The Truth of a View

"The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room." And in that moment when she realized the truth - Sam knew she would never return to her life underground.

Sam traced her fingers along the exposed side of the exam table she was sitting on- what was this material? She had never felt something so cold, so smooth, it looked like a mirror; although the reflection was a bit distorted, she could see herself clearly, almost idential to how she felt in the moment. Distorted. She raised her eyes back to the window.

The ornate gold frame disguized the landscape like a painting. She wondered if that's even what paintings looked like.. she wouldn't know.

She never saw one, she'd only heard of them in stories.

No one really spoke about art anymore, as there really wasn't any point to do so.

All of the things that once inspired the human race, were lost in the Collapse.

Nothing left to inspire a generation who had no need for inspiration anyway; if they wanted to make art, they wouldn't ever be allowed to, as it isnt a productive activity listed by the Program.

Right before the Collapse, colors of the world began to dull; the sky hazed, and the waters muddied.

The animals had dissapeared, even the ones that relied on humans. They hibernated, burrowed, migrated to remote places, hell; some even evolved. Pigeons, deemed the coachroaches of the sky, adapted to the Smog by converting it into energy instead of neededing food, since, there was none.

Humans however, still could not figure out how to do it, so they did what they do best.

Manufacture a Solution.

Turns out, if you are the Companies, conserving resources doesn't apply to you, even during a global meltdown.

So during the Collapse, when most people were forced to abandon their cars in the streets when gas reached $16 a gallon - the Companies were burning more fuel than any Country, with no slowing down in sight, all in the name of profit.

The Problems only started from there, and would escalate until the Collapse, when everything fell apart, and opportunity fell into the wrong hands.

Sam recalled the stories she heard as a child as she waited impatiently for the doctor to return, she felt the time was moving slower than ever before.

The first Problem that came about was the pollution, which began years before anyone labled it as a Problem. Everyone was blaming the consumers for the Companies faults, and the Companies were shrugging their shoulders and finding ways to monopolize on this crisis.

The Companies began selling "green" Solutions, to their own dirty Problems.

It was a cycle; buy more of this so you waste less of that, and in the mean time, the production of it all was causing more harm than the plastic waste of the item being thrown away after it broke in two uses anyway!

Everything those days was being made too fast and too cheap.

People were too high on the feeling of owning things, that they never cared about where the items went after they threw them away; out of sight - out of mind.

No one to blame other than the people who were selling 10,000 items every season for a collection, and paying their workers $0.10 a garment and selling them for $50.00, shipping not even included!

The cycle was vicious and long, and found its way back into our lives, right infront of our eyes. I guess the people didn't care about the workers, until they became them.

Sam pulled at her jumpsuit, that she made. She knew the placement exam would send her to work in the garment wing of the Compound, where she would sew for twenty years, earning one ration of food per 10 garments made.

This jumpsuit took her a week to make last summer.

She shivered, where was the doctor? She was getting more nervous, she glanced at the window.

The dead grass was a color she never saw before. She focused on the shapes she could make out in the distance, the fallen tree branches rotting away, the small mushrooms in the soil by their side.

The truth was too much to bare sometimes, that living in a lie was easier for some.

Regardless of the push back from the "green" campaigns from the Companies, the Smog eventually came. And it came overnight. There seemed to be a film of soot on everything, the kids were calling it death snow.

People started getting sick, and the sickness was being met with hospitalization, which was taking away from people being able to work. Which wasn't good for anyone.

No workers, no work. No working, no money, no things.

It only got worse.

No sunlight, no crops. Food was getting scarce, well, for the general population. All the while the Companies had dinners filled with imported meats and cheeses, and always had more wine than needed.

After that, came the Blackouts. Power surges that would last for days. No air in the summer, no heat in the winter; each season taking on a higher death toll than the previous. The villas of the rich who owned the Companies, stayed casually climate controlled all year long.

Soon after that, came the Inflation, and not only gas but food. People were starving while working $100,000 a year type jobs, unable to provide basic necessitates for themselves - most people took on second jobs.

Others, chose to work for themselves for a change, to figure out a new way to survive, on their own terms.

However, the freelancers took away from the working class that was supposed to be for the Companies.

They needed people to work for them!

Not themselves.

