Between the Walls
Introduction:
The year is 3075, Soterra is on it’s last gram of food and water. It’s holding onto the last of mankind by the tip of it’s tongue. Dictator Rogelio, the third generation ruler, sits on his golden throne, gobbling up every last bite of food he can find and drinking every last sip of wine. But on the outside of his palace, society struggles.
Soterra, the underground shelter made by Fernando Reznikov, was the only shelter to survive the fourth world war and the Tsar Bomba of mass extinction. The shelter lived with average standards until King Fernando died under suspicious circumstances and his greedy son took the throne, soon passing it to his son, the current Dictator. His laws were cruel and unusual. Yet the only one that ever affected Kallista was made around half a century ago, when the society started to dwindle. The “Un Bambino” act was passed, meaning only one child is allowed per family.
Chapter I - The Inspection:
In a humid hole in the wall, Kallista Morello, a 14 year-old girl, is sat down with her older brother, Apollo, playing chess. “Check!” Apollo says while laughing. “Unfair! You always use your Bishops to trap my king!” she groans. He grins and says, “Look, Kal, you still have a knight.” he looks over at Kallista, who is still annoyed by his clever moves. “And look, your knight can trap my bishop.” He guides his hand over the board, showing Kallista. “You see, I’m the knight. I’ll always be there to protect you, even when you don’t notice it.” Kallista looks over to Apollo and smiles, she knew she would be safe when he was around. “Alright, I have to get ready for guard training, keep your head up, kid.” Apollo said as he patted her on the shoulder. Then he went upstairs to get ready. And now Kallista was bored again. She tried to find something to occupy her. With all of her boredom, she starts to carve the wall with a pebble she found on the floor. She hits it over and over, every hit getting louder and louder.
Eventually, she hears the sharp brush of a curtain, then the sound of scraping, and suddenly, a dim light shines in through the cardboard door. “Kallista! Stop that at once!” her mother, Kara, screams. Kallista didn’t think she was being loud, but she rolls her eyes back and says, “Sorry.” She then looks back over to the wall, slowly caressing the marks with her hand.
Kara looks at her with pity, “Listen, my love, I know there’s nothing to do down here but you know why you must do this,” Kara stops for a second, and with no reaction from Kallista, she continues, “and besides, there’s an inspection today. Apparently some...bugs…are infesting our block.” Kallista snaps around, “There’s ALWAYS something infesting our block. What do they expect, Some sort of clean palace under the floor?” Kara shakes her head and puts a locket on a small table beside Kallista’s rugged mattress, “I found this in an alley on C block.-” Loud knocks echoed through the house, interrupting Kara.
“COUNCIL OF SOTERRA, OPEN THIS DOOR IMMEDIATELY!”
Kara’s eyes grow wide and she calls ‘the code’. “Apollo! Please answer the door for the nice men while I put the dishes away!” Kallista sighs and watches as her mother puts the painting back on the wall.
The door swings open. “Hello.. I'm Apollo...What do you need..um..sir?” Apollo says as he brushes his hair and adjusts his shirt. “We’re here for an inspection, sent by the council, we were told there was a bug infestation in this block.” The man says before pushing Apollo out of the way. Before he could ask a second question, they already had searched most of the house. They stop searching and start asking Kara a few questions.
Kallista is bored with the officers, and has successfully sat through many inspections. She goes to pick up the locket but notices that her mother didn’t close the cardboard. She moves the cardboard without any thought, making a small sound in the walls. The guards hear this, stop talking, and turn to the painting. She goes silent, realizing what she had done.
She once again, hears the curtain slowly move back, then the scraping of the painting moving. Her heart is at a million beats per second and she couldn’t help but hyperventilate. The cardboard slowly peels back and Kallista holds the locket close to her. A guard sees Kallista, a pale, underfed, girl, with dark brown hair and ragged clothes. He immediately goes white and yells, “CODE 3025!”
The guard grabs Kallista and tightly ties a blindfold over her face. She shouts at him and kicks, while putting the locket in her back pocket. “Apollo, tell them to let me go!” she says while out of breath, “You said you would protect me!” Kara and Apollo sob silently as Kallista gets escorted out of the small slum.
Chapter II - The Law:
After making it to the world hall, she notices the guards stop.
“We got a coupl’a stragglers.” The head guard says as he holds Kallista and another unknown girl. Kallista hears someone behind the counter smack their lips and say “Alright, go ahead.” with a grumbly voice. A large red light shines through the blindfold and a loud beep comes through the speakers to signify the doors were opening. They walk for a short while before the guards throw the two girls on their knees. “Well well well...” a man says from above, “what do we have here?” he chuckles. “Sir...I mean King Rogelio... these two were found hiding inside the slums in Block E.” the guard stutters, as if he never met the Dictator, who preferred to be called king because he thought dictator was too harsh for his name.
The blindfolds were pulled off the girls heads and they looked up to see the dictator, far above in his golden throne, sticking white grapes into his mouth. “Well?!” He said, like he was expecting something, “Who are you, And why have you decided to break MY laws?” The girls stayed silent, trying not to meet eyes with him. “Answer me at once!” he said with anger. The guard pushed on Kallista a bit, trying to make her answer. “My name is Kallista Morello, I’m fourteen...I think.” she said, not recalling what year it was. “Of course, I always knew that little Apollo boy was a bit too high on his horse.” he laughed. Kallista snarled, trying not to insult the man, with his greasy, slicked hair and his large robe that was many sizes too large for him. His father obviously had just as much, if not, more greed and gluttony than him. “So, what about you, curly hair?”he sat back, looking at the other girl with a smirk. Kallista had just noticed the other girl, who had one braid on her right side, and an undone braid on her left, making her hair frizzy and puffy. She had dark brown hair, dark skin, and she had a missing ring finger on her left hand, which shows through the cuffs. “My name is Waverly Marifer, I’m thirteen, daughter of Cassiopeia and Hugh Marifer.” she says while trying to keep her head down, and away from the king. “Of course, the daughter of the thieving mother gets hidden...and for 13 years.” He gives her a dirty look then gets a huge grin spreading from ear to ear. Waverly is noticeably angry, but is hesitant to snap back. “Put them behind bars! I’ll deal with them later.” Dictator Rogelio says firmly.
