Abscond: A Dystopian Society

Chapter 9

Well, here we go. There's been a lot of stress for the stories but I'm having sooo much fun, it's sooo worth it! Here we go!

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Chapter 9: Lassie.

Lucas slowly pushes the raft I am sitting on and gently, gradually glides down the hallway, with Stefan trudging water beside me. The CTR, or the Cotton Tree Room is obviously quite important, seeing how it is the next place I am to visit, only after the “Mess Hall”.

The room's entrance is very small, and we have to pass through, one by one, Stefan in the lead and Lucas in the back. As soon as Stefan gets out of the way, I gasp, seeing a magnanimous tree. I stare in awe and look appreciatively at Stefan.

“This is so cool!” I shout with pleasure. Lucas pushes me up close to the tree and I cautiously stand on my raft, attentively balancing my weight so that I would not tip over and fall in the water. Some of the boys are picking the leaves and white fluff, putting it into little, black-colored baskets. Just as the name of the room says, it is a large cotton tree. I slowly reach out and pull out a little wisp of cotton, as soft as rabbit fur and puffy as a white cumulus cloud. I turn to my right and put it in a young boy's basket.

He looks at me timidly and thanks me with a shy whisper. He has peppered, blond hair and looks to be about ten years old. I also notice that he is fully clothed – wearing a shirt, gloves, and khaki-like pants. I reach up to grab another wisp of cotton.

“Don't,” Lucas says. I freeze, my hands wavering over the cotton. I look at him, frowning.

“What?” I ask, irritated. He is not supposed to talk.

“There're nasty thorns. You'll get cut,” he whispers. I gulp. Oh...

“I can take care of myself,” I snap, turning my back to him. I sigh, feeling bad for him. He is not supposed to talk but all he is trying to do is help.

With the clothing issue still on my mind, I turn to ask Stefan about it, seeing how he only wore a raggedy, wet shirt and soaking pants.

"Stefan, why are all these boys fully clothed with clothes that look very nice, unlike you and Lucas, who's shirts are two sizes too small and in rags?" He lazily turns his head to look at me, further turning his whole body, opening his mouth to speak to give me a full explanation.

"Depending on what our job is gives us different benefits. When a new kid comes to Abscond, they are run through a series of tests that the High Council has created over the years so that they can do the job they are best at and given. The others who are here are all Cottoners, those who pick cotton as well as the leaves. They make our clothes using cotton and the leaves can be used for various things, such as crushing them for food, extracting the sap from the leaves to use as glue, etcetera.

Because they do this, they have the benefit of having better clothes than most of us. In my case, I am an Overseer: there are a total of seven Overseers, including me. We just go around and inspect the work of other's. Our benefit is that we are free to roam around the charted parts of Abscond and supervise. Not much dirty work for us. But the con is that there are times when we need to do some jobs that nobody else cant do which can, naturally, be a pain," he mutters looking at me pointedly. I gulp. "Overseers are only second to High Council members, and as you know, Overseers can also be High Council members, such as I."

"What do the High Council members do exactly?" I ask in question.

"High Council members make the laws; basically what we say goes. There are thirteen High Council members and you already met two: me and Jonah. Jonah is Number Five, and I am Number Seven. Therefore, Jonah is higher in power than me, because my number ranking is higher than mine. We, as in the High Council members, don't really have a disadvantage.