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Rayne
Chapter One: Rayne
Chapter One
Rayne
I am writing this account for the generations to come. My name is Rayne. Once upon a dreamscape my name was Carla Hall, and I was just like you. Dearest reader, I am not one to be fond of others, but to me, you are hope. Mason predicts that with the false history books the Governments have written for the people in Eden, you may become just like us. Those books tell you we were simple folk, no electricity or cars or concrete cities… that’s not the truth. The truth is, I used to go to high school, where boys threw balls around and swore and girls giggled and flirted, and somewhere in between, a few of us worked studiously and, y’know… didn’t have a boobs hanging out. I used to live in a city, with my family. Until the night my life changed. It was my own choice, my own foolhardy choice… but everybody makes foolish choices these days. Mason says that all of our atomic bombs and fossil fuels are killing the planet, and that we’re killing each other, too. Mason says that after it happens- the Apocalypse, all of the ‘important’ people hiding in Eden will lead a simple life, and over time, they’ll forget about it all. There are Edens scattered all over the globe, as each country secludes itself from the rest. They say that after it happens, they won’t even remember each other, and when they gradually move from each of their Edens, they’ll start afresh, and the world will have healed. Of course, none of the world knows this. It was kept top secret by the Governments. We have spies, though, here in the Underground. My name is Rayne, and only Rayne. This is my story. I only pray to the Heavens that you read it in time.
I wove my way through concrete buildings, ominous giants that looked down on me. I passed the Cancer Institute, which had started up shortly after they found a cure for cancer, and headed down an alley that smelled of mould and stagnant water. My heart pounded with excitement, the thrill of the risk I was taking overcoming me. Right now, my parents would be waking up to find their daughter missing. Even as I pressed the panel on the wall of this grey building, opening a tunnel, my parents would search for me. I walked down damp, concrete steps with the thrill of danger making me grin despite myself. This was such a change from the reserved girl I had been, carefully thinking everything out. When the stairs reached an end, I found myself in a cold, wet underground plaza, with a dark hall at the end. Unable to contain my excitement any longer, I ran full pelt across the plaza, only to have an elderly woman step out in front of me, her hair wild and grey, and her dark eyes fierce.
“You have no place here, girl.” The woman hissed.
“Madame Areanna, I wish to join the Underground.” My voice echoed through the plaza, and I heard my own nervous exhilaration as my voice returned to my ears.
“How can we trust you? What skills do you bring to the Underground? What is your name?” the questions were sharply shot at me, each blow reminding me of my foolishness in being so unprepared.
“You may not trust me, for that is something to be earned, but I tell you this in all earnestness, my father works for the Government, and I have heard the stories he tells. They sicken me and I need to do something, I can’t just sit here and wait to die. I don’t know the full story, but I get the idea that nobody is safe.
“The skills I bring are my intellect, the little knowledge I gleaned from my father’s tales, my willingness to fight, and my ability to learn new skills quickly, whether disciplines of the mind and body. Also, while I have never practiced it, as a child I was marked as Apt.
“My birth name is Carla Hall, but I wish to cast that name behind me, my name is Rayne. Just Rayne.” I paused a moment to regain my breath, “and I will do anything to prove my worth.” I regretted those words as soon as I spoke them. Again, I didn’t think things through. What was becoming of my calm, collected self, and why did I like this carelessness so much?
“Very well,” Areanna said, motioning to a man in the shadows, “Then you’ll drink this truth serum. It’s a herb 100% guaranteed to make you speak honestly.”
“Sure.” I said, trying to hide my relief as the man- a rather broad and ominous figure- carried a vial of orange liquid to Areanna. Areanna opened the vial’s stopper, and asked me to drink the whole thing. I did so, tipping back my head to drink the last few drops of the bitter substance.
“Ohhh…” a wave of nausea swept over me, and the large man moved to steady me. After a minute, the nausea cleared, and I felt strange and groggy.
“What is your name?” Areanna asked me.
“Rayne. My name is Rayne.”
“What about the name Carla Hall?”
“She was never truly me. She was what my parents wanted me to be. She was invisible. I’m Rayne now. Rayne is the real me.” I smiled and babbled, my tongue feeling clumsy in my mouth.
“Why do you want to join the Underground?” Areanna demanded
“I feel funny,” I giggled, “I wanna join ‘cause of all the bad things my dad said might happen, and I don’t wanna die, and I wanna be somebody special who does something good or significant in this world.” The bumbling incoherence mixed with my regular diction, and my mind reeled at the drunken slur of my own speech.