When this happened, the economy was intentionally tanked, and those who had two jobs, now had none, and had nothing. And the ones who worked for themselves, had no clients, as they all had no jobs, and they too, found themselves with nothing.

The only people making money, were the Companies; and they wanted to keep it that way.

Tanking the economy, forcing the crash, it was the only way they could get their claws in everyone without losing their gargantuan fortunes in the process.

Then it all happened so fast, right in front of their eyes.

When the Collapse began, there was little time to make decisions. Everyone who survived the initial waves of layoffs, forclosures, bankruptcies; were forced to the extreme sides of their beliefs.

Either you are one of them, or you are one of us!

By then, the Blackouts were happening more frequently, and suspiciously timed during events that journalists were covering on meetings being held regarding a new venture the Companies were about to get into.

The Companies didn't want the truth getting out, before they could get everyone in.

Over half of the population was in favor of going underground to what they thought was going to be their new home through a dark time in the world, where humans were not going to be able to survive on the Surface because the conditions of Earth were barely habitable due to pollution and climate change.

The people who ended up going underground, belived the Companies were telling the truth of the end, and blindly followed them to their own.

But to them, there was no way out, they couldn't take everyone to the moon, and this was supposed to be the best option for everyone else; if they wanted to survive.

Welcome HOME.

That was the slogan.

HOME was the underground Solution for the above ground Problems which were being created at this point, soley by the Companies.

The way they really got everyone, was by marketing this as not only the Solution to the Problems we have now, but it's the future everyone should want.

It would be one large connected subterrainean community with people who really need support during these unprecedented times on Earth.

There would be jobs readily available and everyone would get great health care and the living measures would be extremely sustainable. Food and shelter provided, lots of ammenitites; the great technology being used was enough to sell some, they were manufacturing oxygen to sustain life underground to save the people!

They wanted to be part of history in the making.

The Companies were claiming to be investing in this new Program where a closed-off community could live and thrive underground with nothing needed from the Surface, to allow the Surface to regenerate, so in a few years, humans could return to lavish lands and learn from their mistakes.

A terrarium for humans, they would say, one that saves the Earth.

This was a great Solution to the Problems!

That's what they were saying; so everyone that belived in the Companies, belived in the Program they were trying to implement.

The rest of the population that was on the Surface when the airlock was sealed to the Compound; believed the Companies were up to something terrible.

The panic was setting in on both sides.

However, only one side was really in control of their fate. Those left on the Surface, split into groups; looking for viable land to live on with better air to breathe.

The ones, now locked underground in HOME, were feeling far from it, as things began to change rapidly.

The Program was starting to show its true colors, as people were starting to show signs of sickness, from the food, water, and the manufactured oxygen.

OX.

They told everyone that they had been manufacturing it for space travel, which was partly true, just not in the way everyone thought. They did send some people to space using OX, but those people were the ones who owned the Companies, and they never had any intentions of bringing anyone else with them, or returning to Earth for that matter.

The Program had done the math, and they knew the exact ration of OX that could sustain one person for so long; but never really mentioned to anyone, for how long that would be.

Sam heard chatter behind the wall to her right, and she wondered if it was another person here for their yearly check up.

If that was true, she thought, Happy Birthday stranger.

On your health visit each year with the Doctor you were allowed to go to the Surface for one full hour to experience what was left of it, before returning to the Compound below to have your yearly check up completed.

There began a pattern that was noticed early on in the Compound.

Some never returned after their check ups, and no one ever returned after their 40th.

Although the human lifespan could reach over 150 years with the technology available at the time, the Program decided that everyone was out of their reasonable prime by 40.

40 years worth, that was the alloted amount of OX each person was given at birth.

They said one could live a good life in that amount of time with the resources they were able to provide within the compound.

The Program explained simply that; any longer of a life would be selfish in these conditions.

They sold the lies again. And they believed.

Well, some of them did.

Most people skipped their moments outside for their birthdays; the adults told the kids they would eventually lose interest in seeing the same thing every year too, and to enjoy it now while they could.

The adults, considerably anyone ages 18-40, all spent their time working for the Program.

No one here knew a life outside this.

They knew they had jobs, and they felt they had a purpose doing them for the Program.

All hand-made sustainably in house; for someone else to use, and for someone else to get paid for.

They were proud of their pointless progress.

