For my entire existence, Nava has been my home. These faces have been my family. I cannot count the number of times I've dreamt about Venus. It had been my motivation until this very moment. Of course, I still have my dream but Nava and these people were a big part of my life and I got through each day, thanks to their presence.
I take a walk through the narrow streets of Nava. By the supply room, Miles is seated on a chair sipping a beer, with Luna standing next to him. He tries to convince her to take a sip but she flirtatiously declines. He lets out a loud manly laugh and holds her hand. I haven't seen them that happy in a while. Their voices give an echo of love. A love that may be extinguished long before it even ignites. Luna notices me first. She pulls her hand away from his trying to hide whatever that was happening. Miles catches on and raises his beer toward me in acknowledgment. I smile and nod my head once. There is something different about them. I can't put my finger on it at first but then I notice it. Luna is in combat trousers and boots, a sign of an approaching battle. As I walk on, I can hear the echo of their voices laughing. I'm glad.
Next, I come across Scarlet. She is seated by the bench under the peach tree typing something on her laptop. "Hey, Scarlet," I call out. She looks up questionably.
"What up Nash?" she answers getting back to her laptop. "You're not here for goodbyes, are you? Because I don't do that."
"Nah, I'm just saying hi."
Scarlet is not the friendly type. She's tough to read. She never reacts to anything. Rather she shrugs her shoulders in response to everything. Which is what she does at this moment.
"Typical Scarlet." I laugh it off.
I can't catch sight of Pete so I assume he's somewhere in the library buried in some book trying to figure out something about Venus. I head toward the dormitory where I think Toby is likely to be but instead, I see him standing in the classroom lost in thought.
"Hey, Halfy. What are you doing?" I ask gently tapping his arm. Halfy is a nickname I gave him since he'd constantly stuck with me. In other words, 'my half'.
"Hey," he responds letting out a sigh. "I was just thinking of the first day I got here."
"I remember. What a shy little boy." I tease while laughing.
"Ha-ha, very funny." He takes a seat on the chair where sat on his first day. I walked over and sat on the chair next to him.
"A lot has changed since I came here. But that's not what I was thinking about." He turned to me with concern in his eyes. "Unlike you guys, I came here when I was eleven. I don't remember much of my life before then but I swear I was in Venus."
"What!" I gasp.
"No, no, no. I know how that sounds but whenever I close my eyes or go to sleep, I have traces of memories of me being there with my dad. He was hurt. I think. I don't recall much but everything seems so real."
He looks at me desperate for a comforting reaction. Toby is not somebody to joke around. I believe there is a basis to what he is saying, probably relating to where he was born and raised. But it can't be Venus, right? Because that city is impenetrable or is it not?
"Well, have you tried to perhaps ask Mr. Martin about it? Or any of the others? They may have an explanation for all this."
"I don't have to. We're headed to Nava tomorrow. So if there is anything to remember, I'm definite I'll remember it."
"Yeah, you're right. I'll help my Halfy of course." I answer trying to lighten the mood.
"You're one of the best things that ever happened to me in my life Halfy." He says gently smiling.
The sound of that word from him breaks my heart a little. He's never called me that before. I never realized how much this person meant to me until now. The thought of losing him weighed down on me. I could feel tears forming in the corner of my eyes. Without really thinking, I buried myself in his embrace. It felt like home. So warm. He held me tight and kissed my head.
"Why is your heart racing?" he asks teasingly.
"Because of you Halfy. Because of you. Please take care of yourself, okay?"
"Uh-huh!" he mumbles.
We'd never been out of Nava before. This town was hidden on the outskirts of Venus. The air outside was different. It smelled of rot and there was no trace of life. Lance and the others had walked us to the gates of Nava and left us on our own to continue. They kept their composure well and didn't break even for a second. We carried nothing with us except for maps which had been given to each of us tracing the entire area, all the way to Venus. Martin had insisted that Pete would know what to do with them once we got into the real Venus. Lance had insisted that immediately we come across the first person, they'd be most probably headed to Venus, so we would have to part ways at that very moment. The ground was so dry, it had cracks. A few miles away, we caught glimpse of people near what looked like it had once been a road. There were old rusty vehicles in one lane. We stopped. Nobody said a single word in what seemed like an eternity.
"Well losers, this is it then." Scarlet started. "y'all don't want to cry now, do you? Imagine Miles bawling."
With that, we all burst into laughter.
"All right, later losers." Scarlet shrugged it off and walked away.
After that nobody else said anything. Each of us took a step forward one by one and soon we parted ways.
With everyone out of sight, I soon focused my mind on Venus. It was all I could think about. The more steps I took the more the number of people increased. Soon I was walking in a crowd of more than a hundred people, all headed in the same direction. It was the first time in my life that I was surrounded by these many people. All I could hear were footsteps. Nobody said a word. Everyone had serious expressions on their faces. Once in a while, you could hear a few murmurs here and there by those who knew each other and by those getting to know each other.
