Firefly

|Ch. 19|

        

I walk down the long corridor behind Mr. Bates heading the opposite way my parents left. I stared at his designer shoes and neatly pressed black tuxedo as he walked with a dignified step. Every step I took drew out the anticipation in my head of what was lying behind the huge rose gold marble doors. Two guards were standing in front of it perfectly still with no emotion splashed across their faces. I watched as their completely white jackets were matched with a combination of a white shirt and pants. The stoically held flashing white guns were firmly gripped in their hands.

Before I knew, Mr. Bates and I had reached the humongous doors as the two guards nodded towards Mr. Bates and opened them. Suddenly, a huge array of light pierced my eyes as thousands of TV screens plastered the room. I saw hundreds of people running around with a frantic look in their eyes. My eyes glanced across the screens as I saw normal people going about their daily business in them.

Before I could get a better look, a tall woman blocked my vision by stepping in front of me. Her long pencil skirt and black blazer were perfectly placed on her with no wrinkle in sight. Her black hair was pulled back into a high bun.

"Maddie, this is Mrs. Collins," Mr. Bates stated nodding towards the woman.

Her hand reached out to shake mine as I could feel her soft hands grip mine harder than normal. I grinned from cheek to cheek trying to conceal a look of awe in my eyes as I tried to look around her to get a better view of the place.

"I am the head over this department, would you like to take a look around?" she asked.

I nodded my head slightly as I followed her down a row of steep stairs leading to the massive room. I followed behind her as we shifted through the hundreds of people staring at the TV's scribbling down notes excessively.

"This is where we keep up with all the soulmates. You know, just to make sure everyone is following regulations and preparing for when they meet "the one," Mrs. Collins mentioned.

I gazed at the monitors situated watching the normal civilians walking around as people ran from one TV to the next to keep up.

"Everyone in this room is designated to a certain person in this region of Virginia with a necklace. They keep tabs of where they are at all times," Mrs. Collins indicated as she pointed to an enormous monitor.

I watched as the blinking color coordinated dots moved around the map.

"Each color represents a person; they match to the designated color of their soulmate to make it easier to track them."

"Track?" I questioned.

How could they possibly track us? It wasn't as if they had implanted something within our brains to constantly watch our every motion. How did they have a location on absolutely everyone?

"The necklace, it tracks your exact location," she mentions as she pulls out her glimmering necklace pointing to it.

How could I have been so oblivious to all this happening? I never imagined someone tracking my every move. I just figured they snapped on those necklaces and let us go on with our lives hoping we would find our soulmate.

"So, that's how we were able to locate you when you took yours off. Everyone in this building almost had a heart attack from the siren that went off with your little dot blinking. I guess you could say that's why we are still in bit of a frenzy."

No kidding. But, if they were tracking me this whole time, why didn't they ever intervene between Alex and I? Didn't they realize what was going on between the two of us?

"So, each person in this facility is assigned a person to keep track of?" I asked.

"Precisely. We are just here to make sure everything runs smoothly."

Well, apparently they were doing a fantastic job until I showed up.

"So, why show me this? What's the point? What are you guys going to do with me?" I probed looking between Mrs. Collins and Mr. Bates.

Both of them pressed their lips together trying to figure out who was going to break the news to me first. I impatiently tapped my fingers on my side trying to calm myself down for what the next words out their mouths were.

"We are going to execute you," Mr. Bates solemnly said.

I stepped back from both of them trying to catch my breath from the words that just came out of Mr. Bates mouth. They were going to kill me? My legs began to quake and I placed my hand on my side to try to calm myself down. They couldn't possibly do that. My parents would never stand for this, they wouldn't let them do this me, right?

"Don't worry. It's not going to happen at this moment. We are waiting for the perfect moment to reflect to the people out there what the consequences will be if they break the rules," Mr. Bates stated.

I blankly stared up at the monitors trying to find the college's security cameras. I scanned through the hundreds of classrooms and hallways searching for Alex. He had to still be out there. My eyes landed on a library camera as I saw him silently sitting by himself at a desk engrossed in a psychology book. He impatiently tapped his fingers on the wooden desk anxiously observing the room.

I ran up to the monitor as the crowd of workers cleared a path for me. I stared at the screen as I watched him pull his long blonde hair into a man bun. My hands grazed the screen as I wanted to desperately be there with him.

"What are you going to do to him?" I asked turning around defiantly facing the two of them.

Several workers were beginning to take notice and began to stare at me.

"Nothing. He will forever remember who you are, that's enough punishment," Mrs. Collins mentioned.

I confusingly looked at them. I shook my head in disbelief trying to conjure up everything they had just told me. How could they believe that this was the correct way to run a society?

"I'm not following."

"When you die, he will remember you. Everyone else in your life will just see you as a normal person, but he will always know you as the first girl he ever loved," Mr. Bates spat.

Now, I really had a reason to wring his neck. How could they do this to us? I was determined with every fiber in my body to ruin their plan. I didn't know how I would, but I was going to see Alex Porter again.

I listened as a silent dinging noise was coming from the tracker. I looked over to see two trackers coming together. Everyone in the room cheered as Mr. Bates and Mrs. Collins smirked from ear to ear. My eyes scanned the tracker to try to locate Alex's soulmate. My eyes caught the one that matched his. My eyes silently searched through the hundreds of TV screens to try to locate her as Mr. Bates and Mrs. Collins were being congratulated by numerous workers.

I located the exact location at a quaint coffee shop near the college and gazed through dozens of people situated in the small location. My eyes caught her necklace dangling from her neck as I gasped. My head began to shake as I tried to focus on her better. This had to be some mistake it couldn't possibly be her.

I slowly turned around as I saw Mr. Bates and Mrs. Collins approaching me. It was as if everything was happening in slow motion. My roommate Sally was Alex's soulmate. This couldn't be happening. I glared at the two of them gripping my hand beside me trying to release the anger that was trapped inside of me. How could Sally be paired with him after everything that's happened? This had to be some kind of confusion mixed between their necklaces or something.

"I think this is enough time in here for now," Mrs. Collins mentioned.

Mr. Bates nodded towards me as two guards grabbed my shoulders pulling me out of the room. I turned around and looked at the two of them. Both of their expressions turned into an immediate frown. I was determined to fight my way out of this to see Alex again, nothing was going to stop me.

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Well I think that I have fully bombarded you guys with enough plot twists this week! Bet you guys didn't see any of that coming! Get prepared for Chapter 20 on Monday! There will be a new character added :)