Beyond the walls

"Wake up!" yelled Kariya’s father. It was fine sunny morning, one anyone would love except Kariya. He hated beautiful sunny morning because it meant that he had to go hunting and gather edibles from the forest. Kariya was not particularly good at hunting and was often laughed upon by his friends for being clumsy at it. What he was good at was using his head. This was the life of Kariya, a 17 year old boy living in a shut-in village called Modori. A village with a underground well, a fresh water pond and perfect conditions for most plants to grow. The reason for the shut in was unknown since generations, as if their ancestors had been placed by aliens. The commonly accepted story was that their ancestors were manipulated and controlled much like a puppet, hence, forbidding them from writing documents of their lives. No documents existed that had even a single mentioning of the barriers surrounding the village. Those huge walls were a subject for inspection, in the eyes of Kariya. He thinks that beyond the walls are alien who are controlling the village. He thinks that the village is a controlled environment as some kind of experiment on human. “The outside world is full of beautiful natural scenery and magnificent creatures" thinks Kariya. Ever since he was a kid, he was particularly drawn towards the wall, he would often spend most of his childhood wandering around the perimeters. Till this day he is curious about the wall; "what lies beyond the walls? And who put us in here?" were questions he often pondered. He thinks about the village and how the contents of the village supports life as if it was carefully designed to do so. The fresh water pond, fertile land, perfect weather for plants, all these seemed too good to be a coincidence. It was obvious that someone or something at a certain point had placed their ancestors there. Or another possible explanation would be that their ancestors build the walls themselves to protect villagers from the harms of the outside world. These were the two logical explanations Kariya came up with. The elders of the village never dared to escape the village because the first 4 people to try never returned and their bodies were not found as well. This discouraged everyone to ventures into the unknown, what was outside those walls was a thick forest full of god-knows-what since no one was successful enough to return from the unorthodox adventure. The elders also discouraged anyone to go out and partially destroyed the only ladder leading up to the outside world. Kariya being curious could not wait to venture outside after he turned 18. His parents then would not have any legal rights to stop him from going outside neither would the village elders. But being a curious soul he would often sneak out mid-night to climb to the top of the wall. All he could see was thick green forest, dark and unfamiliar but to him this view was worth getting caught and punished for; this view was the most beautiful thing he had seen and the most intriguing thing he had ever come across. Only a week is left until his 18th birthday, he is excited and happy as a child being stimulated by a candy. He prepares for the journey that lies ahead. He gathers all of the important equipment he thinks is necessary for his survival. He carefully plans his departure and adventure. The road ahead is not a walk in the park, its a walk in dark gloomy forest consisting of animals he has never seen or heard of. "I am ready as can be" "This is it, this is what I have been yearning for" "This is the freedom I want, the ultimate freedom from this barred shut-in village" he thinks to himself. Finally the day came of his departure, he is the most happiest as one can be, so excited that he can not even explain in words. Kariya’s parents on the other hand are worried about their child, it is almost a suicide mission. Kariya's mother could not bear to acknowledge the fact that her son is going on a deadly adventure and the fact that she might not get to see face ever again. Such thoughts made her restless. She convinced the elders of the village to stop him by any means. Most elders did not accept her request but one of them did. Candice, the eldest of them all heard Kariya’s mother’s cry for help. Moments before Kariya was about to leave he was called upon by the elders in a communal meeting. The agenda of the meeting was to stop Kariya from leaving the village, as planned by Kariya’s mother. Candice set the plan, she called upon the village and held a meeting; she put forth her opinion on Kariya leaving the village. "If Kariya leaves today, we lose a talented person, an individual who can contribute so much to the society" "If he leaves today, others might also try to leave someday in future which is a problem we can not afford to deal with" "If the youngsters leave the village, who will lead the village in the future, the future of humanity will be ruined" says Candice. Everyone nods hearing this, in an instant everyone agrees except for Kariya. He demands to be able to exercise his rights to which his mother replies "Do not be selfish Kariya, think of others too, think of your dad and me, how are we going to face such a horrible future?" Hearing this Kariya is speechless, he agrees to cancel his adventure. Kariya’s mother breathes a sigh of relief which Kariya notices. He suspects of his mother being the driving force for this happening. Later that day after