The Indelibles (Wattys2015)

Chapter One: Jumping on Elevators

PHOENIX

The night sky is full of stars with no moon. The sector is quiet. Lights from the downtown concrete jungle, also known as the Main, are still on, and if you listen hard enough you'll hear the sounds of music and fun.

This is something I do often, sit on the ledge of my parent's 19 story apartment with my legs dangling off the edge to gaze over the small view of Sector 2, Torren.

There are 4 Sectors in Sirn, our province. There used to be fifty sectors like mine, but smaller, and called states. Together, they were called The United States Of America. Or, the USA for short. From what I've been told by my father is that the government was lazy. Apparently, fifty tiny sectors were too much to handle with all the over population in the USA, so they just split everyone into four sectors after the explosion.

The world was over populated and running out of resources to keep the people alive. Also the old Sirn owed money to different provinces -provinces that had everything and more than enough of what Sirn needed.

There it is, the gap, the tiny flaw in the story that never makes sense to me.

If the other province had more than enough resources, and were giving it away to other provinces, why didn't they help Sirn?

It is dumb, I think them telling us this is to make us hate other provinces when there is no real reason why we should. Maybe to keep us from fleeing to other countries just in case something bad went down.

It wouldn't have been something petty like us not giving them their money, because if they blew them up they would have never gotten their money; all of it would have been destroyed. But they got their money, somehow. They also didn't blow up one of the 'tiny sectors'. Why was that place important? Why did they spare it? That tiny sector is located northeast of Sector 2, it's Sector 3, the home of the Capital, Noscal.

My grandmother would always tell me their was a flaw in the government's almost perfect lies, always.

And if you are smart enough, you would see it.

Some survived, and the ones that did created a new nation. My great, great, great grandmother was a survivor and my great, great, great grandfather was one of the troopers from another province that helped save people from the explosion.

It makes me feel small, like I am just a tiny speck in this entire world -which is true, I can easily be forgotten, and with Constables, big ugly armored men that work for the government, constantly flooding the town, to "keep us safe" it made the feeling worse. We have freedom, but not enough, I'm usually greeted by two Constables when I leave the apartment, checking me for weapons that I keep in my bra, wrapped in undetectable tape that my father gave me.

Why? That's my question for almost everything. Why are they keeping us so oppressed? Even if we weren't, there would be nothing to do except work and slave for Sector 3 -where the Metropolis is- pleasure and comfort.

The government is always our main concern for our kids. Especially because they are so rare. Only three kids are aloud per couple or house hold due to the overpopulation problem that our society has been fighting for so long to overcome. But even those rules won't stop the problem forever. It's a thought I dread. I hope I'm not alive when they finally face the problem head on. Each of us have a number and a letter on our backs to signify that we are within the child limit. The letter signifies our family name. I have a one on and an 'F' on my back. Often, parents with three children just refer to them as their numbers instead of their names. I'm an only child -which is also rare- but my parents still refer to me as one. My dad has a three and a 'F' on his back while my mom has a four. Meaning the doctor that delivered her was crooked. She usually keeps it covered and puts a three instead. Most people at school don't talk to the kids with ones on their backs. It's seen as a bad thing. When theirs only one child it means that the parents are "suck ups" to the government. And that's what they call the kids with ones on their backs. The suck ups. To the government, it looks as if they're decreasing the overpopulation problem. The government looks down upon people with more than one child and treat the single children better. I make it a habit to hide the number to avoid ugly stares.