Seven (Completed)

CHAPTER 10 ~ Outside

CHAPTER 10

Outside

 

When Lucas finally unlocked the door at the end of the tunnel, he was the first one to get out, falling on his stomach. His arms failed to act quickly enough and his head hit the ground as he landed. Lucas suddenly regretted not having attended some extra gym classes at school.

His limbs felt weaker and his eyelids heavier as he laid there inside the tall grass, breathing in fresh air. But Lucas knew there was no time for sleeping even though he had hardly had three solid hours of sleep that night. He concentrated on his mission and got back up at his feet before yelling, 'It's all clear, come on out.'

Anne's head peeked out from the open door and her eyes grew wider than they usually were. She carefully got out by placing one leg after the other on the ground underneath the opening.

Her mouth dropped at the breathtaking view. A vast, green field spread all across the horizon. The grass was taller and greener than it had ever been inside the dome and Anne had never seen a sky so big and detailed before.

Felicity came out right after her, Sonia followed her. Each one of them got hooked by their surroundings. The sky was filled with small dark clouds that appeared grey in the moonlight and its colour ranged from deep blue to light purple as the moon was at its peak and the sun was struggling to rise through the blackness.

Lucas understood it was on their best interest to start moving before the break of dawn but he just could not take away their very first moment of freedom. Most of the kids had sat down on the ground. Sonia was lying down, her eyes and whole face hidden from sight, her hands running up and down the grass as she breathed in and out and in and out again.

Felicity stood alone, in front of everyone else. Her gaze was set to the sky, nowhere in particular. And for once, Carlos thought he saw a spark in her eyes but it was gone when he looked at her again. 'It's sad,' he thought. 'Someone so beautiful ... It's sad that she's so empty.'

And then Carlos stared at Anne. She had stretched her arms like the wings of a bird as she let the soft breeze playfully run around them. 'Can you feel that?' she asked without looking at him.

'Um, what?' he wondered.

'That-that excitement ... Is this how it feels like to be free?' she asked and turned to face him. Her flushed cheeks, her blond hair, her bright eyes, they all seemed to combine perfectly now with her sideway smile and the word "free" sounded so beautiful and promising to Carlos coming from her lips. He smiled.

'We should get moving,' Pierre suggested and Lucas inevitably agreed with him so the seven friends began walking along the valley.

***

The control room had been there ever since the school was built there too. It was a relatively small room. It had just enough space for three people to sit on comfortable leather desk chairs and supervise the school premises through the large monitors connected to the CCTV cameras.

A cup of hot black coffee was resting next to one of the guards' arms. The nametag on his grey buttoned shirt read "Isao".

It was a quiet night, like most nights are for those inside the control room so Isao did not bother checking on each one of the small monitors that covered the wall on his right. Instead, his eyes travelled on the opposite wall which was painted into a huge map; a map of the Earth before the distractions. 'Such a shame,' he thought but a sudden thud interrupted his thinking.

His co-worker had just returned from the bathroom and he was making his way to his narrow office stacked with numerous folders. 'He didn't even wash his hands,' Isao thought to himself in disgust and pushed his plain, black glasses up to the curve of his nose.