“What would it take to make you betray the Underground?”
I remember feeling puzzled and stumbling a little, “Nothing. The other guys are the bad guys, right? Why would I help people who wanna hurt people?”
“Quite right.” Areanna said, but trying to remember her next words is futile. I only remember a laugh bubbling from me before everything turned black.
“Hello, deary.” A cheerful voice greeted as I opened my eyes. A plump, pink faced woman stood over me, “Don’t worry love,” she said, “it seems you’re one of the few people allergic to veritus.” The only response I could muster was a groan, still groggy from earlier events. Slowly, I took in my surroundings. Well, the Underground may be literally underground, but that didn’t make it any less lavish. The structures were far from the sewer environment that rumours whispered of. This room appeared to be an infirmary, clean and well lit, with curtained beds and monitors neatly arranged, and walls coloured like honey. I looked down at myself to see myself not in my jeans and red shirt, but in a white nightie.
“Where are my clothes?” I asked the nurse.
“They’re up in your new room. You’re lucky, somebody just left, so you get a room to yourself. In the meantime, you’ve been given this to wear.” She pointed at a pair of light black pants, of some soft linen, or cashmere perhaps, and a black tunic, with a star insignia embroidered in white on the breast. On the floor sat a pair of black hiking boots, and knee-high black socks meant to protect the wearer’s legs from damage inflicted by the boots.
“Thank you. I’m sorry, what’s your name?” I asked, embarrassed at not having asked earlier.
“Kella, love. And you’re Rayne. Just Rayne. Madame Areanna says that even though it’s a name you took, you still claimed it to be your name while on veritus. She reckons it’s your real name. The name you were always meant ter have.”
I smiled at Kella, and asked her when I could leave and explore. She said that somebody would be down to give me a tour and my schedule for the next month’s training. In the meantime, I let my mind wander, and the enormity of everything I had done came crashing down on me. I had… oh god… totally on a whim, I had abandoned my old life, my quiet, sensible ways, and I had thrown myself into a dangerous, lonely new life. Why? I had never been so impulsive before. Ever. I swallowed the ‘oh-god-what-have-I-done’ churning in my stomach, and I took a deep breath. ‘Well,’ I thought, ‘I guess you’re getting your adventure
Rayne
I am writing this account for the generations to come. My name is Rayne. Once upon a dreamscape my name was Carla Hall, and I was just like you. Dearest reader, I am not one to be fond of others, but to me, you are hope. Mason predicts that with the false history books the Governments have written for the people in Eden, you may become just like us. Those books tell you we were simple folk, no electricity or cars or concrete cities… that’s not the truth. The truth is, I used to go to high school, where boys threw balls around and swore and girls giggled and flirted, and somewhere in between, a few of us worked studiously and, y’know… didn’t have a boobs hanging out. I used to live in a city, with my family. Until the night my life changed. It was my own choice, my own foolhardy choice… but everybody makes foolish choices these days. Mason says that all of our atomic bombs and fossil fuels are killing the planet, and that we’re killing each other, too. Mason says that after it happens- the Apocalypse, all of the ‘important’ people hiding in Eden will lead a simple life, and over time, they’ll forget about it all. There are Edens scattered all over the globe, as each country secludes itself from the rest. They say that after it happens, they won’t even remember each other, and when they gradually move from each of their Edens, they’ll start afresh, and the world will have healed. Of course, none of the world knows this. It was kept top secret by the Governments. We have spies, though, here in the Underground. My name is Rayne, and only Rayne. This is my story. I only pray to the Heavens that you read it in time.
I wove my way through concrete buildings, ominous giants that looked down on me. I passed the Cancer Institute, which had started up shortly after they found a cure for cancer, and headed down an alley that smelled of mould and stagnant water. My heart pounded with excitement, the thrill of the risk I was taking overcoming me. Right now, my parents would be waking up to find their daughter missing. Even as I pressed the panel on the wall of this grey building, opening a tunnel, my parents would search for me. I walked down damp, concrete steps with the thrill of danger making me grin despite myself. This was such a change from the reserved girl I had been, carefully thinking everything out. When the stairs reached an end, I found myself in a cold, wet underground plaza, with a dark hall at the end. Unable to contain my excitement any longer, I ran full pelt across the plaza, only to have an elderly woman step out in front of me, her hair wild and grey, and her dark eyes fierce.
“You have no place here, girl.” The woman hissed.
“Madame Areanna, I wish to join the Underground.” My voice echoed through the plaza, and I heard my own nervous exhilaration as my voice returned to my ears.
