The next thing anyone knew was that it was morning. Everyone was already up, probably have been unable to sleep. The clock read seven-thirty in the morning and already so many of the people had woken up.
With a look around the sleeping room, already majority were awake. The minority of the people were still asleep either suffering a nightmare or were feeling too much to awake themselves into the reality—into something they would need to face in a while.
In the crowd of teenagers, all spread out in or on sleeping mats in a huge carpeted and warm air-filled room, Casey was one of those still under the covers.
The mats were thin and hard and not comfortable. One would feel as if sleeping on wet soil ground—except here, it was all dry and at ease. The mats were separate and it was one per person. There was a thin sheet and then a slippery and somewhat noisy blanket on top. The pillow was just a folded up blanket, or in some cases, just cloth. Somehow, the set up for rest was to gradually draw in the feeling of being left alone and uncared for. The set up was to make the person feel out of place, to feel lonely, and to feel closer away from home.
Casey rolled over and a sharp swipe of waterproof material sounded in the large and hallow-sounding room. She had her face in the blankets and breathing through her nose. Indeed she was one of those that had not slept a wink yet too tired to get up.
She raised her head and looked around in front of herself. She was placed near the wall but one or two mats divided her from it. One of the people in front of her was sitting up. Casey lowered her head and peered through her dark bangs at the person.
The girl had waist-length hair. The hair was a little wavy and looked perfectly combed and glossy, like she had never had bed head in her entire life. Carefully, the girl with long hair shrank lower onto the blankets. She was fiddling with something between her fingers. There was a sparkly white golden ring on one finger. In her hands was a small keychain—square shaped and looked rough with patterns. The girl wrapped her long, skinny fingers around the shape and dropped her head forwards, dragging her whole body downwards, back asleep.
Still watching, Casey thought to herself. Her heart was beating fairly quickly. There was another half hour before wake up. So many of the fifteen year olds were not sleeping, but some of them needed time. They needed time to do some thinking, some meditating, anything as long as they had time. The more time they had the better. That was only because if there was less time, the survival hunt was approaching quicker and quicker.
Not all the teenagers were under or over their blankets. Some mats were empty. Some of them wandered about, as long as they did not leave the third door from the right, as long as they did not exit the fifteen year old lounge.
Where did they go? Some of them needed to use the restroom, which was the rooms just a hallway down. Some of them wanted to take a walk and possibly feel fresh air in the morning. Those teens were escorted by an adult who just watched nearby.
Now, was this all the fifteen years old on this land? Was this all the teenagers between the ages thirteen and nineteen? Were they all, all on this land, packed together in one enormous building? Although chances of some not present was highly possible, there were none absent.
The land was small, this unknown land. It was fresh and beautiful and sanitary like a quiet city or town. It was natural, friendly, and free of theft, murders, and any other worrying activity. This land was peaceful in some ways. This land… although no one knew what to call it, it was known for the survival hunt. It was known for doing outrageous activities. No, it would have been known. It would have, but there was no other country or island in the world that knew of this land—only this land knowing of other lands.
Citizens were well mannered most of the times. Citizens were polite and cheerful and showed high spirits in all activities hosted. The neighbours were friends. Everyone on the same small block knew each other well enough to call out names. The rich mixed with the poor, not sharing. The sick mixed with the well, spreading. Things were strange but somehow in the end, things worked out. No one cared about the details.
The land was not large. There were not many houses on this land. Small numbers of houses meant small population number. The maximum number of people living in a house could be countless. But the maximum number of children living in a house was only one. All children had no siblings. All children had no relatives. They only had parents and sometimes on rare occasions, grandparents.
There was sunlight shining through thin slits of windows near the ceiling. There were no curtains over the windows. The glass reflected the light and created rectangles of brightness on the smooth walls.
* * *
Casey rolled over onto her side and sat up. Her knees were bent and tucked close to herself. She was wearing a heavy layer of sleeping clothes. They were not nearly as comfortable as her home pajamas, but all the teenagers were the same. Here, they all were provided with sleeping clothes. All the teenagers had a locker, a small one, that’s password was kept by the head of the age group. Inside the locker contained only a set of clothing.
