Status: This may not make sense but I'm excited to write it

Lights Out

Group of Fifty, Plus One

“Look around this room, all you innocent young children, the first of the young generation to go to the surface in generations. At the end of these six months, none of you will be the same, the surface will test you, it will tire you out, you’ll want to quit and come home. But there is no going home, once you are up there; the gates will be locked, and they will be locked for six months fully. I believe in all of you, all of you will come back safely and filled with the skills you learned on the surface for the rest of your life.”
Instructor John tells us continuously throughout the lessons that we do, he can sense the fear in our eyes but also believes that we will do good up there. He’s one of the best instructors in the bunker, and I’m glad they chose him to teach us these things.
We spent the rest of the day learning different survival skills and getting to know the other people of the group headed to surface. I learned that Jenna is sixteen years old and lost her mother during childbirth and her father from a surface mission.
“I just don’t understand why they would send young people to the ground when we could easily parish like the older people.” She says to me as we sit across from each other at a round table getting to know each other. I nod in agreement and continue patching together my suit for the surface, it’s mostly a warm one piece with a helmet for safety. “This suit isn’t even that fashionable anyway.”
Jenna laughs as she finishes up her suit and raises her hand to get the attention of the instructor. He comes over to us and admires our handiwork; he hands us both a small box. “Don’t open the box until you have reached the surface, the items inside will help you greatly on your journey.” I glance down at the box with extreme curiosity, just wanting to open it now but restraining myself. Maddy and Jordan join us at the table with their partners just then, we all introduce ourselves to each other.
“I’m Lukas.” Says the boy who became Maddys partner, he tells us that he lost his parents in the explosion on the first floor so he’s had some trouble adjusting since it happened. “Truthfully, I’m excited to get out of this place; yeah the surface may be scary but the guards haven’t been exactly friendly since my parents death.”
The dark haired girl with Jordan starts to introduce herself but is suddenly caught off guard by someone walking into the room, we all stare towards where she is looking. “Who is that, I’ve never seen them before. Oh I’m Leena by the way.” She says sticking out her hand for a handshake, but no one is paying attention to her at that moment.
“Sorry I’m late!” A boy that looks almost three years older than us says barging into the room.
“Way too late.” One of the guards says stopping him, “Now, you don’t get to go to the surface.”
“Oh come on, I’m only….” He looks down at his watch, then back up at the guard. “Four hours late; I need to get to the surface.”
I become suspicious of his persistence, as everyone else in the room was nearly terrified at our fate. Other than Lukas, but even with him I could sense some fear. This guy showed none.
“I.D badge please.” The guard said to the boy without even blinking, he reached into his pocket but before he could even attempt to pull it out he turned and ran out of the room. The guards immediately chased after him, everyone in the room watched it all go down with curiosity.
“Sorry Leena, I’m Delaney; it’s nice to meet you.” I say reaching out for that delayed handshake. She laughs and shakes my hand back, I notice that her hands are very cold.
“Oh, I have a blood disorder...it makes me very cold all the time.” She explains as I take my hand away. “I’m surprised they’re letting me go up to the surface in my condition.”
“I’m surprised any of us are going to the surface…” I say, taking a glance at the door and wondering about that mysterious boy that barged in four hours too late only to turn and run. Something about the whole thing just didn’t seem right to me.
“Okay everyone, you are free to go for the day. Just make sure to come back tomorrow at the same time for more information and lessons.” The instructor says to everyone and we all get up and get ready to leave. Lukas turns to the group and insists we all go to the fifth floor for drinks and pool.
“Might as well have some fun before reality sets in and were stuck on the surface without these luxuries.” He says, making a valid point. I agree to join but Jordan and Jenna decline.
“Don’t worry Jordan, I’m taking you for that drink before we get to the surface; I promise.” I say to him and he nods and tosses his headphones over his years before walking out of the room. We have been best friends since we were nearly two years old, I was friends with him before I was friends with Maddy. Our friendship isn’t like most boy-girl friendships either with a possible romantic attachment to it because Jordan is gay. He came out about it nearly a year ago and has never been happier about it. He was always the shy kid growing up, other than me he didn’t have very many friends until year three of ‘school’ when Maddy joined us and we have been inseparable since then.
We’re practically all he has, as his parents weren’t very accepting of him being gay and practically disowned him when they found out. It’s all in the past now and he’s healed a lot since then. I’m incredibly proud of him for being so open about it now.
Maddy, Leena, Lukas and I all take off from the classroom and head straight for the elevator up to the fifth floor of the bunker where all the fun stuff is. Pool tables, alcoholic beverages, slot machines, arcade games, a dance floor and much more can be found up here. We all arrive to the fifth floor and there is a sign on the game room that says that it’s closed, all the lights are off in the room which isn’t normal for five pm.
A shadow brushes behind us and we all turn around in fear, we see the strange boy from earlier crouched in a corner playing around with some wires. I immediately storm up to him.
“Excuse me.” I say, hands on my hips in a tone I’ve never heard from myself before. “What do you think you’re doing.”
He gets up and brushes off his pants and looks around cautiously, he smiles at us and turns to take off but I reach out and grab his hand to prevent him from doing so.
“You’re all in danger, they aren’t sending you to the surface for reasons you think.” We all look at each other with a sense of fear filling our throats, I gulp but keep my grip on the boys hand to prevent him from taking off again. “I know the truth.”
And with that, he easily loosens his grip on my hand and takes off down the hallway taking away the mystery that follows his meer being.
“Who IS this guy?” I throw my hands up in the air, and then suddenly the lights in the room turn on and the door opens. People are going about normally inside the room like nothing ever happened and I’m standing outside the hallway alone while my friends are off playing games.
“Delaney?” Lukas asks me walking up to me, a drink in his hand. “Who were you just talking to? The rest of us went inside the game room and you just stood outside of it mumbling to yourself.”
“Oh, uhm… no one, guess I sort of spaced out. It’s been kind of a long day, I could probably really use that drink.” I say, walking inside and beelining straight for the bar. “I’ll take a rum and coke.”
“ID please?” The bartender asks and I pull it out of my pants pocket and hand it to her, the drinking age for inside the bunker is sixteen. I’m not an alcoholic but I have drank quite a lot since I turned sixteen and it’s been pretty awesome. She scans my ID card which also has our funds on it from our jobs, no-one inside the bunker carries cash; everything is digital. She hands me the drink and I go and sit down with my friends at a table, everyone is pretty upbeat considering our impending doom rising on us. I try and join in on the light-hearted mood but what that boy said and what he was doing is trapped inside my mind.
“You’re unusually quiet Delaney.” Maddy says, nudging at my arm. I smile at her and reassure her that I’m fine, just tired from the long day. “So who were you talking to out there?”
“That boy from the classroom earlier, the one that came in late… he was messing around with some wires and told me something…it’s probably nothing. He seems unstable anyway, I’m not worried about it.” I completely lie through my teeth about the truth, they don’t need to know about what he said, it was probably all a lie anyway. Even though I do have my fair-share suspicions about it.
“We didn’t see him…” Lukas says again, but jumps up to change the subject. “Who wants to dance!”
I’m not the best at dancing, I pretty much suck at it but I was always down to dance for fun on the dance floor with my friends so I jumped up and we did just that, dancing the night away and forgetting about the surface and the mysterious boy that keeps popping up.

