The old steel vents leaked out warm stale air into the long unused airlock of the old city. It was a forbidden place if you went by the laws of the Depth Tower. A place of the ancients when they once believed they could live close to the gods.

  But there were those that wandered close, and sometimes even within its dusty innards. Some of them even made it out alive.

  “Ukle, we can find them somewhere else!” Harut crouched next to Ukle his tall lanky form more closely resembling Ukle’s small one in his terrified apprehension. “If we hurry you might even get a good—”

  “I need a good one Harut, not some recycled rumor that one of the judges has heard before. Everyone knows everyone’s secrets down at the bottom. I need a secret that no one’s ever seen before. And I bet ya a bug bar that there’s plenty of secrets in there; otherwise, why would it be sealed off.” Ukle shrugged towards the sealed air hatch that led into the old city.

  Harut shuddered and wrapped his long arms around his shins, pulling himself into a tight ball.

  “Aw, come on Ukle, the fact that we even found this door means that someone else has probably been inside. What possible secrets do you think are even in there? And why do you need to be the champion anyway?”

  Ukle studied the door, Harut was right, it was sealed off, or at least it looked like it was. Rivets of welded metal lined the door. Cautiously Ukle inserted the old access card into the strange box next to the door. She had gotten it from Ju-Moby in exchange for the antique lover girl chip for his girlfriend doll. He had almost demanded something else but quickly realized that the lack of commercials made the deal worth it.

  The door let out a loud metallic click before swinging the tiniest bit open. Ukle smiled and danced back on her tiptoes toward her friend.

  “Ha, it worked just like Ju-Moby said it would,” she said, ignoring Harut’s concerns. “Look, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to. In fact, it would probably be better if you didn’t.” She crouched down looking him dead in the eyes. “If I don’t return tell Dell#2853 that they were an adequate parental unit.”

  Harut’s eyes bulged out of his head as his mouth flopped open ready to beg her not to go in. But just as quickly Ukle bounced back up and made her way to the door.

  “I’ll be back with enough time to make the championship.” And just like that she disappeared through the door.

  Once the door closed, Ukle was surrounded by darkness. It wasn’t a scary thing; darkness was something one was used to in the Depth Tower. Dim hallways, dark rooms. The only place that guaranteed lighting were the parlors, and children weren’t allowed in those.

  She dug through the pocket of her jumpsuit and pulled out the old windup light that she had received as a small child. The high-pitched squeal of its handheld crank echoed through the darkness. Its sickly orange light cast long shadows down the dusty hallway she found herself in.

  It was unfortunately empty. She wasn’t surprised, it was after all the easiest and safest place to grab something quick… or would have been a few years ago. But now the hallways and adjoining rooms stood empty, so she had to venture in further. It excited her to no end to think that she might find a place that no other had been to at all.

  “These are such amaze balls,” she said, quietly to herself.

  Eventually, she came to an area that was almost completely untouched. There had been people there at one point which was obvious by the old dusty footprints, and old left behind bug bar. But it was obvious they hadn’t been back for a long time.

  She moved further into the ancient place. Something about it felt familiar, as she found with every turn, she was able to predict, almost exactly where she would end up. But she did not think too much about it and was instead distracted by the pure disarray the place was in. Something bad had happened there long ago.

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  Her eyes scanned the area as she wound the hand crank to her light.

  “Nothing.” Though there were a lot of things, just nothing secret worthy.

  The lights of the ancient place flickered suddenly, startling Ukle and causing her to drop her light. It skittered away from her, stopping next to an old map. It was made from something she very rarely saw, and she couldn’t remember the name of it. It was somewhat transparent and bent easily in her hands, but she could not fold it like paper. She picked it up and looked at it, recognizing it as a map, a map that looked a lot like a map of the Depth Tower.

  It looked as if it had once been hung on the wall in the small room just a few feet away from where it lay. She had never seen such a small room. It had no door as far as she could see, and about halfway up the walls of the room were handrails as you would find on stairs.

  She grabbed the map and her light. The lights of the area still flickered as she made her way to the room. Its floor jerked as she stepped into it, the lights of the ancient area flickering a few more times before finally staying on.

  “Wow.” Was all she got out before the doors she thought were not there closed on her.

  The room jerked, and her stomach felt as if it was falling out of her.

  “Ho no! It’s a trap.” She flung herself at the door that she just now realized had been hidden within the walls. But it was no use, they were sealed tight.

  She fell back onto her butt, dropping the map and the flashlight. Numbers lit up in succession over the now-sealed door. She was convinced they were counting down to her doom. So, imagine her surprise when the room stopped pulling her stomach from her and the door slid open.

  Shakely, she got to her feet and retrieved the map and the flashlight before quickly stepping out of the room.

  “Main lobby,” said a blue sign directly outside the room’s doors. She let the words linger in her mouth, having never heard them before.

  She looked at the map and sure enough, it was there on the map, at the top. Her brow furrowed as she wondered why they didn’t have a main lobby in their Depth Tower, while this one did. It occurred to her then that she had found her secret, a secret that no one had ever heard of. She stared at the map, completely amazed as to how similar, and yet so different, it was from the paintings that adorned the Depth Tower’s walls. Lost in thought, she barely noticed the faint sound of people talking.

  Crouching low she scurried, map and flashlight in hand, to a large container holding what she thought was a plant statue, just a few feet from the room. The voices grew louder but part of her couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to them as she realized the plant was not a statue, but instead made of the same material as the map.

  She wanted to touch it, but one of the voices caught her attention. Taking a chance, she peeked out from her hiding spot. Five men stood just a few feet away, barely clothed and chatting excitedly with each other. One of them she instantly recognized as the latest dictator of the Depth Tower.

  “What are they doing here?”

  She watched them. They seemed happy, with not a hint of terror that they were all taught this place should bring. They moved away from her, down a brightly lit hall. Their conversation quickly faded until eventually, she heard nothing but silence. Scurrying out from her hiding spot she quickly kicked herself for not snapping an image.

  “That could have been the best secret ever.” Though she quickly realized that it was probably better that she hadn’t taken a picture of the dictator.

  The dictator and his friends had been standing on what looked to be the only clean area of the ancient place. In fact, there seemed to be a road of cleanliness in the dust filled place. One end led to where they had disappeared, and one end led to… She looked toward the area they had come from.

  A few feet from where she stood was a door; one much like the one she originally came through. Around it was a painting of happy smiling faced people. They were surrounded by mounds of red, she didn’t know what those mounds were or what the words, ‘Welcome to Mars’ that hung above the people’s heads meant, but she sure wanted to find out.

  “Welcome to Mars. What does that mean?”

  Moving to the door she found that this one also had an area for the old access card. Quickly swiping it she couldn’t wait to see what was on the other side.

  The door slid open much like that of the room that had trapped her and brought her there. But on the other end of it was a sight her child’s brain couldn’t quite comprehend. Space spread out in front of her, further than she had ever seen in her whole life. She swayed on her feet as she took in the scenery.

  Mounds of red dust piled around large trees that swayed back and forth in large clusters. Their long pole bodies and tight knots of green leaves danced in a breeze that confused her. Where was it coming from? What was this place? Question after question filled her as she took it in.

  “Harut’s going to pee himself,” she said with a laugh, then quickly realized. “There’s no way I’m going to lose the championship now.” She shoved the map under her arm, still not willing to give it up, even after this great find, and reached up to gently tap her right temple.

  Her pupils pulsed for just a second, saving the image that spread out before her.