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It started with one person. What we were taught was beautiful suddenly became corrupt in that one moment. It was like everything was shattered. The glass around our brainwashed heads seemed to break into billions of tiny shards and fall down, stabbing into our gelatine selves. It broke the mold from which we had formed, from which everything we knew had formed. Looking back, I’d like to think that I knew all along what was wrong with us. But I was one of the ignorant. And like everyone else, my world broke apart the day that she died.
We knew that at age 50, all of our parents were brought to The Heart. We all knew that it was because their time was up and that they were going to a better place. I think everyone knew that. Except for Alicia. She was small and frail, almost as if a breeze blew too hard it would snap her in half. Despite her weak form, she was beautiful. Her eyes were like the polished amber stones my friends and I would collect. She was dark and stunning, with skin like the earth under her dancing feet. Her parents were the polar opposite, pale and tall, with eyes like the sky and hair like sunbeams. They got along well, just like everyone else around them. But there was always something more with that family. Alicia, the youngest of three, was favored above all the rest of her siblings because she could feel something strong. Something only heard of in her family and stories of past times. Something too strong for her small self: Love.
Time passed and Alicia grew older like the rest of us.
But at the Ceremony of The Heart, she stopped growing older.
I remember her parents’ names being called. They walked forwards like all the rest. Leaning down, the dome counselors untied their magnificent capes and folded them. The cape was given to their children to hold like others before them. Alicia cried onto it. As her parents stepped onto the platform to be lowered into the ground, she suddenly ran towards them. It was too late for her. Her parents had already descended. She hurled herself down the hole in the ground and disappeared with them.
Everyone was taken aback by this action. It seemed illogical, unreasonable, and completely uncalled for. The counselors regained took control moments later. They calmly explained in their monotone voices the horrifying event everyone had witnessed only minutes prior. Alicia was gone. They said everything was to continue on as normal. But everyone had one question- why?
Why would she do that to herself? Why did she not want to let her parents live on in The Heart along with all the other elders? Why, why why? The counselors had no answer. They simply shook their heads and tried to continue on with the ceremony. Out of protest, parents held hands and refused to come forward until a response was given.
The counselors quieted everyone, “This family felt love. Love was what destroyed us. It is painful. Have you ever scraped your knee? You went to the doctor, and they fixed it for you. You got better. Love is not like that. It hurts. Anyone can get hurt by it. There is no cure. It can not be fixed. You do not get better. It stays inside and kills you slowly. Love is why we cannot live in the open world anymore. It comes with jealousy and envy. Love is evil. But it was in them. And it could be in all of you too. In fact it probably is. Love is contagious.”
And that was it. With less than a minute’s worth of speaking, an entire revolution started. Chaos broke out immediately. Parents running far away from each other, siblings hitting and punching, families torn to pieces by the words of a single person. It was like everything had devolved back to primal instincts, something we were taught to never use. It made no sense. But in that exact moment, it seemed like the best thing. I heard my mother’s voice somewhere, shouting out my name into the raging hordes of people. I spun around, hoping to catch a glimpse of her. All I saw was a massive stone bash her head in. It was all out warfare.
The war lasted for fifteen straight days and nights. No one could be trusted. Everyone was suspected of loving, which soon became too taboo to even say. Anything and everything was used as a weapon. Everything we had known was gone, thrown out the window. Bodies piled up in the town square. When the panic settled, 8 people remained. One of which was me, Noah. Day 16, the sky caved in. Everything went black.
The next thing I can remember is someone dragging me by my shirt collar and then leaving me face down on cold, smooth tile. It was dark and smelled like dirt. Some sort of tunnel, I thought. Voices spun around my head. I turned my head sideways to breathe. I could see other people, most of them my age, lying on the ground near me. I recognized one of my friends, Ava. She looked paler than usual, her cream skin almost translucent. A dark figure bent over and shone a light in my eye.
“No concussion,” he said, “but definitely out of it. Hey there, what’s your name?”
“Noah,” I groggily stuttered.
“Nice to meet you, Noah, I’m Zack,” he said. Taking my hand, he lead me to a table with three other people. “Welcome to Transit. We’re under the central bubble, so don’t be scared. In emergencies, this is where people go.”
“Emergencies?” I asked. “What happened?”
Zack sighed, “You’re that messed up? Lemme get you up to speed, I guess. Alicia jumped into The Heart along with her parents, right? Then the counselors tried to calm everyone. They told everyone that love was to blame for Alicia’s death. But instead of calming people, everyone got paranoid and freaked out. Fighting, killing, a lot of bad stuff. So the government had to stop it. And… yeah, that’s about it.”
“But… What happened to everyone? Is this everyone? Where am I? What’s going on?” I rapidly asked.
