Unearthed

Rika packed her small black notebook and pen into the pocket of her radiation suit - gearing up to go outside for her weekly scavenge for life above ground. She took a quick look around her small cell, at the small bed in the corner, the bookshelf that only held small treasures she'd found outside, and at the rug she'd fashioned out of moss. The compound was more like a prison than a home - at least that's what her grandmother had told her when she was young. Rika had spent all of her life living underground since she'd been born after the war and was only allowed to go to the surface once a week to avoid prolonged exposure to potential radiation. The war had happened when her grandmother was young and only lasted a couple of weeks since the nukes had been deployed from almost every country that had them, but the after effects lasted well beyond that. It had already been 50 years since the end of world war three.

Her feet felt lighter when she left her cell and headed up the narrow winding stairs toward what she had come to admire - the outside. True, it was mostly grey and cloudy and the wind was often hot, but Rika admired the resilience of the things she found out there. She'd once found a slipper on the ground that looked as though someone had lost it while running for shelter after the first bombs hit a few towns over, but the slipper had remained intact where the person would not have. As she got closer to the exit her heart raced with anticipation, she found herself practically running to the decontamination chamber.

As Rika opened the door to the outside she found herself blinded by something she'd never seen before - sunlight. In all the time she'd spent each week exploring the streets of her grandmother's hometown she'd never once been graced by the sun, in fact, she wasn't even sure it truly existed. Well, now it definitely existed and, boy, was it hot! She scurried for cover under the canopy of an old building, covered in vines and moss. The vines were brown and had no leaves, but the way they entangled the building made them feel so beautiful, like they were lovers holding onto each other even after death. She grabbed her notebook from her pocket and started to sketch the scene before her. She made notes about the sun and how hot, but magnificent it was. She flattened samples of moss in the back pages to compare to what she had made her rug out of.

Since the sun made walking outside too hot Rika decided to explore the buildings. The one that caught her attention was a lovely brick building covered in withered vines and had tall white pillars by it's main entrance. It was a beautiful home, one she'd hoped to live in someday. Walking through there were wooden floors that had long since lost their shine, furniture covered in white sheets, and about a centimetre of dust on every surface. There were stairs, but given the state of the house Rika thought it best not to tempt their stability. Instead, she opened what looked to be a closet door built into their side. In the closet were another set of stairs, but these ones were sturdier as they were built of rock. She turned on her flashlight as she went further down into the houses basement. It reminded her of her own underground dwelling, except this dwelling had dust - and lots of it. As she came to the bottom of the stairway she saw a solid concrete floor with many pipes going about in different directions. She speculated that they may have been used for gas and waterlines - they had some deep in the compound that would control the temperature and humidity of their home. Her eyes drifted about the room and settled on a metal box in the corner of the room. It looked like it could hold something of value - so she picked it up, it was much lighter than she had expected, and brought it back to the compound.

When Rika got back to the compound, decontaminated, and stripped off the radiation gear she was greeted by her best friend, Finn. "What have you found this time?" Finn gleamed with excitement.

"I don't know... whatever it is, it's in this locked metal case; so it must be important." The two girls went off down the spiraling stairs toward Finn's room to talk about their days; Finn about working in the boiler room with her father and Rika about what she had seen while outside. Hours passed before the girls were called to dinner where they ate synthesized meat - another thing Rika never understood since she'd never eaten real meat - and various vegetables the compound had grown in their green room. Dinner, which was normally quiet, seemed to ring with a buzz of excitement. Everyone was talking quietly to themselves, probably about what Rika had found.

Once dinner was over, a meeting was called to discuss what Rika had found in her search. They always kept their hopes high that Rika would find an animal or even another human, although she never did - not even now. The conversations grew louder until their leader, a tall elderly woman named Jessie, stood tall and banged her cane on the cafeteria floor for silence. Everyone obeyed. "Come forward my child, and show us what you have found. I heard you had a most exciting experience today," the old woman gestured at Rika. She stepped forward with her metal case and put it on the table up front for everyone to see. Shock rippled through the room, some sounded with excitement while others sounded more confused than anything else.

"What is it?" She heard a child shout from a table across the room.

