The Atlas Gazette and 9.25 Station

“Today rumors have been spread around that there were ‘people’ outside of the Atli!” A charming yet almost too perfect looking man began to laugh at the inquiry of the day, “Isn’t that silly, Miss Juniper?”

“Oh, Mr.Scott! I cannot believe some of these people’s words. Read this-” she began while pointing to a spot on the page. If you were watching the small 4 inch by 6 inch television screens in your home or in the public. The curled blond with a little too much makeup on began to eagerly point at the article they were reading.

“Hear this everyone-” clearing his throat, Mr.Scott began to read, “Today three Atli born individuals decided to report to authorities that they saw people outside of the Atli, diving into the water chasing fish. Can you believe that!! FISH!?! People!? Do you think they saw Fish-people, Miss Juniper?” The two news reporters were having a blast with this scene of the day. They were bursting out in laughter and trying to control themselves on television.

“It’s funny, Mr.Scott. Nothing has lived outside of the Alti for centuries! Maybe there are fish people, but they are probably slimy. Eww!-” Waving her hands up while giggling, “-we wouldn’t want to invite those kinds of people in here. They would infect the place!” She gasped while looking directly at the camera and covering her mouth.

Mr.Scott turned right to the camera and the whole time he spoke, Miss Juniper stayed in her fazed position, looking directly into the lens, he said, “Don’t go wandering out and trying to invite the monsters in, kids! The world was radiation bound years ago and if you see something, report it to your authorities. We don’t need radiation monsters giving all our children and future survivors radiation sickness. Mothers, fathers, friends, and family keep each other safe from the radiation outside of the Atli!” While raising his voice the T.V.’s all glitched out and started upon the eerie scene.

“That’s all for right now! Thank you for watching ladies and gents!!!” Both Miss. Juniper and Mr.Scott said with the same monotone voice while the scene went black and instantly put on a cartoon.

People began whispering about the news and afraid of the radiation started giving the individuals who spotted these so called ‘monsters’ a hard time. They were telling them they better stop trying to look for things to let in to the Atli! The problem is that there is a decent sized group called the UnAtlas Individuals [U.A.I] for short. The government has been making a list, checking it twice, and everyone on that list is disappearing like they never existed.

"Turn that shit off"

Brandon sighed and moved to the television to shut off the broadcast. Sarah just lay on the sofa with her face buried in her tapper, the embedded screen was glowing in her face. Her thoughts totally occupied by what was slowly flashing down. She'd been working on a new worm, she had the bright idea that it might get her into some systems unlinked from the main network. All it would take is for an infected tapper to connect to the unlinked system, and once again sometime later. When that tapper connected back to the main network it would dump a payload of files. She'd coded the worm in such a manner as to look for a list of keywords in files on a priority order.

"Seriously Sarah, you know the more you dig into this stuff the higher the chance you're going to end up like your grandfather", Sarah scoffed some, "You know I wear that as a badge of honour Brandon, there is little else to do down here other than make trouble. Besides, I've seen his calculations....he was right you know.", Brandon sighed again. "Even if he was right, does it really matter? Society has moved on, I don't think it could really prosper without the support infrastructure we've grown reliant on.", Sarah scoffed at that and gave him a kick from her comforting position on the sofa. "Brandon, there is only so long we can live down here....Tenna said that herself, her diary is simply fascinating you know. There were a lot of ideas she tried to implement that were overruled. She keeps mentioning this emergency evac system in her diary. I'm thinking there is something more to it.", Brandon was the one to scoff this time. "Just stop putting your nose in places it shouldn't be......More people are vanishing you know....I don't want you to be one of them", he got up from the floor and left. Sarah paid him no mind and then hit upload on her tapper.

A few days later

Sarah's tapper began to buzz. She didn't have alerts on for anything other than her project so she grinned. The first packet had been slipped back from her worm. She flicked through the file names, a whole heap of nothing. God, she wished she knew what she was looking for, then a curious little file got her attention. [U.A.I expulsion list], She opened up the file, and a list of dozens upon dozens of names came up. Some had been struck through, others had little question marks, and the whole document was colour coded. She simply didn't understand what she had in her hands. She didn't understand the worth of this document, she didn't understand the pain this document would put her through, for as she searched down the list, she spotted one singular name. Andrew Kruze.... Why was dad on this list?

She'd find out soon enough, as when she got home? The door had been broken in.

Turning off the small radio, Lumin asked

“Do ya think there could be anything outside Atli? I mean, the history books say it’s been nearly 500 years which is long enough for radiation to deplete to survivable levels, right?” He looked over at Jotun.

“You’ve gotta think, just cuz the radiation goes away people don’t just magically reappear,” Jotun was swinging himself back and forth on his hammock hands tucked behind his head. “That being said, I think it would be kinda cool if there were people out there. Maybe we should be the first ones back out there. What do you think? Wanna try to get outa here?” he said, swiveling to an upright position, legs hanging off the side, waiting for Lumin’s response.

