Chapter 1: A Certain Special Day

I woke up as if it were a normal day; the lights turned on in my now brightly-lit, white room. I took a steamy, warm shower and put on a set of clean clothes. My days have always been like this, studying diverse topics, eating and sleeping in this same room.

As a now 13 year old, it's different from the kind of life I've read about in my books. It may seem monotone, but it's the way it's always been. I've read about children hating studying, but what more is there to do here? I think I would rather read and study than die of boredom.

Anyway, today was a normal day, but it was also special in a sense. On my birthday, I got a small cake after lunch and would unlock new chapters to gain knowledge from. Those things were something I looked forward to, so I was pretty happy this morning.

I decided to check what new chapters there were on the computer. Usually, multiple subjects were included; it was the system's way of saying "You're old enough to learn this". But there was something odd today. I did get a notification saying new chapters were available, but when I checked maths, sciences, literature and other subjects, there weren't any new ones.

Instead, I noticed a new subject appear, which wasn't there before. That part wasn't so strange, since in different years I've been given access to multiple new subjects to learn about. The odd part was the name of the subject "The End".

The End? What end? I had completed all prior chapters yesterday, so would that mean there would no longer be any new ones? I curiously opened the category and started reading.

"Dear Reader. You must wonder what this place is; so now, on your 13th Birthday, we'll finally tell you what all of this is about. The place you are currently in is one of the rooms at the Bunkerscape.

As you probably know from your studies, our planet was divided in multiple countries, which differed in opinions. Such differences lead to an escalated conflict, which ended up destroying our lives.

Fearing something would happen that lead to humanity's extinction, the countries signed a treaty where they would send an embryo to the Bunkerscape, an underground facility that would harbor humanity and its knowledge.

This way, the DNA pool would be large enough for humanity not to face extinction, as well as all knowledge that has been produced during centuries.

Today, you'll be able to leave your room for the first time, explore the facility that was built with the help of all countries and meet other people."

Leaving my room, huh? That was exciting, but at the same time scary, since it was something new. A 10 minute timer appeared on the screen, indicating that the door to my room would be open.

At the same time, the small window where my food usually arrived opened, and a tray with a special watch appeared. This gadget could be useful for multiple things; such as locking and unlocking the room I was in and telling the time.

I patiently waited for the timer to finish, exploring my watch. It appeared there was a wide amount of things it could do. It had many functions I learned in different subjects, from monitoring your heart rate and body temperature to scanning the air for radiation.

The watch itself was white and simple, but I couldn't understand what the number, "047", meant. It must be some kind of code, I thought.

When the timer showed 15 seconds remained, I heard a loud, flat noise. It sounded like a heavy object was suddenly moved and it hit the wall. After the remaining time passed, the door to my room, which was always closed, suddenly opened to the side.

It seemed hundreds of doors started opening, so I decided to head out and meet other people; if there really were any.

The exterior of my room was a faintly-lit, metallic corridor with a white stripe on the side and lights on the ceiling. Like me, other children were leaving their rooms. Some even started chatting. I didn't really know what to say, so I just observed.

Slowly, the background noise of people chatting started getting louder; more and more people started breaking the ice and chatting about their daily lives.

To my left, two boys were happily talking about their experiences. To my right, a girl was observing. She turned around and looked at me, then walked closer.

"Uh... Hello there, it's nice to meet someone after so long." She said, extending her arm. She had a dark skin and curly hair.

"Yeah. It feels strange to meet someone else for the first time." I answered.

"I know right!" She started laughing.

Apart from the shy start, talking to someone else seemed relatively easy. From now on, I'd meet more and more people, so it was important to feel comfortable doing so.

After some idle chatting, everyone received a notification on their watch. It showed a map of the facility we were in, along with our location and the names of different rooms. From a quick look, we were in "Bedrooms", which was on the top floor, west side.

The map can be zoomed in and moved in your watch screen, and you're also able to tap the rooms for information about it.

"Oh, the map is pretty cool, it seems like we're in a much bigger place than I had imagined!" Said the girl I just met.

Then, I noticed the central area of the map flashing in red.

"Does this mean we have to go there?" I suggested.

"Most likely, maybe we can meet everyone there."

While walking there, I noticed each door was labeled with a number. It made sense the watch on my arm said "047". We got to the central area, which was a much bigger, round room. This one was much more well-lit, so it made the corridor look dark in comparison.

Everyone started gathering in the central area of the room, but it started to get really crowded, so people started sitting down on the sides, which were full of stairs. It looked like an indoor stadium, where everyone could gather.

I decided to continue and sit down on one of the seats available.