Venus. A name that would come to bare so much meaning in my life. The biggest and brightest city. A city of success with so many dreamers. I, Nasha, was just a little girl in a small, unknown town. I was a girl so full of life and a million dreams that started and ended with Venus. Venus is no ordinary city. For other cities, you can easily get a ticket and ride a bus into them, but to get into Venus, you need an invitation. You have to prove your worth to be let in. There were six of us growing up, Miles, Toby, Pete, Luna, Scarlet, and I. Each of these names had a print on my life. We were just kids who dared to dream in this harsh world.

It has been exactly fifty years since the pandemic hit the world. A world once so vast and civilized was brought to its knees and collapsed. The world’s biggest nations came together in efforts to rebuild but all was futile. What had started as just a small case of flu, spread so fast and vast and became uncontrollable. Nation after nation it spread, and wherever it hit, a trail of death was left behind. The people abandoned their jobs, companies were shut down, schools were closed, and the hospitals that were the only source of hope for the people soon shut down. The government that had tried so much to save its citizens soon also gave up. Everything came crumbling down, with the economy crashing. The people locked themselves in their houses. The streets that were once so full of life, now stood abandoned with no trace of life. The world was so quiet. At first fire trucks, police cars and ambulances could be seen scouting, trying to maintain peace and calm the people, but hunger hit. The people could no longer stay indoors. In search of food and desperate for survival, the people walked out of their homes and chaos rose. They fought over everything and soon riots followed. So many died in shoot-outs and the flu spread more. With no hope left, the world’s elite members of society came together and built Venus.

Venus became impenetrable and the safest place to be in the world. For a few years, Venus let in more members, especially world leaders and influential people but soon a case of the flu was discovered within its walls. With the old world gone and no laws, Lawrence Grey, one of the world’s best musicians at the time was immediately shot dead. And so the gates of Venus were shut, letting nobody in or out for the next seven years. The world outside was dead. With no people to attack, the flu subsided. Some cases were still heard of but not as many. Different people also started to rebuild. Small towns rose, but with the economy so crushed, there were rebels everywhere. They attacked small businesses and took over. The world was full of savages and power-hungry leaders. Time went by and Venus opened its gates for the first time. It would let in thirty people between the ages of twenty to thirty in the month of July each year. Everybody interested, in the outside world, would go through several tests to assess their fitness and later join a challenge that would determine the winners who would then get an official invitation and be let into Venus.

My friends and I were in Nava. A town so small and unknown, yet so strong. It was a town of children with no parents. Our parents were the five adults in it, and Maddie was the only woman. She acted as our mother and was in charge of all supplies. Lance, who was in charge of security and was our teacher in all skills necessary for survival. Leonel was in charge of all medical aspects in the town. He was a father figure for all of us. Martin, who was in charge of our education, and Byron who was in charge of all the information aspects. These were the adults who raised us. Nava was hidden from the rest of the world and therefore managed to thrive in all the chaos. All the children stayed in one room that was structured to accommodate everyone for efficiency and to ensure security. This is where I met my friends.

The rest of us had been in Nava for as long as we could remember when Toby joined. We had just sat in for our leadership class when Martin walked him in. A small, eleven-year-old boy, a bit nervous, with a confident stare in his eyes, stood next to Martin. “Hello everyone, this is Toby. He’ll be joining us from now henceforth. I hope all of you can get along and help him feel at home.” With those remarks, he proceeded to sit on the empty sit next to me. Like destiny coming to fruition, this is where Toby would be for the rest of my life, well at least until destiny would decide otherwise.

Since the day Toby walked into that class, it’s been twelve years and nobody else had joined that town. The town that was once populated by children now had only adults in it. For twelve years, we had trained like military personnel. Our routine began at four in the morning and ended at ten at night. Each day we started with Lance, who engaged us in different activities and survival skills, from martial arts to how to survive in a desert, which was a bit strange. The next was Maddie. She is the strongest person I’ve ever met to this day. On the outside, Maddie was this cheerful, five-two feet, petite woman but when you got to know her, she had a different dark side to her. Maddie taught us how to hold and shoot a gun, how to aim a sword, and even how to use arrows. All weapons that came into the town, went through Maddie. Then there was Byron’s class. He taught us everything related to computers. I tried to catch up with him but eventually had to admit it wasn’t my thing rather it was Scarlet’s shining point. She easily took in everything taught and within a few months, she was almost as good as Byron himself. We’d then head to Leonel’s class. It was intriguing but still wasn’t my specialty. Luna however excelled at it perfectly. Lastly, we’d encounter Martin who gave us a lesson on the history of everything he thought we needed to know. This man was a walking Wikipedia.

