I hide behind the rusty black van and look at her. She’s on her tippy-toes reaching for the sky as if she’s about to hug it. Her eyes are closed. Her shirt is pulled up to cover her mouth and nose. She wears the same old worn-down purple vans; something I never would have noticed underground. She looks almost exactly like she did ten years ago, just a bit taller with a more tired look on her face. After a few seconds she stops hugging the sky and begins to look my way. I stop looking at her and begin my way towards the large boulder that is the entrance to the tunnel. I get there in fifteen long steps. I go around where another boulder leans against the bigger boulder. I lift it, revealing the tunnel, and begin to climb down. It’s about twenty feet deep. When I get to the bottom I sprint towards my family’s division. Our family division is our home. It literally is just a small square area with black bed sheets that work as walls. In it fits just three people, which is a crowd. I’ve been living in this underground haven for years ever since they lied to us when they said they had space for the middle class in the other safe haven. I know my way around the underground haven like the back of my hand.
When I get there I push the bedsheet aside quickly lay down next to my younger brother who’s merely ten years old. He’s tall for his age and ridiculously skinny; not because there isn’t enough food in the world. In fact there’s more than enough food. The problem is that the food that was once deemed healthy quickly became a health hazard due to all the strange chemicals the ingredients were exposed to in order for the ingredients to become cheap and abundant. The little healthy food left went to the lucky ones. The ones who made it into the other world. Bad news happens when we humans want more for less. I lay wide awake waiting to hear her running across my division to her own division.
An hour passes by and no footsteps have been heard. I start to get worry. Did she wander off somewhere else? Did she get lost? No, that’s a ridiculous thought. She knows this place just as well as I do. Should I go look for her?
I start to get up when I hear a sigh.
“Where are you going?” ask my younger brother.
“Nowhere. Now go to sleep,” I reply.
“How can you be going nowhere? Take me with you,” he says. He’s fully awake.
“No, you know it’s dangerous to go aboveground.”
“You were planning to go aboveground!?”
“Doesn’t matter. Don’t tell anyone and go to sleep!”
I probably shouldn’t have mentioned where I was going, especially since going aboveground is incredibly dangerous. I push him down and lay a blanket on him. I can’t see I a thing but I can sense him closing his eyes and preparing to go to sleep. I don’t put my shoes on to avoid making noise. I run and as I get near the tunnel exit I hear coughing.
She’s leaning against the rungs of the ladder, her head down, hand over her mouth stained red, and her eyes closed. I’m paralyzed and can’t think. She looks up with her eyes wide opened. She tries to stand tall but she can’t. She’s weak. How can she go from being so alive and free to weak and fragile? I step closer and offer my hand.
“No, I don’t want to spread whatever sickness I have to you,” she croaks.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ve been outside just as long as you have.”
She shakes her hand and begins to walk with her hand against the wall for support. A few steps forward and she falls to the ground.
I run to her and help her up. I put her arm over my shoulder and begin to run dragging her along. I take her to my division.
“Mom. MOM! Get the first aid kit!”
“What? What’s going on? Who is this?”
“Doesn’t matter she needs help!”
My younger brother lights a candle and my mother digs up the first aid kit that we hide with our few belongings. First aid kits are scarce so we have to hide ours to avoid it being stolen.
“A girl? This won’t do. Go outside and wait with your brother.”
“Outside? As in...outside?” ask my brother with a glint of excitement in his eyes.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Now go. We might be in a tight space here but it doesn’t mean we have to abandon the idea of privacy. Where did she come from that she’s coughing blood?”
“Outside,” I respond. I receive a glare from my mother that means I just earned myself a good scolding.
We wait outside our division. The movements of the shadows inside the division make me nervous. I hear more coughing and my mother’s soothing voice. Moments later all the rustling stops. My mother comes outside and joins my brother and I without saying a word. I fall asleep without requesting an answer.
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