I stared in horror at the atrocities I was facing. Smoke billowed from the flames erupting from the ventilation ducts and had blocked most of the simulated sunlight over the artificial field. Not one building was safe from the fire that roared louder than I thought possible. The only thing that could be heard above the fire were the screams. Hundreds of people crying out in pain, fear, and grief. I could feel the power of their agony. I fell to my knees and covered my ears, tears streaming down my face.

“Xam. Xam? Xamber!”

I startled awake, staring up at the individual crouching next to me. They had almond shaped indigo eyes and long magenta hair.

“Mission control to Xamber. You back with us, sleepyhead?” Maera helped pull me up from the artificial turf. I stared at it and turned my attention to the simulated sunlight that shone brightly above us.

“Yeah...Yeah, sorry, I guess I dozed off…”

My friend laughed slightly. “I swear, you can sleep anywhere. Come on. If we don’t get going we’re going to be late.”

I stared at her blankly. “Where are we going?”

She tilted her head and gave me a concerned look. “Surface History class? You know, like we do six days a week?”

I tightly closed my eyes and pressed a hand to my temple, my reality finally settling in. “Right, right. Sorry. My dream had me confused for a minute.”

Her concern deepened in her features. “You okay, Xam?”

I gave her my best smile. “Yeah, I’m okay, Mae. You know how my dreams get sometimes. We should get to class.”

We rushed into our classroom just as the last bell rang. I ignored the vaguely annoyed look on our instructor’s face. Sometimes I just thought that was how his face was all the time.

“Thank you for joining us, Xamber and Maera. Just in the nick of time as usual, eh?”

I rolled my eyes as I sat at my desk and crossed my arms. Maera sat at the desk in front of mine, her long hair almost touching my desk. We both knew better than to talk back to Instructor Cyven. It would only end with detention. Again.

Our instructor turned to the digital board behind him. “Now, where were we last week?”

I rested my head on my hand with a sigh, only vaguely listening to the old man ramble about life before humanity had to leave the surface world. It wasn’t that I was uninterested in the subject. Cyven was just the most boring individual they could have found to teach the subject.

Only a few minutes into Cyven’s monotonous lecture, one of the administrators dashed into the classroom and tried to pull him into the hall.

Cyver yanked his arm out of their grasp. “Jaylen, what is wrong?”

Admin Jaylen tried to keep their voice low as they fearfully delivered whatever message they had. I tilted my head to try to hear them better, but I could only catch a few words. One caught my attention more than the others.

“...explosion…”

I watched the color fade from Cyver’s face as the administrator rushed out just as quickly as they had arrived, leaving the room silent as we stared at our teacher expectantly. He cleared his throat and turned back to the board to continue his lecture.

I held up my hand to get his attention. “Instructor Cyver? What was that about?” I waited for his answer, the uncomfortably long silence having a sort of static to it. 

“Nothing Xamber. Nothing to worry about.” His voice had a quiver of fear that betrayed his words. 

“I thought I heard Admin Jaylen say something about an explosion.”

He turned his still pale face toward us, his dark eyes serious. “You are mistaken. Do not interrupt me again, Xamber, or you will be getting detention. Again.”

I crossed my arms and slouched in my chair. The instructor tried to act like everything was fine the entire class. All of the instructors did for the rest of the day. None of them would answer my questions about why everyone was so somber. It wasn’t long before students started getting picked up early by their parents. No one would explain why. 

It wasn’t until I got back to my group home after school that I found out what had caused the day’s strangeness. Everyone was gathered around the monitor in the common room, staring in silent horror at the news as it showed burning buildings and flames erupting from the ventilation ducts.

I shook my head in disbelief, taking a few steps back before running into Kolyver. “Whoa, you okay, bud?” They looked at the monitor and quickly understood why everyone else was in shock.

I managed to slip out of my friend’s grip and ran up to my room. I sat on my bed and stared out my window at the artificial sunlight that was untouched by deadly smoke.

“It was just a dream. It was just a dream.”

But was it?