Awakening

"Got any fragments? Want to trade?"

In these large shelters, there's a hidden special market where people secretly exchange brain-machine memory chips. These chips record people's memories of life on the surface world and have become precious spiritual wealth in the wasteland.

"...No."

652 grinned, a cold glint in his eye, and turned to leave.

As days went by, Rakien gradually became accustomed to the rhythm of life here.

Inside the shelter, the scarcity of resources laid bare the worst of human nature—extreme selfishness and greed. Fights over food were commonplace.

On this evening, he and others lined up to receive their meager rations. The small amount of dry, hard bread and murky soup was the only thing to look forward to each day. Rakien looked at the pitiful amount of food in his hands and was reminded of the scene when his mother passed away. After a few bites, Rakien lay down on his cold bed.

He noticed that Kai and Alice, the mother and son from his dormitory, had suddenly vanished. Where had they gone?

Suddenly, a faint sound of footsteps broke the silence of the night. The door was ajar, and Rakien sat up alertly. By the dim light, he saw several tall figures sneaking out of the dormitory and moving towards a secluded corner deep in the shelter. His intuition told him that these people's intentions were far from simple.

He cautiously followed them, his heart pounding like a drum. They entered an enclosed area filled with old machinery and pipes. The musty air and the smell of corroding metal made his nose wrinkle involuntarily. The group huddled together, discussing something in hushed tones. Rakien hid behind an old crate and caught snippets of their conversation: "Blueprint number 2…", "secret ventilation duct", "…modified humans." These words quickened his pulse; were they planning an escape?

Kai and Alice, along with their son, were indeed gone. The next day, the day after, and the day after that, they were never seen again, having disappeared without a trace, their belongings gone as well!

In the following days, Rakien became like a ghost lurking in the shadows, silently investigating the strange shelter.

Seemingly ordinary moments turned into perfect opportunities to gather intelligence. He would pretend to be nonchalant, striking up conversations with the guards at the checkpoints; or he would seek out those who had lived here long-term, chatting amicably about everyday matters. With his intelligence and keen insight, he could skillfully steer the conversation, subtly extracting valuable information from their casual remarks.

As time passed, these fragmented pieces of information, like puzzle pieces, were gradually assembled in his mind.

He had a general understanding of the shelter's various passages and layout and discovered that this shelter was quite different from others. The most obvious was the strict rule—once inside, no one was allowed to leave. It was as if this place was an isolated cage, trapping everyone inside.

Moreover, there were several specific areas within the shelter that were strictly off-limits. Anyone approaching would be met with the guards' scolding, even beatings. More bizarrely, an unusually pungent odor often drifted from those forbidden zones, like some kind of chemical, so strong it made one want to vomit. Even a faint whiff was enough to make one's stomach churn and feel extremely uncomfortable.

Furthermore, he discovered something truly chilling: it wasn't just Kai and Alice who had suddenly disappeared a week ago. Every so often, a group of survivors would vanish without warning or trace! No one had seen them since; what was going on? Where had those missing people gone?

Perhaps these poor souls had already met a fate. The guards, who were well aware of the situation, remained silent.

Because the day after these people disappeared, the guards would nonchalantly arrange for their belongings to be discarded as if they had never been there.

These astonishing discoveries made him shudder, a chill running down his spine. What he had thought was a safe haven for survivors now seemed far from it; there were likely hidden malicious intentions behind it all!

He felt he had become entangled in unpredictable danger, not knowing when disaster might strike. He really shouldn't have come in here. He needed to make a decision soon: either find a way to escape quickly, which was easier said than done, or risk exposing the darkness to everyone?

He pondered in his heart, had anyone else noticed anything? Or were they all like him, choosing silence?

A few days later, in the deep night, the shelter's lights suddenly went out with a snap, leaving the dark space filled with only the sound of hurried footsteps and whispers creating chaos. Rakien's heart raced, and he quickly got up from his bed. He had an inkling that this power outage was no accident. He walked to the door and, by the weak emergency lights in the corridor, saw several guards quickly mobilizing as if to control the situation.

"What's happening?" he heard someone nearby ask in a hushed voice.

"I heard someone sabotaged the power system," another voice replied, filled with unease, "maybe to distract the guards."

His heart skipped a beat; could this be part of those mysterious people's plan? Was the power outage a act to escape the shelter, or a trap set by the guards?

Suddenly, a loud "bang!" echoed as a heavy object fell, accompanied by a scream that cut through the night. Rakien looked towards the sound and saw a little girl lying on the ground, clutching a dirty pipe, trembling and crying in pain, her words inaudible. She had clearly fallen from the second floor in the panic, not noticing the ground below. Her cries caused more and more survivors to poke their heads out of their rooms, their faces filled with confusion and fear.

"Stop crying," Rakien said, wanting to go over and see how badly she was hurt.

However, as soon as he spoke, the shelter erupted into chaos again. Someone was trying to force their way through the restricted doors to escape. Rakien saw the guards frantically mobilizing, trying to suppress these people. The air was filled with tension and confrontation, as if a conflict could break out at any moment.

At that moment, a deep voice whispered in his ear, "You fucking know too much."

Rakien turned his head abruptly and saw a stranger wearing a mask standing behind him. The man's gaze was cold and piercing, as if he had seen through all of Rakien's secrets. "If you want to stay alive, keep your mouth shut."

Faced with this sudden threat, Rakien's fingers trembled slightly, and he nodded in pretended submission. But inside, he was determined not to live in confusion any longer! Since those people seemed to have a way out, so could he! He wanted to resist, to fight against this cruel world! He wanted to escape! He even wanted to find a way to save those poor people who suffered with him.

After standing there for a while, the figure with the mysterious mask turned and left. The originally tense and oppressive atmosphere gradually dissipated, returning to silence.

He slowly turned his head, and the girl was gone, obviously taken away by someone else.

Rakien sighed helplessly and silently turned to walk back to his dormitory. His mood was extremely heavy, and his mind kept replaying everything that had just happened. When he returned to the dormitory, it was as if all his strength had been drained, and he collapsed onto the bed.

A strong sense of hunger surged like a tide, and a huge sense of fatigue tightly enveloped him. The two feelings intertwined, making it almost impossible for him to move. Gradually, his consciousness began to blur, his eyes slowly closed, and he fell into a drowsy sleep.

From childhood to adulthood, he had always had the same strange dream.