By the time we turned twenty, everybody had a thing they excelled at and so the routine changed to everybody having intense training in their field. Scarlet went to the Information Technology class and of course, Luna was now practically a doctor herself, working with Leonel. She’s sown a couple of stitches on me already. Pete took a liking to Mr. Martin’s class and seems to have an answer to everything. If he can’t give you an answer, he’ll dig up everything to find it. Miles works perfectly in Maddie’s section. He grew up way taller than everyone else and if you don’t know them, you could easily confuse him to be Maddie’s boss. Plus you should see him fire a gun or grab a sword, that boy is walking art. Then there’s Toby and I. we took to Lance’s class. I often found it pretty interesting to have the skills to survive anywhere. It often felt like a superpower. I’m skeptical of everything in my surrounding. Always looking for a way out. Just as Miles is good with weapons, Toby and I are good with our existence alone. We are trained on how to turn anything around us into a weapon.

“The last twelve years have been a beautiful journey. We’ve watched you grow from little kids to young able adults. Each one of you has exceeded our expectations. We’ve played our roles so far in training you and raising you as best as we could, but now it’s time for you to fulfill your roles. To achieve what you were meant to do from the very start.” Leonel spoke out as we sat in the small dining hall taking our dinner. We could sense the tension in their expressions. We’d learned a few years back from Pete that we were all in training for a mission. Of course, he’d put so much effort to find out what the mission was, to no avail. It was a secret that these adults had protected with their lives. Unspoken by none of them. We all stared at each other curiously.

“I know you all have questions.” He calmly continued. “I’m sure you all know the history of how Nava was formed from Mr. Martin. You’ve also heard of the great city, Venus.” At the mention of Venus, my body shivered from anticipation. It had been my dream since I’d heard of it. I’d spoken about it to Toby a lot and my curiosity was already building up.

“We’ve given you more than any skills to penetrate Venus.”

“Penetrate? What do you mean exactly?” Pete questioned.

“Venus is not the haven you think it is. There’s a conspiracy rising in Venus but you still need to get in.

“This is Venus we’re talking about. You just don’t expect us to walk there and take over the city, do you?” I asked.

Maddie laughed before slowly pushing her chair back and standing up. “Of course not my dear.” She walked over and casually lay her elbow on Miles’ shoulder while keeping her stare on me. “You were chosen for a reason. We’re all soldiers in a war bigger than you’ll ever imagine. Surely you all are clever enough to have figured out that this training wasn’t just a hobby. You were carefully selected.” She said as she walked and stood next to Leonel. “From the very beginning, this has been an elaborate plan. We got orders fifteen years ago for today.”

The mention of that left us confused. We’d lived our lives so far dependent on these adults. We had trusted them and not questioned anything because we were kids and this is the only world we had known so far.

Miles sat by the corner in his combat trouser and boots, calmly sipping his coffee and taking this in. he was a solder by default, always ready for battle. Pete sat next to Mr. Martin all attention on Maddie and what she was saying, his face full of so many questions. Luna, sat by the entrance looking so detached from this world. She looked so classy and graceful in her floral sundress. She was also a soldier. We all were, but soldiers in different makings and personalities. Her eyes met mine and she smiled warmly and I smiled back. Scarlet was seated at the dining table, typing something on her laptop. She stopped a few times to analyze her surroundings and then went back to whatever she was doing. She had become the coldest person among us. She barely smiled or showed any emotions. Toby and I sat next to Scarlet, all attention on Maddie, carefully taking in all that was being said. Toby was a quiet person. He barely spoke but when he did, everyone would listen. He had a muscular personality. For some reason we all respected him. He and I had gotten very close and were practically attached. We were each other’s shields. Better halves. He knew all my thoughts on Venus so he stole a few glances at me every few minutes to assess my reaction.

July was only a week away. This meant that the gates of Venus would be open soon. Routinely, we’d start with the training, but after the meeting, we’d held last night, an agreement was made for us all to gather in the dining hall at six in the morning for more instructions. I woke up first. Everyone was asleep except for Miles who lay awake staring at the ceiling. I got up at quietly tiptoed to his bed and sat beside him.

“Hey, you anxious about this thing?”

He sat up and looked into my eyes. “A bit. I guess. You?”

“I’m just worried that we won’t be together like this,” I said smiling.

Miles and I had a different relationship. He was like an elder brother to me. He’d always showed up to comfort me or offer any help when I needed it. With him, I could easily be my vulnerable self.

“It’s going to be fine. I mean, this is what you’ve been waiting for your whole life right?” he said gently tapping my shoulder.

Our whispers must have woken the others since they began to stir in their beds. They were trained to respond to the slightest anomalies anyway.

I stood up from Miles’ bed and shouted, “get up soldiers, the battle is about to start.”

With that, everyone sat up.

The others were already gathered in the hall, standing in a horizontal line in front of the counter. We took our positions and also lined up facing them.

“Okay soldiers, let’s begin,” Lance spoke out taking a step forward.

“Venus shall open its gates next week on Monday morning. At the first entrance, there’s a battle arena where the challenges shall take place. Once you’re in, there’s no turning back. The gates will be shut down till next year in July and nobody gets out. The tests are carried out for an entire week, twenty-four hours and day. This means you won’t have time to rest or get any distractions. Only the very best will be selected to enter the second entrance which gets you into the real Venus. The tests being conducted are designed to kill you. They give minimal chances for success, so you will be required to use all the skill sets you’ve learned up to this point to survive. There is one important thing that you need to remember.” He said pausing.