“Ahh, the one so desperate to leave the protection of the wall has finally decided to join us. What made you decide that it was time to join us?” Roderick flat intonation called out as I approached him and Kevin.

I simply shrugged and replied, “Well, are you going to help us?”

He laughed at my demanding words. “Come,” and he walked away expecting us to follow. I jogged a step or two to make sure I was right behind him not wanting to lose him in this dim lighting. I could hear Kevin's even steps behind me.

We passed through an archway and the light behind us faded away and the place was lit by nothing. I stumbled in the darkness and could only keep going following the echoing songs of the footsteps in front of me.

I ran right into something and to my chagrin realized it was Roderick’s back. Just as I was trying to back up Kevin ran into my own back pushing me into Roderick again, but he stood solidly and waited as we collected ourselves. I couldn’t tell what he thought of us as we made fools of ourselves in the darkness. The all-encompassing darkness that he walked through like it was as bright as day inside. But they did not know what it looked like outside in this dark and timeless place.

He started walking again, and again we followed into the darkness. I heard a click and dim lights on the ceiling lit up the room. We were in a small room with maps all over the walls, but they were maps I had never seen before with clear… was that flat clear glass without bubbles and flaws? How did they get such a clear material? I walked toward one of the maps and reached out my hand toward the material covering it.

“Please don’t touch the glass. We like to keep it clean and your touch will leave prints on the glass. I stared at it, my hand almost touching but not touching the map. It was a map I had never seen before.

Roderick walked up next to me. “See that circle to the left, that’s our city. And the rest of this is the estimated blast radius of the bomb that was dropped on the city known as Washington D.C., the capital of the nation that was once in charge of this land. Our city was built on the outskirts of that city. To the east will be only destruction until you reach the ocean. To the west you might have a chance if you make it to the mountains. “

“West, East? What does that mean?” It sounded like left and right except it also didn’t.

“They are directions. The world is round and left and right don’t work in the scope of the world.” The world was round? I had never actually… I guess I had wondered, but I had assumed it was flat. Or maybe I had heard it was round somewhere, but our world was so limited to the world within the city’s wall.

He grabbed my hand and led me over to a table with a round thing. I look over at Kevin who was still standing near the entrance of the chamber. He just shrugged as if saying he was not going to be able to learn directions; which was probably true since he was terrible even just in the city.

Roderick spun the round thing and pointed to a spot on it, “That map you were looking at is smaller than a point on this globe. A globe is a more accurate representation of the world”

I looked closed and noticed that it was green and blue. “What… what do the colors represent?”

“The green represents land and the blue is water. Where the land turns brown is a representation of elevation.” I stared at the globe fascinated and then I looked back at Kevin feeling guilty.

“Could… could you send someone to take Kevin and teach him survival skills for the outside world?” I could at least give him something helpful to learn.

Kevin gave me a grateful smile, looking slightly less uncomfortable. Roderick looked thoughtful for a second. “I think- Well we don’t know them, but we can teach him from the sources we have.”

“That would be great.” I smiled and Roderick nodded.

He went over toward the door and pressed a button and spoke at the wall, “Please send Raza to come and teach the City man Kevin skills for surviving in the wild." He let go of the button and turned back toward us, "She is the closest we have to a specialist in this stuff.”

Roderick walked over toward a shelf and grabbed what looked like a black slate used for teaching off it, “Now Elizabeth, you wanted to learn the art of navigation. We will start with learning how the whole world looks and longitude and latitude.”

I looked over at Kevin next to me, wondering if I should wait to learn this new information till Kevin's guide came. Kevin motioned for me to go towards Roderick, "I'll wait here for my instructor. Go have fun learning your book stuff. I've had enough of books living in the City."

"Ok," I couldn't think of anything else to say and made my way over toward where Roderick was waiting.

His pale lips pulled into a smile and he looked genuinely excited as he turned the slate toward me and began to write on it. I leaned in, curious of about the strange symbols he was drawing. I forgot everyone else in the world as I learned how to navigate around the world.

I heard footsteps come, and go. At some point someone brought us a meal that seemed to be some sort of paste with a large cup of water. It was bland fair, but it was edible, and the water clean and fresh.

I was fascinated by this world I had never known before. A round globe and a whole world that these people claimed was destroyed in a nuclear war where all the countries of the world ended up firing on each other. And countries. Countries were such fascinating entities. I had never thought there was so much out there.

The world that existed outside these walls I had lived in my whole life was a world of mystery. I wished I could learn the whole world’s history. I wish I could learn about the governments of these places and their systems of honor, but I didn’t have time. It was already taking me so long to learn navigation, and I had to leave at some point.

There were also maps of the world. Flat representations of the round world. At some point more food was brought in and I was shocked. This food seemed to be leafy greens topped with a number of powders. I wasn’t even hungry and it was more food than I normally got in a day.

