Chapter Two

Cars, I had learned, were one of the oddest things I’d experienced. My dad had told me about cars before, making them seem as if they were immense, robotic rooms that could take you anywhere faster than imaginable. Then again, there was a good chance he was drunk. As I looked around at the one I was in, I found myself quietly laughing. The place was small and dark and moved about as quickly as the sick horses at the farm across the street from my old house. It smelled a lot like them too. I had a hard time figuring out why anyone would choose to sit in one of those things as apposed to walking.

The driver, a wrinkly old man with scruffy white hair and a pair of glasses placed crookedly at the bridge of his nose, hadn’t said a word for what seemed like the first few hours of the trip. His limp hands rested unconfidently on the top of the steering wheel. I concluded he was too preoccupied to make conversation. Frankly, I was relieved.

It wasn’t until we reached the concrete roads that I realized how long I’d been in the car. It joggled suddenly, and the speed of the car accelerated. I looked behind me to see the dirt road we’d left behind and replaced with a smoother, cement road. This too, was a first for me. Back home, cement roads were practically a myth.

As we drove, I looked to my right and took a glimpse out of the dark window. For miles, all I saw was farmland. I wasn’t surprised. Although I had never left Hawns, it never occurred to me that dirt could be used for anything besides roads and soil.

All of a sudden, I heard a thunderous roar from behind me. From behind the car. Instinctively, I turned around to see what it was. Moving at about twice the speed of the car I was in was another town car, not bothering to slow down as it neared mine.

I looked at the white haired man operating the vehicle. He hadn’t noticed the approaching car.

I heard the same roar, this time to my right. The town car, traveling as quickly and chaotically as it’d been before, had one half of its arrangement on the road, the other half shredding apart the strawberry vines alongside the road. It sped up, moved itself back onto the road, and continued off.

The driver gave me a quick glance back, showing off a grin with more than a few missing teeth. “How ya doin’ back thur?” He acted as though he hadn’t noticed a thing.

I smirked, trying to contain a nervous laugh. That driver reminded me of a lot of the people from Hawns. “Great. Was that a RASP car that just went by us?”

Without warning, the man let out a boisterous chuckle.  I could hear the spit swarming in his mouth.  “Great. Great!” He said, ignoring the question. More chuckling. “We’ll be thur' pretty soon, I’d guess, darlin’. Don’tcha worry, now.”

The driver had guessed accurately. It seemed like just minutes before I gazed through the window to my right and could see something up ahead. An assortment of buildings. It wasn’t until we were a few hundred yards away that I got a look at the school. What I saw was shocking.

The school stuck out like a sore thumb around the cultivation surrounding it. In the middle of what appeared to be endless farmland was a collection of structures, each in it’s own unique shade of a certain dark, metallic color. The constructions on the perimeter of the vicinity were the smallest in height. As the buildings reached the center, their elevation grew. At the center was the tallest tower, standing in a deep, murky maroon. The roofs of each building had an intense slant.

Nothing ever impressed me. But this was something even I had a tough time looking away from.

We pulled into the massive parking lot, alongside dozens of other town cars with tinted windows, dropping off students. I didn’t get a good chance to look at them. I was too busy absorbing the buildings.

The driver put his foot on the breaks, and laughed again. He turned around to face me. “Welp, here ya are.”

It didn’t take a lot to get me out of that car. Before the car had come to an entire stop, I had opened the door and stepped out, yearning for a hint of fresh air. I took a deep breath and began to walk. Where I was headed for, I had no clue.

I looked around as I walked aimlessly, taking notice to everything I could about the campus. Though the school was outside, the solid ground beneath my feet was composed of reflective, silver steel, covering every inch of land between the towers. There was not a trace of grass or soil. Even with my naïveté regarding the new setting, the campus didn’t excite me.

Nearing the building closest to the parking lot, I saw a huddle of students all heading in the same direction to the heart of campus. The majority of them had looks of angst visibly depicted across their face, while the rest seemed entirely emotionless. Looking around, it seemed as if everyone but me had a good idea where to go. Without any better ideas, I joined them.