Without hesitating, the guards say “Yes, King.” and put the blindfolds tightly over their faces.
Chapter III - Behind Bars:
Kallista gets thrown into a bunk made of stone, her face hitting the floor like a sack of flour. The guards quickly take the blindfold and chains off her and escort Waverly into a nearby cell. Another teenager is in the cell, using his shoelace aglet to slowly carve into the wall, he seems unphased by the sound of Kallista violently hitting the floor. She gets up, brushing off her shirt and jeans and says, “Do you know what’s going on here? What’s going to happen to me? Do you know-” She gets cut off by the boy turning and saying “No. I don’t, and please don’t remind me of my impending death.” Kallista is stopped by the sheer attitude in his voice. “Fine.” She says firmly, then falling back into the stiff board that the council calls a bed. She sits for a few seconds before realizing this is the first person she has talked to in her life that doesn’t work for the government and isn’t related to her. So she reluctantly turns and says, “Well...who are you then?”
The boy turns and sees Kallista, “Alright, listen, I don’t got time for 20 questions, so, my name is Aymir Ibrahim. I am sixteen. I got caught tryin’ to steal bread for my family and now the council is gon’ kill me.” He said with the most sass Kallista had ever heard.
Before she could turn away, she looked out of the cell bars for the first time, seeing the large crowd in the middle of the ring of cells. She heard about large crowds clamoring like this in the middle of a large city, centuries ago, above the ground. Except, these people were silent. Kallista looked closer and noticed they were all in shackles with their heads looking down to the floor.
A man in a navy blue suit walked up to a wooden stand in the middle of the dirt ring. “Alright heathens, let’s get this over with.” He paused for a bit as he opened his clipboard, “My name is General Lee, I’m going to be calling for count today.” He coughs with the volume of a lions roar, “Anyways... Frank Trenton?” he calls as a hand raises in the distance, then the man walks over to the podium.
Kallista sees General Lee try to discreetly put something on his nose, to mask the smell of the neglected citizens. He then calls a few more names, “Mitchell Ray? Blue Portman? Jerry Dolley?” They all walk up to the stand and line up. Kallista sees the General smile and he says, “Alrighty then, let’s see the fun ways we’re gonna get some criminals today!”
Aymir walks up to the bars as he watches in curiosity about what General Lee was going to pick. “Oh well, guess you got unlucky today!” the General says happily. Kallista goes to her bed and uses the limp pillow to cover her ears, she definitely didn’t want to hear this. She remembers her dad who, many years ago, was arrested for assaulting an officer while trying to distract them from Kallista. She remembers Apollo walking into her room, telling her that her father wasn’t going to be coming back.
Even with all the chaos in her mind, Kallista forced herself to sleep, which she had gotten very good at while trying to distract herself from the men rummaging in her house.
Chapter IV - The Man in Black:
Kallista was woken by a rock hitting her face through the hole at the top of the cell. It was the middle of the night and guards were walking around, making sure the “criminals” didn’t conspire against their king. A pebble hit her face again, this time she said, “Hey!” in a whisper. She heard a voice from the next cell over, “Kallista? Hey, it’s me, Waverly.” Kallista got up a little and whispered back, “What is it?” Waverly felt rewarded by her voice, since she had been throwing rocks through the hole for a while. “I have a plan. They’re gonna pick us up tomorrow for slaughter! Do you know morse code?” Waverly whispered. “Yes.” Kallista said, remembering the book her mom gave her about ancient military in the Americas.
A silence went over the two as a guard passed by, shining a lantern in their faces. “He’s gone now.” Waverly said, then continuing with, “Tomorrow, pay attention to the taps.” Kallista was confused, “What taps?” she said. Waverly didn’t respond, so Kallista tried to sleep, while very confused. But no matter how hard she tried, her many years of practice failed her. She was too nervous. She picked up a sharp rock off the floor that a previous inmate had carved into the stone bed with and remembered her idea from earlier. She hoped that it would occupy her. So after a second of debating with herself, she put the sharp rock to her hair and started to slice. Slowly, her long dark locks of hair were shortened into a small, yet messy, pixie, which she tied into a ponytail with a few strings from her shirt. After another guard passed by, she tried her best to look at him without him noticing, but out of the corner of the cell, a black figure moved stealthily across the cells, carefully yet hastily examining each of them. Slowly, the guards make their way into the break room, thinking today was like any other. But the man in black walked up to her, his skin a pasty white and his voice very low, “Gaia?” he whispered, “Do you know where Gaia is?” he questioned Kallista. “I don’t, but who are you?” she responded. “I have got no time to explain, if you see a girl with red hair and fair skin, please tell her that Agent Egg is looking for her.” he said, before quickly rushing to the next cells, desperate to find the person he was looking for.
Chapter V - The Taps:
Kallista has her eyes wide open. The break of dawn hits and the first group of delinquents start getting collected for transport. Kallista is fortunately placed right in front of Waverly. Aymir gets pushed in front of Kallista and he says, “You better not be planning anything funny, I hear the council doesn’t take kindly to traitors, especially those who wuss out of their execution.” Kallista rolls her eyes and starts to walk around the ring while people get collected into the line.
A girl with bright red hair gets pushed into the line, right after being processed, as if they wanted her to go and they wanted her to go fast. She grunts and spits in the guards face. He growls at her and angrily says, “You don’t wanna do that, little girl, I can give a lil’ suggestion to the General about how you should be handled.” he chuckles evilly and continues to chain her into the line.
The line comes to a longer stop than usual and Kallista hears Waverly make a click sound with her tongue. Kallista takes it as a signal and listens for the taps of Waverly’s nails against the chains. Between the yells of the guards and the sound of people yelling and rustling their chains, the sound was difficult to hear.
But from that, she heard; -... .. --. / --. ..- .- .-. -.. / -.- . -.-- / -.. .. ... - .-. .- -.-. -
She whispered to herself, trying to decipher the sounds, but she came up with “big guard, key, distract.” And from that, Kallista knew what she needed to do. She nodded to show Waverly she understood and then started yelling and shaking her chains screaming, “Let me out! Let me out! Let me out!” The guard finally came over and luckily it was the right guard. Waverly grabbed the loose keys from the guard, which was quiet compared to the sounds of Kallista screaming and shaking the chains. The guard pulled up his hand to hit her, but she stopped right after she noticed his keys gone. “That’s what I thought.” The guard hissed.
