The Collapse

It's not like I ever had any particular desire to go up onto the Plate...

We may not have a lot down underneath, but we got by! I was happy, living with my mom. She worked at a small tea shop, and I went to school, and at the end of the day, we would do art together! Mom always told me that art was a reflection of one's heart. That even someone who wasn't particularly talented could express the inner workings of their soul through their art. I wasn't particularly talented. But she was a whole different story! She could paint, sculpt, draw; You name it, and she was an expert!

Mom always had a particular disdain for the people who live up on the Plate. One night I did a painting of what I imagined it must be like up there; Living under the Sun, flowers growing everywhere, people genuinely happy! I feel like it was one of my best paintings. But when Mom saw it, her eyebrows pulled together, and her nose scrunched up as if the image disgusted her.

"It's beautiful Zaya..." Her face didn't match her words...

And she never spoke about it again. Before long, I threw the painting away. I don't think she noticed. Living under the Plate was a struggle. The sun and moonlight were artificial. The food was essentially scraps that none of the Tops wanted. Even so, how could I miss something that I had never experienced? I think Mom thought that I was wanting something more than what she could offer me, but at the time, I was just a little girl, drawing whatever I envisioned! I never wanted to go up to the Top...

Until the Collapse...

I was on my way home from school. It wasn't a long walk; maybe six or seven blocks. I was walking with my friend Monae, probably talking about boys or something stupid like that, when we heard a loud rumble, followed by an insufferable screeching sound!

We stopped, for a moment and looked at each other, sharing the silent question “What the hell was that?” When no answer came, we prepared to keep walking, but then the world started falling apart! No more than a mile to our right, a house literally fell through the plate! It seemed to move in slow motion, floating downward on it’s side, accompanied by large chunks of stone and metal; Until it landed, and the massive crashing sound forced everything back into real time! Screams and shouts could be heard piercing through the air now. The idea that a building had fallen through the Plate was beyond anyone’s imagination! But we had no idea how much worse things were about to become! Within moments of the house falling, came a car about a half a mile in the other direction, and then a trailer some ways behind us! As if the wrath of the Heavens had been unleashed, everything from trees to solid concrete was falling from the skies above us!

Panic is the child of Pandemonium, and this was proven as the normally quiet streets erupted into a stampede of crazed men and women rushing to find some semblance of safety! Some rushed to find cover, Others tried to force their way onto the freight elevators used to transport supplies to and from the Plate. We later heard that the elevators may have caused an artificial faultline that lead to the collapse of the Plate in the first place. Parents frantically carried their children into their homes, and several young adults gathered in groups, hoping to find safety in numbers!

Monae and I just stood there…

It wasn’t that we didn’t recognize the situation’s weight. It was just that none of these acts seemed to be the right move! If the Plate was collapsing, what was the use in trying to get on top of it? And was there any structure down here that could withstand the Plate falling on top of it? No action seemed practical and so I was stuck, unable to make a move at all! Until something hit the ground only a few feet behind us, and just barely outside of my peripheral! I didn’t look back as we took off running, but I believe it was a human body. It was small, and the sound it made on impact was fleshy, not like it was made of stone, or metal.

We started running for home, but before we made it to our neighborhood, I realized that Mom wouldn’t be there. She had been at work! And the Tea Shop would likely have set up a shelter for people in the area! We would have to part ways!

I didn’t have time or luxury to wave goodbye as I turned down the road toward the Tea House.The rumbling of solid masses hitting the ground ensured that we kept moving as quickly as possible. And now, there was water falling from above as well! There must have been fractures in the plate that ran below several water sources, because there were several streams coming down, flooding the streets. It wouldn’t be long before it got to the bodies that had fallen, and the smell took to the air.

It would only take a few moments for the Tea House to come within view. Mr. Wallace was outside, ushering people in. The Tea House was one of few buildings down below to have a basement. No one wanted to be under, the down under. Now it seemed like the greatest asset one could ask for!

Mom was outside, scanning the area for me no doubt. She saw me before I even made it to the lot!