There were probably sixty of us in the pack, though we had no trouble weaving between the campus buildings. I had no sense of where we were; I couldn’t see anything over the tall girl walking in front of me. She had long black hair and wore tight black jeans and a green military jacket. For ten minutes we walked, until suddenly the black haired girl came to a stop. I did too, getting on my tiptoes to see where we had arrived.

Peering over the girl’s head, I got a glimpse of a tall black building. It wasn’t as tall as the central red building, but it was much taller than the first one I’d seen by the parking lot. The group of us began to stroll forward again, heading for the black construction.

As I made my way into the building, my eyes were stunned with a heap of black. I could see nothing but the shape of theatre seats on either side of an aisle composed of stairs. Careful not to trip on one of the steps, I made my way down two steps until I spotted an empty aisle seat to my left. I took it immediately. As soon as that show or assembly was over, I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. And I wasn’t going to give up a seat that close to an exit.

I probably sat there for twenty minutes, lost in my own thoughts. What is this? I thought. Why am I sitting here in a pitch-black theatre? Shouldn’t someone tell us what’s going on? It occurred to me a few times that maybe I had been mistaken. Perhaps the group I had joined was just as clueless as I was, and someone had decided to take a nap.

And then the lights turned on, and I saw where I was. The theatre I was in was hardly a theatre at all. It was a circular room filled with people. Looking down on the thousands of occupied seats, I realized how far up I was. Each level of seats got lower and lower and met in the center at a stage. The stage had been raised up about seven feet so the people like me in the upper seats could see everything. Browsing around, I noticed that the left half of the room was filled with students while the right half was filled with adults, all wearing black to create a sort of illusion.

Then, as if my eyes weren’t having a hard enough time adjusting to the lights, four brightly colored spotlights appeared at the middle of the stage.

I blinked a few times, shaking my head. They’ve got to be kidding.

Where the spotlights hit the stage, a compartment opened, and up came a woman. Unlike the other adults in the room, she wore a blazer and pant of bright red with lipstick to match. Her hair was a smooth and glossy black that reached her mid shoulder, and her eyes squinty. She looked about forty years old.

She stood there a few seconds, taking in her surroundings. The room fell silent. After a moment, she took in a deep breath. “Welcome, Learners.”

There was a roar of applause from the right side of the room which then drained into a smaller applause from the left. I sat in my seat, motionless, waiting for the woman to get on with it.

Learner, I thought. Is that how I’m going to be addressed here?

The woman beamed, letting the noise die down. “I would like to start off by congratulating each and every one of you.” She turned to face the students. “My name is Cinder Rewd, and I am currently the head of the Regime.”

I tilted my head. It had never occurred to me that I had no knowledge of who ran the world. The Regime was simply the Regime. With the acceptation of Kane, no one talked about what they did. Kane always questioned things everyone else overlooked.

Cinder continued. “As you know, you have all been selected by the Regime to contribute your smart little minds into the future of our world. Don’t be nervous now. Everything you are going to learn may or may not be of direct influence to you in the long run, but having the strong, wide ranged background that we will provide for you will be to your benefit.” She stopped and spun in a complete circle, getting an idea of how many people were present. “Wow!” She said. Her voice was almost sarcastically playful. “Look at all those beautiful faces. I’m glad to see none of you brought luggage. There’s always one Learner that doesn’t read the Acknowledgment all the way through.” With that, she gave the pool of adults a silly look as if to say if you know what I mean!

I shook my head. This woman was overplaying every aspect of going to this place.

“Anywho,” she continued, pursing her red lips and throwing her arms out at her side. “I have a little surprise this year. To show just how much we appreciate your company, we have planned a...ceremony of sorts.”

Silence.

“We have made each and every one of you Learners a class schedule. Now, this schedule was made specifically for you, based on what we think you will excel at. What we have planned is for each of you to come down here, one by one, as we read off your name to collect your schedule.”

I narrowed my eyebrows. The whole thing was messy. There were about two thousand kids in that room. I could feel the anxiety around me as kids shuffled in their seats.

