Aries

Announcement: Sunny skies ahead! Enjoy the rest of this pleasant day while the newly Chosen depart for their new lives. Remember to smile and remember to conserve the following rights to these foods as they are in short supply: One, flour. Two, butter. Three, the heads of Barbie dolls. Four, sparkling water. Remember to smile, and have a nice day, residents.

The announcement plays through the van radio, but I tune it out. CRA member Wallace is driving. They look just like all the other CRA members, back facing me. The other underlings went in pairs to the vans, but I was brought alone. My heart aches to see a familiar face, Tombs or even the children from the library. I sigh, looking through the blacked windows. We're nearing the Wall - leaving the community. I tell myself to be brave like the dog in my story, the dog who was different yet chose his own way, yet lived his own life. The fear of independence wasn't a fear for him. I sigh again, looking up at the sky. The dog's schemes, just like all my dreams, ending up in flames. Yet we both keep scheming and dreaming. "We're going to the city?" I ask, looking at the hooded figure.

"Yes," they hiss.

Sky again. Dark clouds rumbling. "It's going to rain," I say in awe. The CRA told us the Rex Magnus controlled the weather, yet we were not told it was going to rain today. This should be astonishing, but it only makes the uneasy feeling in my stomach grow. The uneasy feeling that something, something, isn't right.

I try to stop my stomach from churning to no avail. So I go back to looking out the window and thinking about the dog who broke from its owner's chain and ran to a place full of other free dogs. I shove myself forward in the seat, to look at the ground that whizzes by like lightning. On the other side of there, on the other side of the planet, is where all the free dogs are. In a place called America. An empire that's reigned for a thousand years they say. They call it evil. They call it built up on hate. But I've heard the whispers of the older Underside residents, the ones that say it's booming, that you can go there and... and pick who you want to be. That they don't have food stamps and handouts and everyone is free dogs! The CRA says that's bad. My peers say it's bad. And maybe it is bad, but I want to see it for myself. I want to see what a place like that is like, not just believe the stories. Because stories lie. Feelings lie. And as much as we're told not to think so, deep down inside, I know the CRA lies too.

I sit back in my seat, jaw falling open. I've never been so profound before. It's quite exhausting to think, actually, no wonder they didn't teach us thinking skills in school. I tell myself I'll just rest my eyes for a few minutes moments...

I wake to the sound of screeching tires and thunder. It's dark outside except for random bursts of lightning. What the hell is happening?

The van jerks from side to side, and despite the seatbelt I lurch right and left, stomach in my mouth. I hear screams being ripped from my throat, stolen by the howling wind. The driver doesn't move, tossed around like a limp piece of spaghetti. What storm could be powerful enough to take down a CRA member. They're supposed to be invincible, undefeatable. But the CRA member obviously isn't conscious.

There is no one controlling the van.

It takes a minute but then I finally realize there is no one controlling the van.

That is the last thought I have before I hear a colossal bang and everything goes black and silent.

I open my eyes. Daggers of pain shoot up my legs and arms. I'm on my back, staring at the now clear red sky. Trying to sit up, more shocks travel through my system, but I push through it, sitting on my haunches to look around. The van is a few meters away, on its side. I can see the wheels still smoking. If the van is all the way over there, how did I end up all the way over here?

The clouds have passed on and I can see the remnants of the road. Where am I? In the distance, I can see a massive looming wall. Painted on the side are large black numbers. "S-70"

At first I thought it could be my community, but I'm from Sector 72. I swallow hard, looking back at the van. Where's the CRA driver? I inch towards the wreckage, body screaming in pain, but I push through it. I've never been in pain before. Nothing more than scraped knees from playing outside and stinging eyes from staring at school computers all day. I never had one at home, they're too expensive, so me and the other kids in my group would play on the sidewalks and in the yard. One time I fell from a tree and hurt my arm. I waited in the line for the doctor for hours and just got a bandage and some cream. That was the last time I felt pain.

