MisPrints

•Chapter 1•

I shouldn't really be here.

I wasn't planned.

I'm only an error, a glitch, a fault....A miscalculation in that big computer of theirs. Which means I am also a problem. Something that's not wanted, but can't be got rid of easily...I guess I'm just in the way. By the time they discovered me, my development had gone too far, I was already beyond the termination boundary, and since then, I've been one of the pests that won't go away. That CAN'T go away... Because I have no where to go.

******

A tall prim woman opens the door opposite me holding it open with her heel while she looks down at her clipboard.

"X-4-E-L-Y-5-1-A?" She says, her voice sounding crisp and sharp as it bounces of the white walls. She looks at me expectantly over her red glasses. I nod at her. "Please confirm your date of birth. " she snaps again whilst she ticks off my name with a thick red marker.

"4/ 9 / 2037" I answer back, almost mechanically I'm so used to repeating it.

"That makes you..." I watch her eyebrows furrow as she does the maths in her head, "15?" I nod again. By now I know there's no point trying to be friendly or polite. She doesn't care who I am, she's just doing her job. "Dorm code and generation?" says again, looking down at me.

"Female4, X4" She scribbles it down with her pen, whilst I wait, stating at the pristine floor underneath my bear-feet. The woman pushes her glasses back up her nose. "Satisfied or dissatisfied."

I pause, even though there is only one answer to give. The other answer is dangerous. The other answer is unthinkable. "Satisfied." I reply.

She sniffs before stepping aside and extending her arm through the doorway. "Please come through"

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"Hey Ely, are you going to eat that?" the girl next to me asks, pointing down at the slice of what's supposed to be meat that's lying in front of me on my plate.

"Sure have it." I smile pushing the plate towards her, "have it all, I don't want any."

"You don't want any?!" Lea looks at me in horror, "They'll tell you off! You know that!"

"Yeh I know," I reply, "I still can't stand to think about what's really in what we eat. They can create food out of almost anything now."

"Plus it's just full of flavourings" Kat, the girl next to Lea adds, stirring her cup of sludge. "I mean, this just isn't meant to taste appealing..."

"I think it's nice." Lea said, shrugging her shoulders. Kat just huffed and lifted another spoonful towards her mouth.

"It's fake and gross. That's what it is."

"Z-6-L-E-4-5-8-4 and X-4-K-4-T-7-3-9!" The intercom barks "Stop talking or you will be returned to your dormitaries without any food. Repeat. Stop talking or confinement will be enforced." Lea and Kat look towards the glass window and nod apologetically at the woman in charge of observation, siting safety behind the screen, along with several other overseers. They're safe in there apparently, a totally purified environment where they can observe us without having physical contact.

"Urgh, I hate being called my whole name!" Lea mutters under her breath. "Don't they get that none of us even use them? I hate it, it's so long and pointless."

"None of us like it." I point out, sipping my water.

"Why can't we have normal names like the girls outside." Kat sighs, lifting her spoon of soup and letting it slop back into the bowl.