***

I stumble back to my cabin close to one am, I try to be quiet about it but the alcohol really hit me hard and I make a lot of noise when I go inside; Ellie groans and turns on the light next to her bed.
“Delaney!”
“Sorry sis! Go back to sleep, I’m just going to lay right down.” I say, plopping down on my bunk and closing my eyes; I feel the room start to spin and put my hands over my head. “Oh boy.”
“Mom would not approve.” She laughs, watching me get up and stumble over to the bathroom. “Dad might join you, but Mom?”
“Oh shut up.” I say leaning over the toilet and letting the contents of the evening spill out into the bowl. “Never drinking again.”
“You say that everytime, now go to sleep; you have to get up early.” I groan knowing that I can’t just recover in bed all day tomorrow and stumble back over to my bed. I’m finally able to shut my eyes without feeling the world and my stomach turning all at the same time. Finally I am able to get some sleep.

I have made it to the surface, my boots make walking feel heavy but I manage to tread across the overgrown grass towards the camp we have set up. I look at the sky above me and I only see a black blanket before me. No stars like what I’ve been told in the history classes, and no moon either.
“You made it.” I hear a voice say from in front of me. I lower my gaze from the sky to the ground, I see the mysterious boy standing there. Unlike the rest of us he isn’t wearing a suit and is able to stand the coldness that surrounds us. I watch him with curiosity as he approaches us. “Take off the suit.”
“Whoa, at least buy me a drink first.” I joke and he barely stiffens a smile on his lips.
“Take off the suit, you don’t need it and you’ll feel more free.” He says again, with more persistence this time. “I want to tell you something.”
I start with the helmet on my head and wince as I can feel the cold air hit my skin, I close my eyes waiting on the worst to happen.
But it never does, and I am able to stand the cold without my helmet. He takes a step closer and reaches out and shakes my hand.
“Hi, I’m Blake and I know why the sun never came back up.”

I awaken with a start and glance at my alarm clock that failed to go off, it is ten minutes past the time I’m supposed to be in class.
“Ellie! Why didn’t you wake me!” I practically scream at her jumping up and getting myself quickly ready to leave. She looks at me with fury in her face and throws my bag at me aggressively.
“I tried!” She insists showing me the bruise on her arm. “You punched me in the arm.”
“Oh. Well...I’m sorry sis. Thanks for watching Jackson for us.” I say to her picking him up and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek, he giggles as I set him down and crawls over to his toys.
“Ya, ya, get out of here.”
I zoom out of our cabin and down the hall to the classroom and burst in, the entire class looks at me and snickers as I say nothing and beeline it for my friends who are sitting at the same table together.
“A little hung-over are we?” Jordan laughs at me as I sit down. I pout in his direction and pretend like the whole ordeal never even happened. The instructor clears his throat.
“Now that we are all here...I have to make a very important announcement about surface departure. It is very important that you do not panic at this announcement, I myself tried to plead my case to get this fixed but when the council makes up their mind they don’t ever change it.” He says, and we all nod knowing very well that the council has never once changed their mind about any decision they’ve come up with. Like taking away free pizza Wednesdays and replacing it with some healthy thing instead; probably the worst decision they’ve ever made.
We all look over at the instructor waiting for him to make his announcement, he clears his throat again before saying in one entire breath.

“You are all heading to the surface tomorrow morning instead of next week.”