Looking at her small hands, Casey continued to think. She thought of situations that would burst her body open from the intense beats from her heart. She thought of the calming situations that would sound like nothing but feathers dancing in the song of the wind. She stared at the lines on her hand until she thought the dark indents looked strange.
Finally she pushed herself onto her two legs, slipped her feet into her home sneakers and walked slowly around all the mats that were lined perfectly, creating a path. She was approached by an adult, who then led her into an office type of room.
Casey looked up at the friendly looking woman and said, “I need to go to the bathroom.”
The woman nodded and pointed to another doorway. The doorway had no door, it was empty with space. The doorway led to the short hallway that led to the washrooms: a girls’ one and a boys’ one.
Casey walked by the woman and slowly made her way into the hallway. She had her hands clutched on the opposite upper arm, believing she was cold.
The hallway was not carpeted. The floor was loud wood boards and the walls were lumpy and painted white. There were two doors at the end of the hallway. Both of them were wooden doors and had nothing but a doorknob and a sign. One of the signs had large carved letters reading: girls’ washroom. The other sign was on the other door and had large letters carving out the word: boys’ washroom.
There was a boy standing by the opposite wall from the doors. He was leaning on the lumpy white wall. He was looking down at something on his heavy dark brown sweater. Then, as Casey approached, his head jerked up and stared at her.
His eyes were a green colour. They were an idiosyncratic shade of green that they glowed brightly in the lights on the ceiling. His eyes were outlined lightly with a dark brownish colour. His lips were turned downwards but his eyebrows upwards, showing a face of confusion. In a minute or so, he turned around and stared back at his fingers, fumbling with cotton bits on his jacket front pockets.
The boy’s hair was a sandy colour—a slightly darker than sandy colour. Strands of hair became almost imperceptible in the light. He had messy hair that fell onto random sides. His bangs were thick and long over his eyes and they were brushed to one side. This boy looked as if he had tried to fix his look but the hair rebounded disobediently.
Casey noticed she had stopped walking. Her feet were halted in mid-step. Because of her motionless, the boy looked up at her again. This time, his eyebrows lowered and his eyes not as wide. He leaned further backwards and looked at Casey from head to toe.
“Aren’t you going to the bathroom?”
“No,” Casey responded, surprised that her voice came out naturally. “I just wanted to see what was over here.”
“Well there’re only washrooms here,” the boy said. Then he gave her a sliver of a smile and looked at the door in front of himself. “My friend’s in the washroom. I’m just waiting. He’s taking some time.”
Casey’s eyebrow raised and she felt her chest bounce slightly, as if she was laughing inside of her body. The way the boy said it was almost as if he did not want to hear her ask what he was doing. She just stood there silently, thinking.
Then something came across her mind and curiously asked, “Friend? Your friend?”
The tall boy nodded, sending his hair bouncing along with the rhythm. He answered casually, “Yep.”
Casey expected more from him. She wanted to know what it was like to have one. She knew fairly well what a friend was and she was pretty sure she had an online one, but she did not know what it felt like to have a real person sitting next to you, sharing similar interests, sharing each other’s pain, and sharing each other’s happiness. She was curious. She was actually very inquisitive.
Without thinking, Casey repeated, “Your friend?” She felt a little disturbed that she had asked the same question, in the exact same tone, using the exact same facial expression. Somehow she felt disappointed that maybe this boy standing a few feet in front of her would be annoyed of her and tell her off.
But the boy looked at her again and smiled, replying the same thing: “Yep.”
Because he suspected a little, or a lot of curiosity in her, he decided to continue, “You know I met that guy a long time ago. It was almost as if we were brought up in the same family. But his father and my father was the same. Let’s see…” The boy paused. “This man was born here and he decided to travel somewhere else. During that travel, he had met this woman and thought she was very nice and was his everything. They got married in a land far from here, and had a child. The child grew up well. He was younger than ten when suddenly the man needed to come back here.”
