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Nadia Holland wasn't your perfect girl that people mostly were in her books. Actually, she found that humans were really quite different from how they're passed off in books... which made her feel slightly frustrated every time she read one. There were very few books that were leftover from the mass explosions, of course, but she found it unfortunate that the ones that survived did a very poor job at portraying the behavior of humans.
She was loud and rebellious, but not perfect like in her books. Sighing, Nadia threw aside the book entitled Found in the Corn Field, which was a particularly peculiar book, as every single character she came across acted exactly the same. Sighing again, she leaned back against the fake portrayal of what trees were like back when they lived above the earth, on the earth, not in it. The small bronze plaque attached to it read Large oak, 2014. Two thousand forteen had allegedly been the last year of any sort of technology... from what Nadia had been told by her grandmother, the ending of the world on top of the earth had actually been a very predictable one.
Terrorism and crime was at an all-time high all across the world; scientists had suspected that only about one third of the population of the world combined wasn't pitted against the other countries, lashing out in secrecy to create problems with weather, crops, and every sort of thing that was key to survival and that technology could destroy. It had been going on in secrecy, away from innocent civilians, for twenty years before two thousand fourteen. But no, the Great Ending wasn't caused by the 'bad guys' (two thirds of the world), but it was caused by the last of the sane people... unfortunately enough, or so Nadia thought, they weren't the sharpest knives in the drawer.
Apparently, their predecessors had developed a way to hack into and shut down all technology; but there was a glitch in the plan that caused the technology to go against itself, exploding immediately. The very few survivors were nearly dead from all the dust, lack of oxygen, and radiation in the air, plus severely burnt from whatever technology was closest to them; so they had to move far underground, to either Parallel Valley or The Abyss. Nadia, of course, lived in Parallel Valley, as the majority of the rest of the population did... Unfortunately, poverty and the hierarchy of rich to poor couldn't die with the rest of the above world, and Nadia lived in a small, run-down house, where there were very little resources available to her family, as they had to raise a sixteen-year-old girl and a cat (one of the last), as well as care for themselves.
The Abyss was a whole other story. When they took it underground two centuries previously, they'd left one way up... but there was another, natural way down, that was there well before the remainder of the world moved to Parallel Valley. Each year after they moved down, six people were sent down to the Abyss, all in the age range of sixteen to twenty, which was supposedly the age that people became strongest in their mind and actions... however, fifty years later, when the first leader died and another took rule, they sent six twenty-five year olds each year to The Abyss.
Again, none of them would return, and the tradition was changed yet again just ten years before Nadia was born. The current leader, who was called Queen Scout in Nadia's village, made it so that three eighteen year old people- two girls, one guy -were sent down to explore The Abyss each year, and still, none had ever returned. At one point, just sixteen years before, people who were related to any of the people sent down to The Abyss were all to call down in for them, but never to enter; Queen Scout claimed it would break the tradition and send them to their doom.
Superstitious hag, Nadia thought bitterly as she slowly brought herself back to reality. Queen Scout had been the one to reinforce the hierarchy of rich and poor, to bring money back into their world, unlike the trading system they'd gone by for two centuries before she'd become leader. At least, that was what Nadia's parents referred to her as, so of course Nadia would too. Sighing once more, she stood up and discarded the book into a bin labeled 'Book Bin'; it was full of ragged, poorly used copies of ancient books, unlike the Great Library in the Main Square of Parallel Valley. Nobody who didn't wear white was supposed to be able to access the Main Square, and as was obvious, white was the symbol of wealth and well-being.
Nadia wore blue, a symbol for poor health and poor living, but she didn't mind the color. In fact, she greatly preferred it to the blindingly bright whites of the people of the Main Square, who sometimes ventured down to the Villages to trade in their sympathies. Actually, Nadia's mother had a sister who lived in the Main Square; she visited sometimes to catch up with her mother, whose name was Denise, but other than that were was virtually no contact whatsoever. Even people in the Main Square who were related to someone in the Villages thought badly of the Villagers, and that greatly frustrated Nadia.