"It's a case," she heard someone slightly older tell the child.

"No, it's a safe," Jessie chided and everyone went quiet.

Minutes passed before Rika opened her mouth to ask the question on everyone's tongues, "What's a safe? It sounds like an odd word to call a metal box."

"A safe, my dear, is where you put your most precious belongings in," Jessie's tone was full of wisdom from a time before the war.

"But it's so small. What could be so important and fit in such a small space?" Rika couldn't help her confusion. She never had anything so important that she would keep it in a metal box. Not even the moss rug she had made - and that was pretty darn important to her.

"Money." That was all Jessie had to say before the elderly population of the room erupted into chaos. There was shouting, crying, laughter, any emotion you could think of had filled the room with the mention of one word. Money. Rika didn't even know what money was but she couldn't help but be filled with a strange wonder after hearing everyone react the way they had. She grabbed Finn's hand tightly for the only comfort she could find in this new environment. She'd never heard anyone in the compound get so enthusiastic. Finn reciprocated her squeeze and gave her a look of bewildered excitement. Before anyone could ask what money was, Jessie decided to elaborate, "Money is a form of currency that we used before the war to pay for goods or services. The more money you had, the better life you could build for yourself. You saw the different houses in town," she looked at Rika, who nodded to confirm. "Each one is different from the next. Someone with little money would have a small house that might not look as nice as the others on the street while someone with lots of money would have a large, beautiful house with everything they could every need."

"Like the big brick building with stone pillars I saw?" Rika chimed in, her excitement getting the best of her.

"Exactly like that, my dear," Jessie gave her what seemed to be an almost sad smile. Had she lived in one of the smaller houses or had she lived a life of luxury before being forced underground?

"How do we know if there's money in there? It has a lock."

"This case is very old, so it shouldn't be too hard to break the lock. Although, this case was from a time full of simpletons, so it shouldn't be too hard to guess the access code. Come up here and help me spin the dials. My eyes and hands are not as useful as they once were." Rika stood from her seat next to Finn and met Jessie at the head table. She looked closely at the case and found the dial pad that Jessie had mentioned. "Now, spin the dial to the numbers I give you." Rika got herself ready with her finger on the first dial. "One - Two - Three - Four..." The lock clicked and the case opened.

Rika's mouth dropped, "that doesn't seem very 'safe' to me." The room erupted into laughter - everyone but Jessie, who stared at the case with about as much shock as Rika had displayed upon unlocking the case. "What's wrong, Jessie?" Rika whispered to the old woman who stood paralyzed.

"I've never seen so much money in my entire life," Jessie whispered.

"Did you live in the small house?" Rika asked with a twinge of pity for the old woman.

"Heaven's no, but you see, we didn't deal with cash like this. It was always in a digital form on a card issued by a bank. Never cash."

Rika didn't really understand what Jessie was going on about but she was still curious, "how much is in there?" She preened over the open case.

"I would guess around twenty-thousand dollars," Jessie answered after flipping through a few stacks of bills. Jessie looked at Rika with an air of seriousness. "You should take this money and go. There may be people outside you can trade with who still give it value. There are always greedy people in this world who will obsess over whatever they deem to hold value. Take Finn with you and start a life together."

Rika couldn't contain her surprise and started to raise her voice, "but what about you? Everyone here? You want me to leave here?" She felt hot tears start to run down her cheeks.

"This amount of money could destroy us. Those of us who grew up in a capitalist society will cling to the past so hard that we can't move on with our future. The outside has been safe for years." Jessie whispered in defeat. "Take this case after midnight and go outside with Finn. You can build a much better life for yourself out there than in here." Jessie winked through her own tears. "I've seen that rug you made out of moss. You're a survivor."

Rika’s voice went dark and cold, “what do you mean it’s been safe outside for years?”

Jessie’s shoulders slumped, “the elders and I agreed it would be safer to keep that knowledge hidden. That everyone would be better down here than going back into a world that had so much hate, violence, and greed. But you’re different. You’ve never known any of that. You’re pure.” She smiled with a heavy heart. “You should go.”

Later that night, Rika woke Finn and they went outside with a case full of money and wonder in their souls, ready for their first real adventure.