Dirt

A thick smell of sulfur hovers over the ice cold ground. My eyes are still adjusting to the small rays of light streaking through the dark, heavy clouds. I feel disoriented and confused about what has happened in the hours that have passed. I stay low to the ground as my mind processes its surroundings. A scene as revealing as it is haunting. It’s as though this area has been leveled out to just dirt and rock. Anything once living here is no longer, so why am I?

As I stand my legs are shaky, my body is heavy. I hear no birds, no running water, I smell no grass - the air is thick and stale. The dirt dancing around the fractions of light shooting from the sky paint the air a dreary, rusty color.

I’m searching for something, anything else. Suddenly I feel sick, like I’m in the middle of the ocean with no view of land. Only … that is all I see. Nothing but leveled dirt for miles in every direction.

I head forward staring at the ground so as not to overwhelm myself with the vast openness in front of me. With each step I notice that the ground seems to be getting softer. Until suddenly I’m falling straight down. Feet first I fall for a short time and hit the ground like a sack of bricks. The ground is hard and cold and everything echoes as if I have landed in some sort of tunnel system.

“Locket!” I can hear a voice ahead calling out. Locket? I begin checking the pockets of my black cargo pants. Nothing. The small pocket in my slim fitting black T-shirt. Nothing. Lastly, I check my black socks that sit inches above my boots. “Ahhhha!” I pull it out and begin examining it. It’s quite beautiful. Made of gold and shaped like a heart. The front has beautiful ornate etched roses, while the back seems to have some type of fingerprint recognition. It hangs from a flawless gold chain that has no clasp. I’m hesitant to place my thumb against the back, unsure of what will come. But at this point I have nothing to lose and place my right thumb against the slick back of the heart-shaped locket and hear a click. I turn it over and the locket opens up revealing two different sides within. Behind the etched roses is my last name written in beautiful cursive “W a l s h” The other side has a number - 012332 - this number holds no significance to me that I can recall.

I close the locket and head toward the voice, the only way I will get any answers about what happened is to find the other people. As I’m walking I’m scanning the tunnels, some parts seem to be made of concrete cylinders that opened up into dirt hallways - others almost appear to be rooms - one painted a beautiful emerald green with gold trim. Each space had its own atmosphere, like walking through different time periods.

As I walk through the last concrete cylinder I am met by a narrow iron ladder bolted into the concrete. I begin to climb it and as I look up I appear to be climbing to the top of a city manhole. But as I reach the top I see that I am still underground. I’m in awe as I look out and see a cavern so massive you could fit an entire city in it - And that’s exactly what it was. Tents and people everywhere.

Before I could even take a step forward a man dressed in what appeared to be an Army uniform stopped me shouting - “Locket!” - I hand it to him willingly but I continue gazing into the cavern as he reads the inscriptions inside. “Where am I ? What happened?” I ask but he ignores me and continues to match my inscriptions with a hand written book he pulled from his pocket. “Walsh - we expected you sooner - you will receive Orientation with the rest of your unit at 0200 hours. You are to report to your bunk and await further instruction from your commanding officer.” The man raises his hand and holds it to the right, gesturing to me to continue in that direction. As I pass him he drops the locket into my t-shirt pocket. “Whatever you do, don’t lose this.”

As I continue forward I’m met by a dirt hallway that curves to the left, as I round the corner I stop and place the heart-shaped locket back into my sock. I walk another 15 feet or so and the hallway opens up into a large bunker room with eight beds, each with a name written in chalk at the end of it. I find mine third down on the left hand side, written in chalk

“W a l s h”. I hate being in the middle. As it crosses my mind I think .. what a strange thing to be worried about at a time like this. Nonetheless, I head to the bed with my name on it.

When I reach the bed I turn and notice several other people following in behind me. I say people because I am uncertain of which sex any of them are. All of them dressed with perfect tight buns at the top of their heads and grey coveralls. I also notice that each person is wearing a heart-shaped locket around their neck, but so far, all of their ornate etching is different from each other and my own. As they draw in closer I recoil toward the top of my bed. “Don’t be scared, Young Walsh” the person in front says. They are holding their hands out to me as if trying to embrace me but I am skeptical of all of them.