“Sure, maybe we’ll find some ruins from the civilization that made our home.” Lumin thought to himself I wonder if there are any books left over, maybe even a whole library! He got up from his seat and went over to their hideout’s huge map and asked Jotun “The closest place to the top of the water would be a center, but I don’t think we’ll be able to get too close to one. Maybe the Atli have some sort of personal submarines, maybe escape pods?”

Jotun hopped down approaching the wall with his hands on his hips, “That’s genius Lumin, if they do have any emergency exits they would have to be in the rich people's rooms, y’know the executives and such. From what I’ve gathered so far,” Jotun ran his hand across the wall where their ever expanding Atlas map was. “I’ve found some fancier rooms down around this general area but they’ve all been empty so far. I haven’t really broken into too many of them though. If I keep heading this direction, hopefully I’ll run into an important enough room that it'll have some way to get to the surface. What do you think? Sound like a plan? I need to head out and see if I can find some more rations anyway. I'll take my map book and add to it while I’m lookin around. You got any plans for today?” He turned away from the wall and started packing his bag.

“Sounds like a plan to me. As for today, I was going to head towards one of the main Atli and see if I could get some new reading material, I’m getting tired of reading King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table over and over again” Jotun nodded in response as he continued packing.

“Alright, I should be back in a few hours, see ya.”

A light flickered in the dark room, a large screen which was turned on was showing the two idiots talking to each other about ‘fish people’ and an unamused individual watched carefully to catch the hidden messages in the pictures on the screen. Once the televised picture changed, a pencil could be heard scratching at a notebook yet no one was around to hear the young man writing.
Purring could be heard from around a corner as a fluffy white cat brushed up against a wall, “Meewaahh!” A yawning cat made a sound while the little cushions of its paws pitter pattered against the fake wooden floors of the living area. Jumping up into the lap and knocking the pencil out of his hand.

Thuntun! Tun, tint, tin, tud…

The sound of the pencil scrambling to stop bouncing on the wooden floor fell to the silence of a purring beast. The kneading claws of the cat showed how happy it was to be owned by such a person. While the kneading kept going, a hand gently caressed the cat from the head to the tip of the tail which caused the purring to become louder, “You love that don’t you?” a soft voice asked while snapping his free hand. This action caused the lights of the room to turn off and he pressed the off button on the remote to shut the screen off.

“I hate those two…,” he trailed off while looking at the blackened screen with sharp eyes as if he was thinking about something. While standing up, he grabbed the cat to cradle it in his arms while walking around the house barefoot which caused no more than the mock wooden floors to creek under his weight.
Setting the cat down on the island counter while going to open up the fridge. The fluffy beast seemed disappointed that it was set down on such a high surface and took it upon itself to jump down causing a thud to be heard while he grabbed a small container of yogurt out of the fridge.

“Isn’t it funny that the poor get artificial foods most of the time and the rich bath in luxury?” Alexander asked the cat, his only living partner, about how socially the food chain was messed up, but he seemed to not mind it. Humans were selfish even if they were giving. He closed the fridge and grabbed a spoon to eat the rest of the yogurt out of the white and purple container that had a logo, Pilos Vanilla Yogurt, read in a bright blue fancy font over the dark purple and white container. On the back was health information about how they made the yogurt, where it came from, and how there were no artificial preservatives, etc…

Going back to the couch, he sat down, and began to eat the yogurt while not turning the T.V. back on. He had enough of the newscast today, though he would watch it tomorrow to keep up with the media. Swishing the yogurt around in his mouth, he glanced over to his cat which was rolling around quite aggressively.

Swallowing a spoonful of yogurt, he enjoyed vanilla yogurt so much, “Maybe I will go out today,” informing the cat while taking another spoonful in his mouth. He understood the cat probably didn’t completely understand him, but he enjoyed talking to the little creature like it could. It gave him comfort that he wasn’t completely alone and could trust something in this world.

Finishing the last of his vanilla yogurt, he realized that he was going to have to go to the store if he wanted a new tub of it, and he sighed at the thought. The surprising thing about this behavior was he hated going into large public places, it caused many to talk to him, ask him questions, or the media to be on his ass about something of his work.
Though, he never would have the option of paying somebody else to pick his groceries for him, he didn’t trust anybody, and he wouldn’t allow access to his household. Right now, he was the only one that had access and it was through two doors.

The government made standard doors on each and every house in the hallways, government officials could access it at any time if they needed, so Alexander updated his. Placing a second door behind the first, incorporating that in when they built his home, and he was the only one to have access to the second door. This door could only be accessed if you had his right hand, were with him, or he put your fingerprints into the system. Being the man he was, trust issues, secretive, and considered a mischievous business man by the news.

Throwing away the empty container, he was mainly dressed when it came to getting outside, but he needed socks, shoes, and his coat before leaving the house. All these things were quick to gather and put on and before he knew it, he was standing in front of his door. While walking out of his house, he told the white beast that roamed his home, “Moli, I will be back,” informing the cat that he wasn’t going to be out all day or he would at least be coming back sometime.

“I made sure both your food and water bowl were filled before leaving,” while locking the doors behind him and exiting his household. Alexander began his journey to Defu Technology to update himself on the project they have been working on.

@Tsukai [A chance for our characters to run into each other if you want]