Eli was silent as I emerged. 

He lead me down and out of the cabin structure. It had a lobby-like front desk which I noted before the front door.

Through a set of wooden doors that Eli had opened, I could see the world beyond. Newly powered with snow drifting down from the sky. I shivered. The dress and Eli's parka was nothing compared to the frigid air. I wasn't even afforded shoes.

"Our community is set on a few thousand acres of rural land," Eli spoke as he led me out into the snowy terrain. "We're one of many across the world, each with their own roles and workings," There was a track that we took up a slight incline. Banks of snow slept on either side. Not an inkling of blue in the sky. Eli led me up the clear track, the stony path's cold seeping into my feet.

"It's cold," I shivered, my teeth clattering. Wrapping my arms around me did almost nothing to still the chill seeping into my bones.

"I'm sorry, we're almost there," Eli stood at the top of the path, gallantly looking out to whatever the view was. Now that we were in the light, I could see his uniform better. He had a dark grey, woollen thermal under a sleeveless snow vest. He cargo shorts were a heavy navy colour that I almost mistook for black. He had a holster which carried a black handgun and a hunting knife tucked into his right boot. His hair was a dirty blonde and it reached his shoulderblades in a braid. I huffed, storming up to see whatever he was looking at.

It was a valley of sorts, nestled in the shoulder of an impressive mountain range littered with snow. The sun had just risen over the peak and casted hues of pink and gold over the region. Houses, mostly log cabins had taken the places of the cedars that clustered along the mountainside. Figures moved back and forth in the freshly-fallen snow; people. Outside alone, there must've been at least a few hundred.

"What is this place?" I wondered aloud.

"Home," Eli spoke very softly. He pointed to the edge of what seemed to be the residential homes; just on the far lip of the town. "That's my house,"

"Nice," I managed, still shivering, my feet were beginning to stick to the ground.

"We're going there," Eli pointed to a large building complex, luckily nearby. It was low but seemed to have many 'wings'. "That's where the ceremony will take place,"

"The ceremony?" I inquired.

"Yes, it's customary for every new member."

Ah, I'm a member now.

Eli began to walk down the winding path to the building. I quickly followed, barely sparing a glance at the jaw dropping mountain range that was beginning to flush with the new day.

"So, what is it?"

Eli took in a deep breath. "For any male newcomer, we undergo a long rigorous process; first it is a test, different for every one. Then it is training, lasting for months or maybe even years. Training is then followed by the ceremony, where we have to make a very difficult and life-changing decision. Then after the ceremony, we embark on one final trial and then we are integrated into the community."

"So..." I managed, "you're not a part of this? How did you come here?"

"I was born here," Eli spoke simply. "I lived here, I grew up here,"

"So you've never been into the outside world?" I asked, aghast.

"Yes," Eli laughed, "school is mandatory for us, it helps us see the world and understand why we live here. Plus, it keeps us out of trouble with the government,"

"Ah, true," I nodded. "So what was your task? Before training?"

Eli stills, his face darkening. He looks off into the far distance before shaking himself out of it.

"I'll tell you, but now's not the time. You're still a novice, like me," Eli continues making his way down the treacherous path. For a second, I almost slip. Eli grabs my flailing arm to steady me.

"Thanks," I manage.

"Congratulations though," He spoke brightly, letting me go, "you passed your first test, then you have the ceremony."

"What's after the ceremony?" I asked, we'd made it to a fleet of stairs.

"Training, stuff like how to survive within the community, your role, and the like. Then you have your final trial as well,"

"So," I pause, struggling through what Brother Jeb had told me, "You're still a novice, what part are you up to?' I asked, jumping the final step. My breath had stopped misting in the air, I definitely needed to get inside.

"My ceremony is tonight as well," Eli gave a small smile. I flushed but didn't return it.

"Maybe I'll see you there," I jested half-heartedly. I wanted to run, sob and scream, not particularly in that order but definitely all at once. Maybe I'd just keep that to myself.

"All the best then," We'd made it to the front of the building. He was leaving me. "You can go inside here,"

I felt inclined to say thanks, then best I could manage was a small grimace. I turned to go.

"And Marian?' I turned back, Eli stood alone. "Keep your hair down tonight."

I paused.

"Just Mary," He nodded and I turned away. I felt his eyes on me as I shuffled inside.

Don't tell me what to do with my hair but whatever.

