Chapter 3

The dull sheen of the blade blinked in the lackluster light of my living room. The woman motioned for me to take the knife from her hand, and I reluctantly brought my left hand off the tablet and grasped the handle of the knife in her open palm, and I replaced it with the tablet. 

I held it up in front of my face. It was heavier than I thought it would be. It looked like a standard army style knife, one side the razor sharp edge and the other a series of serrated bumps.

The woman spoke again, and for the first time, emotion entered her voice. Sympathy. "As you can see, bullets don't work against them. In fact, any weaponry invented since the use of gunpowder in warfare has no effect. Bombs, grenades," -She stopped for a moment before continuing- "Nukes. None of it works. Only weapons that aren't the result of gunpowder work. Swords, hammers, makes, spears, bows, weapons like that."

She let me digest that information for a minute as I thought about what that could mean for humanity, if the monsters ever came above ground. And all I could see was the video just shown to me, but on a larger scale, screams and bloodied streets left in the path of those unaffected by modern day technology. 

But as I began to think about my own situation, something hit me. "Why am I only getting a knife? It seems like you should be equipping me with top of the line weapons and armor." My anger started to build. "It seems like you're sending me to DIE!" The last word rang out in the tiny space as I shouted it. She looked unfazed.

"You think the government hasn't tried that yet? That our first thought was to send our citizens into the depths of hell armed with only a knife? That we wouldn't spend thousands of dollars equipping each and every Selected?!" Her voice began to rise like mine had, except her fury and frustration seemed a thousand times worse.

"It didn't matter! Every Selected we sent down still had the same probability of dying as the ones today do, so we figured screw it! If you dumb children are gonna DIE anyways we might as well send you down equipped with the bare essentials, why waste our money and resources on those content to die anyways!" And she deflated before my very eyes, looking four times more tired than she had previously. 

My anger dissipated like a burst balloon, and all that was left was fear for the future, but also a little sympathy. I could tell she wasn't as stone cold as she tried to be, but duty dictated she had to be. In a meek voice, I called out to the downcast woman, "So, where do you need me?" 

Her head shot back up, and her face became a mask of cool professionalism again. "Tomorrow morning, eight o'clock, there will be a driver outside, ready to take you to your new home. First, they will take you to the entrance of the weakest cave close to here, which I believe is five hours away, and if you survive down there, then, and only then, will the driver come back, pick you up, and take you to your new apartment, paid for by us of course." 

I nodded, my face breaking out in a fearful sweat again. But I clenched my jaw, thinking to myself, I'm probably gonna die, but I'll take it if that's what's needed. 

She took a step backward towards the door, before turning around and swinging it open. "Get some sleep, you're gonna need it," She said over her shoulder.

The door closed behind her with a click, and I was left standing alone in the living room, holding a lackluster knife, given what was almost a sure death sentence.

Needless to say, I didn't get any sleep that night, and I was left awake, thinking of where my lifeless body might be tomorrow.

The countryside sped by in a blur. The inside of the car was silent, save for the occasional sound of the blinker being utilized. It had been this way the whole trip, the driver, an older man, keeping his face set and his eyes forward. He would probably see two more Selected today, who probably wouldn't even survive the day. I sighed quietly to myself and continued eyeing the countryside. It was another hour before we took a sharp left turn onto a side street in the middle of a small, country town, and slowed to a stop. We were in front of an old, decrepit concrete building that looked like an abandoned store of some sort.

The windows and front door were missing, and graffiti covered every single square inch of concrete on the ground floor, the upper outer wall being spared the same fate. "I'll be back in three hours." The driver's sudden gruff voice startled me, and I looked back at him. He continued staring straight ahead, as if he thought looking at me would kill me right now.

"Ye-yeah, thanks," was my response, as I opened the car door and stepped out onto the concrete sidewalk, looking up at the building that would be home to the next three hours of hell. As soon as the door slammed against the car, he sped off down the street, the black of the car gleaming in the midday sun. I wondered if I would ever see it again. 

I forced my body to step forward, wondering if I could simply hide out in the building until the driver came back. But they would probably anticipate that. 

When I stepped through the doorway of the building, there was a hallway with doors branching off into separate rooms, the hallway itself leading into a central courtyard area. I shuffled through, echoes of my small footsteps ringing in my ears. I could feel the handle of the knife tucked into the back of my sweatpants digging into my back skin, a constant reminder of the danger I would be in.

I reached the central courtyard and was greeted by the sight of a hole in the ground, a gentle slope on all sides surrounding it. It wasn't especially big, but it was big enough for three people to all hop in side by side. I approached the dark spot tainting the otherwise beautiful day, nerves making my skin crawl. Before I realized it, I was at the edge of the hole, peering down into the yawning abyss.

I saw a hill with the peak right at the top of the hole, about 5 feet down, so anyone standing off the side of the entrance of the hole would be scraping their head against the ceiling. Leading down, there were several dark doorways scattered around the circular room, five in total, leading off into separate places. LED lights illuminated the entire space.

I sat down at the edge of the hole, my feet dangling in the open space. My sweat ran down my forehead, stopping at my eyebrow. With a small push, I was off in free fall for less than a second before reaching the top of the hill, gravel crunching underfoot. I wiped my hands off the sweatpants I had on, before clapping them together to get the excess off. I subconsciously took a step forward, before I heard a crunch behind me. Panic shot through me, and I started to turn around, before I felt an object thud into me from behind, what I thought were dozens of tiny teeth closing in on my shoulder, piercing the skin and causing blood to spurt out and run down my arm. Pain shot through my entire body, and I let out a terrified scream.