“I just explained all of this to you, dude. Keep up. You'll figure it out. Anyways, I have to go help everyone else. Settle in for a bit.” Zack walked away.
Standing up, my eyes fell upon a table. It was a small wooden round table with about ten chairs. People were seated at the table. I stared at them. I faintly recognized a few of them. I sat down, far away from the rest of them. We all appeared to be around the same age, but some of us were obviously more mature. Everyone studied each other carefully. After a few minutes, the rest had joined us. We went around and shared our names and a little about ourselves.
“Sarah, my parents are… were dome workers.”
“Liam. Uh… I liked to be the food gatherer for my family.”
Eli, Mason, Harper, Ethan.
“Ava and I’m very cold. Does that count?” she asked. Everyone chuckled a bit.
“I’m Noah. I had a brother named Adam.” I stated solemnly.
Zack came back a few minutes later. He partnered us off, saying that we would be moved into families in the other four domes. Eli and Mason. Liam and Ethan. Ava and I. Sarah and Harper. He explained that we would be leaving in about a week. He left again.
“Is it true that love brought us here?” Eli quietly asked. No one answered. He rambled on about his perspective about what happened to him for a few moments before silencing himself. He cleared his throat. “I don’t know if I should say this, but I don’t think love is bad.”
Everyone stared at him. He retreated back into a his chair, staying quiet for a few more hours. His words began to sink in with all of us.
“How can that be?” Ava pointedly questioned. “We all saw what it did to Alicia.”
“What?” Eli asked.
“What you said about love. You said that love isn’t bad.” She pondered.
“That wasn’t love. That was choice. I’ve read stories about love. My parents had kept some from way before the domes were ever created. Love is beautiful. Everyone sees the sun, right? Y’know the feelings you get from it? Warmth, joy, comfort. That’s what love is.” He carried on with examples and more ramblings before we all grew tired of hearing it.
“Do you have a point here?” the girl named Harper grunted.
“Yeah. Why don’t we love here? They told us it was bad, but it’s not. Alicia didn’t have to do that. She chose to. Love’s not to blame.” Eli retorted. More silence passed. Small conversations about weather and families and memories. Nothing significant until Eli spoke again.
“We should bring back love. I know it seems crazy but we might as well try. Who knows what will happen out there. We’re partnered up already. What if one of us does what Alicia did? The other lives to tell on about why love is good. I swear I’m not crazy... I’m just tired of everyone telling me how to live.” We stared at him for what seemed like years. He backed away. “How long have we even been here?”
“Six days. One more until we leave.” Ethan said flatly. All of us sighed in relief. While we all had become really close, we were ready to get out of this place. But something remained on our minds; Eli’s plan.
No one thought it was a perfect idea, but no one disagreed either. He was right, we didn’t really have any better option. People told us how to live our lives. That was fact. We could continue on with that or we could do something about it. And in that moment all of our destinies became clear. From the shattered dome we once knew, we became the Martyrs.
The plan was simple, live the next five years as perfectly normal people. But at the next Ceremony of The Heart, one of us would follow the parents onto the platform. Mason, Liam, and Sarah hesitantly volunteered to sacrifice themselves. Ava looked at me with fear.
“Noah, Ava. Which one of you will do it? We’re running out of time here,” Ethan stated flatly.
“I’ll do it,” I whispered with cowardice. I turned back to Ava. Her previous look of fear turned suddenly into impulsive overprotectiveness.
“No, I’ll go. He’s much better at talking to people. I’m a nervous wreck in front of crowds.” Ava laughed a little bit. Eli nodded and turned to address the group once more.
“Do not forget. All of the ceremonies happen at the same time. We all have to act at the same time. The last family, we all do it. The other people have to be there to tell everyone the message. Give them time to panic first though. When we came here, we came through the counselor's house. There’s probably a tunnel in all of the houses. Lead the people back here and we’ll figure out what to do from there. It’s perfect.” Eli said as Zack came into the room.
“Until we meet again.” I said regally, bowing. Everyone did the same. Zack held a puzzled expression for a few seconds. He stared around, looking for a weak link to spill the beans. He sighed defeatedly and carried on.
“Okay, I hope all of you are ready because it is time to go. Everyone say goodbye to each other. It’s time for your new lives begin!”
Five years passed. It was the day of the Celebration again. Ava and I stood next to our respective families in silence. The counselors began the ceremony. We made eye contact for a few seconds and nodded before looking down at the ground as the counselors started to speak. I stepped forwards as my family was called and watched them descend down into the ground on the platform.
Finally, the final family’s name was called: Ava’s. Her family stepped forwards. They folded the cape. The parents stepped onto the platform. I kept waiting. Waiting for Ava to make her move. Suddenly, her muscles lurched into action and she sprinted at the disappearing platform.
