The Cave

Chapter One

Plato. The Allegory of the Cave. Micah had been reading a book by Plato, The Republic, for over a month now. Ever since he had been trapped in the school two years before, he was slowly starting to wonder if it was all he knew. He hadn't seen Alec, Jessica, or Jaclyn in two days. They must've been tending to the garden in the Science room.

The entire school except the four kids had been on a field trip that fateful day. Micah, Alec, Jessica, and Jaclyn had been in detention for being late to first period. At around 3 PM, May 21, an explosion on a nuclear level rocked Champaign, IL. The teacher on duty left to investigate, but never did come back. The four had been on their own, left to survive off of the leftover lunch food and the vegetable garden in the science room.

It has been two years since the event, but Micah didn’t know for sure what day it was today. He hadn’t kept track of a calendar very much.  He had never left the school, nor had anyone else, since then. The geiger counter, whenever it approached the doors, always had a high reading, and was too dangerous to go past. The dangerous areas had been blocked off by a few lunch tables. 

Micah decided to exit the library for the first time in two days, and went down the hall to the seventh grade Science Room. Just like he had predicted, the other three were in the space. Alec was eating a carrot, Jessica was watering the soil, and Jaclyn was taking a nap in the back of the room. 

“Do you have any cabbage?” Micah said, with a raspy tone. He remembered he had not spoken in a long time. Nobody looked up.

“No Micah,” Jessica began, quietly, “We haven’t had any cabbage since last month. All we have here are are a batch of carrots, five tomatoes, and three apples that we’ve been saving in the cooler.”

“Alright then. Has anyone checked the doors yet today?”

Jessica finally looked up, giving Micah a sour look.

“Micah. Face it. We’re never going to get out of here. At least not until we’ve got bags under our eyes and we’re eating the seeds ‘cause we can’t grow shit. There are too many fucking rads out there! It hasn’t changed since last week!” Jessica exclaimed. Micah frowned.

“If you want to go check it, fine. Take the counter and go to the front door. That’s the place with the lowest readings.”

Jessica threw Micah the geiger counter. The old yellow thing was falling apart. The meter was barely readable when it fogged up, and the tick-tick-tick sound was now barely audible up until nearly deadly levels. Micah sighed and went down the hallway, slipping on the headphones so he could hear better.

As he approached the front door, he reached out the sensor to one of the folded up tables.

Not a single reading.

Micah raised an eyebrow. Usually there was a loud tick-tick-tick sound and he got the hell out of there. But nothing today. Deciding there was no way to be sure enough, he pushed one of the folded tables out of his way and went to the very front door.

Micah could not believe what he saw.

A rain had fallen only what seemed the night before. It must have washed the rest of it away. Micah ran back to the science room, overjoyed. As he entered the room, All of them except Alec were napping in the back of the room. 

“Alec!” Micah said. Alec turned in his direction.

“What is it, Micah?”

“We can get out of here!”

Alec rolled his eyes.

“Shut up, Micah. We’re not fond of jokes.”

Micah started looking desperate.

“I’m serious! There’s not a single radiation reading at the door! Not a single rad!”

Alec looked extremely skeptical.

“Really, Micah? Let me see. Give me the counter.”

Micah was reluctant to do so.

“Micah. Give me it now.”

He threw it towards him, hitting him in the shoulder. Alec ignored it, and set off for the door.

As he reached the front door, he noticed that, as Micah said, there was not a single rad reading. Alec took off his headphones in amazement, and rushed back to the classroom to wake Jessica and Jaclyn. 

They were both asleep under a fleece American flag from the Social Studies room. Not bothering for politeness, Alec yelled:

“Guys! Wake up!”

Jessica pulled the flag over her head. “Shut...up….Alec.”

Alec went over and shook her awake.

“We can get out of the school now! We can leave the town!”

Jessica took a minute to realize what Alec was saying.

“Wait….we can leave?” Jessica asked.

“Yes! Micah scanned everything! We can get out of this place! High-tail it to Chicago or something!”

Jessica opened her eyes wide. She shook Jaclyn awake.

“WHAT. WHAT. WHAT IS IT?” Jaclyn yelled, out of shock.

“No time to explain. We need to get out of the school!” Jessica said. She handed her a backpack from the desk next to her.

“I need you to pack all the food here in this garden into that backpack.” Jessica told Jaclyn.

Jaclyn took a second to take it all in. She then got up and started putting the many food items into the front pocket. Jessica went up to Alec.

“Alec, I need you to go the security office and get the gun and the baton, and put it into Jaclyn’s backpack.” Jessica asked. She turned to Micah. “Micah, I need you to get one of those city maps from the Social Studies room, got it?”

Jessica left almost immediately to search all of the broken-in lockers for papers and other assorted things.

Alec and Micah stood in disbelief for a second, as they never really expected Jessica to just light up like that. Nevertheless, they went their separate ways to find what they needed.

Alec quickly and quietly knocked down the security office door by violently punching the lock a few times. After collecting the baton from the desk, he noticed that the pistol had only two clips left, and that a security officer cap was laying on one of the shelves. Alec put the pistol in his pocket and donned the cap out of fashion sense.

Micah found a street map of Champaign up on the Social Studies wall and pulled it down. Knowing it would probably be cold outside because of the effects of the disaster and the recent rain, the boy went down to the drama room across the hall and donned the only warm clothing he could find: a black and white checkered suit and grey pants.

Jessica took out a blazer, made for a man, from a locker, and decided to wear it to combat the inevitable cold. Inside was a worthless five dollars, and a BB Gun Clip. Jessica went over to the attendance office, where confiscated items were kept. Sure enough, a BB Gun had been confiscated and put into a cabinet in the back. Jessica took it for herself.

Jaclyn, still in the stages of waking from her nap, went to her old locker, and pulled out her old sweater with a Norwegian flag on it. She dusted it off, and it was as comfortable as ever. She met with everyone else in the gymnasium.