“Zaya!” She called out to me, running in my direction to meet me! My heart jumped to see that she was alright! But the adrenaline that pushed me there still hadn’t faded. Maybe that’s why I saw it before she did!

“Mom!” I called out frantically! She dove out of the way just before it could crash into her head, crushing her where she stood.

My eyes settled on the object that had just barely missed my mother’s skull. It was a stone fountain, topped with the image of a baby with angel wings. I was so absorbed in the sculpture that it took me a second to turn and check on Mom.

“Are you alright?” The words came out more calmly than I expected. I even walked to her side with a very tranquil air about me. Perhaps it was the moment I had taken to look at the Angel that relaxed my nerves, but the effect was short lived. When I called out to her, she was unresponsive. My heart immediately began to pound once more…

“Mom?”

The tears were already flowing by the time I made it to my knees. I turned her to face me and the air was immediately stolen from my lungs! Her entire right side was covered in tiny bruises and indentations! ! On the ground beneath her were bits of the fountain that had broken off upon contact with the ground and pummeled her! But lodged in her temple, were two sharp pieces of stone. They must have flown at her at the perfect trajectory to penetrate so deeply! She was probably dead before she even hit the ground! Everything fell silent. For the first time in the longest ten minutes of my life, there was no crashing, no screaming, no chaos; Only a deafening silence and the beating of my own heart.

I don’t know how much time passed. It was Mr. Wallace who snapped me out of it. When he placed his hand on my shoulder, I looked up, but it was like I was looking straight through him. I coudln’t even hear his voice! The first thing I noticed was that there were no tears on my face. It was completely neutral. As he tried to usher me into the Tea House that the sounds started to return. The ground began to vibrate again as more chunks of the Plate collided with the ground! This wasn’t right… If the Tea House were to crumble under fallen rubble, the basement would become a tomb for everyone who was inside! Panic reviving my faded adrenaline, I ripped myself away from his guiding hand, and ran away!

I didn’t know where I was going, There didn’t seem to be a safe location anywhere, But I couldn’t help but feel like being confined somewhere was the wrong answer. I found myself back in my own neighborhood soon, half ready to just crawl into bed and give up. I had stopped in front of the house, just staring at it. I honestly had no more energy left. There was no more effort for me to put into surviving. For what? Mom was gone, and even if I survived, how long would it be livable down here? My bed was seeming like a better and better option by the moment!

And then if fell…

Right at my feet; A golden, heart shaped locket. It landed in the grass, right in front of me. At first I paid it little mind. Just another piece of the above world polluting my own. I stepped over it and toward the house, but something compelled me to look back I knelt down and picked up the locket. It had a diamond trim around the outside. Probably the most valuable thing I had ever touched. I don’t know why, but my hands were trembling! Even so, I pressed the tiny button on the side to open the locket and inside was a picture of my mother…

It was an older picture; probably from before I was born, or at least when I was just a baby. There were no bags under her eyes, and the aging lines on her forehead were also absent. She had the most adorable laugh lines that I hadn’t seen on her since I was small. It was a picture of a young, and happy woman. But it was undoubtedly my mother!

Where had this locket come from? Who did it belong to? What were the chances that it had fallen right into our front yard; unaccompanied by an owner, or any rubble of any sort? Why would someone up Top even HAVE a picture of Mom? Did this have something to do with the reason she seemed to hate the world up there so much?

The longer I stood there, the more unanswered questions assaulted me! I barely even noticed that the ground had finally stopped vibrating! Rescue Squads had begun descending from above. No doubt, they were here to search for Tops that had been displaced in the collapse, not Unders who were dealing with the effects… But this gave me an idea!

I ran into the house, and opened my closet, pulling out a white frilly dress that Mom had given me when I was twelve. It was fancier than anything I had ever seen anyone wearing, so I had never worn it myself. It was two sizes too small now, But it just might get the job done! I changed into the dress, and put the locket around my neck! I tore the skirt of the dress up one side, and went out to roll in the dirt! If I could convince the Rescue Squad that I had somehow survived the fall from the Top, then maybe they could take me up there, and I could find the owner of this locket, and with them, the answers to my questions!

I never wanted to go up to the Top.

Until the Collapse...