Glancing up, Nadia stared at the brown 'sky', which was about a hundred feet above her head. She followed it until she found the Main Square, where there were tall buildings, big houses, and most of the electricity was; there were bright, yellowish lights installed above it to mock the ancient light of day, but that was all the lighting that the villagers got except for candles and lanterns. Nadia's village was called 'Twilight', since it was always in a state of half-day, half-night.
Directly above the Main Square was a huge metal contraption that generated a constant, low buzzing sound, and it filtered the carbon dioxide and radiation in the air to make oxygen; everyone, even in the Main Square, referred to it as 'The Plant'. The Main Square was at the lowest elevation, which allowed the Villages on the hills to look down to it and marvel at the pristine sidewalks, swimming pools, and electric and heat generators that were in plain view to them over the great walls that kept people in the Villages out of the Main Square, even though they had a grand neon-letter sign above the gate to the Main Square that read: 'WELCOME ALL!'
Nadia looked down at her wrist and squinted at the watch that was permanently strapped there; everyone got a digital watch the moment they were born that said what they needed to do next, and hers had started beeping, which signaled the end of her thirty-minute break. Now, it read: '12:00- LUNCH, REPORT TO PUBLIC CAFETERIA', and Nadia's stomach immediately growled with hunger. She scowled. The Villagers were allowed one meal a day, at which they were served a bowl of the only food left: the most disgusting, tasteless substance that was called Macronutri, which was served according to their age, height, weight, and metabolism; Nadia always got more than her parents, since according to the servers (who wore brown to signify their abilities), she had a fast metabolism; but lately, they'd given her less, telling her that when she turned eighteen, the measurements would stop and she'd be kept with one setting. Nadia had only eaten food from the Main Square once in her lifetime, but she'd never forget it; her aunt had given her an 'apple', a strip of 'bacon', and a slice of 'bread', which she said created in a scientific lab that had the chemical and physical designs of the foods down, and had tasted even better above.
Tomorrow was her eighteenth birthday. It wouldn't matter much, since they no longer celebrated birthdays like in the books she'd read, except that she had to be entered in the drawing to go to The Abyss. She had been born on National Sacrifice Day, which was the day that people were sent to The Abyss... her heart hammered against her chest with fear just thinking about it. At least I don't have to sit on it for a whole year, she thought grimly.
Turning left on a fork in the path, Nadia found herself at the Public Cafeteria, where many people were standing in a huge line to receive their daily bowl of Macronutri; her parents, who were near the front, beckoned for her to join them and she skipped gladly up the line, grateful to her parents for snatching a good spot. Her mother smiled at her, and Nadia smiled back, but it was only a half-hearted one; she just couldn't wait to get the meal over with, so that she wouldn't feel so starved as always.
"Did you have a good break?" her father asked, rumpling her hair, and she shrugged.
"It was boring... all there is to do around here is read books. I wish we had a swimming pool or a sports field here... like they do in the Main Square," she muttered, her legs itching with the thought of participating in one of the sports they got to watch from above; she was particularly interested in racing, though. Compared to her best friend, Holly, and their younger friend, Tim, she was very fast; they always hated it when she dared them to try to beat her somewhere, and Tim had long since quit trying, but Holly always took the challenge- and, of course, she always failed.
"Don't we all..." her mother whispered finally; they were so close to the chefs, they couldn't risk them hearing them bash the Main Square. Anyone who was caught talking bad about it was immediately executed, if they were eighteen or older; people who were seventeen and younger, they were punished by not getting food for three days and having to slave over making enough Macronutri for thousands.
Finally, they received their bowled, and as always, Nadia wrinkled her nose while taking hers. It even looked disgusting; it was a pale gray slop with brown and brownish-green flecks in it, and it was thick and hard to swallow. They were provided with three cups of water, but it always disappeared very quickly at Lunch, since the Macronutri barely went down without it. Just when Nadia was about to take her first bite however, her watch beeped and she set her spoon back down, frowning.
Across the screen, it read, as it never had before, '12:10- MEETING, REPORT TO GATE TO MAIN SQUARE ALONE'.
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