Dinner in the UnderWorld

Sedona sat very still, eyes huge, and her mouth full of squishy, gushy tomato.

EverGreen laughed at the expression on her face. “Remember to chew,” he said gently.

So, she did, marveling at all the strange textures rolling around in her mouth as she chewed, then swallowed. The taste of the tomato was amazing. It was so sweet, but there were other flavors present too, ones she just didn’t know the words for.

“Here’s a little celery to try next,” said Green as he placed what appeared to be a green stick on her plate. “This is going to be crunchy when you bite it.”

Tentatively, Sedona picked the green stick up, finding it cool to her touch. And smooth. As she put the tip of it in her mouth to try a bite, she became aware of all the smiling faces around her. They were watching her eat!

“Go ahead,” encouraged one of those faces. “Just ignore us. Whenever we have a Spoiler here for dinner, it makes the rest of us enjoy our food even more.”

Sedona paused, then put down the stick, uneaten. “Did you just call me a … spoiler?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. That was so rude,” apologized the man. Green frowned at him and a nearby woman gave the man a light slap on the shoulder.

EverGreen turned back to Sedona. “We know that the people in your city call us sub-human. But what do you call your own people?”

Sedona was surprised by the question – it was something she’d never thought about before. “We just call ourselves ‘The People’. Or sometimes ‘Domers’.”

“Exactly!” said Green, nodding. “Every group of human beings throughout history has thought of themselves as THE People. And everyone else living at the same time would have called them something insulting – any name meant to signify ‘The Other’.”

“That’s right,” said the man who called her the nasty name. “WE are True-Humans, or Trumans for short, because we are still living with the Earth. Not in an artificial world!”

Sedona wanted to argue about that, but as she took a deep breath to defend her home, someone else spoke first. She turned toward the speaker; a man who seemed to be only a couple of years older than she was.

“The Trumans call our kind ‘Spoilers’ with good reason,” he said. A statement that was even more shocking coming from a man who was definitely NOT sub-human. In fact, he looked just like Sedona! “Try hard to keep an open mind and accept what you’re learning. If you wait too long to open your eyes to what’s going on, you won’t be any use to us.”

“Maple!” snapped Green. “Too soon!”

“I’m sorry sir,” said the young man. “I just don’t want her to make the same mistake I did.” He looked earnestly at Sedona as he said, “I used to be a scout too, just like you.”

“Why don’t we let Sedona finish up her dinner?” said EverGreen, speaking to all those who were sitting nearby. “We can talk more after we all finish eating. She should have a chance to enjoy her meal in peace.” He turned his attention away from Sedona, and everyone else followed his lead.

Reeling from all the new information she was hearing; Sedona took a deep breath. Finally, she crunched down on the stick of celery. It was another new flavor and another strange feeling in her mouth. Green turned back to her long enough to place another bowl of broth and a plate of flat bread in front of her.

“It’s safe for you to fill up on this,” he smiled. It won’t be too hard for you to digest.”

The room started to empty as people finished their meal and drifted toward the door, talking and laughing. Sedona got the impression that group dining was a chance for people to mingle. She saw a lot of the sub-humans … NO … she had better start calling them Trumans … who were greeting each other happily. Some were hugging. A few couples were holding hands as they went out the door.

Eventually they were alone at the table. Green still sat next to her, and the young man, Maple, stayed as well. Now they were approached by the old, very old woman, Cherry, along with a younger woman who looked something like her. As she sat down, Green reached out to hold  the woman’s hand.

Turning to Sedona, he said, “This is Aloe, my wife. I asked her and Cherry here because I’m sure you have a lot of questions by now. Green looked at her expectantly.

Sedona asked the first thing that popped into her head, “Where are we?”

The young man chuckled. “That’s funny, it was the first thing I wanted to know too.”

Green answered. “When the Domers were locked up inside the city, they worried about being attacked. They sent fighters out just long enough to set off explosives all around the city and they blew up everything in a half mile radius around it. Many survivors were sheltering in those buildings and had no warning, no time to get out, so they were blown up too.”

Maple continued the explanation. “Then the Domers used heavy equipment to push all the rubble from the destroyed buildings back as far as they could. That created the ring of ruins around the city. It’s ironic – we Domers were always told that sub-humans created the wasteland, but it was really a deliberate action by the city itself!”

Now it was Aloe’s turn to add to the story. “But the survivors were clever and over the years those destroyed buildings became building materials. We recycled everything we could and we added onto the tunnels that were already under the city. We connected all the old basements with the subway lines and old railroad tracks. At first, we just reinforced everything so we could make quick shelters. Then, as our knowledge grew, we built an entirely new underground city. Although,” she added as an afterthought, "we still use those old tunnels sometimes for supply routes."

Sedona could hear the sense of pride as each of them took turns speaking. Green stood up, “I’m just going to walk Aloe and Cherry back to the housing center. Maple will stay with you until I get back.”

Saying goodbye, both Aloe and Cherry smiled at Sedona, then followed Green out the door. But just before she stepped through the doorway, Aloe turned and called back, “Just wait until you see the gardens!”