Prologue

Why is this happening? Why was this happening? Why wouldn’t it stop?

Why?

Why?

Why.

Running through the maze of horror, I tried to find my way out but no to avail, I had no idea where I was or where I was going. I was lost. The Elites had built this place specifically for the humans to get lost so that we could never escape their wrath and yet, I couldn’t find it in me to give up, I couldn’t stop searching for the exit now, I couldn’t just turn back. It was too late. Once he got his hands back on me, he’d kill me. I’m sure of it.

Panting as I tried to catch my breath, I kept on running until the sun was captured by the moon and there was nothing left of the light but darkness. I knew at this point that it had been an entire day, an entire day of me running through the maze trying to find the exit and so far, I was as lost as I was when I first entered the maze but if I wanted to get away from him… I had to keep running.

Sweat running down my forehead, I frantically looked around as I yelled a loud frustrated scream into the quiet of the night. The air as toxic as ever, I wasn’t sure if I was going to last much longer but I had to, I had gone through much worse, this was a piece of cake, right?

Wrong.

Drowning in the misery the Elite’s had created for us humans, I almost missed his presence showing up right behind me but nothing could distract me enough to lose focus of him… slowly turning around, my eyes fell onto the black covering the sclera in his eyes as he stared me down, no expression on his face, I knew that this time, I was done for.

“If you’re not completely exhausted, you may try to run again.”

He was mocking me. He was laughing at me without having to let out a laugh at all. Annoyed, I almost growled at him like an angry dog as I slapped him across the face. I wasn’t sure if it was the sheer force of my slap or the solid iron skin that he had but I’m pretty sure I sprained my wrist if I didn’t completely break it.

“Now why would you do that Mila?”

He said as he leaned down towards me, with one swift move, he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder as though I weighed absolutely nothing as he started to walk me back to the prison I had escaped from this morning while he threatened;

“Now, I must hurt you.”

Looking over the maze, I scanned the surrounding of the city, no guards in sight except the guard that I needed. Attaching the letter that I had wrote to my drone, I flew it over to the Elite guard, once the letter had safely reached him, I quickly flew the drone back over to me before anyone caught us. I watched the guard through my binoculars as he placed the letter in his pocket and shot me a thumbs up from the distance before I hurried and rushed back to the invisible city.

Not letting go of my breath until I was within the safety of the invisible city, I travelled miles and miles until I was finally home, three days on the road, avoiding any and all Elites through the trashed and broken cities, I ran through my options. I had to make this journey back to the Elite city in a few days to rescue another human that had fallen victim to the hands of the Aliens.

It was the year 3039 and over a hundred years ago, Earth as we knew had become completely a war zone. The human civilisation had been invaded by Aliens from another planet, due to their own planet dying, they came to earth trying to seek shelter, although at first they were friendly, they ended up becoming the reason why humans almost went extinct.

When the humans rejected their request to live amongst us in peace, a war broke out and the Aliens, or so we call them the Elites, they let out an alien toxin in the air and almost all of humanity was wiped out, all but some who were immune to the toxin. Thus, those who survived, most of them were captured by the Elites and were forced to become their slaves and those who survived both the toxin and the Elites, managed to go in hiding for many years until they were able to steal resources from the Elite city, they managed to use their own high tech technology against them and built an invisible barrier over the city we built back up to become our safe zone, our home.

Invisible to the Alien eye, visible to the human eye. We were able to live and procreate within the sage zone and restore humanity, though not fully but enough to keep us going. Once the Elite’s found out survivors stole from them and were able to hide from them, they built their own maze outside of their city, making it almost impossible for a normal human being to be able to get through and out of, thankfully, by befriending one of the Elite guards, I was able to help save and rescue a human slave every so often, the Elite guard would bring the human slave to me and I’d take them back to the safe zone where they couldn’t be harmed.

Me, I am Mila, I was born exactly 19 years ago, during birth my mother passed away and I’m not sure what happened to my father but I grew up fending for myself, learning each and every single way to defeat the Elites, to save as many humans as I could, to bring them back to the safe zone and give them a new chance at life. It hasn’t been easy, I’ve almost been captured every now and then but I always manage to escape, I always manage to save myself, I’m afraid that one day, one day I’ll need someone else to save me.

Walking through the barrier, I manage to let out a breath as I know now I am fully concealed, I am not invisible to the Elite eye as they cannot find and locate the invisible city. I can now breathe, I can relax.

“Mila!”

A familiar voice came rushing towards me as I turned to find Jonas running my way, a worried expression on his face and a shake in his voice, I knew that something was wrong.

“What’s wrong Jonas?”

I walked over to him, holding me in his arms, he almost crushed my body as he gave me a big warm embrace.

“I’m so glad you’re safe.”

It’s the one thing he always said like clock work every time I left the invisible city and came back. Flashing him a gentle smile, I returned the gesture as I held him tight in my arms.

“Missed you too.”

I said as I pulled away and scanned the first worried expression I had saw on his face.

“What’s going on?”

I asked as I followed him back to our quarters, I could sense that something was wrong, I could see it in everyone’s body posture that walked passed us.

“Another person has gone missing again.”

He said frantically as we rushed over to the trailers, stepping inside the trailer I currently resided in, I began to strip out of my awful sweaty clothes as I listened to Jonas freak out.

“It’s happening again, it had been two weeks since the last person went missing and now one more person is gone, poof, vanished.”

He said as I paced back and forth in the trailer, giving me a headache with the stress he was releasing into the atmosphere.

“Can you sit down Jonas, I can’t think with you walking around like a madman.”

Nodding his head, he took a seat on my bed, running his fingers through his hair frustratingly, I knew that he was worried who would be next.

Ever since a couple of months ago, we had been suddenly losing people, people vanishing out of thin air, we considered that it would be the Elites stealing our people but one, they couldn’t get inside our safe zone and two, when I asked the guard about it, he said that they too, were losing people. That means, not only humans were going missing, Elites were also going missing. If it wasn’t us and if it wasn’t the Elites, who exactly could it have been? Or what could it have been?

I wasn’t sure but I knew that I’d get to the bottom of this.

“Oh and…”

Jonas looked at me with another hint concern in his eyes, another bad news, oh great.

“The humans have kidnapped one of the Elites and it’s not looking good.”

What?!

Were they crazy? They knew this would risk the Elites finding out about our invisible city, this would put the barrier we’ve built into danger and a part of me, a part of me worried that,

This mean,

War.