The Program was funny that way; how they distracted the masses from the world outside so well that they wanted nothing to do with it, beyond what they could see; as they were content in their underground world with all of their little things.

Sam had things, she cherished them even. She touched the locket sewn into her jumpsuit along the neckline; she would keep this one thing safe forever, she only needed this one thing to survive.

She felt shame knowing that she was just a part of a bigger picture that she had no power in changing though; it was a helpless feeling in a hopeless place.

The only thing she could do, was escape.

Before they shut everyone inside, there were great debates on the News; where they would openly discuss the pros and cons of the newly proposed HOME venture with the Companies.

So many people back then were worried of the outcome of this concept, and those people, who were worried, didn't dare sign up to be a part of HOME when the time came.

Except for one.

Sam's great-great-great grandmother was a journalist back in the early 2000's.

Susan Spear.

She wrote stories about the Problems leading up to the Collapse, called out the Companies for their wrong doings in real time; only to never be heard or seen by the public.

She did covereage on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the Palm Oil Production Industry, the Fast Fashion Industry Garment Worker Crisis, and the BP Oil Spill.

Her stories were flagged online, and never printed on paper.

Sam knew them all by heart, as her mother told her them, and hers before her.

When Susan found out about the Companies filing some paperwork with a lawyer after investing in a new business venture called - Human Operated Manufacturing Enclosure, she knew what had to be done.

She would go in, infiltrate the Program, and report back to the Surface of what was happening down here.

The only thing she didn't expect, nor did anyone else, was to be locked in.

Forever.

The Program left that part out, well technically they didn't.

It was in the tiny fine print in the contract they all had to sign when the wait list for HOME opened.

Simple supply and demand logistics, create only a few spots, and everyone will want to sign their name to go in, forgetting the fine print.

10 years after the first, the Program comfortably had HOMEs in every State in the continental U.S. and had plans on expanding into Europe, but those plans got blocked though, due to human rights violations.

Sam was the result of her great-great-great grandmother Susan's unfortunate compliance with the Program, otherwise she wouldn't be sitting on this mysterious metallic exam table right now.

However, Susan's journalistic ability and compliance in the Program would be Sam's greatest weapon.

Sam knew a truth no one else understood yet, and soon she was going to be free.

She heard footsteps approaching the door. The doctor had been gone a while, and she was feeling nervous that he could read her mind, and hear her plan.

The door knob slightly creaked and her heart began to race. When he stepped into the room, Sam felt the air get cold.

"Alright Sam", he said with a sigh. "Your placement test is going to take place after your moment outside. Enjoy the time the best you can, most people come inside after the 30-minute mark, but you do have a full hour."

Sam knew the shpiel, her mother told her what would happen years ago, and she'd been waiting her whole life for this. And no one suspected a thing.

Be good all your life, and they will never expect you to be anything different.

Be bad all your life, and they will never allow you to be anything different.

Sam's own mother hadn't left, simply because of the reason her mother hadn't left before her. And the reason Susan Spear was never able to write her report for the Surface.

Things down here got complicated.

The ones who were initially shut in, were all gone now.

Stories of the Surface arent allowed so the history of the Compound died out, people were kept occupied, and no one dared questioned the hand that barely feeds; even if people were disappearing from their yearly Doctors visits.

The Program tells everyone that the air outside is still toxic, and that some people are so weak when they go out for their moments; the air suffocates them instantly.

Which most believe, and the ones who don't, well, are the ones who "die from the air instantly".

Sam wouldn't be one of those people, as she didn't question anything.

At least to anyones face.

Her mother spoke to her in whispers, and they kept a low profile up until before Sams mother never returned from her 40th visit.

The week before, Sam tried to convince her mother to escape. She begged her to run when they allowed her to go out for her final moment; and that she wouldn't be far behind, as her birthday was only a few months after her mothers.

"I will not ruin your only chance at a life outside of this place. You will not be allowed for your visits if I run, they will think you will too, and you know they need you to return here for their terrible things to continue. Please, do as I say. It's easier this way, trust me." Sam knew then that she had no choice, but her mother was the only family she had left in here and she didnt want to lose her; or be alone, but she knew her other option would ruin her own chance at a life, her mother was right about that part.

The day after her mother was gone, Sam was sent to the single women's wing of the compound, conveniently next to the single men's section - and on the opposite side from the women with children wing.

