Beneath the Bridge

I’m not entirely sure who I am writing this to, but I suppose it is to whoever finds this letter. I sincerely hope these words find you in a better world than the one I am in now, but if that isn’t the case and the world is still living in an endless state of fear, then I hope this can provide you with some sort of courage.

I realize that it is only a matter of time before the Circuit Guard catches up to me, but I am determined to write down as much as I possibly can about what has transpired these last few months.

The year is 2062 and we have continued to live beneath the oppressive boot of the Master amidst the filth left by our forbearers. I can never help but wonder if this is the price we must pay for their sins against their fellow man and against the planet we call our home.

I was seven when the Master took control of every aspect of our lives, and so I remember a world in which we were once free. But just like any other great civilization in history, the greed of man became too great, and the world that we had begun to take for granted began to crumble around us. History is filled with such stories -great empires falling due to the greed of its people, but I never expected to experience one in my lifetime, much less one at the cost of our species as a whole.

People truly began to see the effects of the poisons our luxuries and our machineries poured into the planet in 2042 as animals died and ecosystems collapsed. It wasn’t long after that the skies ran dark with the gasses of our vast industries and the waters began to turn murky with our filth. Temperatures turned scorching and before long it became dangerous to leave your home without proper gear to protect your skin, eyes and lungs -much of which many were unable to afford or were unable to obtain due to short supply. And so as the world began to die around us, so did the comfort and society that we had grown used to.

I watched as buildings began to erode due to the toxic air that filled our skies. And I watched as the wealthy and our majority ruling party, the Loyalist Party, began to retreat into the ground, leaving those that could not afford to drill into the earth to scrape a living off the noxious surface, wondering if every day would be their last. Many of those that had ignored the many signs of our impending doom had been among those fortunate enough to retreat beneath the surface and they continued to live there and thrive as if their lives still remained wholly unchanged.

On the surface, no one was safe from the fatal clutches of our destroyed planet and just as we had poisoned our world, it too began to poison us. Everyone from the smallest child, to fully grown men and the elderly began to waste away, their skin burning and oozing with rashes from the poisons our world was pumping back out at us. And the red sun behind the dark, billowing clouds that filled our horizons was like an ill omen of all the many lives that were to be lost.

In the chaos that ensued as our entire structure of life deteriorated to nearly nothing, the Band of Broken Brothers rose up from the burning embers of our society and retaliated against those that had retreated beneath the surface. Nearly overnight the grip the Loyalist Party retained on the remaining resources and safehouses weakened and the Band of Broken Brothers began to work tirelessly to ensure the resources were being properly allocated among those that were in need.

Their efforts were short lived however, when their primary location was bombed and absolute chaos ensued. As an entire power vacuum opened up in the wake of their seemingly utter destruction and different factions began to fight in an effort for total control, the Master came forward from unknown origins and managed to make his way to the top with his cunning and his deceit. From the very beginning, the Master took no shame in silencing any who opposed him and so he seized the ultimate control of our decaying world.

Religion and individuality became outlawed, and any who were found practicing or praying in any way were executed. Similarly, any that were found guilty of a crime against the Master or against any of his wishes, were sent to be a worker in the Pit. The ‘Depraved Decay’ as they are called, live in chains and are forced to work to exhaustion and further in the Master’s ever-expanding underground world of tunnels. The Master’s forces, also known as the Circuit Guard for their robotic protective gear, are known to be brutal with the Depraved, often fatally so, and so rumors began to swirl that the Master was constantly looking for new workers, which instilled a fear in all of us: be compliant if you wish to live.

Escape from the Pit was impossible due to the heavy rotation of Circuit Guards and the endless alarms that would sound when an attempt was made. And if one did not die in an attempt to escape, they were quickly killed by the brutal mistreatments that were taking place in the warehouses where the Depraved were kept like dogs. So it was safe to say that a trip to the Pit was a death sentence.

Before the Band of Broken Brothers was destroyed, the brotherhood had built a bridge at the center of our newly established underground life -a symbol of hope for many that the world was about to change. And now the beautiful bridge of eight colors overlooks the Pit and its expanding darkness further and further into our earth, like an ugly scar that we continue to pick at.