The line was split into 2 groups. Group one would go first while group 2 waited on the side. This way they all got a clear view of what breaking the law got them to. Kallista couldn’t escape viewing it this time and that was motivation enough for her to want to get on with the plan as fast as possible. She noticed Waverly trying to unlock her shackles quietly. As she was struggling with the chains, Kallista saw General Lee walk up to the stand. Doing the same speech as before, “My name is general Lee, I’m going to be calling for count today.” he babbled on as Waverly finally unlocked her shackles and held then behind her back to appear as if she was still locked in. Kallista saw General Lee slowly put his hand into the black box and shuffle it around. She tried not to pay close attention to what he was going to do, but at this point it was just natural for her to be nosy. Waverly finally passed the key to Kallista and she tried to unlock hers, but since she doesn’t have experience with keys, she was shaking the chains a little bit more.
From the side of his eye, Aymir sees Kallista struggling with the chains and he starts to get worried. “What did I tell you girl? I said not to do anything!” he says quietly. “Oh, be quiet, it’s not like you’re any further from death than you were before.” she says in a hushed voice.
Kallista finally unlocks her chains as well, and she makes sure to not let them fall. Aymir notices the shackles aren’t connected to her wrists and in a last attempt to make it out, he says, “Hey, pass me the key, kid.” Kallista looks over with an annoyed look on her face. He says, “Look, I won’t snitch on ya if you give me the key.” she wasn’t going to give him the key, but she saw Gaia just ahead of him. “I’ll give it to you if you pass it to her, the red-haired one.” Kallista said. Aymir nods and unlocks his chains, then passing it to Gaia. Loud screams pass in the distance as all the other prisoners are transported. The guards began to yell at the next group to go to the ring. The four of them don’t know what to do, but Waverly had an idea. They pass by the guard station, which had a slightly ajar door. Waverly pulled Kallista into the station, who then alerted Aymir and Gaia to follow behind.
Chapter VI - Through the Tunnels:
Waverly saw the two extra people walking into the station, “Who are they?” She said, surprised. “This is Aymir Ibrahim and Gaia.” Kallista said, pointing at each of the others respectively. “Why did you bring me?” Gaia questioned, “and how do you know me?” Waverly and Aymir looked at Kallista, wondering why she had let this stranger in. “Someone named Agent Egg was looking for you. We need you for a deal.” Kallista said. “So I’m still a prisoner?” Gaia huffed, “that’s cheap.” Waverly interrupted the awkward exchange by saying, “It doesn’t matter, we have to get out of here before they count our names.” Gaia rolled her eyes and sighed. Waverly and Kallista started to look through the drawers, rummaging for anything useful. Aymir and Gaia sat back, as if their lives didn’t depend on them finding an aid for their travels. Aymir tried to make conversation, “What’re you in for, then?” he said. “My uncle is an assassin , one of the best known by the outside mafia, but least known but the government. I guess you could say he’s good at his job.” she pauses, but the awkward silence in the room urges her to continue, “He sent me on a practice mission and made sure to set up everything so I wouldn’t get caught. But obviously that didn’t work out so well, since Agent Nikolas didn’t do his job.” she scoffs.
Waverly finally finds a small map with government exits that were used in case of emergency. She looks over to the rest of the group, “I got it!” she laughs, “I don’t know why they would need these anyway, it’s not like they’re gonna share it.” The rest of the group shake their heads and go out the door while following the map. “Not a word, you hear?” Waverly whispers. They all ducked under the barrier and started to follow the map into a blocked off area behind the prison. Three tunnels appeared before them. “Um, what now?” Kallista says, worried. Waverly looks at the map and tries to figure out which tunnel to take. “It doesn’t even show the tunnels.” Waverly sighs. “It’s the one on the right.” Gaia throws out, later than the group hoped. “You could’ve chimed in earlier.” Waverly scoffs. “Whatever.” Gaia says while crossing her arms.
The group follows Waverly into the tunnel. “I might as well just lead us to the city again, there’s no way we’re gonna make it to the exit.” Gaia mutters. “And why is that?” Kallista sneers. “This tunnel goes all the way around the city, I don’t even know if we’re near an exit. Not only that, but it gets deathly cold in here ‘round night time.” Gaia explains. The group goes silent for a bit. “Well we sure ain’t goin’ back” Aymir declares,
“So, what about you, how’d you get here.” He says, looking at Waverly. “I’m a sibling. My sister is in the system somewhere but I don’t know where. We thought having me out would be safe but the guards came in to inspect while my papa was braiding my hair.” Waverly explain, while inspecting the map. “Well, what about your mamma?” Aymir asks. “She’s dead. She was a thief, only stealin’ for her own good. ‘Course one day she came home and tossed some rare artifacts into my hiding spot. Them knives cut off my finger, I cried for days. But that thieving lady never got caught. Cassiopeia Marifer, I’m sure you’ve heard.” Waverly sighed. “No way! You’re Cassiopeia Marifer’s daughter?!” Aymir said, with wide eyes. “Unfortunately.” Waverly muttered. The group went silent as if there was an elephant in the room. And for hours, that elephant never left.
Chapter VII - The Overworld:
After hours of awkward silence while walking in the tunnel, they finally saw a light protruding from a dip in the walls. “I think we’re here.” Waverly claimed. “This is it.” Confirms Gaia. The group walks up to the door extremely slow, trying not to make noise. Kallista looks over the corner and sees a guard, sitting on a stool with a tomato sandwich, not paying any attention to the tunnels. “Great, how are we supposed to get past pomodori man?” Waverly said while facepalming. “Let’s just try the next exit?” Kallista suggested. “There is no way on Athena’s green earth I am walking any longer.” Gaia whispered aggressively. Kallista turned to Gaia, trying to tell her off. But she slipped on a rock and alerted the guard. “Nice job, genius.” Gaia rolled her eyes. “Hey! You can’t be here!” The guard yells, “Leave before I...um...shoot you!” He obviously wasn’t going to pull a gun on them. “I got this.” Gaia winks at Kallista, mockingly. “We’re just trying to get out.” Gaia says, trying to convince the guard to let them go, “have you ever seen the outside? I bet you want to.” he stops for a second, “I can’t! My father won’t ever forgive me!” He shouts.
