In the not so distant future there will be a resurgence in the citification movement from the early 1980's, which will result in an almost coast to coast mega-city across the United States of America. It swallowed up all the small towns and mini-cities across the country and turned the great national parks into little more than glorified copies of New York's Central Park. Because of this many animals and plants went extinct, or at least disappeared into the places of the world that humans could not touch. The world was grey, and smog-filled, and grimy with the constant hum of engines in the background. The only place large, wild land existed was in museums, and history books. Why didn't anyone stop it, you ask? Simple, no one cared enough. It created jobs, brought money into the families of the poor and lower-middle-class. Who cares if all of the grown food is now coming from other countries as long as we can still buy it right? It turns out humans will ignore everything else around them if their personal situation is desperate enough, and once everyone is back on their feet and stable enough to look around at the world they are living in? Well, quite simply put, the damage was done and there was nothing anyone could do.

It was after that point that Kidna and I took our honeymoon to what had once been New York City. We had just been to a show on Broadway, and were walking back to our hotel when we happened to come across an office building with the lights on in the lobby. Now, it was fairly late at night, which is why this building stood out, and the rest of the buildings on the street were dark. It looked like the floors above the lobby had been turned into apartments, or it had once been an apartment building and the first floor had been gutted to be a business. In either case we were curious about this building that was apparently open so late at night.

We should have realized how fishy that was considering the circumstances, but being young, in love, and rather stupid, we ignored all of the classic horror movie clues. So, we entered the building. Upon entering the first thing we noticed was an elevator. There were no buttons on the wall near it so I assumed it ran from the inside and the default setting was to sit open on the first floor. I figured that was how the people who lived in the apartments above got up there, but upon inspecting the inside of the elevator we found no buttons there either, not even a place for a key like some business elevators are set up. Also, there were no people, not even a doorman to welcome customers.

Just as I was beginning to think that someone had simply been careless, and left the light on and the door open, the doors of the elevator shut behind us and started to go down. My first thought, of course, was 'oh someone on the lower level called the thing and we'll just ride it back up when it lands'. Boy, was I wrong. When the doors opened the scene was that of an old fashioned warehouse, with a set of double doors opening onto a loading bay probably. It was fairly empty but for a few tables that seemed to be made of carved tree trunks. It appeared that the business was a wholesaler of rustic or antique looking furniture.

What caught my attention, and doomed us both was a strange looking lamp. From across the room it looked like a bare bulb on a green ornamental post, but as I got closer to it I realized that no, it was a flower that glowed! The bulb was made up of tiny three-petaled flowers that grew in a sphere shape, sprouting out of a tall sturdy stem, well shaft really, with large bi-color leaves. The tops of the leaves were so dark a green as to almost be black, and the bottoms were so light as to almost be white, and they were iridescent, reflecting back most of the spectrum of colors.

Kidna came up behind me to see and we heard the elevator door shut. We turned around and it was as though it was gone, all that remained was a slit in the wall to mark where the doors were. As soon as it was gone there was a male voice calling out and footsteps running towards us.

"NO, No no no!" He shouted and came to a stop directly in front of us. Seeing our confused faces he sighed, "Well, you're stuck here now, might as well show you around." He went on in spite of us being even more confused. "This is the dining hall. As long as you pull your own weight you'll get more than enough to eat."

We were compelled to follow as he walked away still talking. He showed us a grain silo, built out of the trunk of a tree that had to have been over 500 years old attached to the corner of the kitchen, which was furnished with primative looking stoves and cooking utensils. Most things were made of wood, but a few things were made of iron, like pots and the stove itself.

Then he took us toward the double doors. I had begun to get an idea that we weren't in any business's basement, but I had no idea what lay beyond those doors. When he opened them it was like stepping into another world, and now that I look back on it, it probably was another world. It was the early dawn hours, the sun was just coming up over the horizon, which was broken by trees taller than most skyscrapers. We were so distracted that we almost missed the end of his speech.

"Well, welcome to our world. I hope you know how to work hard because you're never leaving again." He sighed.

"Wait, what?" Kidna asked.

