SILVER EYES (GXG)

Chapter 1: The Border

And the wall went up. Thick. Tall. Violent.

A statement of failure. The failure of humanity. Wait, no. A failure of humanism. Yes, that is. A dismantled world with a dismantled society. That's where we lived: In a land sliced in two.

They used to say language is power. The most precious asset humankind has. Letters, words, sentences, ideas. Apparently, in the past, they could transform your mindset. They could define your identity. Even establish the meaning of your life. How odd is that, ha.

Trying to use words to convince anyone about anything now, was making a fool of yourself. Because why use words when you have data?

Data could scout your veins, crack your desires, forge your fears, predict your thoughts. Not bad, right? That's what we thought at the beginning. That's what we all fools thought. What. Fucking. Fools.

I was waiting in the fifth queue. My brother Michael next to me. We had our color mark stuck on our shirts as all the others who, like us, waited for the gates to open. We were the orange group. Green, white, blue... there were others. I couldn't see them all. Ten long queues stood in front of that big, endless wall that divided our world.

Four unbearable hours had passed, and the border still remained silent. Gates closed. Not a sound. Not a movement. Why did they make us wait so long? I was sick of it. My legs hurt, and Michael was, again, pressing his lower lip with his fingers, in that weird way he always did, folding it into several shapes as if doing origami with it. Sometimes I thought one day that lip would fall off. He turned twenty last week, but to me still looked very much like a little boy.

On the day of his birthday, I traded my breakfast for a slice of cake and spent almost an hour looking for two little branches that resembled a two and a zero, so I could use them as candles. The zero was impossible to find, of course, but I did find one that somehow, using your imagination, could look like a two. So, I woke him up with a dry slice of chocolate cake and a single branchy two candle on it.

If it weren't for the fact that he possessed the calmest spirit on earth, he would have stuck that cake in my face. I saw his eyes turn white. Because, what the hell was I thinking, trading my breakfast for a meaningless slice of cake? That's what he said.

Despite being two years younger than me, Michael was the most "responsible" of us. Or at least, that's what he repeated over and over again. From my point of view, he needed to live a little. Just a little. And sometimes that means being reckless and skipping breakfast to surprise your brother. Because how many times does one turn twenty?

A gust of wind slapped us with cold. The temperature was dropping. It wouldn't be long before a thousand knives of frozen air stabbed everyone and we didn't have much clothing on. But I couldn't complain. It just took me a glance to realize. Others were in worse conditions. Torn shirts and broken shoes. They wouldn't survive the temperature drop. A raw classic, if I'm honest. People leaving towns for the first time in their lives to cross the border, without any knowledge of the wild weather ahead. Many would freeze to death. Terrible? Yes, but nothing new.

"Do you think he... he'll be there?" Michael said with his finger between his teeth.

"Of course."

"But it's been two years... Do you think he'll remember me?" He met my gaze, his nose already red, his eyelids flaky.

"Nobody could forget you. Even less him. I'm sure he'll be the first one to hug you when we get there." I said, but I mean... who could be sure? I felt guilty. But I wouldn't snatch away the only thing that had sustained Michael to this point: Erik. We met him in a refuge ten years ago.

Since that day, they had become inseparable, which was quite something because Michael wasn't very friendly as a kid. He was the type of baby who would cry upon seeing new people, always scared of his own shadow. I used to have him glued to me every time we played hide and seek with other kids, following me everywhere. Although I have to admit, he was cute, and I could never get mad at him. I liked to protect him. That's why I loved Erik so much; he was quite the opposite of Michael, and surprisingly, he helped him come out of his shell. Plus, as they grew up, their friendship became something more.