The pulpas would use their weapons to attack, but in a flash, they became a pile of blood and bones. The metal tanks were warped and slung out of the way. The night sky was lit up and thick with red. The smell of flesh blood tasted raw and metallic. They killed everyone. Every last one of them, because—
Evaline awoke on a chair with a desperate big breath of air, feeling sweaty and disoriented. “The Order,” she whispered through her panicked breaths, closing her eyes again to remember the faces.
How? How did it come to this?
“Status report, Evaline,” an impatient voice said through the intercom.
Without wasting another second, she swiftly pressed the intercom button. “Time’s down. The strategy is a no-go.”
“How disappointing. Plans will be set to change.”
The conversation ended. Seconds and minutes ticked by, but Evaline did not move. The sights of murder no longer clouded her vision like it used to, and she was not at the slightest bothered by it.
We used to be best friends, she thought.
How did it come to this?
Mel twiddled with her thumbs and fidgeted uncomfortably as silence enveloped the wet and musty elevator around her. Two burly guards were standing very close next to her, quiet and standing very still while the rusty elevator was slowly descending. An excruciating two whole minutes had passed, and the only sound was the screech of metal against metal.
“How far away is it?” she yelled.
“What did you say?” the younger guard yelled back. Mel never did catch his name, even though he escorted her through her whole journey.
“I said, how far down is this place?” she attempted to yell louder, but was disrupted by turbulence in the elevator that nearly caused her to lose her balance.
Instead of answering her question, the man, who held his ground perfectly through the turbulence, dismissed her question and held a straight look forward. Another minute passed by in silence, and Mel began to notice the smaller things: the weird flickering of the yellow light, the smell of wet rock, the narrowness of the tunnel they were descending, the annoyance of the guards—
She felt a jab on her chest and practically heard the scowl coming across the older guard’s face. “Stop that,” she vaguely heard him say as he looked up into the lights.
“What? Oh,” Mel said as she looked back up at the lights, noticing that it stopped flickering. This reminded her of the many times this past year someone had come up to her, shocked while asking, “How did you do that?” if she found herself dazing off into a light source, and she had no idea what they were talking about. Ironically, that was the main reason she was coming down here in the first place.
After another minute of silence between the three of them, the elevator stopped with a loud clank, and suddenly everything was too quiet. Mel stood on her tiptoes to peek out the open panel, and she was disappointed that she saw exactly what she expected: a tunnel with even more rocks.
“Wait,” the older guard said before she stepped out. “Before you go, we need to see you demonstrate your vale.”
“Is this really necessary?” the younger guard said. “We’ve been with her the whole week, and she even just now used it.”
The older guard seemed to suppress a smile, as if he was used to hearing this from his less experienced comrades. “It’s protocol. You know how they are.” He gestured to Mel, nodding. “Go on, then. Use your vale on this light right here.”
He pointed at the strip of very old light bulbs glowing an orange tint that was barely illuminating the tunnel they were in. Mel lived in the pulpa areas of Sector 4, and even she knew that these bulbs were very outdated—to the era of humans, even.
“Okay,” she said, concentrating on one bulb in particular. Without spending too much thought on it, the light flickered just like it did in the elevator. But deciding this didn’t justify what she could do, Mel thought of a lush green color that reminded her of the peaceful forests she ran through as a kid, and before she knew it, she was surrounded in that color, even though it provided a false sickly-green luminescent glow instead.
“Wow, kid,” the younger guard said, examining his hands and the green tint that enveloped him. “You’ve got natural talent at your age. You can step out now.”
Mel looked away from the source and suddenly the room went back to its normal monochromatic color scheme, leaving her feel a pang of sadness for having to leave her home to this. The three of them walked further down the tunnel that seemed to get darker, wetter, and smellier. It only made her more and more homesick.
“Is this the Capital?” Mel blurted out.
The two guards laughed and shook their heads. “No,” the younger guy said. “Well, yes. You’ll see.”
They walk down the tunnel some more, which was getting narrower and narrower. The younger guard kept on jabbering about how great the Sector 3 Capital was: “You’ll love it here. You’ll have a lot of freedom to control the light. It’s small, but we are a close-knit community, which is unlike all of the other Capitals.”
I doubt it, Mel thought in her mind as they continued to walk forward. The tunnel was getting narrower, warmer, and shorter. Then suddenly, she literally saw the light at the end of the tunnel; it was a narrow opening with bright white light enveloping the hole, and she found herself walking faster behind the guard she was following. Perhaps it was her instinct or maybe it was her vale, but the light seemed to beckon her to come closer.
“Slow down, kid,” the older guard in front of her said, stopping mere steps away from the light. At this point, the wall and ceiling of the tunnel was so narrow that only one person can walk at a time. “Watch your head here. The opening is even shorter than you are.”
She wrinkled her nose as a drip of water fell on her forehead. “What’s over there?” Mel asked curiously, peeking behind him but seeing nothing but bright light.
“See for yourself,” he answered instead, crawling in the hole and then calling for her to follow.
The younger guard behind her lightly pushed her forward. “Go on, then,” he said with a mischievous grin. “And welcome to the Sector 3 Valen Capital.”
I haven't checked out your LMS thread because I want to know next to nothing about this novel before jumping in. Maybe it's a bit of a selfish decision--I just want to avoid spoilers.
) but… I have no more words to add here so I’ll stop rambling.
Let's get started... 
Points: 15319
Reviews: 275
Donate