Termination

Alexia was sitting in her mandatory language class daydreaming. Daydreaming against the rules. Zoned out. You see, in the new society, that was banned. They were now banning kids as well as adults from dreaming anything too creative. It kept us safe they said. Well, at least the new "Superior" (leader of central Earth) Henry Calder said, so everyone believed it. You see, people had become so robotic by now(2105); they just did what was told. We weren't aloud to think for ourselves. The answers were given to us. Yes, we still had homework. It was copying what they had given us. At least two hours every night. "To keep us from dreaming." They said. If we dreamed, we would get ideas of our own. Ideas of our own would lead to trouble. Trouble led to termination. Termination. Termination. Termination. We have had that pounded into our heads since third year of living. Termination meant, taken from your families, shamed in front of the colony. Your family moved to another colony. But you. You. were. Killed. Killed for dreaming, or talking back, or singing non approved songs, or even drawing. Everything that would let us dream or be creative, was banned. Termination. Termination. Termination.

So, Alexia was dreaming. She had learned not to get caught. You zone out. Eyes open, barley blinking, only when you need to. Just to make it look like you care about the kind of thing you were copying. She was thinking about the trail through the woods. Her family, like every other family, had at least and one acer of land. Hers were woods. The woods had three different streams that ran through it. One was always warm. The other was always cold. And one was just a trickle of water. It never froze and never dried up. It was just there, that small little creek. After all of her mandatory classes, they were aloud to take one restricted class. Nothing was free choice. We got to take either advanced literature, advanced language, or animal care. She took animal care. The teacher was her neighbor. Mr. Jalkerf. He was a laid back man. We never had to copy for him. All we had to do was listen to him. He gave us tips on how to communicate with our "pets" each child in Central Earth was given at least one "pet". The "pets" were creatures of all kinds. Some kids had birds, fish, dogs, cats, rats, lizards, snakes, tiger, or zebras. Alexia, had a barn owl, and a horse. Mazy, her grew Arabian, came with her family. Mazy had been born on the same day as Alexia. They grew up together. By the time Alexia was walking, she was riding Mazy. Her family had an entire third of a acre just for Mazy. Her pen and stall were in there. Tack and feed were in the small barn on the left of the house. The house alone took up a third of a acre. They had three. Mazy, and Alexia had a "connection". The former United States got the title of Central Earth when they made this scientific discovery. If you wore a small earpiece you could fully understand animals. Sadly only about 100 could be made and that's how many colonies there were so each colony had one Main Pet Translator. So now you have to have some sort of connection with an animal because that opened up a whole new world of technology and we all wear a small leather bracelet with a communicator strip inside. That strip allows us to understand animals we have a mental bond with. Her owl, Ceaser, was a white, gray, and brown, barn owl. They are silent fliers. They met when Alexia was riding in the woods with Mazy one summer when they were five and saw the poor thing trapped in a bramble bush. Bleeding and hurt, they took Ceaser to Alexia's neighbor Mr. Jalkerf. They had a mental connection ever since.

On that particular day Mr. Jalkerf was going on about how important animals were. About how much we have changed since we made the technological break through. "So, as you can see, Sargent here is old and defe but he can understand me through telepathy." Mr. Jalkerf was saying. He told us this thousands of times. You never knew about that man. The only people in Alexia's class were her, and her best friend (as well has just about her only) Chloe. Chloe was shorter than Alexia and was also a secret dreamer. They had made up stories together as children. They kept each other secrets because they understood each other. Chloe was blond and blue eyed. She had is sweet look like you could always trust her, a teachers pet of sorts. But Alexia knew they real Chloe. Cunning and sly, Chloe was always finding a way to get out of different situations. She could hack a computer in twenty seconds. Flat. She could talk a teacher into anything, and not get into trouble for talking. She was shy but only to new people she didn't know because she had figured out at a young age that adults tell more to shy kids. Suckers.