“Citizens from this land aren’t supposed to leave.”
“That’s right,” the boy said. He breathed heavily. “And that’s why I’m not like any other child born and grown up here on this land. You see, I wasn’t born here. I just have to stay here, and live here.”
“Where’s your mom?”
“I don’t know. She’s probably still in her birthplace. I don’t think outsiders were allowed onto this land. You know right?”
Casey felt her head slowly bob forward. She did not have an answer or an opinion why that was true but her mouth knew. “Maybe because outside people may come here and learn about this land and travel away to tell others. My dad said… He said that this land was supposed to stay a secret.”
The boy nodded, this time without a smile. “My mom doesn’t know where my dad went. We’re probably assumed both missing in their land.”
“Do you not feel sorry for her?”
“Of course I do! I’m not a person from this land. I can relate. But my dad, I don’t know if he knows that my mom feels unhappy or confused or whatever.”
Casey leaned against the wall a foot away from the boy. She looked up at the bright ceiling lights. They were so bright on the white ceiling that they started to look dark. Some thoughts were running through her head. She did not know how to feel or how to think.
Maybe my mom…
Then the boy leaned closer and held out something in his hands. Casey looked at him and then the item. It was a black watch.
“Here, take this. I don’t want it.”
Casey blinked in confusion and asked, “Why not?”
The boy frowned and pulled out Casey’s hand and dropped the watch onto her palm. “I don’t need it. I had three with me, now I have two. I just need to give it to someone. You’ll keep it, right? You’ll wear it, right?”
Casey looked down at her hands and still held a confused expression. Something must be in this watch. There must have been a meaning to it. She looked at the boy and smiled a little with a shrug. “Okay.” Then she stared at the smooth cover over the analog designed watch. The red hand was jumping at each second.
Then the door to the boy’s bathroom swung open. Casey’s heart jumped and so did she. Her upper body flung backwards into the wall and her eyes stared at the boy that walked out. He had a forced smile on his face. He did not look at Casey; maybe he did not even notice her. He looked at his friend and laughed.
“Sorry I took so long. My hair wouldn’t stay in place so I decided to just stick it all up. And then while I was wetting my hair, some water got on my jacket,” the dark haired boy said in a raspy voice.
Casey observed this teenager. He looked fairly normal. He was almost as tall as the sandy coloured hair boy but a little shorter. He was wearing a similar jacket to his friend but with sweatpants instead of baggy waterproof pants. His hair was dark and wet and standing up in all different directions.
Then he caught sight of Casey. She continued looking at him like she was a moment ago. This time she saw clearly what his face looked like from the front. His skin was darker than his friend’s and his face was a little rounder. He had dark eyes and dark eyelashes. Then he made a small smirk and looked at his friend again.
The two of them began walking. Just as they walked past Casey, the dark haired boy asked, “Who’s that girl?”
“It’s nobody.”
Casey blinked blankly at them as they walked away and soon turned the corner. Then she turned her head and stared at the blank wall across from her. The whole small hallway was white and extremely sharp to the eyes. The shadows were casted dark and strong on the walls and floor because of the light contrast.
What am I still doing here? I should go back. They might be starting the morning announcements now.
* * *
Back to the main area, the people had already all gotten out of bed. The mats were still sitting around untouched. Everyone was moving about, fidgeting.
Casey scrambled to her mat and sat cross legged with her shoes still on. She looked around the room and suddenly could not recognize any faces. She looked beside her and spotted the golden haired girl. She was sitting as well and staring into space.
A moment later, the same woman from the night before started to right the bell for attention. She stood up on a platform and held a microphone to her lips. The sound was not projected as well but everyone could hear.