A black figure passes through the tunnels. Kallista got up from where she fell and grabbed his leg, “Hey! We have her!” she whispers. He stops, and takes off his mask, “Where? You must lead me to her immediately.” he demands. “Not unless you help us.” Kallista says, knowing her plan was working. “Fine, what do you want?” he said. “Well, I don’t know yet but you will help us.” she stuttered. “Fine, you have my word.” the Agent says, while packing his knives. “First, you have to get this guard away.” she tells him. He goes up to the guard and quickly pulls out his sword. “Let them out.” he demands. The weak, untrained, guard scurreys to the door and unlocks it, with the key his father, the head guard, gave him. The sun was blindingly bright, and all around the door was green with trees, grass, and animals of all shapes and sizes. Aymir, Waverly, and Kallista got their first breath of fresh air. It took a while to take it all in. They forget for a second that the bunker existed and all the bad things in life seemed good.
But then Kallista remembered her family and all the other families, were still helpless in Soterra. “We have to get the others.” Kallista said. “No way. We’re already out and we need to cut our losses.” Gaia said. “I agree.” Aymir shrugged with a half smile. “I let you both out, and your uncle here agreed to help me do whatever I needed. We are saving them.” The group looked at each other, with the Officer awkwardly eating his sandwich.
“Well, what’s the plan then?” Waverly breaks the silence. “I don’t know yet.” Kallista says. “Wow. You guys are really bad at this.” Gaia chuckles, “It’s easy. We go into the hall during the last execution, which always takes extra supervision because they’re the most dangerous. The king will be getting onto his throne during the inspection he has planned for today. Then Michael captures the king, we take him to the announcement booth and let the people know they’re free. But first we open the doors obviously.” Gaia took a deep breath since she hadn’t stopped talking during her entire plan. “Michael?” Waverly questioned. Agent Egg puts his hand out, “Michael Uovo, at your service.” They all take in the plan, and begin to spread to unlock the doors with the officers key.
Chapter VIII - Like a Headless Chicken:
The group met back at the original door after finally unlocking all the exits, including the civil ones, which all civilians knew about, in case of “emergency”. Which originally was made just to make the citizens think they were safe if an event ever happened. They made their way through the tunnel, which took them less time since they were in a rush and didn’t care about the noise.
Once they finally made it back to the prison, they took the left tunnel instead of going back into the prison. The group used the side entrance into the World Hall, which they knew was only accessible if you had a door key. So they tried key after key on the guards chain until they finally unlocked the door. They used the back of the map, which had a blueprint of the world hall, to find the announcement room, with access to all the speakers. Michael went over to the throne while the rest of them made their way to the office. The Dictator had a meeting with some low-class workers, which was mostly rumbling. The conversation ended when the Dictator dismissed the team, “Leave me at once! I want a throne made of diamonds and I want it now!” he screamed. The team scrambled away with their things. Dictator Rogelio chuckled as he put a slice of cheese into his mouth. This gave Michael a perfect chance to capture him and swiftly transport him into the radio room, with a blindfold over his mouth to make sure he was quiet. Once everyone had gotten into the room, Waverly looked around and slowly pressed the button down, “Hello, citizens of Soterra. My name is Waverly and I’m--.” Waverly is interrupted by Gaia smacking her lips and pushing her over, “People, the government has you brainwashed, push the doors open, y'all are free.” She says quickly before hearing gunshots outside of the hall. “We have your king, if you shoot any of our citizens, you won’t see him ever again.” Waverly says as Michael pushed the door open with Dictator Rogelio in his arms, who had just shaken his head enough to get the blindfold off his mouth, “You people will keep me safe!” he says over to the microphone. The group didn’t expect anything less selfish than what he said. “Alright you power hungry prick, were gonna take you somewhere special” Kallista said as she walked out the door with the group following closely behind. As they approached the doors, they saw people running in all directions, some went to get food, others went to the exit, and of course there were a few people who were running around aimlessly. “Hey! Look at that guy! He’s running around like a headless chicken!” Gaia laughs. “This isn’t funny, Gaia.” Kallista says. They all go to the cells and lock the dictator in cuffs and throw him into a cell. He screams, but to no avail. The group moves around to the cells and makes sure the citizens all get let out. They see the guards searching for the dictator, so they knew they had to hurry.
Chapter IX - Land of the Free:
Once most of the vault is let out, the group goes out to find their families. Aymir sees his father and runs to hug him. Then Waverly runs to her father as well. Gaia and Michael watch as everyone is reunited. They feel heroic as they watch people breath in the fresh air and jump into the fresh ponds. Kallista searches for her family, but they are nowhere to be found. She runs around the city, in every block. She finally goes back to her house and starts to examine the bullet holes in the door and searches the house for anything that could show her where they were. The only thing she could find in the house that hadn’t been destroyed by the guards was a chess board, still set up the same as before she left. She picked up the knight and put it in her pocket. She noticed there was something else in her pocket. She takes it out and sees the locket her mom had given her. Kallista opens the locket and sees a picture of Kara and Apollo. She tears up and runs back to the outside.
The group asks her where she’s been and she explains her journey. The rest of the group goes silent, then expressing their condolences for her. “They can still be here.” Waverly says. “No, that’s everybody, we checked.” Gaia says.
For a second, Kallista’s heart stopped. The beating in her chest was louder than the screams and footsteps of the citizens nearby. Her mind flashes back to the last time she saw her brother. She remembers his vows to protect her and how determined he looked while she was being escorted away. Her life flashes and what seems like hours to Kallista was only a second before she notices Gaia shaking her violently, “Kallista?! Wake up!” Gaia screams. Kallista finally notices the shakes and snaps out of her mind. She affirms that she is okay and the group looks worried, like they saw a giant spider climb into her mouth.
The group then notices the large crowd forming around them. The people seem confused. They’re enjoying their freedom, but they don’t know what to do next. So Kallista got up to the top of the exit and announced, “Citizens, you’re now free. But even though we just came from a place of cruel laws and unusual punishments, we must establish a way of life. Laws will apply and there will be fair punishments. Now that the dictator has been dethroned, I pronounce this city, Apollis!” Kallista exclaimed.
The people cheered. And soon, the city of Apollis became known under its ruler. The releaser of humans, the courageous leader, and most importantly, Kallista Morello, the child between the walls.
