Division Forty One

Two - Division Forty One

She woke up in a place she knew she knew she had never been to before. As her eyes began to open, she noticed the comfort and warmness of a duvet above her, and a soft springy mattress below her. She remembered what had just happened instantly, it seemed as if her sleep had not made her forget one thing. She wondered why she was here. Why her kidnappers, whoever they were, had taken her. And why out of everything they'd decided to give her a bed which was actually comfortable. That's not what kidnappers usually do.

She sat up,checking her surroundings. The room's walls were painted white, and the floor was made from a neatly polished wood. Next to her was a small window and a radiator directly below it. She looked above, and saw wooden slats and another white mattress above her too. This made her come to the conclusion she was on the bottom bunk of a bunk bed. A voice on some sort of loudspeaker startled her before she could react.

"Welcome, subjects. Please change into your uniforms provided in the wardrobes in your room, then swiftly make your way to the main hall."

The voice sounded like a woman's. It had a sort of robotic and foreboding quality.

"Let me repeat. Change into your uniforms, and swiftly make your way to the main hall."

Belle tossed the blanket off of herself, and jumped out of bed. However, she looked across the room and saw a boy standing there.

He was taller than her, with light brown hair and was wearing the exact same pyjamas as Belle was. He turned around and looked at her.

"Hello", he said plainly.

"Hi", Belle replied back to him.

"I'm so exhausted. There was just this van that pulled up in my city. They took me away and drugged me. And I woke up here. Do you know where this place is?"

Belle was surprised. His story was exactly the same as hers was. She shook her head back at him.

"No idea. That was what happened to me too. I want to find out who those people are, whoever they are." she uttered bluntly.

"Me too. What's your name?" he questioned.

"It's Belle. Belle Ashley. You?"

"I'm William Everett. William 28 officially though. Call me Will if you like. So is Ashley your family's name before the Scheme then?"

"I'm sorry. What is the Scheme?"

"You really don't know what the scheme is? What, are you from a different planet or something?" he asked with a laugh.

"I honestly don't know what you are talking about. You must be the one from a different planet!"

"Well, I don't know how you don't know, but if I must. It's a rule created the year before I was born, means your surname's now a number. They say it will 'help to identify people better as our planet begins to overpopulate'. Gives you less personal identity, more like. People wanted to abolish the rule, but it still went forward and I was the 28th person born since named William, so it's now apparently my surname now. But I don't use it. I use Everett, my Dad's surname"

Belle was confused and overwhelmed by the flood of information the boy called Will had given her. He barely looked a year older than her but this rule was something she'd never heard of in her lifetime. However, the thought failed to completely cross her mind, as the haze of sleep was still upon her.

She decided to walk over to the wardrobe and get dressed after. It was what they told her to do after all. The wardrobe was the same white colour as the walls, and divided into two. The left hand side had a metal plaque reading Belle Ashley. On the right it read William 28. He wasn't lying about what he called the Scheme then, she thought. She opened her side and Will did the same. Inside she found a set of clothes, neatly folded on hooks. She took them out, and laid them down on her bed. There was a white button up shirt, like the kind you'd wear as a school uniform, and a white pleated skirt to go with it. There was also a navy blue sweatshirt, with 'K1' printed on it in white lettering, and white trainers. She looked over at Will's, it read K2. He was given white trousers instead of a skirt, and Belle was honestly jealous. She hated wearing skirts herself and would rather wear the trousers any day. She sighed, and went down to sit on the end of her bunk.