; she has a life too, and you will not take it!” he screamed, stomping out of the room and slamming the doors behind him.

I turned to Captain Shen. “I’ll call you later with my decision, sir, but right now, I need to him. Thank you.” I bowed my head before rushing out, barely hearing Shen’s reply.

I hurried out of the room and found Gabe fuming in the corner. “Gabe, are you okay?” I asked, placing a hand on his arm.

“Do I look okay, April? He wants to get you killed! I can’t let him do that; I care too much about you,” he said, his face flushed.

“Gabe, breathe. You’re turning purple,” I said, taking a deep breath.

Gabe sighed, inhaling deeply and letting it out. I said  “I’m not going anywhere right now, what dont we go ahead and leave”.

I held his arm as we began walking but he stopped and pulled me into a hug, burring his face in my neck.

“April”, he mumbled, “Mhm" I said.

He squeezed me tighter, “I wont let them send you to Hell City”.

I understood this fear and responded, “ I won't leave you guys. now Hell City”.

 It was a faulty promise. What Gave didn't realize is that this promotion would change your lives down here. I would change your lives. Later that evening and when we all called it a night, Gabe covered us up in a blanket and wrapped his arms around my waist, his head laid on my shoulder. 

“Night April” he said sheepishly. I grinned, “ night Gabriel” I said before hearing him drift off into dreams. 

I had a hard time sleeping, and everytime I tried to close my eyes my mind would go to my conversation with the Captain. I finally slid out of the bed and made my way through the dark kitchen and to the phone in the wall. I picked the phone up and let out a shaky breath before dialing the number.

"Hello,” the Captain's voice said. I inhaled shapely before uttering my words, “ Captain Shen, I'm in”.

“Hell City” He asked.

In the darkness of the apartment, in the silence, in the unbearable weight of what I Just did, I nodded to nothing replying, “Hell City”. 

End of Part 1