As I stood there, completely baffled, the West Wall crumbled. After the dust settled, I, for the first time in my life, saw the outside world. At first, there just seemed to be a wasteland of dust. Brown, parched ground stretched to the farthest reaches of the eye. Then in the distant, a single mountain stood. The whole mountain looked like it was drenched in white. Compared to the dull gray of the Facility, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life.

I was snapped out of my trance as figures climbed over the rubble and entered the Facility. I squinted my eyes as I tried to make out the figures. The more I looked at the group that crossed over, the more they looked like animals. Animal ears, tails, snouts, claws, horns, hooves, antlers, and other animal parts looked as if they had become one with a human. These were the mutated ones that we learned about! But that’s not possible! They were supposed to have died a hundred years ago when the Facility was first built to protect the remaining humans.

Though I was petrified by the brute force of these invaders, I was also intrigued. By breaking down the West Wall, they showed me things I’d never seen or even heard about. There shouldn’t have been any mountains like that left. The world is supposed to be a complete wasteland outside of the Facility, but it isn’t.

I ran to the teleporter and jumped to the west field. I ducked behind a wall of crates as I watched in awe. These humans had animal body parts of animals I’ve never seen. As a squadron of robots tried to shoot down the invaders, the half-beasts raised up metal shields and deflected the bullets. Slowly, the robots were pushed back and the invaders fought to get closer to the center of the Facility, to where the S class resided.

Abruptly, the group stopped pushing and regrouped. They were close enough for me to make out where one piece of armor connected to the next, but too far away to hear what they were saying. I strained to hear what they could be talking about. I crept soundlessly towards the group.

All of a sudden, I was pulled onto my back with my hands held down tightly behind me. I opened my mouth to scream when a rough hand covered my mouth. I was even more surprised to see that the hand that covered my mouth had claws coming from the front. I struggled but my captor’s grip didn’t falter. Desperate, I bit down hard on their hand until I tasted blood.

“Ouch!” As their grip loosened, I spun around and threw all my body weight on them. I panted, breathing heavily. My face ended up inches away from a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. I jerked away, startled. When I looked closely, I realized my captor was just a boy, looked the same age as me. He was half a foot taller than me, light-skinned, and had ears sticking out from the top of his head. A tailed lashed behind him as if it was preparing to strike.

“What are…?!” I was about to ask him what he was doing here when he clamped my mouth shut.

“Shh! You don’t want the others to hear us!”

“But what…?”

“Shh!!! Do you not know how to be quiet? Did they teach you nothing in this cage?”

“Cage?” I asked, whispering.

“That’s better,” he said. “I’m glad you know how to be quiet.”

“But you said the Facility was a cage, what did you mean by that?”

“Huh?” He looked at me as if I were dumb. “Did you never feel trapped within these gray walls? Unable to explore the world, and restricted by foolish rules?” When he saw my confused expression, he waved his hand. “Nevermind, nevermind. I didn’t come here to chat with little birdies. You live here right? Can you tell me where the leaders of this place are?”

“You mean the S class?”

“Yeah, that. Where are they?” I pondered for a moment. He was a complete stranger who just broke down the West Wall. Why should I tell him anything? But for some reason, I wanted to tell him. Why?

“They’re at the center of the city,” I said.

“Of course. You mean in that depressing mansion over there?”

“Depressing mansion?” Was it depressing? “That’s where they are,” I said.

“Great! You know how to get there?” He continued without waiting for my reply. “I’m sure you have fancy technology in this cage. Show me the way little birdie!” He shoved me forwards, away from the rest of his group.

“Wait! Aren’t your friends over there?”

“Friends? They aren’t my friends. I’m only here to get rid of this depressing place. Our goals just happened to coincide,” he said. “By the way, my name XIII. Nice to meet you, little birdie.”

“What? X? I? What kind of name is that? And my name’s Prodigy, not little birdie.”

“My name is the roman numerals for thirteen. Ever heard of Roman numerals, birdie?”

“What numerals? And I told you not to call me that!” I said.