The year is 3075, Soterra is on it’s last gram of food and water. It’s holding onto the last of mankind by the tip of it’s tongue. Dictator Rogelio, the third generation ruler, sits on his golden throne, gobbling up every last bite of food he can find and drinking every last sip of wine. But on the outside of his palace, society struggles.
Soterra, the underground shelter made by Fernando Reznikov, was the only shelter to survive the fourth world war and the Tsar Bomba of mass extinction. The shelter lived with average standards until King Fernando died under suspicious circumstances and his greedy son took the throne, soon passing it to his son, the current Dictator. His laws were cruel and unusual. Yet the only one that ever affected Kallista was made around half a century ago, when the society started to dwindle. The “Un Bambino” act was passed, meaning only one child is allowed per family.
Chapter I - The Inspection:
In a humid hole in the wall, Kallista Morello, a 14 year-old girl, is sat down with her older brother, Apollo, playing chess. “Check!” Apollo says while laughing. “Unfair! You always use your Bishops to trap my king!” she groans. He grins and says, “Look, Kal, you still have a knight.” he looks over at Kallista, who is still annoyed by his clever moves. “And look, your knight can trap my bishop.” He guides his hand over the board, showing Kallista. “You see, I’m the knight. I’ll always be there to protect you, even when you don’t notice it.” Kallista looks over to Apollo and smiles, she knew she would be safe when he was around. “Alright, I have to get ready for guard training, keep your head up, kid.” Apollo said as he patted her on the shoulder. Then he went upstairs to get ready. And now Kallista was bored again. She tried to find something to occupy her. With all of her boredom, she starts to carve the wall with a pebble she found on the floor. She hits it over and over, every hit getting louder and louder.
Eventually, she hears the sharp brush of a curtain, then the sound of scraping, and suddenly, a dim light shines in through the cardboard door. “Kallista! Stop that at once!” her mother, Kara, screams. Kallista didn’t think she was being loud, but she rolls her eyes back and says, “Sorry.” She then looks back over to the wall, slowly caressing the marks with her hand.
Kara looks at her with pity, “Listen, my love, I know there’s nothing to do down here but you know why you must do this,” Kara stops for a second, and with no reaction from Kallista, she continues, “and besides, there’s an inspection today. Apparently some...bugs…are infesting our block.” Kallista snaps around, “There’s ALWAYS something infesting our block. What do they expect, Some sort of clean palace under the floor?” Kara shakes her head and puts a locket on a small table beside Kallista’s rugged mattress, “I found this in an alley on C block.-” Loud knocks echoed through the house, interrupting Kara.
“COUNCIL OF SOTERRA, OPEN THIS DOOR IMMEDIATELY!”
Kara’s eyes grow wide and she calls ‘the code’. “Apollo! Please answer the door for the nice men while I put the dishes away!” Kallista sighs and watches as her mother puts the painting back on the wall.
The door swings open. “Hello.. I'm Apollo...What do you need..um..sir?” Apollo says as he brushes his hair and adjusts his shirt. “We’re here for an inspection, sent by the council, we were told there was a bug infestation in this block.” The man says before pushing Apollo out of the way. Before he could ask a second question, they already had searched most of the house. They stop searching and start asking Kara a few questions.
Kallista is bored with the officers, and has successfully sat through many inspections. She goes to pick up the locket but notices that her mother didn’t close the cardboard. She moves the cardboard without any thought, making a small sound in the walls. The guards hear this, stop talking, and turn to the painting. She goes silent, realizing what she had done.
She once again, hears the curtain slowly move back, then the scraping of the painting moving. Her heart is at a million beats per second and she couldn’t help but hyperventilate. The cardboard slowly peels back and Kallista holds the locket close to her. A guard sees Kallista, a pale, underfed, girl, with dark brown hair and ragged clothes. He immediately goes white and yells, “CODE 3025!”
The guard grabs Kallista and tightly ties a blindfold over her face. She shouts at him and kicks, while putting the locket in her back pocket. “Apollo, tell them to let me go!” she says while out of breath, “You said you would protect me!” Kara and Apollo sob silently as Kallista gets escorted out of the small slum.
Chapter II - The Law:
After making it to the world hall, she notices the guards stop.
“We got a coupl’a stragglers.” The head guard says as he holds Kallista and another unknown girl. Kallista hears someone behind the counter smack their lips and say “Alright, go ahead.” with a grumbly voice. A large red light shines through the blindfold and a loud beep comes through the speakers to signify the doors were opening. They walk for a short while before the guards throw the two girls on their knees. “Well well well...” a man says from above, “what do we have here?” he chuckles. “Sir...I mean King Rogelio... these two were found hiding inside the slums in Block E.” the guard stutters, as if he never met the Dictator, who preferred to be called king because he thought dictator was too harsh for his name.
The blindfolds were pulled off the girls heads and they looked up to see the dictator, far above in his golden throne, sticking white grapes into his mouth. “Well?!” He said, like he was expecting something, “Who are you, And why have you decided to break MY laws?” The girls stayed silent, trying not to meet eyes with him. “Answer me at once!” he said with anger. The guard pushed on Kallista a bit, trying to make her answer. “My name is Kallista Morello, I’m fourteen...I think.” she said, not recalling what year it was. “Of course, I always knew that little Apollo boy was a bit too high on his horse.” he laughed. Kallista snarled, trying not to insult the man, with his greasy, slicked hair and his large robe that was many sizes too large for him. His father obviously had just as much, if not, more greed and gluttony than him. “So, what about you, curly hair?”he sat back, looking at the other girl with a smirk. Kallista had just noticed the other girl, who had one braid on her right side, and an undone braid on her left, making her hair frizzy and puffy. She had dark brown hair, dark skin, and she had a missing ring finger on her left hand, which shows through the cuffs. “My name is Waverly Marifer, I’m thirteen, daughter of Cassiopeia and Hugh Marifer.” she says while trying to keep her head down, and away from the king. “Of course, the daughter of the thieving mother gets hidden...and for 13 years.” He gives her a dirty look then gets a huge grin spreading from ear to ear. Waverly is noticeably angry, but is hesitant to snap back. “Put them behind bars! I’ll deal with them later.” Dictator Rogelio says firmly.
Without hesitating, the guards say “Yes, King.” and put the blindfolds tightly over their faces.
