Written in Stone

The sky is crystal clear today and I can taste the salt in the air from the sea. We don’t get many clear days like this since the Bang, the elders say. It has been decades since the Bang and we still get waves of radioactive clouds that come and go. Lucky for us the compounds were created and my family was able to get to one in time. As I laid under the clear sky and felt the warmth of the sun against my face everything felt good. I watched the waves creep close to the shore and go back and forth, I loved the sound of them crashing against the stone wall at the base of the hill.

Noah came up behind me and was holding something in crinkly glitter paper. He was grinning from ear to ear and his curls were bouncing in the wind as he picked up the pace towards me. He loves to wear his hair out while we’re outside. As he sits down he tells me he has a surprise for me. I close my eyes and tell him to go ahead and show me. He starts to hand me the crinkly glitter paper and snatches it back. He hesitates.

“I want you to know something first”, he says.

His eager expression drops and I’ve never seen him quite so odd. He takes a deep breath and begins to tell me how for a long time he has felt like he doesn’t belong in the skin he is in and when he found this gift it released a part of him he didn’t know existed. I didn’t understand what he meant but I assured him whatever he was going through I would be there for him, no matter what. He hugged me and then handed me the crinkly glitter paper and said to open it.

I played with the paper in my hands, all crinkly and glittery, whatever was inside was no heavier than a small stone. I opened up the paper and there was a shiny heart shaped locket, with a tiny little note inside, I started to open it but he stopped me. Then proceeded to say, “The note is a secret and you can’t open it now but you’ll know when.”

We busted out laughing and I thought he was joking but the look on his face was serious, I respected that. I took the locket and tied it around my wristband, now it was on me forever I told him. We hung out outside for a bit before we headed back to the compound and our day had officially ended.

On our walk back, I watched Noah put his hair back up and he straightened his back and his grin from earlier slowly faded away. Inside the compound we said our goodbyes and went to the pods with our families. In my pod, my ma was tending to our laundry and making sure our school clothes were cleaned before the next day. Lights out was right around the corner but I forgot to take a shower after I came in so I had to hurry to the shower quarters or I’d be walking in the dark and the compound is super creepy in the dark.

One foot in front of the other and I was on my way to the showers when I suddenly stopped.

Something wasn’t right.

I started to continue to the showers but I had a strange ache that something was different. I picked up the pace and hurried to the showers. As I began to lather the body wash over my body I still couldn’t shake the feeling. I kept on and quickly finished my shower but I still missed lights out by 10 minutes and was in the dark on my way back to our pod.

Shit.

As I walked past the common area I heard some commotion, I knew it wasn’t any of my business but I couldn’t help but sneak to hear a peak. As I eased down the corridor I heard several elders huddled together talking quietly. I could barely hear but a few words.

“Several young people are gone, along with their families. The others can not know what has happened to them. It is for the best. --The best?? Noah Graham was one of the members; he was the most viable subject!”

I gasped. They heard me. I held my breath. I just knew they were about to come for me. I felt my heart pounding through my chest.

“Quiet!” One of them shouted. After a few moments I heard the last words.

“We shouldn’t be speaking here. Come. Let’s go.”

I walked quickly back to my pod, numb. I didn’t know what they were saying, nothing made sense. Where was Noah? What did they mean test subject? I quickly said goodnight to ma and pa and laid face up in my bed.

“Noah is gone.” A single tear fell against my cheek and I shut my eyes.

It’s been months since the sky has been crystal clear again and you can taste the salt in the air from the sea. It’s been months since I saw those curls bounce in the wind and saw a grin spread across his face. Months.

The morning after that day we got the news. Noah had passed away in his sleep. No rhyme or reason, he was just gone. They told me he must’ve come across a contaminated field and didn’t realize. I would’ve believed them except something about that night didn’t make sense. How would they know he had died in his sleep if they knew he was gone that night I heard about it after my shower? I wanted to give my condolences to his family but they had to be moved to a different compound because the pain of being where he was was too hard to bare. Holes. Holes everywhere. The stories didn't add up. There were three other kids I didn’t know that disappeared that week also but it was spread out. Someone’s child would go missing and they would send away the whole family. Anytime I tell my suspicions to my parents they shove it off and say I wouldn’t understand how hard it is to lose a child and people do strange things.

I missed Noah, so much.

The sound of the drone hovering nearby forced me to quickly snap back into reality. The compound, the storms, and the rancid smell of the cloud picking up pace and getting closer. I knew it was only a matter of time before --

BARRRRH BARRRRH

That was the warning alarm letting us know it was time to go back underground. I took one last look at the horizon and watched the waves begin to get more aggressive as the cloud neared. I never stay outside this long but the days were beginning to drag on without him. I felt my wristband with my compound digits and the heart shaped locket he gave me tap against my wrist. I couldn’t bring myself to read the note yet. I wasn’t ready. Then as I began to head back to the underground entrance, I saw something in the water.

It looked like a boat. But I had only seen one of those in our schoolbooks. After the Bang, no one was allowed in the water because they said it was polluted by the radiation and we were only allowed contact with water after it had been neutralized.

BARRRRRRH BARRRRRH

The alarm sounded again, a bit louder this time and it scared me. I had never been this close to not making it back in time. I hurried to the entrance just as the door was closing and suddenly I saw one of the elders walking outside... from another entrance beyond the stones.

What?

The door closed behind me and I was hurried along by everyone in the decontamination room. I knew if I told ma and pa any of this they would never believe me, so I kept my secret. I hurried along to the common area for supper and met up with my family and I looked around.

More people were missing.

After supper we all went to our pods and I couldn’t shake this feeling of something odd going on. I looked at my older sister Corrie, she was always quiet as if she was never there but tonight she was dead silent. Then as I looked at everyone’s face, everyone was quiet.

“Is everything okay?” I finally had the courage to ask. My little twin brothers were asleep and it was just my parents, my sister and I awake.

My parents looked sternly before me and then the reached quickly for a notebook on the table.

My pa wrote in bold letters.

Lia, you were right.

I stared in utter disbelief. He then continued to write and all of us just stared at one another quietly.

Something strange has been going on in the compound for some time now. Before Noah.

The elders are hiding something from all of us.

I continued to read the words on the paper but they didn’t feel real. I was right? I knew I was but what does this mean? My mom took the paper and began to write more.

Corrie came to us and said she hasn’t felt like she belongs in the skin she is in and moments later the elders came to ask questions. That was when we knew.

The wheels in my head, clicked.

The same words Noah said before he disappeared.

I nodded to Corrie and hugged her, I wanted her to be comforted but I still didn’t understand what all of this meant.

We think this has something to do with the disappearances.

I took the notebook and began to write, Noah said the same thing to me before he disappeared.

Ma and Pa looked at each other as if that confirmed their beliefs.

They are listening. Pa wrote.

We believe they will come for her, and for us.

I looked at Corrie, tears filled her eyes. I reached for her hand and held it firmly.

What do we do? I wrote hurriedly because the tears were begining to come down my face.

We must leave. First clear sky. We take what we can carry as if we’re going on a family gathering and we go.

There were those holes again. Where would we go? How would we survive if we are not underground? I had so many questions but I know I couldn’t ask them if they were listening to us. After we finished talking about the plans ma and pa took the paper from the notebook, ripped it into tiny pieces so it couldn’t be put together and then burned it in the wastebasket.

That night I felt relieved, despite being scared as shit I felt heard, they believed me and that was when I knew. That was the moment. I reached for the heart shaped locket Noah left with me that day and I began to unravel the little note inside. In a few words scribbled in his handwriting it said;

I am here. Follow the Masonry. - N.