Back to the Surface

Caroline 余婷 

In 3711 AD, 111 years had passed since the alien Lighters had occupied the earth. The Lighters had mastered much more advanced technology than human beings. However, they also had a weakness - they would lose all their vision in the dark and couldn't see pure black things (pure black here refers to the black painted by a special non-reflective pigment). Human beings had used this weakness to build a huge underground habitation and lived there for a hundred years. The structure of the underground habitation was like an ant nest, where human beings were divided into three classes. Civilians were the most numerous stratum in the underground habitation. They were responsible for agricultural production, residence maintenance, and other basic matters, and lived in the place closest to the surface, which made them a flesh shield when the habitation was attacked. Manipulators lived in the middle layer of the residence. They usually had higher intelligence and physical ability than civilians and could order civilians to do things for them. The stratum with the least number was the nobles. They lived in the deepest place and had the best living conditions. What's more, they treated manipulators and civilians as their servants.

Annabelle was a girl of the civilian class but was different from other civilians who lived a step-by-step life every day; she was delicate, sensitive, and full of curiosity about everything around her. One day, she was assigned to clean the bathhouse in the civilian area. At the end of the cleaning, she was suddenly attracted by a loose tile in the corner of the bathhouse. She leaned over to the tile and knocked it gently. Then, she found that under the tile was an empty space. So, she used the shovel in the cleaning tool to pry the piece open and jumped into the hole. When she got into it, she looked around and found that this was a large study belonging to a manipulator. It was full of books that she had never seen before.

Annabelle carefully observed the surroundings. After confirming that there was no one else there, she picked up a history book on the bookshelf and squatted in the corner to read it. This book described the history of human beings before entering the underground habitation. However, everything written in this book was a secret that only a few manipulators know. As a civilian, she always thought that this world had always been like this, and she never knew that there was another place above the ground where people had once lived. She was shocked by the history recorded in the book. So, she kept reading it until dinner time and returned to the civilian area along the same road. The next day, she came to the study again, but she ran into a girl there. Just as she racked her brains for an excuse, the girl first gave her a hissing gesture and pulled her to the corner. "Don't worry. I won't call them to catch you." The girl said.

"What are you doing here?" Annabelle asked.

"Saving humanity." The girl said solemnly.

"What?" Annabelle asked.

"It's too complicated to explain clearly in short time," The girl replied," You are a civilian, right? We need the help of a civilian. Come here at this time tomorrow, and then you will learn what I am doing." After the girl finished speaking, she left the study, and Annabelle went back with doubts.

The next day, Annabelle came to the study as agreed. The girl she had met yesterday had another girl with her. "I was in a hurry yesterday and forgot to introduce myself. My name is Kelly," said the girl, "This is my partner, Celia. She’s a technological genius."

"I'm Annabelle."

"A month ago, Celia found a note at the bottom of the red bookcase." Kelly lowered her voice and said," The things recorded in this note are very complicated, but it delivers a message that mankind is going to be destroyed." Celia handed the notebook to Annabelle. And the events described in the notebook completely blew her mind. It was written in the note:

‘ These monsters are fragile, but they have quite advanced weapons. Humans can't compete with them. In just a few months, more than half of the humans have been killed or injured. Fortunately, we have found their fatal defect - they can't see things in the dark, nor can they see things covered by special paint (people later named this paint DK). People used DK to paint a glass tower as an entrance that will not be found by the Lighters. Under it, a shelter was built to accommodate the survivors. However, it was found that DK will fade gradually in the air, and DA, one of the raw materials used to make DK, is very difficult to obtain. The raw material used to extract DA, dark grass, is also extinct. In this case, Geoffrey, the founder of the habitation, organized a group of scientists to try to extract DA from other various materials. Two months later, an 18-year-old boy who was seriously ill donated his blood for the experiment, and the researchers successfully extracted a substance similar to DA (later named DA2) from his blood. Then they conducted a large number of human blood tests. Finally, they found that there was a group of people with special genes who would release DA2 when their bodies matured and in a dying state. So, Geoffrey claimed that these people were nobles, and they were confined at the bottom of the underground world. These nobles enjoyed the best material life from birth, but once they reached the age of 18, they would be transferred to the secret laboratory by the manipulator under the pretext of "going to the exclusive palace of the nobles", where they would be used to extract DA2. The class division between civilians and manipulators was devised by Geoffrey. ‘

Annabelle was shocked and speechless for a long time. After a while, Annabelle asked, "So what do you mean by saving humanity?"

"The living environment of the underground residence is not suitable for human beings. The number of human beings of all classes is decreasing, especially the nobles. If we do not find new ways to survive, human beings will soon be found by the Lighters and eventually extinguished," Kelly replied.

