The Blood I Carry

Home is not where i belong PART ONE: Scared

Life for me is usually quiet, but not today.

On this day, every single year since I can remember, has always been chaos. The Intelligent kill more people on this day, and i have no clue why, i never have known why. There are more soldiers, dressed in shades of greys and blacks, roaming around the dull streets of my village, guns ready to be fired at any minute. Last year, I watched an old lady get shot in the forehead in front of me, because the soldiers don't care, as long as they do their jobs right and get paid, they are fine. The intelligent do not care about anyone's life. Ever.

I don't go out very often, because I fear that a soldier will suspect something of me, then I'll be put in a cell so the head of The Intelligent can question me, and if I'm found guilty, i will either be shot, or put in the cell to rot away till I die. But when I do go out, I'm never alone. I'm either with my Uncle Bailey or with my older brother, Arlo.

"Keep up Olivia." Arlo calls out to me. I stopped to admire the new board that has been put up, a big screen on a nearly rejected building, it has Jace Petersons, the leader of The Intelligent in Europe, face on the right, and their famous quote on the left. It reads, 'Welcoming you to a new future, with more intelligence.' which is referring to the fact that they think the world will be smarter and better with robots, controlling things that us people do. And they destroy peoples homes and other buildings that used to be known as shops. They destroy them and say that they use the buildings for other uses that are private, but whenever I go past them on the streets, the buildings always look abandoned and ruined. I always tell Arlo, that used to be someone's home, it's not fair. But then he tells me that life isn't fair anyway, and that it will probably happen to us one day.

"Sorry." I say to Arlo, catching up with him. "It's so weird how they have lots of money to make big signs with Jace Peterson's face on, but they don't have money or time to sort these poor buildings out? I don't get it Arlo." I complain, but quietly, in case a soldier hears me.

"Like I say nearly everyday Olivia, they're assholes who can't sort their shit out. We can't do anything about it can we?" He looks down at me, raised eyebrows, waiting for me to agree and complain about something else.

Which I do. "When do you think we will be able to go to South America? Any day now I bet." I wonder, kicking a small stone in front of me. I always ask this question, because since The Intelligent made it so society cannot fly to another continent, all i have wanted to do is go to South America. I love the idea of it. Or the old version of it. I don't know what it looks like anymore. I don't know how powerful their leader for The Intelligent is, so I wouldn't know. Every continent has a different leader, all 7.

"You know, they aren't just going to change the rules just because you want them changed silly." Arlo tells me. I don't bother arguing back. I continue walking beside him, and as we turn a corner, I almost get knocked backwards by a soldier running by, hitting my shoulder with as much force as possible with his own shoulder. Arlo grips onto my arm and helps me stand up straight again.

"Nearly made me drop my bread." I say, which causes Arlo to cackle a little bit.

"My little sister, Olivia Roberts, almost knocked over and nearly hit her head on the pavement, and could have gotten badly injured, but was more worried about her bread." Arlo announced. I laugh at him and punch him in the arm.
"We need it for the next week or so!" I add on. He chuckles.

After walking a little bit more, a few gunshots being heard in the distance, there is a circle of soldiers, clearly surrounding someone, outside of our apartment building. Part of me wants to look at what is going on, but part of me doesn't, because I just know that the person in that circle is getting killed today.