The door to the place was a little heavy but a flood of warmth hit my face. The design of the building was modern but the wooden panelling wasn't. A woman, the first normal looking person I'd seen in jeans and a dark red shirt came forth. A long, dark cardigan was draped over her shoulders. "Marian?"

I wasn't ready to get cozy with everyone and correct it to Mary. "Yes?"

"I'm Julian, the Keeper here. You arrived just in time for tonight!"

"Yes," I replied with half of the enthusiasm that she was throwing at me, the shivering was starting to slow. "I have no idea what's happening,"

"Oh no worries!" She replied cheerfully, "someone will update you on everything, but you must be hungry right? We're just starting morning meal!"

"Uh yeah, just mostly cold."

Julian's eyes looked me up and down, stopping on the jumper on my shoulders. A sneaky look entered her eyes. "No worries, we've got blankets down this way but the kitchen has a heater and warm food,"

"Thanks," I breathed. She opened one of the doors down the hallway.

"You'll be in the same room as the girls that are just about to turn up. There's a handful of you guys this time to be sure to chat, make some friends. Hopefully you'll be going through the training together so it's definitely worth having those connections,"

I was first and fore mostly taken back by Julian's relentless optimism, here she was describing to me what sounded like a very scary and ritualistic ceremony with the same enthusiasm as a fraternity introduction. As well as that, connections, what was this? A business networking event? Had I actually been kidnapped by a group of entrepreneurs?

I gave a small nod before drifting inside. Two, handcrafted rows made up the space with a serving space at the opposite end and a fireplace at the other. I made a beeline for the fireplace, almost ready to jump within.

Letting the flames lick for my fingers, I looked around. The food was ready on hooded platters for serving. A lone woman moved back and forth in the kitchen behind the serving area. It was quiet, save for the crackling of the fire and the occasional wash of the plates.

Time to eat. I wondered forwards, reaching the serving area. I hesitated, I didn't want to disturb the food so I poured a jug of hot chocolate for myself and returned to my spot by the fire. My hands wrapped around the mug and the heat blistering my back.

How did I get here? I wanted to cry. A lumped formed in my throat but no more tears came out. I clenched my eyes shut, trying to imagine away the memories of choking on water. Water. Water filling my lungs, screaming with no one to hear.

"Lord help me," I whispered, "I thank you that I am alive. But please, provide me your guidance, your protection, keep me safe and remind me to have a positive attitude," And remind me to never go to Calgary, again.

I sighed.

"In Jesus' name, Amen,"

Clang, clang, clang. 

A bell woke me from my thoughts. The door opened and a handful of ten or so girls ranging from teens to mid twenties, entered. They were tall in stature, lean and athletic to some degree. They all wore the same dress as me; these must've been the other girls.

I stilled, my hands clenching the mug before me. One of them caught sight and splintered from the group towards me. She had platinum blonde hair and delicate features. A long, thin nose framed the rest of her face. She sat in the seat in front of me.

"Hey," She grinned, "I'm Lou,"

"Mary," I gave a small smile.

"Hey, have you had morning meal?" She pointed to where the other girls had grabbed their plates and were lining up to serve themselves. I shook my head. "All good! I'll be back in a sec!"

Lou jumped up from her spot, swiftly moving to the serving bay. Some of the other girls stole looks my way, I ducked my head to avoid their stares.

A plate was placed in front of me, Lou sat with her own. "Eat!" She grinned.

"Thanks," I gave a real smile this time.

"Don't even worry about it," Lou wasted no time in digging into her food with a vicious ferocity. Two more girls hung by the table, plates in hand.

"May we?" One asked, I gave a small nod.

The two were joined by three others, then two more, then another two. Soon enough, the entire group lined the table, chatting back and forth, throwing banter and drama. One by one, they introduced me to them. Charlotte with the light blonde hair and grey eyes, was the eldest at twenty-two. She had broader shoulders (like me) and a squared face with her hair in two French braids. Anjie was the youngest at sixteen with a button nose and a sweetheart face. Then there was Joy, Emily, Georgia, Alana and then I lost the names of everyone else that introduced themselves to me.

There was a festive feeling to the air. I mostly kept my thoughts to myself though I had a myriad of questions about the ceremony, the training, the tasks, how everyone got here and what the best way to get out of here was.

After placing our utensils back, Lou led the way. "Since there's not much to do today, we'll mostly be hanging out in the rec room. It's a bit too cold to go outside but we have have some fun in there and you can tell us more about how you got here!"