“Good morning. Everybody, today is a really, really big day. I need you all to cooperate with me, okay?” She paused for everyone’s full attention and then continued. “We will start off with more preparations. I want you all to be dressed by eight-ten. You can use those other rooms if you want. And after you’re done, you will be called to pick up your backpacks. In a while, we will be gathering back outside and hearing what Mr. Bocans has to say. You do remember him from yesterday, right? Okay then, let’s go.”
Changing and organization took not a lot of time. By eight-ten exactly everyone was done changing. By eight-thirty, everyone had their backpacks on and ready to go. And by eight-forty or so, everyone was gathered by the front door, waiting for that same friendly woman to guide them all outside to meet and greet or just listen obediently to everyone around.
When the door opened, all the fifteen year olds one by one walked outside. They all took the same stairwell down to line up in no particular order and just wait patiently until all the other age groups had calmed down and stood with patience and silence.
The thirteen year olds and the fourteen year olds were already lined up, standing in straight lines near the front of the large wooden, echoic room.
Many minutes later, all the age groups were lined up. All at once they were asked to take a seat quietly and respectfully. Adults stood all along the walls and were once again dressed in formal clothing.
The surrounding felt like an assembly in a gymnasium at school. Even though many had not gone to school on this land, they have heard of public schools and education and activities in movies and books, taught by various teachers.
Then the man named Mr. Bocans from yesterday stood at the podium again. Today he wore a black suit and a bright orange tie. His hair was combed in the exact same way and he had on the same facial expressions as the day before. His hands were placed in front of him, on the podium, and he stood up tall with a smile on his face.
“Welcome again! Survival hunt is coming near. There will be just some announcements. After this, you do not have to wander in your age groups, for you may not remember who was in what age after these few minutes. I would like you to all thank the adults who have kindly spent time with you, preparing you for this week long experience.”
He took a pause and looked up. Everyone stared silently back at him, waiting for more. “There will be an invitation for outside citizens like other adults to come in here after you have all gathered to the glass balcony. That balcony is up there,” he said and pointed above him.
Just above him and a little further back was another balcony made of clear material. The balcony was much larger and much more expanded in comparison to the small piece of wooden ground the man was currently standing on. Connecting the balcony to the ground were glass tubes on either side of the balcony, just above the spiral stairs. Anything else along with the balcony was unseen from the distance on the ground.
The man spoke again. “You will go into those elevators and it will take you up to the balcony. Up there, there will be more adults to assist you. You will ride the escalators even higher up until you are stopped. Adult helpers there will guide you and bring you two by two onto these lifts called gondolas. The lifts will take you higher—right now you cannot see them because they will lift you higher than this part of the building. Those gondolas then will take you downwards into the arena. Everything you will need to know will be explained up there.”
‘Up there…’ Up there was a strange way of saying things. There was an unending amount of ‘up theres’ existing. Everything in the process of the survival hunt consisted of being higher and higher and higher. You would feel so high that there could not possibly be anything else higher.
That is when the down comes into play. Downwards, a feeling that was so exciting yet depressing. The excitement glides you through. But without more ups, there could not be any downs. The downs all ended at the floor, the ground. This ground, no, that ground was known as the Dinosaur Survival Hunt arena.
Suddenly there was a lot of speaking. Mr. Bocans was indeed finished with his speech and people became restless. The hearts were beating all at once, all extremely loudly, all so loud that you may be hearing your own, or someone else’s.
Silence was not something that lasted long. Silence even on this land did not last long. People were bound to speak to one another, whether they knew them or not. It was a natural thing. It was natural for a voice to sound into another’s ear. And it was natural for a response to be heard as well.
Casey was following everyone else. She did not really know what was going on. Currently she did not feel like grabbing someone’s arm and asking for any help. It was almost certain they had no idea what was going on as well. Everyone just had to go with the flow.
The flow ended on the glass balcony. The elevators were stopped after the last teenager was brought up on the balcony. The room was quiet for a few moments until the front door of the building opened. People squirmed in, filling the spaces of the once empty gym floor. People—adults, were running in and looking up at the enormous balcony meters and meters above their heads.