dinner, he tries to manipulate his mother into confessing that she was the one who advised Candice to stop him from leaving. Kariya’s mother bursts into tears and hugs Kariya, "How can I let you go Kariya? I did not raise you all these years for you to go on a suicide trip" cries Kariya’s mother. Kariya gets a bit teary eyed, he then proceeds to explain his mother. "I am not as dumb as the others, I know what I am going to do, I know my path and I must go on the adventure, if not I will not be able to live a happy life". Kariya then says "I promise mom, I will be back, I can not say exactly when but I will be back". Upon hearing this Kariya’s mother cries more but realizes that her son has his own life, his own desire and his own choices. She lets Kariya go. Kariya, first full of excitement and joy now wears a serious face with teary eyes. Kariya hugs his mother for the last time, "Tell dad I said goodbye and I will be a good kid" says Kariya. He grabs his bag, along with some snacks mom made and a souvenir; a pocket watch which as originally Kariya’s grandfather’s. After the goodbye ceremony, Kariya climbs the broken ladder and leaves his old life behind. This marks the beginning of Kariya's adventure. Though full of tears he begins his adventure with a huge smile on his face. An uncertain future and mysterious events lays await in his adventure. On that very night, Kariya sets foot on the outside world for the very first time. He feels excited, he quickly rushes towards the dark forest, fireflies illuminated the jungle as he walked by. "I always wondered what these flashing creatures were, I only saw them from atop the wall" he ponders to himself. As he heads towards the unknown, he sees creatures he could not even imagine in his wildest dreams. The next morning he finds himself under a tree by the fire, as far as he remembers, he did not light any fire before going to sleep, he was too tired because of the exhausting day he had, he had passed out before he could make any fire. Now he is more cautious, he is somewhat curious as to who helped him and why? but a bit alert and scared at the same time. He remembers that he had eaten some berries and fruits before going to sleep and that is it. The day ripens and he heads deeper into the forest. As he goes on he feels as if he is being followed by something or someone, he is not quite sure. He feels the presence of the stalker but can not see it no matter what. "I am being followed, but whatever that thing is, if it were to attack me it would have done so when I was asleep. Wahatever it is, I think its an ally" he thinks to himself. He shouts confidently to intimidate the stalker, "You who have been following me, show me your face, I am all but a wanderer here to explore the forest and I mean no harm to anyone or anything". No one shows up, Kariya feels its presence, he knows its somewhere near but can not exactly pinpoint its location. "Do not dare to follow me if you do not have any intention of being an ally; if you do not shake hands with me I will consider you an enemy. I know enough magic and I am strong enough to kill someone of your level" Kariya shouted in the air with an angry look on his face. An alien like creature, green from head to toe, like a cross breed between human and alien shows up. Kariya is shocked, completely amazed by what he has seen. Kariya asks,"what are you and what is your name?". "I am Merry, the result of a failed test" replies Merry. Upon hearing this Kariya is completely astonished, baffled upon his discovery. Kariya takes sometime to let the information sink in, the reality he is facing is more weird than what he had imagined. "This forest in unpredictable, all of my assumptions were wrong, there is sign of life and a far more advanced than the shut-in village" Kariya thought to himself. Kariya asked Merry why she lit a fire for him and why she was helping him, to which Merry responded "I helped you because you seemed like a good guy, good enough that I can be friends with. I am the result of a failed experiment, I was abandoned by the researchers, I was no longer of use to them so they left me in this forest all by myself, but lucky me, I used to study about this place and dreamed to visit this forest one day". "I read about all the things there are about the forest, I know about the kind of food, I know about the fresh water sources, I know about the creatures; who are friendly and who are dangerous. I am a walking survival book." said Merry. "And also I can transform into any color I want to, that is why I was green, so you could not notice me in this dark forest. I am not actually an alien I am human like you are" claims Merry. Kariya was happy to hear this, he smiled at Merry and offered a handshake to officially become allies. "I am Kariya, a 17 year old boy from inside the walls you might have seen in the north" say Kariya happily. "Yes, I have actually climbed to the top to see what the inside looked like, but I did not dare set a foot inside the village because I heard that the people there were barred inside as they were too violent and vicious killer, to be a part of the outer world" says Merry in a serious tone. Kariya thinks that he should return home to give this news to the villagers and his parents but upon closer inspection he drops the plan because he thinks that such an action will encourage others to leave the village too which will be a huge problem. He