Welcome to Epron

You would think that in the year 3023 air travel would be much more flashier and advanced than it was, say, a thousand years ago. And normally, that is true. Unfortunately for me, I am not riding in the luxurious aircrafts that can seat hundreds of people and have a cute robotic servant deliver me food at the press of a button. Instead, I am on a hunk of metal that looks like some sort of military aircraft that was crafted over 500 years ago. In fact, I am willing to bet 10 credits that it was.

There are two reasons why my flight (first flight in my entire life, in fact) is not in the most ideal aircraft: for one, I have no credits to my name. My parents had just scraped together enough money to afford to fly me out and 'luxury' was never a thing we could afford. The second and most important factor is that I am traveling to Epron, the toxic wasteland country where most travel agencies are not too keen on going.

It's not very ideal for anyone to visit Epron as some of the area is still contaminated with radiation, and albeit, the living conditions are quite poor, not to mention the entire country is ran underground, so even if you wanted to go sightseeing there, there isn't much to see except what seems like an endless field of solar panels providing energy to all the cities down there. However, it's perfect for people like me who are looking for opportunities to make money on cheap land.

I had gotten the idea to move to Epron after a high school friend of mine, Charmaine, moved down to Epron for a new marketing job. After a few weeks of living there, she gushed to me about how much money she's making, how cheap everything is there, and how I just had to come down there. And honestly? It didn't sound so bad. Even though my whole life it's just been me, my mom, my dad, and my little brother Ezra, my family never had much money. As the years went on, I began to notice more and more how hard it was on my parents to support the family, and so I made the ultimate decision to move out and make enough money to support the family someday.

The aircraft shuddered, alerting me and the several other passengers around. I couldn't see anything since the design of the aircraft had no windows in the passenger space, but feeling a slight descent told me we were almost there. That, or we were slowly falling out of the sky. Either way, this rudimentary flight would almost be over.

"I heard there's a lot of crime in Epron," a woman next to me said in a hushed whisper to the man next to her.

The man rolled his eyes. "There's no crime in Epron, dear."

"But Raul told me that there is a terrorist group active in the city he lives in." Her eyes widened. "What if they try to blow up the whole city?"

The man snorted. "Raul is forty five and still believes that tiny yellow men in suspenders ruled the Earth hundreds of years ago. If I were Raul, I'd be more focused on whatever mental illness he has than a couple of degenerates in his town."

The woman backed off and slumped in her seat, not feeling too reassured about her fears. Hell, now I'm getting anxious just overhearing their conversation. Charmaine had told me that Epron is relatively safe, and while the whole country seems like it's in the slums, it's actually a lot better than it looks. I just pray that she's right.

A loud engine sound resounded throughout the aircraft and our descent to the ground started going faster. Before I knew it, we had touched the land safe and sound. Before our restraints were lifted, one of the pilots came to the back and explained to us that we each needed to put on a respirator before entering Epron because, even though a lot of land in Epron was deemed clean and we are in a very low radiation level zone, it is still possible to get sick without proper ventilation.

"What about the rest of our body?" another passenger asked.

The pilot explained that the entrance to Epron has its own decontamination room before entering the underground facilities.

When we had gone through the sanitation and border proceedings, I was finally set free into the underground networks of Epron. It was surprisingly more lively than I thought it would be. It was like a bustling underground metropolis with lights adorning the walls. There were so many tunnels and structures carved into the walls, and the area was so vast that I could see many bullet train systems around. Even with all the sound going on, the city was so spacious that there was hardly even an echo. It was quite different from Cathesia, where I lived on open green pastures far away from the city.

"Damn, this is actually pretty nice," I muttered under my breath. Collecting myself and my belongings, I pulled up the location of Charmaine's apartment on my holo-device. She was kind enough to allow me to stay with her until I was able to support myself. As I made my way around town, I couldn't help but notice something catching my eye. All over the street, there were so many posters and boards that looked the same. They were all black signs with purple lettering saying stuff like "Equality and Solidarity, Our Path to Prosperity!" or "Unity in Strength, Progress for All!" Each one of those signs either had a logo of some bird in a circle or a picture of some guy in a suit wearing one of those creepy plague doctor masks.

'Weird,' I thought to myself. I didn't think much of it at the time, though, since my mind was preoccupied with other things, such as moving into a new city and feeling anxious about my new job.