"And according to our investigation, there are a group of manipulators who form a secret investigation team and put on cloaks coated with DK to explore above the ground once a year. However, their investigation efficiency is too low. We want to investigate by ourselves," Celia said.

"So, what do you mean by the need for a civilian?" Annabelle was still confused.

"The reason why we need the help of a civilian is that I have stolen several special cloaks, but Celia and I, as underage operators, cannot go to the civilian level, let alone to the ground." Kelly explained.

"OK, I will help you." Annabelle decided to join the program. ‘It seems impossible for three teenagers to save mankind, but I like to make the impossible possible,’ Annabelle thought.

A month later, Annabelle, wearing a special cloak, infiltrated the secret investigation team. After following the investigation team to the city built by Lighters, Annabelle was stunned by the sight. In the underground habitation, the electric lights installed in the civilian areas were very scattered; even when the lights were turned on, it was very dim. However, there were bright lights everywhere. The colorful neon lights and electronic screens made the whole city radiant. Annabelle recorded everything she saw and secretly sent it to Kelly and Celia. After entering the city center, Annabelle quietly left the investigation team and explored the city alone. Three days later, Annabelle received a text message from Kelly, informing her that the investigation team was returning, and attached the latest position of the investigation team. So, Annabelle joined the investigation team again and returned to the habitation with them.

After returning to the habitation, Annabelle, Kelly and Celia met in the study. "Celia and I have watched the videos you sent us. What else do you find?" Kelly asked.

"I did find something special. The Lighters all regarded a man named Kostos as a hero and called him the 'Earth Warrior'. At first, I thought Kostos was the man who led the Lighters to occupy the earth, but later I found that he was a doctor."

"A doctor?"

"Yes, a doctor." Annabelle continued, "I know it's strange, but what's stranger is that I found a special building named after him in the city center. Every day, a large number of Lighters come in and go out there. And every Lighter wears a special bracelet. When entering, the guard will scan their bracelet with an instrument. By the way, I stole a bracelet from a

Lighter on the street."

"Well done," Kelly praised, "I think it's necessary for you to sneak into that building."

"No problem, I already know how to go to the world above us," Annabelle responded.

"Give me this bracelet, "Celia said, "I need to crack the secret of it."

"Sure." Annabelle said and handed Celia the bracelet.

Five days later, Annabelle came to the city center of the Lighters again. She followed a Lighter into the building. Entering the interior of it, she found that the hall was divided into small compartments, each of which contained a Lighter who was infusion. Then she went to the basement of the building, where she saw a huge luminous symbol drawn with special materials in the center of the ground, with a protective cover on it, so she took a photo and sent it to Celia.

Back to the habitation, Annabelle told Kelly and Celia everything that she had sent, and Celia shared the information she got after she cracked the bracelet. "Although Lighters are very similar to humans in physical structure, they are aliens after all. There is an element in the earth's air that is toxic to them, so they must inject an antidote regularly and Kostos is the inventor of this antidote." Celia said, "What's more, this bracelet is also their social tool. Here is the chat record of the owner of the bracelet with other Lighters." Then she showed the chat record to Kelly and Annabelle.

"Wait, look at this," Annabelle said suddenly, ”He said, 'P3 colony planet has lost contact with the parent planet. It will take a long time to find a new one.' Does this mean that they need to spend a lot of time to find a planet that can be colonized and they must make a mark on the planet they find. Once the mark that is used to determine the location is destroyed, they can't find the way to this planet from their parent planet."

"Yeah, I think so. Just like the landmark axis, they must mark the position of the earth to find here," Kelly agreed with Annabelle.

"Does this mean that as long as we destroy that building and the mark, we can make these Lighters on the earth die of poisoning and cut off their connection with their parent planet?" Celia asked.

"Yes, and I suspect that the special sign in the basement of that institution is the mark they made on the earth," Annabelle said.

A month later, Annabelle took Celia's special explosives and sneaked into that building. She found the storage room of the antidotes and placed the explosives in the corner. Then she went to the basement, pried a corner of the protective cover, and placed the explosives inside. After doing all this, she returned to the habitation; she, Kelly, and Celia detonated the explosives together. Then a loud noise came from above the habitation, and people in the habitation were shocked. Before long, Celia used hacker technology to control the broadcasting system of the habitation and announced to everyone what they had done in recent days.

A week later, human beings returned to the surface of the earth again. They looked at the land that raised their ancestors and shed tears. Although Humans still had many problems to think about: how to adapt to the new environment, how to rebuild their homeland, and how to prevent another attack by aliens, etc.. Annabelle, Kelly and Celia could finally rest at ease. These three girls, relying on their own strength, completed the task that seemed impossible.