Lou wasn't taken. It took me a moment to realise. Unless she was undercover or something, which wouldn't make sense (none of this made sense but this would be especially abnormal). But Lou wasn't taken. It seemed, if anything, that she voluntarily came.

"What's your story, if you don't mind me asking?" I spoke softly, just out of earshot of the girls.

Lou looked saddened for a moment, however it was quickly replaced with a bright smile. "I lived and grew up in the real world," She added air quotes to her words and then gave a half laugh. "If you could call it that. And I, uh, I really had a hard time. I was depressed, suicidal even. I was on every drug that you could think of, like yeah, they were okay. Though, somewhere in the back of my mind I wondered if the apocalypse happened, would I even be able to survive because I depended on them so much. And I kind of just hit a low,"

Lou stills for a moment, lost in thought, "It was really hard, really hard. It got to a point where I had nothing left and I said to my therapist, I think I want to die tonight,"

The moment is quiet. I can almost see the memory, Lou's struggle.

"He had one, final card. He told me to contact this guy because he was a part of this, rural retreat that might take me in. I thought, ugh I don't really want to but sure, why not?" Lou laughs at the memory, "so I contact the number and it's this guy and he sells me this really cool life, I'm super interested. And I'm like, sure man, I'll do it. But to get here, we had to trek through wilderness for a few days. I honestly thought he was going to murder me. And I complained a lot about it but every time I did he asked me if I wanted to go back. It took me a little while but I realised, no, I wanted to finish it. So after what felt like a week, we eventually made it here and that was my test,"

Lou gave me a bright smile. She was happy to be here, she wasn't forced or tricked or abducted into it. She was here of her own free will.

I'll admit, I envied her.

She broke the spell, "So what was your test?"

I opened my mouth. Somewhere between surviving a car crash, throwing food and being tortured, I guess.

Probably not the answer that she was expecting so I shut my mouth.

"It's okay," Lou spoke gently, "we each have different struggles ahead and behind us,"

I accepted that answer with a small nod, the words still sticking in my throat.

"Rec room?" She asked cheerfully.

"Let's go," I affirmed.

...

The Rec Room was well decked out. There must've been at least one of every kind of board game inside. As the newcomer, I was the subject of interest and excitement, consistently repeating my name, explaining my accent and then... not much else. The girls around talked about many things; braiding techniques, the cute soldier that passed in the street, how to knit mittens, what someone's name meant and more. I rarely heard was 'how's your Dad?' Or 'how many siblings do you have?' Or 'what university did you go to?' They seemed like questions asked at any other normal gathering except for this one. The past, save for some bit of the childhood and one's name, was seldom mentioned. It were as if everyone had come to the agreement that anything past the now, mustn't be mentioned.

This also meant the details of the quickly approaching ceremony, was watertight. Aside from knowing that it was tonight and that we'd be sleeping beforehand, details were carefully guarded. Even Charlotte, who according to the word on the street, had already undertaken the ceremony, was tight lipped.

"It's different for each person. We all go through the same thing but what happens afterwards will be different for all of you," Later, she added to make sure to get a good sleep, and relax.

That didn't help anything in regards to nerves. What exactly was the ceremony? The question bounced back and forth within my mind.

"Hey, what are they doing?" I called to Charlotte. In a moment of quiet reflection, I'd taken to one of the many floor to ceiling windows that decorated the Rec Room. Outside, one could steal a view of the town. The many participants seemed to be stringing up some form of lighting.

Maybe I was out for a really long time and it was now Christmas.

The building we were in (for female 'Novices' only) was on an outcropping of the town. It gave a lovely view to the daily lives of this incredibly secret and sinister community. Some of the boys had arrived on the edge of the outcropping and we nudging one another and pointing into the Rec Room.

"Choosing their favourites," Charlotte grumbled. "They've come up almost every day, your arrival was big news,"

"How so?"

"I guess they just needed a certain amount of people for the ceremony," She shrugged.

"So that's what they do at the ceremony?" I probed, "choose?"

Charlotte chose her next words carefully, "The Ceremony isn't a perfect system, but it's definitely a lot more successful than what the outside world has,"

"The outside world? What does that mean?"

She goes to answer and then stops, giving me a cheeky grin. "You ask a lot of questions, don't you?"

I gave an unapologetic shrug.

"Just have a fun time tonight," She laughed, patting my knee, "some of us have waited months for this moment,"

That did nothing to make me feel any better. So I watched as the boys were chased away by one of the Keepers.

What was going to happen?