Now, crawling towards the remains of the van, is at least twenty times worse than back then. But eventually I find myself at the van and peer inside through a broken window. No CRA member. "Member Wallace?!" I call out, voice hoarse.

No response. Maybe they got recalled? I search around the wreckage for a few more minutes before deciding CRA member Wallace isn't here. Where they went, I don't know, but members have mysterious modes of travel. That means I'm alone. I'm alone in the middle of another community, in the outskirts it appears. I do a quick circle around, the wall in the distance on one side and on the other... I turn, faced with another massive concrete wall with black numbers painted on the side. "S-68"

I'm in Between. I'm in No Man's Land. There is a desert that separates some communities from one another, where wild animals roam and no one has order or dominion. Untouched by us, by the RM (hail) and by the CRA. The city is Sector 1. I try and remember the shape of the Underside. All the communities spiral around the city. I just have to follow the numbers down. But I can't stay in this place forever. Wild hellhounds might find me or mercenaries exiled by the RM (hail).

My heart starts pounding, dulling the pain in my legs. I stand, feeling too wobbly but I have to get over it. It's just more scraped knees. I force myself to the trunk of the van and pop it open, seeing my bag. I growl, reaching my arm in as far as it can possibly go, fingers barely grasping the handle. But I got it. It's mine. Grinning, I pull my bag out of the van and swing it onto my shoulders.

What else will I need? I look towards the two massive walls, Sector 68 looks closer. But not close enough. It'll probably take a day of walking to reach it. That means I need water. I need food. CRA member Wallace had brought a cooler and I crawl into the van to find it. Digging through rubble and remains, I finally find the red box. I open it. Two brown bags and several bottles of water. The brown bags are labeled with the Dispensary logo. Dispensary-72. I open my bag, seeing if I can fit the food inside. After throwing out a few non-essentials like hair gel and my commemorative paperweight from the Underside Amusement Park I went to on a field trip when I was seven, I manage to get the water and food inside.

Out comes the stuffed bear, and I open the back to pull out the strange device. The weird panel on the back sparkles in the sun, lighting up with an lightning bolt symbol. If I move it to the shade, it disappears. I don't know what it means, but leave it in the light as I think of what else I will need.

A weapon. Anything deemed dangerous by the CRA is illegal in the Underside, but this is the No Where, the in Between. Anything goes here. Knives, guns, old CDs, forks, straws, potato salad, history books...they're all legal here. I shiver.

The only weapon anyone is allowed to have, and only CRA members have them, is pepper spray and a non-lethal dart device (it was called a tranquilizer gun at some point but the term was banned under the "No Hateful Words Act" several years ago because too many people claimed emotional distress at the term "gun" in it)

Heart racing, I dig around the van in a small hope to find a dart device. Nothing. I end up with two sharp pieces of glass from the windshield, and wrap a piece of blanket around the bottom so it won't hurt my hands. I stuff the rest of the blanket into my bag. The two shards (they look like glass knives but that is also an illegal word) go into my pockets and I sling my bag over my shoulder. I grab the device, eyes fixed on the massive wall in the distance. In the morning, I'll start my journey, but spend the night in the safety of the wreckage.

I start a new entry on the device. "I don't know the time, but I know it's still May 15. Choosing day. I'm in the in Between, there could be hellhounds out at dusk, the sky is getting darker. I'm gonna settle down for the night before heading out. Hopefully hellhounds don't like CRA vans. Once I get to sector 68, the community center can get me a transport to the city. Then my life will be back on track and I can pretend this never happened."

I press the red button and crawl back into the van, closing the double doors of the trunk and clearing a spot behind the remains of a seat. I curl up into a ball, looking out the shattered window into the growing darkness.

It's going to be a very long night.

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I'm so sorry it's taken me forever to update. But depression is a bitch and I can only have the energy to write in short bursts lately so it's been a while.  I've been doing my best to keep writing and i hope this chapter was worth the wait!

Love y'all!