I had finally found Charmaine's apartment built into one of the walls and headed upstairs to her unit. When I knocked on her door, she swung it wide open and squealed. "Evelyn!" She tackled me in a hug and I was immediately suffocating in the smell of cocoa butter and vanilla as she squeezed me tight. "It's been forever since I've seen you!"

"It's been about a year," I mused when she finally released me. "How've you been?"

"Girl, come in; I have so much to tell you!" Charmaine allowed me to get settled before she went on and on about how great work has been, how she's got a new boyfriend, how there have been new clubs and cafes opening around town that we should totally visit, etc. etc. It's true I've missed Charmaine, but I didn't nearly miss the amount she could talk your ear off more than I've missed her.

"Oh, yeah, Charmaine, I've been meaning to ask," I said when I finally remembered something. "What's with the weird posters around town? They feel kind of creepy, don't they?"

"Hm?" Charmaine tilted her head to the side. "Oh, you mean the posters of the Raven? Yeah, he's sort of the president around here. Rumor has it he just declared himself leader when Epron had just started getting itself reestablished after the fallout and then, bam! Bro just put posters of himself all over town. But I do agree, they do make me feel uneasy. Like, why is he wearing that ugly mask? His fashion sense is soooo two thousand years ago. Whoever was in charge of putting out those ads completely failed because I would've made them look so much better and more chic. Honestly, I think the Rebellion is doing him a favor by tearing those posters down."

"Who's the Rebellion?" My interest was piqued. I suddenly remembered the conversation I overheard on the aircraft and wondered if they were affiliated with terrorists.

Charmaine shrugged. "Some kind of syndicate to overthrow the government? I don't know girl, you know I hate politics."

"That sounds like something pretty important to know, Char," I noted.

"Yeah, but it's not my business and therefore it doesn't affect me. Anyway, girl, when do you start that new job? It's a secretary job at a tech company, right? Not many tech companies in Epron, but they are still needed."

I nodded. "Yeah, I start tomorrow. Char, are you sure Epron is safe? You sound kind of unsure about what's going on around here."

"Yeah, girl, I'm sure," she snorted. "I wouldn't be staying here if I thought otherwise. Trust me, Ev, you're gonna love it here."

Charmaine and I spent the rest of the day catching up with each other before going to sleep and getting a start on the new day. When I woke up, Charmaine had already left for her day job but left me some breakfast of eggs and potatoes, which made me wonder about how agriculture and farming worked underground.

I got myself ready for work and started walking to the metro to get to my job, which was located somewhere on the outskirts of the main city. When I boarded the train, I finally got a good look at the citizens around me. From what Charmaine told me, foreigners rarely ever moved to Epron and the majority of the people who lived here were ones whom had already been here before the fallout but moved back after majority of the waste and radiation had been cleared up. Charmaine is originally from Jadirel, where the people there have dark-toned skin and thick curly hair, so she fits in with at least half of the population of Epron. Me being from Cathesia, though, I definitely stood out with my straight, dark hair, tannish skin, and almond-shaped eyes. I felt all the stares I was getting on the train but pretended not to notice.

When my stop came, I stepped off the train and took in my new surroundings. In this area, the roads and walkways were a bit tighter and there was a huge lack of light compared to the brightly illuminated city. The architecture within the walls seemed a bit more lazy, too. I pulled up my gps on my holo-device and followed the directions to where my work building was. I took some twists and turns into alleys, which started to make me feel slightly claustrophobic, and before I knew it, I had reached my destination.

I looked up at the building in front of me and frowned. Like most of what I've seen of Epron, this building was built into the walls, but there was no light emitting through the window gaps. It was almost like the building was desolate and abandoned. Something doesn't feel right. I opened up my call history and immediately dialed the company number, feeling more and more anxious with each ring.

"We're sorry, but the number you called is no longer in service— "

I groaned and shut off my holo-device at the sound of the automated message. This was so weird. The company had contacted me through this number just last week. When could they have possibly shut down their service? It's all so fishy now that I'm at this abandoned location and they won't answer their calls. I was totally duped.

Sighing, I turned back and started to prepare to go back to the apartment, utterly defeated. Just then, I heard the metal door open behind me and before I could even turn around, I felt a hard object strike the back of my head. I only had a split second to process what just happened before my eyes felt heavy and I was plunged into darkness.