Chapter Two

This is the first and only time I have ever been excited to wake up at six a.m. I quickly throw on some frumpy clothes (because the stink will most likely never leave them) and skip downstairs to eat breakfast.

Ajax and Misto are already there, Ajax swirling his bowl of mush with a disgusted look.

"Good morning Misto, Ajax. How are we all doing this fine morning?" I ask playfully.

"I'm wonderful Liliya, just wonderful," Ajax bluntly says.

Misto laughs. "It's okay, even after you jump in, and you smell like a combination of the locker room and this mush times a thousand, you'll still be my home slice."

"Oh gee, thanks," Ajax says.

"Oh come on A! You're the one who suggested the pit in the first place!" I say, sitting down on a chair next to Misto.

"I know, but that was when I thought I was going to beat you easy!" he says.

Melina and Dylis join us at the table. Dylis lays what look like pink mini marshmallows on the table. "They're actually ear plugs, but we can shove them up our nostrils when we go over to the pit later," she says.

Ajax groans. "Can we just go now and get it over with?" He runs his fingers impatiently through his coarse brown hair, like he always does.

"Sure, let's go through the back while no one's looking," I say.

We sneak through the back door of the dining hall and head towards the city limits.

Ajax doesn't speak the whole way. His fists are stuffed in the pockets of his jeans and keeps a stiff look on his face. Someone certainly isn't looking forward to this as much as I am.

We walk through the bubble and Dylis passes out the ear-nose plugs. We giggle as we shove them up our noses and we approach the pit. But our laughter is cut short, when we actually see it. Then Ajax starts laughing.

"There's nothing in it! I don't know how or why but it's all gone! WOOHOO!" he cheers.

It's true. What was once a pile of waste and garbage is now just a really deep hole in the ground about six feet in diameter. All of our mouths gape open.

"What happened to it?! You were supposed to jump into it!" I shout. I stomp around and throw my ear-nose plugs on the ground. I was really looking forward to this. And now it's no longer even a possibility.

"Calm down Liliya!" Dylis says. She walks over to the pit and looks into it. "I can't see the bottom. Guys take a look."

We all walk over, my arms crossed, and try to see down the pit. She was right that the bottom of it isn't visible, but there are rocks and such jutting out on the way down. Suddenly, I get an idea.

"Hey, we made a bet that whoever loses the race, has to go into the pit, right?" I say.

Ajax looks at me. "Yeah, but now the pit isn't even here, just this...pit..."

I smile. "Exactly."

"Are you saying that he should still have to go down there?" Misto asks. "What if he falls and we can't get to him?"

"We could send a rope down with him," Melina suggests.

"Or after he goes, we could all go down with him, unless something bad is down there of course," Dylis says.

Ajax smiles. "Well, being my adventurous and curious self, I'll do it. And I guess I have to stay true to my word."

"We don't have a rope though," Misto says.

I sigh. I guess we couldn't send him into a what could be endless pit without any way of getting back out. "Well, maybe we could... ugh. How come whenever I win a bet I never get what I want in the end?"

Misto laughs. "The universe just hates you like that. Well, are we going to continue to try to find a way to get Ajax down the hole or you wanna head on back?"

"I'm fine with leaving. I don't like being outside the dome," Melina says. "Even though everyone else does, it makes be feel all bad inside..."

Ajax smiles at her. "How about you Dyl? You wanna go back?"

She gives me a sorry smile. "Sorry girl, I want to go back. I have that science test on Monday, and I want to study. And no offense, but this is the very least of my problems.

I groan. Ajax smiles. "Well, sorry Liliya but majority rules; back home it is!" He does a little dance while saying "Doot doo doot doo doot dooty doot!"

"That is not fair!" I shout. He continues his happy jig. "Just quit it!"

Just then, an ear-splitting siren sound emanates from somewhere around us. We all grab our ears in pain and fall to the ground.

"What's going on?!" Ajax yells. His usually loud voice is barely audible over the extremely loud noise.

"The alarm! Someone must have triggered it!!" Misto shouts.

"What?!!" Dylis screams. She looks around frantically. Ajax and I both know there aren't any triggers in this area. Which means someone else must have tripped over a wire somewhere else. But no matter who did it, anyone who's outside of the dome right now is going to be in big trouble.

"What do we do now?! Where do we go?! We can't go back! They'll beat us to death!" Melina screams.

