Birds of Paradise

The whir of engines echoed throughout the tunnel as the convoy continued its departure to the surface. It'd been about an hour since their encounter with the zombified subjects.

"These things sure have a lot of fuel," Gian-Luca accelerated his van. "We've been driving for so long, and on an incline too!"

Midas chuckled. "Looks like getting those keys were worth-it after all."

The group of vans continued to drive, hoping for freedom at any second.

That second came.

With surprise, a glare suddenly shone against the windshields of the vans.

"Urgh… That's annoyingly bright," Ian squinted his eyes. "What is that?"

As the passengers to each van adjusted their eyes to the new-revealing brightness, their jaws dropped. This unfamiliar light wasn't blindingly white like those of the facility. This light had a yellow tone to it. More evidently, the light originated from what seemed to be a never-ending sea of blue, stretching up above.

"That's—!" Veronica covered her mouth in awe.

The entire convoy of vans suddenly sped up, as if all in unison with their shocking reactions. Ian, at the front, noticed something; "The horizon's getting closer…"

"What do you mean?" Midas asked.

"It's moving towards us… Or rather we're moving towards it—the surface…"

"The surface?"

"Yes the—"

"THE SURFACE!!!" Veronica leapt with joy. Her action shook the van slightly.

A van behind, even Vidia was ignited with excitement. "We're nearing the surface? The real world? Freedom!?"

"Yes," Midas replied. "Freedom."

The convoy gradually grew in anticipation as the view of the sky and its sun was brought nearer. Eventually, each van lurched its passengers forward.

They were no longer on a slant, but level ground.

The convoy had completed its trip, and reached the surface.

Arriving to, the vans' tires rolled onto dirtied concrete, and soon, rugged dirt. The convoy was met with an unnatural-to-them, surrounding of green, and overshadowing of blue. Trees, plants, and tall grass formed an encirclement around their resurfacing. Yellow brilliant rays of light shone down on to them. Looking behind, back at the tunnel entry they'd just exited, vines and moss painted the rusting gates that'd been held open.

It was clear to the subjects that the tunnel's entry would be completely concealed if the gate were to fully close, seeing as the gate front itself was covered with a blanket of foliage. The entry point was found beneath a tall mound, on which trees grew and vines dangled. This brought a strong and seemingly unprecedented scent of sun-heated leaves to seep into the vans.

In the front van, Veronica felt her nose tingle. She recognized a distinct smell among the odors; a Strelitzia.

"That's odd," she spoke to herself. "Strelitzias aren't commonly found in a jungle biome like this."

"Strelitzias?" Ian repeated.

"Oh," Veronica didn't realize she'd spoken out loud. "Yeah, strelitzias."

"What's that?"

Veronica smirked. "It's a unique kind of flower. Yellow, and shaped like a bird. But its smell… For some reason I can smell it right now. It's like… freedom."

Further behind, Midas exhaled in astonishment at the sights. "So there is a world outside of A.X.A. after all… You can now throw away that belief that I'm delusional, Venus," he laughed.

"Yeah, yeah… It does look nicer out here, I'll admit that," Venus said.

On edge, Midas opened his door and stepped outside. For the first time in what he assumed to be two years, his foot touched nature. There were no more artificials. They'd made it. The six subjects had escaped A.X.A.

Following Midas' exit, everyone else left their vans too.

"Congratulations everyone," Midas greeted the grinning faces. "We actually made it to the surface, and escaped our slave-like lives in A.X.A."

Gian-Luca couldn't help but smile. "To be honest, I didn't think we'd actually be able to do this."

"Yeah.... that was… a crazy ride. Everything." Veronica watched her natural surroundings with pleasure.

"All you imbeciles," Venus spoke suddenly. "Thank Midas."

"Huh?" He turned to Venus, confused.

"You were the mastermind behind this whole scheme, and although I honestly doubted everything at first, you changed my mind along the way."

"I'll be honest," Ian decided to add onto Venus' words. "I wavered at the start too. But as things progressed with our escape, you gained my trust."

The two, Venus and Ian, looked to Midas with an expression of gratitude. Midas decided he'd never forget the moment.

"I'm glad… I'm glad things worked out in the end, and without casualties too. Good job everyone, for doing your parts. We are no longer subjects of A.X.A because of this, and…" Midas felt a sudden growth in heat under his heart. "I… I despise them…"

The switch in tone caught everyone by surprise.

"Them?" Vidia asked.

"A.X.A… The Overseers… Everyone. I hate what they've done to us, and to the others… There must've been thousands of victims to their doings!"

"But look on the bright side you pessimistic imbecile." Venus tried to reason with him. "We've been bestowed with unbelievable amounts of power… Especially me…"

"I know… But at what cost?" Midas gritted his teeth. "So much time… Years… gone. They even stole our beloved memories. No one here can recall more than a single day from their lives. Half of us can't even remember a single thing at all! We've only found benefit due to our OWN doings. We did this ourselves… And if not, we would've continued to live under those horrific lies, and those horrific white lights."

An odd silence followed. No one knew what to say, or really had a word on the topic. They just stood, basking in the yellow heat of the sun, while giving thought to what lives they must've once had before A.X.A. stole everything.

"Well… It's too late now," Gian-Luca said. "Those lives we had before… they're gone. Whether we remember them or not."

"You're right." Midas agreed. "That's why we're starting over, from zero, right here, right now."

Everyone's attention was seized.

"Our development with A.X.A. was simply our upbringing." Midas was brought back by a memory. It was of the timid, pitiable face of Pluto, begging for death.

"Tsk!" He clenched a fist. "With who we are now, as people who've lost, and people who've gained, there's no going back to a normal life. We were all irregularities before this, so we could even end up dead if we make the wrong move. I say we stick together if we want to survive in this unfamiliar world." Midas looked at everyone's faces. Surprisingly, no one's expression spelt denial.

"And through this… we'll bring about A.X.A.'s downfall."