Sam grew up her whole life there, never seeing a man other than her brother when he was 10, and a few of the other brothers, and her doctor.

Now she's seeing them all at once; and wondering which one the Program has planned to pair her with.

She wont ever get to know though; as they tell you after your placement exam.

Which she had no intention of taking.

The exam would tell her the job she would work at for the rest of her life, and which man she would reproduce with as many times as she was able, just so she could survive in this evil place.

She was sick at the thought of the truth.

This was not what anyone years ago thought they were signing up for.

And the Program knew that; which is why they put it in the fine print, like they did with all of the important things.

It read as something along the lines of; you will be treated with the respect you gain by helping aid the growth of the population.

But translated to; you will recieve more rations of food per family if your family count is higher.

In Sam's mothers case, she would only get three rations of food per week if it was just herself as a single woman.

She got five once she was partnered with a man after her placement exam.

The man was not to be a father though, just a figure to aid in the reproduction process.

The Program said that the men had more important jobs to do, and the family dynamic would slow down their productivity.

Once Sam's brother was born however, Sam's mother recieved 11 rations of food a week for the two of them.

When Sam's sister was born, her mother recieved 17.

When Sam was born, she recieved 20 rations a week, for herself and her three kids.

She expected more, truthfully.

They promised 22 rations she thought, but she couldn't bare to have another child again just to feed the others.

Instead, she chose to put her elder kids up for placement early; they only gave her that as an option when she asked for more rations.

Sam's brother went when he was 10, and her sister, when she was 7.

Placed into the Program and given a placement exam, only to never be seen again.

Sam and her mother both ate twice a day after that though.

Sam remembered the guilt in her stomach when she was a child with a full belly.

She tried to remember her siblings, only seeing glimpses of them frozen in their childhood in her dreams.

She went to sleep quickly every night, hoping to hear them laughing in the distance as she would chase after them just to wake up in the morning, to eat quietly alone with her mother.

When Sam was 14, and her mother 38, she taught her about the truth of the Program, and how they had trapped everyone in the Compound and single handedly manipulated the Collapse on the surface. How they were keeping everyone locked down here as free laborers, barely feeding everyone, and making them addicted to OX. She told her that she needed to escape if she was going to live a real life.

She told her that beyond the dead trees surrounding the Compound, Sam would find mountains that spilled out onto the ocean, and people would be living real lives out there; not ones like this.

Sam knew early on, that something was wrong here, but she never could have imagined what the truth really felt like when it sat on her shoulders for years, all leading up to this moment.

The Doctor handed Sam the paper with the precautions of the Surface on it, what to expect when she was there, and how she would feel when she returned.

• Upon Exit to Surface: momentarily euphoric, followed by extreme paranoia, anxiousness, nausea and rapid heart rate.
• Upon Lengthy Exposure: headaches, sensativity to light, sound, and the elements.
• Upon Return to HOME; calmness, relaxation, sedation.

Sam knew the symptoms, she'd gone over them with her mother right before their last meal together. Her mother explained the psychology of it all, that the people are conditioned to return to the Compound after their hour moment on the Surface, because they feel it is the safest thing.

Create a false reality to control the masses and gain their trust, all while taking advatage of the entire situation at hand.

People experienced terible symptoms after not breathing OX in after 30 minutes; and the Program, and the Companies, have convinced everyone that it's because it's not safe out there, when in reality; it's not safe in here.

Sam wondered about the Companies and the Program, and the people who worked for them. How could they just watch these people in here suffer this way? With no real lives? No experiences? Being used and taken advantage of?

Sam knew she wanted to be free, she knew whatever she found on the other side would be better than this life here.

Right?

The Doctor handed Sam a thick jacket, and matching pants to put on top of her jumpsuit, and a pair of boots to put too. It was always cold during Sam's moments outside; she knew from her mother that it was because it was winter.

Winter was a season, which was something no one was allowed to talk about in the Compound, per the Programs rules.

The Companies, Climate, Seasons, Politics, Nature, Medicine, Science, Education, the Future, the Past and the Program.

All things not allowed to be discussed in the Compound.

Weaving, Sewing, Manufacturing, Software, Engineering, Building, and Wood Working.

A few approved things to talk about, per the Programs rules.

Just for comparison.