All of a sudden, a boy our age leaps through the trees. It's Velotz. I recognize him from his brown curly hair that flies everywhere. He usually is pretty strange and funny, but now he looks very panicked. He darts his eyes towards us and stares at us for a second. Then he shouts, "They're going to come after me!" Normally, I would've thought it was a joke, but I can tell in his eyes that he's dead serious. He triggered the alarm. He jerks his head in the pit's direction and his eyes widen.

I can tell what he's thinking and try to stop him. "Wait Velotz! Stop!" I shout. But he's already sprinting to it. He takes a mighty leap, and falls down into the pit.

The rest of us immediately surround it and look down. The alarm is still going off, so we can't hear any screaming if there is any. I look around. I see some kids running. The Security could be on us any second now.

"VELOTZ!" Ajax shouts down the hole. He had been acquaintances with him having him in nearly all of his classes. Just then, a small stone shoots up out of the pit. Misto reaches out, catches it, then examines it. I don't need to look at the rock to know what this means. He must still be alive.

Which means he survived the fall down.

I look around me one more time, this time seeing a few Security members with their backs to us about two hundred yards away. They swing their massive clubs in an unnaturally calm manner. I gulp. We can't get caught.

I don't think, I just do. I grab Misto, who is closest to me, and I jump. So at least if I die, I won't die alone.

I hear Dylis screaming at me from above. "LILIYA!!"

Meanwhile, Misto screams at me from right next to me. "What the-AAAHHH!!"

Then we hit the floor; well Misto does. I land on top of him. He groans.

"What the hell did you just do?" he shouts. I ignore him and look up. I estimate that it was about a twenty foot fall. How on earth did we just survive that? I take in my surroundings and find that the floor is made up of shrubbery. The wall is solid dirt, as I assumed it would be. I get off of Misto and find and rock in the wall. Then I throw it up to the entrance of the pit as Helots did. I can see the shadows of my friends' heads, and then see Ajax reach out and grab the rock out of the air. I can still hear the alarm ringing, and I hope the Security didn't spot them yet.

Misto stands up and turns me towards him. "Why?!" he says. I gesture upwards. "They would have caught us! And I don't know about you but I'd rather hide down here fore a while than get punished by the government!" I retort. I focus my attention back up. "Come on, get down here already!" I whisper. Even if I shouted I'm sure they wouldn't be able to hear me since the alarm is still ringing. I could barely hear myself think up there.

Misto rotates his shoulder. "That actually didn't hurt as much as I thought it would," he says, now over the fact that I dragged him down under here.

"Well I'm only ninety pounds and the ground is made of leaves, so, you know," I say, still pleading for my friends to join us to myself. I see Dylis motion her arm down to us. I hope she'll convince them to come.

Misto looks around. "Where did Velotz go? This thing's like a tube, he couldn't have gone in any side direction, he couldn't have gone up, which means...."

Just then, I feel something wrap around my ankle. I look down and see a vine tightening around my ankle. I bend down and try to pull it off, but it's about a half inch thick and seems to move like it has a mind of its own. "Misto hel-" I begin to say, but then I start screaming as the vine yanks me down to the leafy floor.

"Liliya!" he shouts as he grabs a hold of my wrist. My whole left leg is underneath the leaves. I don't feel anything below. "Ajax! Dylis! Melina! Get down here!!!" he shouts.

As if they all heard his commands, they all come falling down on top of us. Which nearly makes Misto lose his gripping on me. "Pull me out!" I say.

The rest of them crawl over to me, there isn't a lot of moving space anymore with four and a half bodies inside. They each take a hold of each of my arms. "Okay let's pull on one, two, three!" Dylis says. They wrench my arms nearly out of their sockets. I groan in pain. They cut some slack, but all at the same time, which gives the vine a chance to pull my other leg down beneath the leaves.

"Just let go and then jump after me!" I say. This is what probably happened to Velotz. I just hope that there isn't a human-eating plant monster waiting to throw me down its throat down there.

"Are you sure?" Melina says. They all look at me, ready to yank on my arms again.

"I'm sure, just follow me right away," I say, feeling the impatient tugging of the vine.

They exchange glances then nod. Dylis nods more reluctantly. "Ready?" she asks.

"Just do it!" I say. They all let go at the same time. The vine reacts instantly and the leafy undergrowth brushes against my body as it pulls me down. I scream as I fall, then see what exactly I'm going to fall into.