“So,” she cooed, bending over to pick up a thick stack of paper she had set on the floor. “I’ll start off by reading your names in alphabetical order by first name from this here list. Might as well have a good idea of who’ll you’ll be going to school with, am I right?” Cinder cleared her throat and repositioned the list in her hands. “Aali Wish.”

Nothing happened at first. The room was so massive it was hard to pick out just one person. After a moment or two, I saw a girl to my left walking toward the stage. She had short blonde hair, an elf-like face, and stood no taller than five and a half feet. She took little time in acquiring her schedule from Cinder, and hurried back to her seat.

The next Learner chosen was a pale, gaunt boy named Ace with dark black hair that hung over his ears. After him was a girl named Azy with a petite face and flaming red hair. Then a boy, almost Kane’s size, with dirty blonde hair.

“Borris Quin.”

“Daley Wedle.”

“Hyne Verse.”

It had seemed like I’d been sitting for hours. I went through the alphabet in my head for what might have been the ninth time. A, b, c, d, e, f, g, h...k. Two more letters to get through.

“Ileen Gor.”

“Jet Crow.”

Once Cinder had finished the names starting with J and started the K’s, time seemed to mock me by how slow it was going. The first twenty names felt like an hour. I could feel my head getting cloudy and rested it on the back of the seat. Maybe they made a mistake, I hoped. Maybe I can go home.

“Kenly Abyra.”

Damn. Rolling my eyes, I stood up. With a smile as full of sarcasm as it was of teeth, I made my way down the stairs and toward the stage, no one saying a word.

It was a surprisingly long walk from the top of the room down to the bottom, where Cinder bent over to shake my hand and grant me my schedule. Her grip was light, barely moving her hand as she gently held mine in place. I wasn’t hesitant to begin my journey back up the stairs. Before she had let my hand go, I yanked it free and turned around. Maybe it was because of my developing headache, but the trip back up seemed to take much longer than the way down. When I arrived at my seat, I rested my head back where it had been, and gave my schedule a look.

Schedule of Kenly Abyra.

Seven: Economics.

Nine: History of government

Eleven: Bicontinental Studies

One: Athletics

Three: Propaganda

           

            I whimpered to myself noiselessly. Those classes were no improvement from the classes back in Hawns like Cattle Birth and Problem Solving.

            I flipped the paper over, trying to forget about the classes I would soon be taking. As I did, I noticed a big black frame with minute writing imprinted in it. Squinting my eyes, I looked harder at the words. On the back of the schedule was an explanation of the room and building I would be living in. Kloh Tower-222. I let that thought settle in and, after taking a sigh or two, returned my focus back to the assembly.

            Once all of the names had been called out, I could feel my eyelids gaining weight and my brain losing focus. It must have been hours since the assembly began. The shining lights in the room were helping my already existing headache inflate. I rested my elbow on the armrest and let my head lay on the palm of my hand, fighting the urge to fall asleep right there and then. I was almost at peace until a loud shriek forced me back upright.

            “Well!” Cinder said, setting the list of names back onto the stage. “That took a little longer than expected.”

            Right.

            “But none the matter! Now you all have your schedules, and a good idea of who you will be learning with.” With that, she smirked. “But don’t get too excited. Making friends…” She strained the word friends as if it were some kind of poisonous slug. “…is very discouraged. When working for the Regime, that last thing you want is an old friendship getting in the way of what’s really important. In fact, anyone two Learners we find getting too friendly will endure the penalty.” She crossed her fingers and grinned. “Let’s hope none of you spent all that time looking for a girlfriend!” Cinder laughed. No one else did. As if nothing had happened, she went on. “Well, that concludes this year’s assembly. Now go make us proud!”

Reviews

[LCFreiderici]

I like the way you write and I want to learn more about this story. The only part that left me hanging was "...wearing black to create a sort of illusion." It prompted me to ask: "What illusion?" Has the book been published? Where can one find it?

[October Oblivion]

I'd definitely love to read more! You're characters are very well-developed with well-formulated descriptions, although in one part you did say her red hair...maybe you could spark it up by saying something more to deal with imagery...Like my bright hair cascading down my hair in glistening crimson flames. I don't know. *laughs* It's amazing, and I wouldn't focus on little things like that. :) Amazing story, btw. XD