“Where am I?!” I yell out as I jump backward and swing my arms forward, clearing a space between them and myself. “You are in the only place left that Homo sapiens still exist.” I hear one of them say. “What? What do you mean? What happened?!” At this point I am frantic and I’m questioning if I’m awake or losing my mind. The front person begins talking again “They will go over it all in orientation, now lay down and get some sleep, they will wake you when it’s time.”

I don't know how I’m expected to sleep now, terrified of what might lay dormant in my subconscious. But as soon as my body is fully laying on the bed, I see black in exhaustion. As I enter REM sleep my body tenses - bright skies. I see bright blue skies with flawless white clouds perfectly placed across the horizon - but suddenly there is something in the sky. I see huge shadows drawing from the sky to the ground and I can feel the fear like I’m right there again. “0200! All Awake!” I’m shocked awake by the loud voice that echoes through the small room. Orientation! I jump up and adjust my clothing, the loud man advances toward me holding grey coveralls. He places it on my bed “You will need to change into this and put your hair up before reporting to orientation.” - “The rest of you report to the auditorium and await further instructions”

Once the room has cleared out I strip down and change into the grey coverall. I flip my head upside down and comb my fingers through my messy hair, attempting the flawless bun everyone else had. I flip my head back over, my hair is up - but I imagine far from flawless. It will have to do. As I leave the room I’m met by a powder blue hallway with silver lines etched along white trim. When I reach the end of the hallway it opens up into a beautiful Victorian style auditorium. How is it that these gorgeous places exist underground?

I slide into the back right corner of the room and take a seat in the red velvet chair. I begin scanning the room looking for answers or clues. At the end of each row of chairs there is a large man dressed in an Army uniform. The rest of us dressed alike in greys - genderless - and as I look at the stage I see a woman. Distinctly a woman. Her blonde hair down with not a hair out of place, busty in the chest with a pencil skirt and matching blazer - No visible shirt underneath. What the hell is going on here?

The woman on stage begins speaking “Everyone take their seats please, we have a lot of information to go over, we have just had our largest group of Homo sapiens come in in over a decade.” A decade? What year was it? I’m beginning to wonder if I’m still on planet Earth or if I have fallen into some parallel universe in a different Galaxy. I’m trying to wrap my head around not only the events that took place in order to get me here, but what the roles of all these people are.

The woman on stage begins speaking again “I understand that some of you are very lost, we are uncertain of why some people come with full memories intact and others seem to only recall their personal information. Very few have shown up without knowledge of either.” - “Most of our research has been directed toward where these random Homo sapiens are coming from.” Now I’m really confused and I’m wondering which of us are humans - and if some of us are not - what are they? The woman continues, “Our research shows that when a large group appears, as it has in the last 24 hours, these Homo sapiens are being dropped from the sky from what we have dubbed - The Ship - Many of these “Ships” appeared to take over the skies in the beginning, though most have all but disappeared.”

“If you would please, direct your attention behind me as the video will now begin” the woman announces as she exits the stage.

Suddenly the auditorium goes dark and the wall at the back of the stage glows a fluorescent white. The white begins flickering and numbers appear, beginning a countdown - 3, 2, 1 … - The wall flashes to a map of the world as I know it. A man's voice begins narrating the video -

“The world before was made up of 7 continents and 5 oceans, nearly 70% of the Earth was water. As the “invaders” took over and began landing their ships the powerful force of their engines began wiping out cities .. mountains .. rivers. And eventually the dust began settling over the oceans until they turned to marsh lands. Research shows that the only water supply left is beneath the Earth’s surface. Each of you has a locket specific to you - the front etching is revealing to your strengths, the number enclosed is your “command number” it will never change and it will be used as identification.”

As the voice is speaking slides of pictures are being displayed. A picture of what Earth looks like now from space is comparable to what I remember the planet Mars looking like. The voice continues speaking - “Certain Ships left Invaders, who would then mate with the Homo sapien women - creating a hybrid race.” I look around, curious if any were among the group in the auditorium. If so, they go undetected by me.

The voice carries on “We have encountered dark times and the war for the survival of the human species is very much alive. To stop the overcrowding of the caverns and to deter the Invaders from the women you are to keep your identity, gender and locket hidden at all times.”

The wall goes dark, the lights in the auditorium flicker back on and one of the large men takes center stage, arms crossed behind his back he says - “History will call this day - The Doomsday Draft”.