“How can we trust you? What skills do you bring to the Underground? What is your name?” the questions were sharply shot at me, each blow reminding me of my foolishness in being so unprepared.
“You may not trust me, for that is something to be earned, but I tell you this in all earnestness, my father works for the Government, and I have heard the stories he tells. They sicken me and I need to do something, I can’t just sit here and wait to die. I don’t know the full story, but I get the idea that nobody is safe.
“The skills I bring are my intellect, the little knowledge I gleaned from my father’s tales, my willingness to fight, and my ability to learn new skills quickly, whether disciplines of the mind and body. Also, while I have never practiced it, as a child I was marked as Apt.
“My birth name is Carla Hall, but I wish to cast that name behind me, my name is Rayne. Just Rayne.” I paused a moment to regain my breath, “and I will do anything to prove my worth.” I regretted those words as soon as I spoke them. Again, I didn’t think things through. What was becoming of my calm, collected self, and why did I like this carelessness so much?
“Very well,” Areanna said, motioning to a man in the shadows, “Then you’ll drink this truth serum. It’s a herb 100% guaranteed to make you speak honestly.”
“Sure.” I said, trying to hide my relief as the man- a rather broad and ominous figure- carried a vial of orange liquid to Areanna. Areanna opened the vial’s stopper, and asked me to drink the whole thing. I did so, tipping back my head to drink the last few drops of the bitter substance.
“Ohhh…” a wave of nausea swept over me, and the large man moved to steady me. After a minute, the nausea cleared, and I felt strange and groggy.
“What is your name?” Areanna asked me.
“Rayne. My name is Rayne.”
“What about the name Carla Hall?”
“She was never truly me. She was what my parents wanted me to be. She was invisible. I’m Rayne now. Rayne is the real me.” I smiled and babbled, my tongue feeling clumsy in my mouth.
“Why do you want to join the Underground?” Areanna demanded
“I feel funny,” I giggled, “I wanna join ‘cause of all the bad things my dad said might happen, and I don’t wanna die, and I wanna be somebody special who does something good or significant in this world.” The bumbling incoherence mixed with my regular diction, and my mind reeled at the drunken slur of my own speech.
“What would it take to make you betray the Underground?”
I remember feeling puzzled and stumbling a little, “Nothing. The other guys are the bad guys, right? Why would I help people who wanna hurt people?”
“Quite right.” Areanna said, but trying to remember her next words is futile. I only remember a laugh bubbling from me before everything turned black.
“Hello, deary.” A cheerful voice greeted as I opened my eyes. A plump, pink faced woman stood over me, “Don’t worry love,” she said, “it seems you’re one of the few people allergic to veritus.” The only response I could muster was a groan, still groggy from earlier events. Slowly, I took in my surroundings. Well, the Underground may be literally underground, but that didn’t make it any less lavish. The structures were far from the sewer environment that rumours whispered of. This room appeared to be an infirmary, clean and well lit, with curtained beds and monitors neatly arranged, and walls coloured like honey. I looked down at myself to see myself not in my jeans and red shirt, but in a white nightie.
“Where are my clothes?” I asked the nurse.
“They’re up in your new room. You’re lucky, somebody just left, so you get a room to yourself. In the meantime, you’ve been given this to wear.” She pointed at a pair of light black pants, of some soft linen, or cashmere perhaps, and a black tunic, with a star insignia embroidered in white on the breast. On the floor sat a pair of black hiking boots, and knee-high black socks meant to protect the wearer’s legs from damage inflicted by the boots.
“Thank you. I’m sorry, what’s your name?” I asked, embarrassed at not having asked earlier.
“Kella, love. And you’re Rayne. Just Rayne. Madame Areanna says that even though it’s a name you took, you still claimed it to be your name while on veritus. She reckons it’s your real name. The name you were always meant ter have.”
I smiled at Kella, and asked her when I could leave and explore. She said that somebody would be down to give me a tour and my schedule for the next month’s training. In the meantime, I let my mind wander, and the enormity of everything I had done came crashing down on me. I had… oh god… totally on a whim, I had abandoned my old life, my quiet, sensible ways, and I had thrown myself into a dangerous, lonely new life. Why? I had never been so impulsive before. Ever. I swallowed the ‘oh-god-what-have-I-done’ churning in my stomach, and I took a deep breath. ‘Well,’ I thought, ‘I guess you’re getting your adventure
♠ ♠ ♠
Capitolo Uno, i miei amici.