For a second, I could swear that time slowed down for just long enough for me to see her final words slip from her mouth as she fell down the hole.
“Goodbye, my love.”
The deed was done. Now it was my turn. I grabbed a plank of wood I found on the ground and started walking towards the front of the crowd. Thoughts of Ava spun in my mind as I climbed the stairs to the podium where the perplexed counselors stood. Calmly, I hit them all with the plank of wood. At that moment, it struck me, not unlike a plank of wood. There was no turning back. I would have a few moments at most before someone could stop me. I straightened up my posture and cleared my throat.
“Who here has ever heard of love? I know a few years ago I certainly didn’t. For that matter, I don’t think anyone where I came from did.” Silence.
“Okay listen. I knew a girl named Alicia. She killed herself in the name of love. That’s bad, right?” People gasped and nodded. I continued on. “Wrong. That was her choice. Love isn’t what made her do that. It was loss. Think about it! Every five years, we gather happily as 100 people are publically put to death. We celebrate it! How messed up are we? What has trained us so much that we can stare at this with happy smiles on our faces? We are the monsters they tell us are outside! But we can fix this! Come with me and we will solve this!”
I stepped off the podium and yelled out as loud as I could, like some sort of battle cry. People joined in. A small crowd grew into a massive hoard of swarming people following my lead. I walked towards the counselors’ houses. Choosing the middle one, my army of people bashed in the door. I lead them on into the back of the house. Just like Eli had said all those years ago, a tunnel was there, gradually digging deep into the ground. I gestured for them to follow me and urged them to be quiet.
We had been walking for about a mile when we heard other voices. Lights, noises, and sounds overflooded our senses. I directed everyone out of the tunnel into the room where we, the Martyrs, were born. I searched the room for Eli and the others. I spotted Ethan. Five years and he still looked the same.
“Ethan!”
“Noah! Nice to see you man. Have you seen anyone else? I was abo--” Ethan was cut off by the sound of what seemed like a thousand more voices joining our sea of people. Eli and Harper’s groups had entered. I fought against the growing mass of people to find all the rest of the Martyrs again. We found a place in the center to meet.
“Good to see you all. Now what?” Eli asked, wasting no time.
“I say we leave this place!” Harper impulsively said.
“Yeah, but how?” Ethan questioned harshly.
I remembered something Zack had said. “We’re underground right now, right? There has to be something above us! If we can find a way out of there, we can leave!”
“Good idea,” Eli said. “Everyone be quiet for a few seconds!” He stood up and shouted. After the room had quieted, he spoke again. “Look for panels and or doors nearby you. We’re looking for anything that could bring us up to the surface!”
A few people found loose wall panels that had concealed weapons in them. We collected the weapons and continued searching. Seven hours of looking later, we found a small door hidden behind a set of hidden pipes. Everyone divided themselves into smaller groups and we went through the door. 12 flights of stairs later, we reached a massive dome. People flocked to the outskirts of the glass dome, looking outside at their destroyed homes. I focused my attention back towards the dome itself. It was tall and industrial. Lab coats hung on pegs around the room. Beakers of strange liquids stood neatly on tables. Crates were stacked tidily on top of each other. Screens covered all of the walls. Everything looked new and bright. Except for the center.
In the middle of the dome lay orderly rows of dead bodies. Blood pooled around them onto the pristine floors. Written in blood were the words, “Break the glass, the world is yours”. The trail of blood lead back to the last of three rows of people.
I slowly and cautiously approached the rows. It was gruesome. Corpses in coats like the ones in the room lie side by side in one row- government workers probably. Another row- I recognized my parents as well as Ava’s. There was one more row, significantly smaller. It wasn’t anything like the other rows though. It was more… simple. The other rows were posed and stiff. This one was more relaxed. I walked closer to the bodies and realized why.
One body stuck out to me. Her fingers were dipped in blood. Her hair was dark like mine. Freckles. Smiling face. She looked familiar. I backed away slowly and dropped to my knees. Ava.
But I had no time to mourn. There was no time. Time was all but thrown out the window the day Alicia died. We took our weapons. The oldest received guns and bats. It was time to break the glass.
“Five!” Someone in the crowd screamed.
“Four!” Harper declared.
“Three!” Ethan shouted.
“Two!” Eli yelled.
I looked around at everyone around me. They were waiting for me. It was time to go.
“One!” I finished.
And just like that. Silence was broken by the shatters of glass. Bits and pieces rained down from above. Cracking and fracturing. We could see all the other domes breaking too. So many years broken down by a chance. And thus, we walked free.
We would not forget those who died for our chance to live. We would not take for granted those in the government who fled out of fear of what we would do, what we could do. We would not let this day be lost in the records of a civilization’s tyrannical history.
To the sound of broken glass, we started anew.