Chapter III - Behind Bars:
Kallista gets thrown into a bunk made of stone, her face hitting the floor like a sack of flour. The guards quickly take the blindfold and chains off her and escort Waverly into a nearby cell. Another teenager is in the cell, using his shoelace aglet to slowly carve into the wall, he seems unphased by the sound of Kallista violently hitting the floor. She gets up, brushing off her shirt and jeans and says, “Do you know what’s going on here? What’s going to happen to me? Do you know-” She gets cut off by the boy turning and saying “No. I don’t, and please don’t remind me of my impending death.” Kallista is stopped by the sheer attitude in his voice. “Fine.” She says firmly, then falling back into the stiff board that the council calls a bed. She sits for a few seconds before realizing this is the first person she has talked to in her life that doesn’t work for the government and isn’t related to her. So she reluctantly turns and says, “Well...who are you then?”
The boy turns and sees Kallista, “Alright, listen, I don’t got time for 20 questions, so, my name is Aymir Ibrahim. I am sixteen. I got caught tryin’ to steal bread for my family and now the council is gon’ kill me.” He said with the most sass Kallista had ever heard.
Before she could turn away, she looked out of the cell bars for the first time, seeing the large crowd in the middle of the ring of cells. She heard about large crowds clamoring like this in the middle of a large city, centuries ago, above the ground. Except, these people were silent. Kallista looked closer and noticed they were all in shackles with their heads looking down to the floor.
A man in a navy blue suit walked up to a wooden stand in the middle of the dirt ring. “Alright heathens, let’s get this over with.” He paused for a bit as he opened his clipboard, “My name is General Lee, I’m going to be calling for count today.” He coughs with the volume of a lions roar, “Anyways... Frank Trenton?” he calls as a hand raises in the distance, then the man walks over to the podium.
Kallista sees General Lee try to discreetly put something on his nose, to mask the smell of the neglected citizens. He then calls a few more names, “Mitchell Ray? Blue Portman? Jerry Dolley?” They all walk up to the stand and line up. Kallista sees the General smile and he says, “Alrighty then, let’s see the fun ways we’re gonna get some criminals today!”
Aymir walks up to the bars as he watches in curiosity about what General Lee was going to pick. “Oh well, guess you got unlucky today!” the General says happily. Kallista goes to her bed and uses the limp pillow to cover her ears, she definitely didn’t want to hear this. She remembers her dad who, many years ago, was arrested for assaulting an officer while trying to distract them from Kallista. She remembers Apollo walking into her room, telling her that her father wasn’t going to be coming back.
Even with all the chaos in her mind, Kallista forced herself to sleep, which she had gotten very good at while trying to distract herself from the men rummaging in her house.
Chapter IV - The Man in Black:
Kallista was woken by a rock hitting her face through the hole at the top of the cell. It was the middle of the night and guards were walking around, making sure the “criminals” didn’t conspire against their king. A pebble hit her face again, this time she said, “Hey!” in a whisper. She heard a voice from the next cell over, “Kallista? Hey, it’s me, Waverly.” Kallista got up a little and whispered back, “What is it?” Waverly felt rewarded by her voice, since she had been throwing rocks through the hole for a while. “I have a plan. They’re gonna pick us up tomorrow for slaughter! Do you know morse code?” Waverly whispered. “Yes.” Kallista said, remembering the book her mom gave her about ancient military in the Americas.
A silence went over the two as a guard passed by, shining a lantern in their faces. “He’s gone now.” Waverly said, then continuing with, “Tomorrow, pay attention to the taps.” Kallista was confused, “What taps?” she said. Waverly didn’t respond, so Kallista tried to sleep, while very confused. But no matter how hard she tried, her many years of practice failed her. She was too nervous. She picked up a sharp rock off the floor that a previous inmate had carved into the stone bed with and remembered her idea from earlier. She hoped that it would occupy her. So after a second of debating with herself, she put the sharp rock to her hair and started to slice. Slowly, her long dark locks of hair were shortened into a small, yet messy, pixie, which she tied into a ponytail with a few strings from her shirt. After another guard passed by, she tried her best to look at him without him noticing, but out of the corner of the cell, a black figure moved stealthily across the cells, carefully yet hastily examining each of them. Slowly, the guards make their way into the break room, thinking today was like any other. But the man in black walked up to her, his skin a pasty white and his voice very low, “Gaia?” he whispered, “Do you know where Gaia is?” he questioned Kallista. “I don’t, but who are you?” she responded. “I have got no time to explain, if you see a girl with red hair and fair skin, please tell her that Agent Egg is looking for her.” he said, before quickly rushing to the next cells, desperate to find the person he was looking for.
Chapter V - The Taps:
Kallista has her eyes wide open. The break of dawn hits and the first group of delinquents start getting collected for transport. Kallista is fortunately placed right in front of Waverly. Aymir gets pushed in front of Kallista and he says, “You better not be planning anything funny, I hear the council doesn’t take kindly to traitors, especially those who wuss out of their execution.” Kallista rolls her eyes and starts to walk around the ring while people get collected into the line.
A girl with bright red hair gets pushed into the line, right after being processed, as if they wanted her to go and they wanted her to go fast. She grunts and spits in the guards face. He growls at her and angrily says, “You don’t wanna do that, little girl, I can give a lil’ suggestion to the General about how you should be handled.” he chuckles evilly and continues to chain her into the line.
The line comes to a longer stop than usual and Kallista hears Waverly make a click sound with her tongue. Kallista takes it as a signal and listens for the taps of Waverly’s nails against the chains. Between the yells of the guards and the sound of people yelling and rustling their chains, the sound was difficult to hear.
But from that, she heard; -... .. --. / --. ..- .- .-. -.. / -.- . -.-- / -.. .. ... - .-. .- -.-. -
She whispered to herself, trying to decipher the sounds, but she came up with “big guard, key, distract.” And from that, Kallista knew what she needed to do. She nodded to show Waverly she understood and then started yelling and shaking her chains screaming, “Let me out! Let me out! Let me out!” The guard finally came over and luckily it was the right guard. Waverly grabbed the loose keys from the guard, which was quiet compared to the sounds of Kallista screaming and shaking the chains. The guard pulled up his hand to hit her, but she stopped right after she noticed his keys gone. “That’s what I thought.” The guard hissed.