Sam stood up from the table, and put on her boots for the Surface that were provided to her by the Doctor. She knew she could only run for a little while in her clothes given to her from the Program, as they would be tracking her in something sewed into them, her jacket most likely, but she wanted to be sure.

She sewed an extra pair of thick socks into her jumpsuit a few days ago, she would use those instead of the boots later on. She also relined the inside with scraps of fabric she found, for insulation, and other purposes later. She needed to be prepared to be outside, and alone, until she found survirors on the Surface.

She felt her fingers begin to tremble, and felt her dinner of oatmeal from the night before making its way up her throat.

The Doctor said something, she couldnt hear him.

He repeated himself, she looked up to meet his eyes, parallel to the window that sat upon the wall like a painting in a museum.

Sam had always longed to go to a musuem, she always felt like she would like them. The meaningful things, the tales the images told. She held on to stories from her family, as if they would end up in a musuem one day, she thought of the locket, and almost touched it again but realized she needed to respond to the Doctor.

"No", she said "I don't have any symptoms of pregnancy."

"Okay, because you know once you are pregnant you are not allowed on the Surface, we cant be able know how it will harm the fetus until later in the pregnancy. We only can see how it affects you right now when we give you the exam when you come back in."

"Yes, I understand, I don't have symptoms, I haven't been matched yet with a partner."

"Correct, but you have been moved to the singles wing, so I was confirming you havent chose your own partner yet."

"I'm able to choose one?" Sam asked, suprised.

"Yes, we can talk about it after your exam, after you've cleaned up from being on the Surface."

Sam walked with the Doctor as he moved over to the door adjacent to the window, which slid open to the airlock she would go into that released her out onto the Surface.

"Enjoy your time, come to the door when you're ready to come inside. Happy Birthday." The Doctor opened the airlock and Sam shuffled inside. Her feet felt heavy.

She never realized she had a choice, or that people might experience love here.

She suddenly understood all the women before her, and how they chose a chance at love in the Compound instead of a real life on the Surface.

If Sam didn't have the knowledge from the women before her, maybe she would have turned around and went back to the door of the air lock, and asked to be left alone with the older brother of this one girl she knew, as he had dark hair and golden eyes that Sam loved so much when she saw them for the first time.

She breifly smiled at the thought, and moved out onto the Surface more.

Everything was dead, even more dead than it looked from the window in the Doctors office.

Her laugh subsided. She walked closer to the permimeter, in a curved path, not trying to startle anyone, if they were even watching.

"Sam!" she heard echo across the yard, she almost jumped out of her skin. It was like hearing a ghost. She knew the voice like it was yesterday, and they were sitting in the room they shared talking about how how they could use oatmeal as glue for their science projects.

Her brother looked different, much older than she remembered. He had only been 10 the last time she saw him, and now, he was just shy of 25.

"Scott?" she had a hard time remembering how to say his name, as it was a long time since she said it, nor was she allowed to after he and her sister left for placement, a policy, per the Program.

Scott stood there, on the edge of the Compound, where the airlock stuck out like a glass sculpture from the dead landscape surrounding it.

"Sam, I know our mother filled your head with stories, she told me them too; but she was wrong. There is nothing left out there, nothing at all! It's not viable yet, I know you're thinking of running, and I just want you to know she's not out there. I saw them inject her five months ago on her 40th, and shes gone. No one is out there waiting for you. You won't survive and I don't want you to die!"

Sam's ears were pounding. Was that actually Scott? Or was this someone who worked for the Program and was trying to change her mind and take her back into the airlock, to inject her and send her to her death?

She realized it was both, unfortunately.

She didnt want to die, and all she knew was she would if she went back to the Compound.

She had a chance to really live if she stayed on the Surface.

The boots came off easier than she anticipated, her jacket and pants in a trail behind her as she took off running for the woods.

Her feet were barely touching the ground, she was moving faster than she ever knew she could.

The sirens went off in the distance, and she ran until she heard them no longer, and ran even more after that.

The landscape, slowly came to life as she wandered farther away from the Compound.

The green of the grass, and the blue of the sky; caused a tear to fall from her eye.

She nestle in the tall grass, to find a mushroom in a color red she'd never seen before.

Sam ate a few and drifted off into a sleep that she never woke from.

The Earth was alive around her.