“How do you not know what roman numerals are? What about frogs? Heard of them before? Plus, I called you birdie, not little birdie. They’re different,” XIII said. I was fascinated by all the things he knew about. Plants and animals I never dreamed existed. Bodies of water that stretched on forever. Clusters of trees that are called forests. Even though he refused to call anything inside the Facility by their names, he asked about everything from the teleportation pads to the artificial crops.

When we arrived near where the S class resided, we were debating on how the teleportation pads could be used to automate farming. I got us as close as I could without running into security, but that wouldn’t hold true anymore.

“Seriously, do you always travel through those dark tunnels? No wonder your skin’s so dark. You never get any sunlight,” XIII said.

“I only went into those tunnels because you didn’t want to run into security,” I retorted. “Why did you even want to get here?”

“I’m gonna tear down this place obviously. They’ve restricted everything you should be allowed to have. Freedom to live life the way you want, and freedom to seek out the knowledge of this world. I’m sure you understand how I feel,” he said.

I nodded, I did understand. After the short time, we were together, I already wanted to learn more about the world from him. He told fascinating stories, and while he teased me, he also was patient to explain things I would never understand. He told me things such as the freedom to live the way you want to. To be able to explore anything that you wished to. I was determined to find this thing called ‘freedom’. I would find it and I’m sure he would help me as I relearned everything.

“You ready to do this?” XIII asked. Our eyes met, both determined to do this. I, who wanted to discover more about the world. And him, who wanted to give others the chance to live freely. We nodded to each other as if we had been partners since the day we were born. Though the time we had spent together was short, we already understood and trusted each other. This is what I was missing! I wanted to have someone who understood my curiosity. I wanted to have someone to talk about my discoveries with. I wanted to have a friend. And now I had one.

Ten years ago, a place known as the Facility fell. The Facility was a place created by a group of people ran away after accidentally spreading a disease a hundred years ago. Inside the Facility, they were known as S class and they prolonged their lives with advanced technology. They settled in a wasteland and isolated themselves along with the people that lived in the nearby mountains. The Facility selfishly kept all of the technology to themselves, causing others to suffer.

After the Facility fell, everyone rejoiced as the technology that was taken away was shared again with everyone. Those who were in the Facility were welcomed back into the world. Half-beasts and humans lived together for, in the end, they’re both humans.

As for me, I turned twenty-five today. I live my life the way I want to, unveiling forgotten knowledge. XIII travels the land spreading technology and knowledge, while I continue to study and advance technology. Speaking of XIII, he’s supposed to be back on my birthday. After all this year he promised that he would

“Prodigy! Someone’s here to see you. He seems to be a half-wolf type.”

“Tell him I’ll be there in a second!” I picked up a bag that I had already packed beforehand and headed out.

“Harold! Remember all the things I told you? If you can’t remember I made a list that I put on your desk,” I said.

“I got it,” Harold said.

“Hey, birdie! What’s taking you so long?” a familiar voice called from downstairs.

“I’m coming! I’m coming! Just let me double check everything!” I said. “Harold! Did you…”

“Stop stressing so much. I’ll handle things here, alright?” Harold said, smiling his goofy smile.

“Come on birdie! The early bird gets the worm, so hurry up!” XIII called. “Wasn’t it you who wanted to see the ocean? Seriously, you’ll be the death of me!” I could already imagine his ears twitching with annoyance.

“Okay! Sorry, I’m ready for real now!” I laughed. I looked around my room and remembered the journal I was writing in. I walked over and jotted down the last few sentences.

“Hurry up!”

“Hehe! Let’s go!” I said as I ran out the door.

“Wha...Hey! How come you’re the one leaving me behind?” XIII cried as he chased after me. There’s sure to be more adventures to come, just like I wrote.

After all this year he promised that he would show me all the things I didn’t know about. We’ll travel the land, and cross the sea. We’ll visit the friends we met through our travels. It’ll be a lot of fun, and we’ll explore everything. There’s sure to be more adventures in store for us. But in the end, the true place of mysteries is the same place we started our journey.

The Facility.