The line was split into 2 groups. Group one would go first while group 2 waited on the side. This way they all got a clear view of what breaking the law got them to. Kallista couldn’t escape viewing it this time and that was motivation enough for her to want to get on with the plan as fast as possible. She noticed Waverly trying to unlock her shackles quietly. As she was struggling with the chains, Kallista saw General Lee walk up to the stand. Doing the same speech as before, “My name is general Lee, I’m going to be calling for count today.” he babbled on as Waverly finally unlocked her shackles and held then behind her back to appear as if she was still locked in. Kallista saw General Lee slowly put his hand into the black box and shuffle it around. She tried not to pay close attention to what he was going to do, but at this point it was just natural for her to be nosy. Waverly finally passed the key to Kallista and she tried to unlock hers, but since she doesn’t have experience with keys, she was shaking the chains a little bit more.
From the side of his eye, Aymir sees Kallista struggling with the chains and he starts to get worried. “What did I tell you girl? I said not to do anything!” he says quietly. “Oh, be quiet, it’s not like you’re any further from death than you were before.” she says in a hushed voice.
Kallista finally unlocks her chains as well, and she makes sure to not let them fall. Aymir notices the shackles aren’t connected to her wrists and in a last attempt to make it out, he says, “Hey, pass me the key, kid.” Kallista looks over with an annoyed look on her face. He says, “Look, I won’t snitch on ya if you give me the key.” she wasn’t going to give him the key, but she saw Gaia just ahead of him. “I’ll give it to you if you pass it to her, the red-haired one.” Kallista said. Aymir nods and unlocks his chains, then passing it to Gaia. Loud screams pass in the distance as all the other prisoners are transported. The guards began to yell at the next group to go to the ring. The four of them don’t know what to do, but Waverly had an idea. They pass by the guard station, which had a slightly ajar door. Waverly pulled Kallista into the station, who then alerted Aymir and Gaia to follow behind.
Chapter VI - Through the Tunnels:
Waverly saw the two extra people walking into the station, “Who are they?” She said, surprised. “This is Aymir Ibrahim and Gaia.” Kallista said, pointing at each of the others respectively. “Why did you bring me?” Gaia questioned, “and how do you know me?” Waverly and Aymir looked at Kallista, wondering why she had let this stranger in. “Someone named Agent Egg was looking for you. We need you for a deal.” Kallista said. “So I’m still a prisoner?” Gaia huffed, “that’s cheap.” Waverly interrupted the awkward exchange by saying, “It doesn’t matter, we have to get out of here before they count our names.” Gaia rolled her eyes and sighed. Waverly and Kallista started to look through the drawers, rummaging for anything useful. Aymir and Gaia sat back, as if their lives didn’t depend on them finding an aid for their travels. Aymir tried to make conversation, “What’re you in for, then?” he said. “My uncle is an assassin , one of the best known by the outside mafia, but least known but the government. I guess you could say he’s good at his job.” she pauses, but the awkward silence in the room urges her to continue, “He sent me on a practice mission and made sure to set up everything so I wouldn’t get caught. But obviously that didn’t work out so well, since Agent Nikolas didn’t do his job.” she scoffs.
Waverly finally finds a small map with government exits that were used in case of emergency. She looks over to the rest of the group, “I got it!” she laughs, “I don’t know why they would need these anyway, it’s not like they’re gonna share it.” The rest of the group shake their heads and go out the door while following the map. “Not a word, you hear?” Waverly whispers. They all ducked under the barrier and started to follow the map into a blocked off area behind the prison. Three tunnels appeared before them. “Um, what now?” Kallista says, worried. Waverly looks at the map and tries to figure out which tunnel to take. “It doesn’t even show the tunnels.” Waverly sighs. “It’s the one on the right.” Gaia throws out, later than the group hoped. “You could’ve chimed in earlier.” Waverly scoffs. “Whatever.” Gaia says while crossing her arms.
The group follows Waverly into the tunnel. “I might as well just lead us to the city again, there’s no way we’re gonna make it to the exit.” Gaia mutters. “And why is that?” Kallista sneers. “This tunnel goes all the way around the city, I don’t even know if we’re near an exit. Not only that, but it gets deathly cold in here ‘round night time.” Gaia explains. The group goes silent for a bit. “Well we sure ain’t goin’ back” Aymir declares,
“So, what about you, how’d you get here.” He says, looking at Waverly. “I’m a sibling. My sister is in the system somewhere but I don’t know where. We thought having me out would be safe but the guards came in to inspect while my papa was braiding my hair.” Waverly explain, while inspecting the map. “Well, what about your mamma?” Aymir asks. “She’s dead. She was a thief, only stealin’ for her own good. ‘Course one day she came home and tossed some rare artifacts into my hiding spot. Them knives cut off my finger, I cried for days. But that thieving lady never got caught. Cassiopeia Marifer, I’m sure you’ve heard.” Waverly sighed. “No way! You’re Cassiopeia Marifer’s daughter?!” Aymir said, with wide eyes. “Unfortunately.” Waverly muttered. The group went silent as if there was an elephant in the room. And for hours, that elephant never left.
Chapter VII - The Overworld:
After hours of awkward silence while walking in the tunnel, they finally saw a light protruding from a dip in the walls. “I think we’re here.” Waverly claimed. “This is it.” Confirms Gaia. The group walks up to the door extremely slow, trying not to make noise. Kallista looks over the corner and sees a guard, sitting on a stool with a tomato sandwich, not paying any attention to the tunnels. “Great, how are we supposed to get past pomodori man?” Waverly said while facepalming. “Let’s just try the next exit?” Kallista suggested. “There is no way on Athena’s green earth I am walking any longer.” Gaia whispered aggressively. Kallista turned to Gaia, trying to tell her off. But she slipped on a rock and alerted the guard. “Nice job, genius.” Gaia rolled her eyes. “Hey! You can’t be here!” The guard yells, “Leave before I...um...shoot you!” He obviously wasn’t going to pull a gun on them. “I got this.” Gaia winks at Kallista, mockingly. “We’re just trying to get out.” Gaia says, trying to convince the guard to let them go, “have you ever seen the outside? I bet you want to.” he stops for a second, “I can’t! My father won’t ever forgive me!” He shouts.