When one walks across the bridge, they are expected to spit down onto the Depraved Decay as they work and it is for that very reason that I avoided ever traveling further into the city. But when my mother fell ill I had no choice but to cross the bridge in search of medical rations. My hopes that I would go unnoticed when I crossed the bridge failed when a member of the Circuit Guard accosted me for failing to comply with spitting upon the Depraved. And despite my desperate pleas and assurances of absolute compliance, the guard refused to accept my apologies and had me arrested.

I was told the Master would be informed of my misdeeds as I was thrown into a cell where I was left to wait as the Master pondered my fate. My time in the dark, dampness of that stone-constructed narrow pen seemed infinite as I waited to be told I was going to die while my mother wasted away at home wondering what happened to her daughter. The Master had killed many or sent many into the Pit for lesser crimes and so I had no doubt that the Master would ultimately send me to my grave in one way or another. The Master had countless others and things to manage and an insignificant person like myself hardly mattered in his grand scheme, particularly whether I lived or died. I imagined it would be simply much easier to send me to the Pit and let me die there. And so I curled into one corner of the cool, small place and allowed myself to weep, careless of who heard my shame. I was stupid enough to make the ultimate mistake, I did not comply and so now I was to pay the price with my life.

I’m unsure of how much time I actually spent in that small, cramped space they called a cell, but one morning they opened the cell and began to usher me out, sending me stumbling to my knees into the blinding lights of the hall. I had not been given any food or water and so my body was weak and my mouth felt to be filled with an odd mixture of cotton and sandpaper. Amidst my delirium however, it did not escape me that they were kicking me out of the cell due to the fact that they needed it for someone else they had apprehended. With a grating laugh, one of the guards informed me that I was free to go as the Master had graciously agreed to let me live due to the heartbreaking echo of my tears. As the words left his lips, the surrounding members of the Circuit Guard burst into fits of laughter.

Much to my chagrin I realized they were having a joke at my expense and my life had never truly been on the line, they had simply thrown me into a cell to ‘teach me a lesson’. I choked back the onslaught of tears that gripped me and stumbled my way out into the lamp lit world of our underground shelter. The hope that it had only been a day or two hit me as I continued to stumble across the city center, dirty and disheveled. The eyes of those around me studiously pointed downwards as I searched for the nearest medical vendor, who were posted throughout the area. People shifted out of my way hastily as I passed, anxious to not be caught up in whatever crimes I’m sure they believed me to have committed and to avoid any suspicions on themselves or their families.

Even as I spotted a medical vendor he squirmed beneath my gaze and when he realized I was headed in his direction, he quickly began to grab his things in an attempt to leave before I could approach him. With my remaining strength I wobbled across the square to him just before he was able to finish grabbing his supplies.

When I begged him to help me and showed him that I had coin to offer he hesitantly gave me the tonic I had been in search of but demanded reparations for any trouble that may come due to any involvement he may have after being seen with me. When I informed him I had no further coin to give, he demanded I give him the small locket hanging around my neck -a heart shaped locket given to me by my mother. Filled with fear of what may happen if I refused, I gave him the locket and left.

As I turned the stony dirt bend in the tunnel to our shelter, the hollowed out remains of what I had once called home greeted me. While my life had been spared, I still paid another price for my crime of non-compliance when the Circuit Guard raided and burned my home with my ailing mother still in it.

With the anger that burned inside of me at the cruel fate of my mother, I went about working to make a change in my ‘second’ life. Despite the stories, after the bombing of the brotherhood's primary location, there were members that had survived and had been quietly gathering support beneath the ever watchful eye of the Master. Under the newly formed Band of Broken Brothers, I worked to slowly set the stage for our grand destruction of the Master on X-Day. With our systematic raids and system overloads, we have been slowly planting the seeds to destroy the Master before this planet eradicates us. I hope to see you on X-Day, the day of our liberation. If you are reading this before then that means the Circuit Guards have finally caught up to me and I was unable to escape. If you are reading this after X-Day, then perhaps we were able to save the planet after all…