"I said, you're never leaving. Once you step off that elevator you're stuck here, just like everybody else." He gestured around to the twenty to thirty people bustling about doing morning chores in the early light.

I looked around a little horrified but also kind of excited. What he just said didn't really hit me until later when I realized I would never see Lizzy, or my parents, or anybody I knew ever again.

It was hard at first, learning how to farm for food and survival, and there were plenty of nights where we didn't bring enough to the dining hall to have a decent meal. However, everyone worked together, and it was kind of peaceful. After a while we settled into a rhythm.

With the help of some of the other villagers Kidna and I were able to build a house, a log cabin type deal, but it was our own and when we moved in we had enough privacy to feel comfortable for the first time since we'd gotten there. It was almost certainly the first night we were in our own cabin that I got pregnant for the first time.

Days became weeks, which became months, which became years. Occasionally new faces would show up, having followed the elevator down the same way Kidna and I had. We shared our cabin with more than a few newcomers, the same way another family had done for us before we got on our feet.

After Andy was born, there was Timothy, and then Jacob, and finally, when Andy was almost 8, little Marie. It was just after she was born that some people started talking about trying to leave, again. It had been discussed a couple of times over the years, but every time someone tried, they would up dead. We had mostly come to accept that our captors had little use for people who didn't want to be in their cage.

Some of the folks who had been born and raised there, of course, protested, saying that nothing the world above could give was worth leaving Paradise, the name coined after a businessman had joined us several years ago had called it that upon his first look.

The difference this time though was that someone had seen the elevator come down, but the person on it hadn't ventured out into the warehouse that was our dining hall. After a time, the elevator had closed and risen back to the surface as usual, but it had carried the newcomer with it, meaning he had gotten back out after seeing part of our world.

So, a plan was devised to gather everyone together and attempt to make the escape. Somehow nature knew what we were doing because as time went on, while we were waiting for someone to venture into the elevator, animals of all kinds began flocking to our village. There was everything from cats and dogs to what appeared to be dinosaur types. It was surreal. We knew they existed out in the wilderness beyond where we lived but no one ventured out that far to find out what they were.

The day it happened, everything happened more quickly than I was comfortable with. We saw on the only connection to the outside world we had, a little monitor that showed the street and lobby outside, a group of ten or so people coming in towards the elevator. We sprung as soon as the doors opened in the dining hall.

Several people dived into the elevator, tackling the group of teenagers that had come investigating. There was much screaming and cursing but after the elevator was full it closed and started up the shaft.

We all watched intently on the monitor as our scouting party left the elevator and opened the door to the outside world. It was exhilarating. As soon as they had left the elevator things seemed to reverse. Suddenly the elevator came back down and it was empty. We started piling people into it, filling it to max capacity with every run with both humans and animals.

I took my trip up with most of the sheep of the village, and some of the younger children, including my own. Kidna had been in the scouting party and I was so happy to have reached the surface after so long that I completely lost my head. The very first thing I wanted was to see our families, my parents, our friends, Lizzy!

Kidna disagreed with me, he said that we owed it to the people who had helped us for so long. That no one deserved to live in a cage, no matter how pretty and perfect it might have been. He was right of course, but the only thing I could think of was getting to Lizzy and reuniting our family.

So, I took the children and Kidna stayed to help with the escape. At first I was going to go all the way home to Altoona, but the further I got from Kidna and the others the more guilty I felt. I wanted to be with Lizzy, I wanted to hold her and hug her and tell her that her mommy hadn't abandoned her, but my heart pulled towards the people who were still stuck in the Other World. So, I went back. Halfway there, a young boy, who I recognized from the Underground, came running up to me, yelling about something.

In a rush he exclaimed, "The python broke the elevator, everyone is stuck and Kidna went back to to help!"

I couldn't believe it, and took off running, leaving all the children but Marie with the boy. When I got to the elevator I couldn't move. It was true, the elevator was stuck, halfway down, and Kidna was nowhere to be found. I called for him and called for him, but I knew in my heart of hearts where he was, and with the elevator broken, I knew I'd never see him again.