People were waving and waving deeply and extremely. There were shouts and exclaims and random yells. No one could understand each other. This was probably part of the plan. Meetings were over. The adults below would not see their children or friend’s children until seven days later.
Casey felt herself being pushed. Suddenly she was pushed so hard she crashed into someone else, who was near the wall. She looked up and automatically opened her mouth to say an apology. Just before sound came out of her mouth, she recognized the person.
The girl with the long black hair pulled back into a little elastic band. The girl she had seen yesterday, whose mother was full of sorrow. It was the girl that was fourteen years old and stood a few adults away on the first night.
The black haired girl smiled without showing any teeth. Her eyes were as dark as black, with a small reflection of the lights above.
“Hi,” she said.
Casey’s mouth moved but nothing came out. She slowly pulled herself out of the crowd and into the back area. The girl with black hair watched and followed her. Then Casey coughed and she heard her own voice again.
The black haired girl smiled again. “Hi, I’m Acacia Lann.”
Is this girl trying to be friendly? Is she perhaps trying to make friends? But I can’t let that happen…
Casey smiled back really big and pulled back the hair that had fallen onto her face. “I’m Casey. No, I’m Cassandra but people call me Casey.”
“Casey,” the girl repeated. She looked at the huge crowd of noisy people shouting. Then she looked at the adults standing against the wall or running into the crowd making sure none of them got hurt.
“Is your mom out there?” Casey asked.
Acacia nodded. “Yup, my mom’s out there. She must be really worried about me right now. You know… The hunt doesn’t really sound pleasing to the ears.” Then she stopped and stared at Casey in the eyes. “What about you? I saw you with your… dad yesterday. Is he out there?”
“I don’t know,” Casey responded honestly. “I haven’t looked and… Actually I think he might be there but in the background, not shouting or waving or any crazy thing like that.”
“Ah, that would be my dad if he were here.”
“Did he not come?”
Acacia shook her head. “No, I don’t know where my dad is. He might have gone to the outside.”
Casey nodded slowly, taking in what she heard. Then she looked at Acacia and grinned. “Do you think the crowd will die out soon? Maybe the adults will still be there and we can see our mom or dad.”
She nodded. Acacia looked at the crowd and then beyond it, on the other side of the balcony. Almost immediately she bent over, ducked her head down, turned away and stayed silent with her eyes focused on the wall, not even blinking.
Casey tilted her head, confused, and looked behind her shoulder. She saw nothing but huge mounds of people jumping over each other, pushing, shoving, and continuing to scream loudly.
“What’s wrong?”
“He’s there!”
“Who’s there?”
Acacia pointed nervously. She peered from behind the hand on her cheek. “That boy over there… Do you see him? He’s wearing a brown jacket and has light coloured hair… That… that one right there!”
Casey looked where Acacia’s shaky finger pointed. Then Casey realized who she was talking about. Before she had gotten the full glimpse of who exactly the boy was, she knew. It was the boy Casey had seen earlier by the washrooms.
“Oh it’s him.”
“Have you seen him somewhere before?”
“Yes, at the washrooms this morning. Why are you asking?”
“Because… because… I don’t know why but I just don’t know how to act around him!” Acacia said in a loud whisper. “You can’t tell anyone.”
Casey stared and then asked, “Do you know him? Do you like him?”
“Yes! I know him… I really do. His name is Elias Merrows and I’ve seen him somewhere else before. I’ve seen him outside before. He left before I did. He and his dad left before my mom and I came here.”
He left? She left? They must have met somewhere else as well.
Casey crouched down next to Acacia and looked straight into her eyes. “Acacia, are you born here?”
“I… I can’t tell you.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.”
Acacia brought her hands to her knees and shrugged. “Well, no, I don’t think so.”
“Is your mom born here?”
“I’m… I’m not sure, actually. I don’t think so.” Then she covered her mouth and looked around. She hissed, “Don’t tell anyone I said this to you. You can’t tell a single person, at least not about my mother anyway.”
