Arise, Part I: Prologue

Dedicated to my best friend Glad
Who was my inspiration,
And for Roselyn whom
I will never forget

Prologue

12 years ago

As Fia ran, it felt like she was carrying the entire world on her back. The sounds of her feet beat onto the dirt floor overgrown with vines and grass. Her foot got caught in a root sticking out of the floor and she stumbled. The ground felt hard as her hands broke her fall, her fingers grabbed the dirt giving her a split second of calm before the world came rushing back to her. As she looked back, she saw Kentae following her with wide green eyes.

“Are you alright Fia?” he asked while frantically looking behind him.

“I’m fine. We have to keep going,” she replied.

“There’s nowhere to go!” Kentae said, looking at the blank gray wall in front of them.

“Are you sure about that?” Fia said without making eye contact. Her eyes darted behind her as she heard the sound of feet pounding on the ground.

“We have to get out of here before they catch us, we’re running out of time here.” Kentae grabbed her arm, but she pulled away.

“Have you forgotten why we’re doing this? The entire world is at stake here Kentae, we can’t just give up because you are afraid! You can go if you want, but I am staying.” Fia left him and advanced to the wall in front of them. Her blistering hands dragged along the tiles in silence.

“Fia,” Kentae started, breaking the silence “We have to–”

“You didn’t think they would just leave it unguarded, did you?”

Fia walked along the wall ignoring Kentae’s warning. Kentae followed slowly behind her looking confused. She reached a corner and stopped studying it.

“There’s a gap here,” she said to herself. She glanced back at Kentae, “and a lock. This wall… it’s a door.”

“Yes, but you just said it is locked,” Kentae replied as the footsteps grew louder behind them.

“So, I am pretty sure all the doors were locked before we came. And if I remember correctly, you were the one who picked them,” Fia held out her hand and Kentae sighed while giving her a small piece of glass. Fia puts it up to her eye and peers through a small hole in the wall, smiling at Kentae.

“They’re not going to get rid of me that easily,” Fia says to herself, she pulled out a thin metal rod from her pocket and pushed it through the hole, pressing a button that ignited a laser.

“Fia, what are you doing?” Kentae asked in an annoyed whisper. He walked over to her stepping over the patches of overgrown grass on the dirt floor.

“Picking the lock,” Fia answered. The wall slowly started to move up like a garage door, tiles clinking and sputtering.

“It’s too loud—they’ll hear us!” Kentae cried over the noise.

“Then we better hurry!” Fia shouted, eyes focused on the wall. She flattened herself against the ground and tried to peer through, but the door was rising too slowly.

“I can’t fit, it’s not going to rise in time,” Fia said looking at Kentae. She sighed and looked away. “When they come, I’ll distract them, you run.” “What…I…Fia I can’t just leave you.”

“They know that I am the one breaking in here, they don’t know that you’re with me,” Fia sighs.

“Like you said, the entire world is riding on this, I don’t care if I get caught, we are finishing this,” He looked at Fia and saw the determination in her slate gray eyes, “together.”

They looked at each other then turned to watch as a group of guards came around the corner. Fia stepped forward and smiled when the guards stepped aside to reveal a man looking like their leader.

“Fia, I should have known you would have tried to break in here after your daughter was put in the system.” The man started toward Fia, and the guards followed behind him.

“You should have given me a choice. You should give everybody a choice.” Fia cried over the noise of the wall slowly rising.

“You are always welcome to leave, Fia.”

“No, I am not, you have been watching me for the past five years ever since your father died. I am the only one who can’t leave thanks to you.”

The man opened his mouth to say something, but when Kentae appeard from behind Fia, and he remained silent.

“Kentae?” the man stopped walking as he meets Kentae’s eyes, “I- I don’t know what to say. I knew you knew Fia, but I didn’t know you would rebel against me.” “Oh please, you haven’t talked to me in years,” Kentae said locking his glare onto the man.

“That doesn’t mean we aren’t cousins.”

“Come on, you father ruined my families lives for the system.”

“And that didn’t stop us before, why should it now?”

“You’re right, your father didn’t make me do this, you did. And don’t ask me how because I know you know that already.”

There was silence except for the loudness of the wall. Fia shared a glance with Kentae to make sure they both knew what they had to do.

“Well, I’m sorry but, I have to take you guys back to the Center now. And there is no point in running so I suggest you should cooperate.”

“Oh, I know for a fact that you are not sorry,” Kentae said with one final look at Fia, and grabbed her arm behind their backs, “and neither am, for doing this.”

Kentae turned and dashed away like lightning, he slid under the wall and Fia followed behind. As the two advanced down the tunnel the man sent his troops after them.

“This place is like a labyrinth; we will never find our way if we don’t take our time,” Kentae yells as Fia takes the lead.

“Time, is the one thing we don’t have right now,” Fia said as she turned a sharp corner.

Kentae stumbled slowing him down as he tried to follow behind her. The man and his guards were still on their tail as they turned left and right. They passed multiple crumbling offices and old powered down machines.

Fia ran toward one of the offices and opened the door, with the guards close behind them she pulled Kentae in and shuts the office door as they crouched behind boxes in the corner. After a few minutes of heavy breathing and silence, the footsteps faded away and Kentae rose.

“How did you know that that would be unlocked?” He asked.

“What would you say if I told you that my grandmother used to work here.” Fia said while she slid away a tall cabinet and crawled through a tunnel behind it.

“I’d say you should have told me that a long time ago,” Kentae said with surprise in his voice as he followed her. “Well, she did, so I know how to find my way around this place,” Fia said going out of the tunnel and standing in a room full of machines. “Now, let’s go save your son.”