108 years ago, the Wall was completed. Since then, not one person has set foot outside the settlement of Finna; why would they? It's not safe out there.
After years of hiding, building, and of learning the skills of a self-sustaining society, it seems that Finna has finally recovered from the events that took place all those years ago - events that are not to be spoken about.
A century has passed - a hundred years in which no-one has set eyes on the ever-changing land beyond the Wall.
Except that all changes when Lifa becomes the first to leave.
After years of hiding, building, and of learning the skills of a self-sustaining society, it seems that Finna has finally recovered from the events that took place all those years ago - events that are not to be spoken about.
A century has passed - a hundred years in which no-one has set eyes on the ever-changing land beyond the Wall.
Except that all changes when Lifa becomes the first to leave.
1.
When the morning comes, Lifa breaks routine.
It wasn't like she planned it or anything. The night before, she had
fully intended to go through with it, actually; her new uniform had
been washed, pressed and set on the foot of her bed, her bag - unused
and oversized - was packed by Nilla, and even her hair was kept in curls
throughout the night to ensure that she would be looking her best.
Unfortunately, all this effort goes down the drain because when the day does eventually arrive, Lifa decides that she'd rather not go.
Outside her bedroom door, she can hear Nilla rushing around as her
father barks out orders left, right and centre. He sounds stressed
already, despite it only being - Lifa glances at the alarm clock by her
bed - six thirty in the morning.
"And wake that girl up already!" he continues, his voice muffled
through the bedroom wall. " She should be ready by seven, Nilla - make
sure she's not late!"
"Yes, sir," Nilla answers predictably.
Lifa gently clutches the blanket over her head, listening as her
father troops down the stairs at double pace. Not a minute later, the
door to her bedroom opens.
She feigns sleep, regularising her breathing and hoping Nilla will take pity on the 'sleeping child' and let her lay.
No such luck.
"Miss!" Nilla is by the bed in an instant, shaking Lifa through the
duvet she's hidden underneath. "Miss Lifa, get up! We're already late,
you need to get out of bed! Miss Lifa!"
She cringes when the maid's hands dig into her side. "I'm up, damn
it! Quit it, would you!?" Throwing the cover off of her face, she
glowers up at the older woman.
Nilla doesn't even act surprised - she knows better than anyone of Lifa's insomnia and the inconvenience
it can cause her. Instead, the black-haired maid pulls the remainder of
the blanket off the teenager and proceeds to usher her out of bed.
"Up you get, then. Into the bathroom and be quick about it." As soon
as Lifa's feet touch the ground, Nilla turns and grabs the clothes lying
on the bed. "You've managed to crease these in your 'sleep', Miss Lifa.
Be more careful, will ya?"
Lifa ignores her, getting off the bed and stretching. She squints one
eye open and watches her maid rush out the room with the uniform folded
on her arm.
She rolls her eyes once Nilla's out the room. They're hardly creased, she grumbles mentally, making her way across the padded carpet to the door of the bathroom.
As she walks by the footlong mirror by the sink, Lifa freezes and does a double take. What... the hell!?
Her hair - previously clipped on top of her head in
meticulous ringlets - managed to come loose in the night and is right
now acting like a lion's mane, framing her face and creating the
impression of a dark red wig.
Her gaze then comes to rest on the bathtub; it's a glorious thing,
really. A huge platinum affair, the tub has a constant and inexhaustible
supply of wonderfully hot water.
Lifa then looks back at the alarm clock in her room. 6:37am.
She has time, right?
***
"Honestly, I don't know what the hell you were thinking," Lifa's
father hisses, sharply turning the steering rod so the mobile shudders
for a moment before continuing to make its slow way along the wire it's
connected to above.
Lifa sighs, leaning back and closing her light blue eyes. The
vibrations of the mobile make her whole body shake slightly; she tenses
when a particularly strong gust of wind makes the whole contraption
quiver in mid-air as it continues to ascend the Wall.
"Lifa, are you listening to me?" she hears her father snap.
"Mmm-hmm," she says with a pained expression, opening her eyes to look out the window opposite.
She hates riding these things. What genius's idea was it to make the
window span along the whole thing? She'd probably feel a hell of a lot
better if she didn't have to watch the ground get further and further
away wherever she looked.
The mobiles first came into use within twenty years of the Wall's
completion; people needed a way of getting around the settlement faster.
They figured, why not use the Wall itself? It spans the whole border of
the settlement; its nine ledges are more than enough to support
thousands of pedestrians at any one time. The mobiles were brought in so
that people could switch between the nine different levels.
The Wall itself is one hundred metres tall. Being afraid of heights
isn't ideal in a settlement like Finna, but Lifa figures it's not too
bad - no-one's allowed at the very top, anyway - it's forbidden.
"Lifa, do you understand what I'm saying?" her father continues with
his lecture, not seeming to notice that she's completely zoned out.
Her hands fist by her side, and she clenches her eyes shut again. She really hates riding these things.
***
Her father looks older than he is. He's almost bald, the rims of his
glasses are over a centimetre thick and he has a strange habit of
smacking his lips every time he finishes a sentence.
"Here's your bag," he murmurs, handing her the canvas rucksack. Its
full of notebooks, pens and books about science - her new school
demanded that she be properly equipped for all classes. 'We don't care who you are. Either you come ready, or don't come at all'.
She snorted at the memory of the tour-guide's 'advice'.
Her father doesn't notice - he's too busy staring at the the two
workers currently mending the three-metre railings that spans the ledge.
He drifts towards them without really being aware of it, dragging Lifa
far too close to to the edge for her liking.
She takes a deep breath. Damn heights.
And it's not like her father's staring at the people
themselves, anyway - he's more interested in the cabled mechanism that's
keeping them suspended in mid-air as the work on the metal rails.
That's what you get for having an engineer for a father, Lifa reasons with herself.
Someone suddenly pushes into her accidentally. They mumble a hasty
apology as they continue on their way. She gulps, feeling unsteady.
"D-Dad," the red-head stutters suddenly, "I'm gonna go. I know the
way, so just..." She trails off as her father walks away from her
completely, making his way towards the two builders. She rolls her eyes.
"Bye, then!" she snaps sarcastically.
He doesn't even turn around, just gives her an odd sort of wave as he
leaves her. "Straight back home," he calls behind to her vaguely.
Within three seconds, he's by the railings, all thoughts of taking his daughter to school forgotten.
Lifa sighs, ringing her hands and looking around.
Time to go to her new school.
Another mobile ride, six hours of awkward boredom, a further two
mobile rides and a twenty minute walk along platform three - that's 30
metres from the ground, by the way - and then she's home, where she's
bound to have a lecture from Nilla for getting something or other dirty.
She can already tell it's going to be a really, really bad day.