A black figure passes through the tunnels. Kallista got up from where she fell and grabbed his leg, “Hey! We have her!” she whispers. He stops, and takes off his mask, “Where? You must lead me to her immediately.” he demands. “Not unless you help us.” Kallista says, knowing her plan was working. “Fine, what do you want?” he said. “Well, I don’t know yet but you will help us.” she stuttered. “Fine, you have my word.” the Agent says, while packing his knives. “First, you have to get this guard away.” she tells him. He goes up to the guard and quickly pulls out his sword. “Let them out.” he demands. The weak, untrained, guard scurreys to the door and unlocks it, with the key his father, the head guard, gave him. The sun was blindingly bright, and all around the door was green with trees, grass, and animals of all shapes and sizes. Aymir, Waverly, and Kallista got their first breath of fresh air. It took a while to take it all in. They forget for a second that the bunker existed and all the bad things in life seemed good.
But then Kallista remembered her family and all the other families, were still helpless in Soterra. “We have to get the others.” Kallista said. “No way. We’re already out and we need to cut our losses.” Gaia said. “I agree.” Aymir shrugged with a half smile. “I let you both out, and your uncle here agreed to help me do whatever I needed. We are saving them.” The group looked at each other, with the Officer awkwardly eating his sandwich.
“Well, what’s the plan then?” Waverly breaks the silence. “I don’t know yet.” Kallista says. “Wow. You guys are really bad at this.” Gaia chuckles, “It’s easy. We go into the hall during the last execution, which always takes extra supervision because they’re the most dangerous. The king will be getting onto his throne during the inspection he has planned for today. Then Michael captures the king, we take him to the announcement booth and let the people know they’re free. But first we open the doors obviously.” Gaia took a deep breath since she hadn’t stopped talking during her entire plan. “Michael?” Waverly questioned. Agent Egg puts his hand out, “Michael Uovo, at your service.” They all take in the plan, and begin to spread to unlock the doors with the officers key.
Chapter VIII - Like a Headless Chicken:
The group met back at the original door after finally unlocking all the exits, including the civil ones, which all civilians knew about, in case of “emergency”. Which originally was made just to make the citizens think they were safe if an event ever happened. They made their way through the tunnel, which took them less time since they were in a rush and didn’t care about the noise.
Once they finally made it back to the prison, they took the left tunnel instead of going back into the prison. The group used the side entrance into the World Hall, which they knew was only accessible if you had a door key. So they tried key after key on the guards chain until they finally unlocked the door. They used the back of the map, which had a blueprint of the world hall, to find the announcement room, with access to all the speakers. Michael went over to the throne while the rest of them made their way to the office. The Dictator had a meeting with some low-class workers, which was mostly rumbling. The conversation ended when the Dictator dismissed the team, “Leave me at once! I want a throne made of diamonds and I want it now!” he screamed. The team scrambled away with their things. Dictator Rogelio chuckled as he put a slice of cheese into his mouth. This gave Michael a perfect chance to capture him and swiftly transport him into the radio room, with a blindfold over his mouth to make sure he was quiet. Once everyone had gotten into the room, Waverly looked around and slowly pressed the button down, “Hello, citizens of Soterra. My name is Waverly and I’m--.” Waverly is interrupted by Gaia smacking her lips and pushing her over, “People, the government has you brainwashed, push the doors open, y'all are free.” She says quickly before hearing gunshots outside of the hall. “We have your king, if you shoot any of our citizens, you won’t see him ever again.” Waverly says as Michael pushed the door open with Dictator Rogelio in his arms, who had just shaken his head enough to get the blindfold off his mouth, “You people will keep me safe!” he says over to the microphone. The group didn’t expect anything less selfish than what he said. “Alright you power hungry prick, were gonna take you somewhere special” Kallista said as she walked out the door with the group following closely behind. As they approached the doors, they saw people running in all directions, some went to get food, others went to the exit, and of course there were a few people who were running around aimlessly. “Hey! Look at that guy! He’s running around like a headless chicken!” Gaia laughs. “This isn’t funny, Gaia.” Kallista says. They all go to the cells and lock the dictator in cuffs and throw him into a cell. He screams, but to no avail. The group moves around to the cells and makes sure the citizens all get let out. They see the guards searching for the dictator, so they knew they had to hurry.
Chapter IX - Land of the Free:
Once most of the vault is let out, the group goes out to find their families. Aymir sees his father and runs to hug him. Then Waverly runs to her father as well. Gaia and Michael watch as everyone is reunited. They feel heroic as they watch people breath in the fresh air and jump into the fresh ponds. Kallista searches for her family, but they are nowhere to be found. She runs around the city, in every block. She finally goes back to her house and starts to examine the bullet holes in the door and searches the house for anything that could show her where they were. The only thing she could find in the house that hadn’t been destroyed by the guards was a chess board, still set up the same as before she left. She picked up the knight and put it in her pocket. She noticed there was something else in her pocket. She takes it out and sees the locket her mom had given her. Kallista opens the locket and sees a picture of Kara and Apollo. She tears up and runs back to the outside.
The group asks her where she’s been and she explains her journey. The rest of the group goes silent, then expressing their condolences for her. “They can still be here.” Waverly says. “No, that’s everybody, we checked.” Gaia says.
For a second, Kallista’s heart stopped. The beating in her chest was louder than the screams and footsteps of the citizens nearby. Her mind flashes back to the last time she saw her brother. She remembers his vows to protect her and how determined he looked while she was being escorted away. Her life flashes and what seems like hours to Kallista was only a second before she notices Gaia shaking her violently, “Kallista?! Wake up!” Gaia screams. Kallista finally notices the shakes and snaps out of her mind. She affirms that she is okay and the group looks worried, like they saw a giant spider climb into her mouth.
The group then notices the large crowd forming around them. The people seem confused. They’re enjoying their freedom, but they don’t know what to do next. So Kallista got up to the top of the exit and announced, “Citizens, you’re now free. But even though we just came from a place of cruel laws and unusual punishments, we must establish a way of life. Laws will apply and there will be fair punishments. Now that the dictator has been dethroned, I pronounce this city, Apollis!” Kallista exclaimed.
The people cheered. And soon, the city of Apollis became known under its ruler. The releaser of humans, the courageous leader, and most importantly, Kallista Morello, the child between the walls.