The charm of the alarm sounds. I roll over and see the sun rising. I see the pollution sitting in the sky, like dead weight to the Earth. I sit up and turn the alarm off. I lie back down right as my mother walks in the door.
"Danni!? What are you doing?!" She says to me with a look of horror on her face.
"Laying here." I say.
"Well, you know what today is - I need you to get up!"
I did know, and yet I still said, "What day is it?" Daring for her to say it.
She looks at me with sadness. "Please just get up." Is all she says before walking from my tiny room.
I stay under the doona praying for sleep to get the better of me, but I'm wide awake. Not that I'm surprised. It's logging day. I finally let my feet drop to the cold floor and find a grey T-shirt, and some jeans to wear before walking to the kitchen. My mother says nothing about this mornings interaction, but avoids eye contact. I find the stock standard cereal mush in the fridge and sit down to eat it. My father has the same disgusting concoction in front of him, but he looks too sick to eat it.
I take about three bites before giving up and saying goodbye to my parents and heading out the door. I walk to the lift, press the 'up' button and take a step back to wait. The doors open to Ariana and Jacob. I know them from school, and we always take the lift together since they only live a couple floors beneath me, so I guess we kind of classify as friends. I nod to them and step in. We are all going to the same floor; number 245. It's where we always meet if there is an announcement to be made or other important events.
"Where's Lily?" Ariana asks me.
Lily is on the same floor as me so I'm surprised that I didn't realise the loss of her cheerful presence. "Um," I look around as if she is just going to appear. "I don't know."
Nobody says anything else because we all know that if you don't show to logging day then you are executed on the spot.
"She's probably just taking the next lift." Jacob says cooly.
He's always been the most calm out of our class. Probably because he has two other brothers who are older and have made it through 16. I'm guessing he expects the same for himself. The lift stops, but not on our floor. The doors open to Chloe. She's always been very quiet, kept to herself. She walks in with her head down. The doors close once more and we all stay silent.
When the doors open again we all step out. We look around confused - The entire events room is empty. A tall, buff, man steps over to us. Security guard. He is wearing a black suit and an ear piece. It's their uniform to signify the fact that they have control over us. They patrol the halls and occasionally will do another thing of some importance. So we don't even think twice when he tells us to follow him.
We walk down a hall that I never knew existed with multiple doors that appear to be locked. We walk only half way down where he stops and pushes his thumb to a scanner. We all wait a second and then the light goes green. I hear the lock click, and the door opens. The man takes a step back and motions for us to go in. There's a light murmur of voices when walk in. It's everyone in this building who turns 16 this year. The room is painted entirely white and simple wooden benches fill the room. Most of them are filled with the others, but the four of us manage to find seats.
There is quiet whispering, but not much. At the end of the room there are two doors. One has Female written on it and the other has Male printed across it. A wave of nausea fills my entire body. I lower my head into my knees and breath.
Breath in.
Breath out.
Breath in...
My trance is broken by a speaker that crackles before spitting out a woman's voice, "The loggers of Building 1275 should be in the events room. If you are not, please contact the board or we will... contact you." We all knew what that last bit meant - They would come kill you if you weren't attending the logging. The woman on the speaker finishes with a 'thank you' and then the speaker turns off.
A man dressed in a nurses outfit steps out of the door marked with the male, when he starts speaking he has to shout to reach the people like me, sitting at the back. "Can I please have the following loggers proceed into the door appropriate to to their gender."