There it was. Venus, the city I'd longed for. The city was Nava's sole reason for existence. In front of us was a heavy iron gate with concrete walls that were over 20,000km across and over 1200ft high, embedded with electrical wires at the top. The gates were wide open with hundreds of people dressed in black masked suits with semi-automatic rifles in their hands, standing on both sides, leaving a clear pathway between them. We were ordered to form two straight lines to be searched and scanned for any items not allowed. All weapons and electronics were confiscated. One guy in his mid-twenties was found with a gun and was asked to drop it in the box but that didn't sit right with him. One of the armed men shot him point-blank in the head killing him on the spot.
"Nobody forced you to be here. If you can't comply with the set rules, leave or meet the same fate." He announced with a megaphone.
Venus was law. They were allowed to execute anyone with no questions asked.
Then I saw Pete. He was next in the search line. The person searching him found his map tucked away in his pocket cargo trousers.
"What do we have here?" he inquired roughly inspecting it.
"It's—it's just a-a-a map." Pete stuttered in response.
Pete was a skilled soldier and could easily take out at least ten of these men before they got him, but he hated violence. He was more into books. You could never beat him in a logical argument. I could see the tension in his body, as he curled his hand into fists.
'" It's just a piece of a paper soldier. Give it to him. Don't scare the poor kid." A deep male voice ordered from inside the gates. A masked man, about 6ft tall approached them, took the map, and handed it to Pete who was then let in.
This was the first selection. All the contestants who were considered too weak, mostly due to lack of enough food and water were sent away.
This went on for about seven more hours before the Venus gates were officially locked again. There was no going back now, this much I was sure. The only way out was to survive just like Lance had said.
Once the gates were closed, all the armed people dropped their masks. This was the part we all never saw coming. Each one of them was a faceless robot. That's why they were so many and were able to kill so mercilessly.
"Welcome to Venus." I heard the deep male voice again. He wasn't a robot. A man with a megaphone came forth from among them with a wide grin on his face. He was in his mid-forties, tall and slender built.
"My name is Arlington Levi. I am in charge of the overall selection. You've had years of rest, so don't expect any of that here. One wrong move and you're," he dragged the sentence. "Well, you're dead." He laughed wickedly. "So we're going to group ourselves into different categories. We have five major categories to choose from. Our leaders were generous enough to give you freedom of choice." He stopped and for a second there, I was sure that he was staring directly at me.
This arena is divided into five divisions. And just like the first gate, once you're in, there's no getting out. Each one of you will select an area they think they're good at." He stopped and laughed manically.
"Be careful what you choose, because this could easily be how you exit this world." The more he spoke the more his face lit up with excitement at the mere thought. It's either they had chosen a psycho for this job or this place had broken him hard enough that it left him mentally incapacitated.
"The first division is the Medical section. My, my, my! This section is insane. So if you are confident in your skills to handle any medical emergency or you know enough drugs, this is your area." He stopped and then smiled with an evil stare in his eyes. "What are you waiting for!" he shouted startling everyone. "If you think this is your section line up!" he yelled.
The door to this section was painted white with a painting of a creepy robot with a stethoscope around its shoulders.
I was certain Luna would be in this line. I was getting anxious from the anticipation of seeing her. We'd only been hours apart from the guys but I already missed them. So slowly, one by one, people took their positions in front of the door and it was opened. It was like a dark hollow void. It was hard to see anything in it. Levi jokingly paced up and down saying a few words to some of the contestants who'd lined up. I caught a glimpse of Luna in the line as she entered through the door. She was calm. She kept her face straight ahead and did not dare to look sideways. I guessed it was from the fear of how she'd react if her eyes met ours. A heavy sound of the door closing was heard and the door shut.
"Next door, is the information technology division." He roared into the megaphone. This is when it hit me. Nava had been training us on these divisions our entire lives preparing us for this very moment. Maybe Toby was right. Maybe he'd been brought from Venus, which meant there was another doorway out of Venus that we were yet to discover. Toby! If my assumption was right, then Toby and I would end up in the same division. I wasn't sure whether this was a good or bad thing yet. Scarlet was first in line for this section. She stood there, all cold with no expression.
The door was painted white, with the same creepy robot, only this time he was staring into another creepy robot's faceless face.
The next door was the armory. It had the same white painting with the same robot holding a gun. Miles entered this section. Standing in line with the rest, he did look like a true soldier. He looked confident.
The next section was the archives section. Pete joined this line. Levi raced towards him, "That map better be essential my boy." He whispered into the megaphone laughing. Pete was nervous. He kept hesitating while walking and occasionally threw glances at the rest of us searching. His eyes met mine. For a moment I thought he was going to run over but he didn't. He composed himself and kept walking. This division's door was painted white with, however, no drawings or robots on it.
"And, lastly it is the combat division." He stopped and smiled. This time genuinely. "Our true soldiers." He nodded. "You'll practically kill each other in there." He laughed with the same wicked laugh he had before. "It'll be so much fun watching!"
I did not want to look around lest I came face to face with Toby. I joined the queue with no hesitation with the comfort that at least Toby would be somewhere in there with me. I was startled from my thoughts with Levi smiling wickedly in my face. "My dear, I'm rooting for you." He said his awful breath caressing my skin, giving me chills. The door was similar to the rest, only the robot had its arms lifted in surrender. One by one we walked into the dark void.