“I know,” Casey said. “I know about this.” Then she lowered her voice to a whisper as well. “Do you know if your dad is born here?”
Acacia shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything about him. He either is or he isn’t and I really hope he isn’t… But if he isn’t, I don’t know what will happen to us—me and my family I mean!”
Casey nodded. She nodded quickly. “I know what you’re talking about. Well I know because I’ve spoken with that boy…”
“Elias?”
“Ah…! Yeah, that boy! I’ve talked to him and he said something about this land and how outsiders are not to come in here. And if they do and are known, they cannot leave. I know.” Casey then looked back at the noisy crowd. She asked again, “Do you like him?”
“A little bit?”
Casey smiled and patted Acacia’s bony shoulder. She stood next to her and said, “I’ll help you then. It doesn’t matter about this survival hunt thingy, I’ll help you, okay?”
“Okay, but help me with what?”
Not long after their conversation started to end, the huge mob of teenagers had slowly disappeared. There were still many people crowding around the balcony edge but now there was enough room for others to push in there.
Casey and Acacia walked closer and made their way to the balcony edge. The glass felt cold on the palms. The flooring was not made of glass, much to a lot of the weak people’s satisfaction. The glass balcony wall was thick and sturdy. There was guarantee for safety anyhow.
Casey stood out in the light with her hands gripped tightly to the rounded ledge. Her body was not leaned against the glass because something in her head just said: even though it was safe, there may be some errors.
She stared out at the hundreds of thousands of people murmuring below. There were heads and heads and faces and faces and many arms waving and voices shouting. There was so much noise that the ears had naturally tuned out most of the sound. The faces now were very tiny compared to the faces seen from the balcony some meters below. The clothing was colourful and just about everything seen was bright and not good for the eyes.
It was minutes then and the crowd had died away. The parents and adults remained, still making various shouts to the teenagers that had made their way up the escalator. The escalator elevated them out of sight, way above the main building. This area was not seen yesterday. It must have been covered up by some special effects.
“Hm… The Dinosaur Survival Hunt…” Acacia said suddenly. She looked at Casey. “Doesn’t that sound kinda scary? Do you know what that is?”
Casey looked at Acacia’s light coloured face. She stayed still, still staring with nothing on her face for reading.
“There are literally dinosaurs in there, aren’t there? I’m only guessing this from what I’ve seen and heard. There are dinosaurs in that arena. They don’t tell you this. In fact, I don’t even know why there is such an activity roaming around. I don’t know why I’m here. I know that I don’t have to be in here, that’s why my mom’s so worried sick!” Acacia slowed down. She spoke slowly and clearly. “There are literally live dinosaurs in that arena. We, as teenagers, kids, whatever you want to call us, have to be in the same room as dinosaurs.”
“They’re real? They’re real?!” Casey shouted suddenly. Her eyes were gradually growing larger and her mouth bigger. Her shoulders became the opposite of hunched. Slowly her fingers twitched to the railing. “They’re real… We’re going to die. We’re going to die! I’m going to die… for sure. Seven days in there, living with them. Are you serious? You’re kidding me, just to scare me, aren’t you?”
“I wouldn’t joke about this, Casey. I really wouldn’t joke about something like this,” Acacia said. She blinked her black eyelashes slowly. “I’m not joking. They’re real. What else can they be?”
Suddenly the world felt shaky. The shaking might not have come from the ground but from the legs. Casey’s legs were quavering so much she fell to the floor. Her fingers rolled down the glass, sweat sticking. She looked at the ground with wide eyes and her mouth shaking without any words to say. Her eyes looked up at Acacia, who then squatted next to Casey. Casey’s right hand fell on her lap and she stared without blinking.
“They’re real…”
Inside the arena was more than anything. With a sudden burst of life brought in. With the words of an outsider, everything of an insider changed. Just with simple words someone from the outside said, an insider would believe. There were almost no doubts. There was no place for doubts. It was as if someone on the outside could see the full picture, while a person in the inside only saw what was around them.
Yes, what else could they be?