cancels his plan of return. Kariya has many questions for Merry, the day is just about to fall they plan on making a camp for the night. Merry being and absolute pro at surviving finds a natural bedding of grass and sets up a fire. Kariya begins questioning as Merry begins cooking dinner. "What was the experiment about? How and why did they turn you into this? Where is this experimenting place you mentioned? DO you have any other abilities I am unaware of?" questions Kariya hastily. "Slow down please, one question at a time" says Merry. Kariya then asks what the experiment was about to which Merry responds that she does not have much clue about, "I only know that they were testing humans, altering their DNA sequences, modifying and re-engineering their genes" said Merry. Kariya is once again shocked by the words coming out of Merry's mouth as she serves the dinner. He is too curious about the event Merry had gone through; the experiment she had been a part of. She then tells Kariya the she has seen things that he will not believe exists as he had been concealed in a limited environment with limited technology. Kariya is intrigued by her words, his curious mind can not get enough of Merry's fascinating talks. But he controls his instinct and calms himself down, "our conversation has gone off topic, I wanted to ask how and why did they put you through such a horrible experiment?" Merry puts on a gloomy face and says "Honestly, I have no idea. It was so difficult on us to bear the effects of experiment on our body and mind. We had to medicate more than we ate actual food, in order to minimize the side effects of the experiment.. there". Kariya cuts off Merry and says "We? There are others like you?". "Yes" says Merry, "There were 8 of us, we were chosen as we were proven to be more resistant to the experimental effects and had the power to withstand DNA and gene modification." "I never thought that the experiment would have such a devastating effect on us" "We were told that we would be cared for and comfortability would be the top priority for the test subjects. They lied to us, they lured us into the experiment; made our lives a living hell" said Merry. Kariya could not say much after hearing this, "I am sorry for bringing this up. I did not know this was such a traumatic experience for you". Merry responds "No, it is totally fine to questions things you are curious about, I just got too invested into the past that's all." "It is too late now, we must rest" says Kariya and proceeds to sleep with a guilty expression on his face. The next morning, Kariya wakes up to find that Merry is gone without a trace, he tries searching for her, calls out her name several times but to no avail. He then concludes that Merry had left because he reminded her of her traumatic past. Kariya proceeds to leave, as he was packing his bag, he hears "leaving without breakfast?" from the back. "Here I was, gathering fruits for breakfast and here you are leaving me behind" says Merry sarcastically. "You misunderstood, I thought you left me because you I made you remember your horrific past so I was getting ready to leave too" says Kariya, "Not at all, I do not mind such things at all. Sit down, let us have breakfast before we leave" replied Merry. Merry had caught two fishes from the river, come blueberries and an apple. "She really is a pro at survival skills" thought Kariya to himself. "If it was not for you, I would be starving right now, Merry" smiles Kariya. "Thank you for the compliment but I think you would just be fine, you are a smart man after all" "How do you know I am smart?" "I have been hanging around this forest for a while now, almost a year if I am correct. Till now I have not seen anyone step a foot outside the village, you are the first one. Logically speaking, either you are a complete stupid who choose to be here or a smart man who knows what he is doing. So far, I think you are a smart man. I do not see any actions that would conclude that you are stupid." "Wow, that was a pretty honest answer. Thanks for your honesty Merry." says Kariya with a surprised expression. "I have not been able to communicate with anyone else for years now, even at the lab we were kept and raised separately without any physical or verbal contact to one another. So please excuse me if I come off a bit hard on you, Kariya. I am not habitual to fake complements" says Merry with a serious tone. "No worries, Merry. I like honesty. It will definitely be a good trait for our partnership" replies Kariya. Merry does not have anything to say, she just smiles back at Kariya and proceeds to cook the fish she caught. After breakfast Kariya asks Merry where the lab is located, “east" replies Merry. “Then east is where we are heading towards" claims Kariya in a confident manner. “But there what do you plan of doing once you reach there?” asks Merry. Kariya says that he is not sure about all the details but one thing is certain that he will help all the other subjects escape from the hellish lives they are going through. Merry responds that all the other subjects are probably not there anymore since the experiment was scheduled for 6months only. “If that is the case then we shall go there to find the reason for the experiment” says Kariya. Merry, even though she does not want to go there agrees with Kariya because he is the only human acquaintance she has and disagreeing with his plan would lead to separation.