I was staring at the map not focusing on Roderick when he interrupted my reverie. “Elizabeth. You don’t have to leave. You’re obviously hungry for knowledge, and if you want you can stay here and learn as long as you like. You’re smart enough to almost be one of us. You could leave when you have learned as much as you want. They teach you almost nothing within the wall. You learn reading, writing, and math, but nothing about beyond the Wall. It’s as if they want the world outside the Wall to be an enigma for you.”

“They want us to fear the world outside the Wall. They want us to choose execution more than they want exile. Exiles they have to give precious resources to for a mission beyond the walls. And that’s why I can’t stay here forever. I still have to leave at some point.”

“But you can stay as long as you like. You can learn within our walls for as long as you want. You don’t have to leave until you want to leave. We won’t ever force you out of here.” His voice had changed from a flat toneless way of speaking to a much richer and sincere sound. The way it's tones pulled in on itself was begging me to stay. Moments ago I would have thought it beyond him to beg. All these people within the wall were so formal and upright. There was so little emotion shown, but I could see something sad and pleading in his pale blue eyes almost white.

“I will stay as long as I can, but at some point I have to leave.” I felt bad now for leaving, and I felt torn. I looked down at my plate that I was eating on and wondered how I could be torn between the outside world and staying in this dim quiet world of learning, but I was enjoying learning, and I had almost forgotten I was in a dark, quiet, and pale world.

He nodded as if it was what he expected me to say. The silence stretched on as we ate with only the sound of chewing to break the silence. Finally he spoke again, “We will spend another hour learning and then we will sleep. Lisa will take you to your sleeping arrangements. Tomorrow we will learn about land formation and climates of the world and a little bit about living and dealing with different climates. That will mostly be what your companion is learning about but it is necessary to learn a little bit about it to know about navigation. If you want at some point we can teach you a little about self-defense. It might be useful for you out there.” He looked away as he talked carefully not looking at me.

I shook my head. No. “I… I can’t. I could never. Women don’t learn to fight.”

He shrugged, “Women don’t wear pants out there, or do they? I think you are past the rules of your pitiful society. And women in our society can do anything they want from fighting; to learning; to wearing whatever they want. And I would think you more than any other woman inside the wall would be willing to put aside the bounds of society.”

I shook my head again but said nothing and felt very aware of the fact I was wearing revealing leather clothing.

We sat there awkwardly, and then he stood up. “Come. Let’s begin again.”

This span of time seemed to pass by in no time at all. Before I knew it Lisa was there standing in front of us with her hands on her hips. “You two are as terrible as a regular pair of scholars. You both haven’t even noticed me standing by the door for more than a minute. Are you sure you really want to leave us?”

I felt that strange draw to stay, but I shook my head. I had to leave, “I would love to stay here, but I must leave eventually, for the city.”

She shrugged and grabbed my wrist and led me away. I looked back and the lights in the room were fading away as Roderick stood there watching me leave, and then the light was gone. Lisa confidently led me through her dark world and I was reminded again of why I couldn’t stay here forever. I loved the outside world and its light, plants, and noises. I couldn’t stand this quiet world.

“Roderick likes you.” Lisa’s voice startled me.

I laughed at her simple childish thought that Roderick liked me. “No Lisa, I think he just likes teaching and I am an enthusiastic learner.”

Lisa shook her head, “I see past your delusions. He likes you. I’ve never seen Roderick soften around anyone and he softened around you.”

“Softened? What was soft about him?” I think Lisa was the delusional one.

She shrugged, “I saw his face. He was showing emotion. Roderick shows no emotion. He is attracted to your darker hair and your reddish skin. We only see your kind of people when we fix things at night. And he’s always been obsessed with you. He saw you on his first night trip into the city when he was a kid, and he thought you the prettiest girl he’d ever seen. He’s wanted to meet you since then, but he has followed the rules and never woken you up.”

“That just sounds creepy. And I’ve never noticed anyone watching me.” I laughed shakily. To think someone had been watching my sad and pitiful life.

Lisa shrugged, “He was always obsessed with your kind, my mother told me. He noticed you were intelligent and he fell in love with your spirit in the face of the absolute brutality shown within the wall. He has watched you grow into someone he admires and loves. Mother told me, and mother knows him better than anyone. He is my brother after all.”

“Wait, Roderick is your brother?” They were almost ten years apart in age. Maybe a little less, but still I was surprised by such an age difference.

“Yes, mother had me when she was thirty and Roderick when she was twenty-one. We also have another sibling, Carry, who she had when she was twenty-four. But Carry has trained in engineering and lives with the solar panels that help provide power. She knows how to build them, maintain them, and fix them. She often has to go out suited up in a lead suit to protect her from radiation. But you won’t meet her. She lives with the other engineering apprentices.” She shrugged again. Shrugging seemed very popular among these people of the wall.

“What age do people of the wall normally marry at?” I was curious about their strange culture.

Lisa stopped suddenly. “This is it.” She let go of me and opened a door into a dimly lit room. “The lights must have been turned on before we got here to make you more comfortable.”