Shudders

Prologue

"Boarding for Zone 12 in Sector 8. Repeat, Boarding for Zone 12 in Sector 8."

    The automated voice blared over the underground tunnels filled with traveling people. Some arriving in Zone 3 and others traveling from it. The tunnels were always busy and usually crowded in daylight hours, making it hard for a woman with (h/c) to reach Sector 8 in time.

    She shimmied her way through the crowd, apologizing whenever she bumped or shoved into a passerby. Finally reaching an open area, she saw the gate leading to Sector 8 and booked it from there. A mother had to pull her child back out of the rushing lady's way. But received a quick sorry from the said lady.

    The guard stationed at the Sector 8 gate looked up from her book when the (h/c) lady approached. She set her book down and pulled out a card reader. "ID please?" she asked, voice tired from dealing with other travelers.

"Yes, yes. Here you go." Out of breath, the (h/c) lady pulled out her ID from her coat pocket, handing it to the guard.

Name: (L/N) (Y/N)
Age: 23
DOB: (00/00/2414)
Zone 3

    The guard swiped the ID into the card reader and returned the card back to the lady after it pinged a green light. "And which Zone will you be heading to?"

"Zone 12. Did the shuttle depart already?"

"Nope. But it's about to." The guard lazily ripped a ticket out of a machine and handed it to (Y/N). "I suggest you get going before you miss it."

"I will, thanks!"

    (Y/N) shoved the ticket into her pocket and picked up her luggage. After passing through the gate, she ran over to the shuttle leaving for Zone 12. A worker was about to close off the doors but stopped when he heard the yells of a lady to stop. He reopened the doors and allowed her to enter.

    (Y/N) dropped her luggage on the ground and tried to catch her breath. An elderly woman looked at her in worry, "Are you alright, dear?"

    (Y/N) nodded her head and smiled at the woman. "I'm fine... Just need to catch my breath. Thanks!"

    (Y/N) picked up her luggage and headed to her assigned seat. She passed by families, workers, and individuals who were all preparing to rest for the night. (Y/N) looked at her watch to see that it was close to midnight, but she wasn't going to rest, she had to fill out some paperwork she forgot to do.

    Arriving at her seat, she pulled out a folder and her headphones before placing her luggage into the overhead compartments. She sat down just as the shuttle began moving, the view of the busy tunnels through the windows soon turned into a view of dark metal walls, pipes, and wires. She shut the window and put her headphones on, clicking a button on them to play her "favs playlists".

    She got started on the paperwork. Filling out her general information and other fields, including her assigned job role, a Keeper. She would be assigned to watch, care for, and study a demon. Or more if her employers saw her fit to handle two or more. It's a field (Y/N) has been aiming for ever since she started learning about demons in middle school. She successfully became a straight-A student with the exception of some Bs and graduated top of her class in demonology. Even though her job title says "Keeper", (Y/N) actually wanted the job "Capturer". Capturers are the people who go above ground to hunt demons and potentially capture them to be studied. It is a far more dangerous job than a Keeper, and (Y/N)'s older sister has tried changing her mind to becoming something safer, like a doctor. But (Y/N) is really stubborn and wanted to experience action, but the Capturer jobs were unfortunately full. The Lab that she applied for did inform her that a spot for a new Keeper opened up, still wanting to be around demons, she took it.