Uncoded

Chapter 1: Lidia

The mere thought of what had to be done made my hands quiver with dread.

It wasn't my first time killing an animal but I still could never get used to the sicking thud as the sliver of my blade lodged itself inside the animals chest, seizing its random spasms. I lost myself in thought staring at the dagger as I remembered the first time I hunted with Derek.

"It should slow here,"

he whispered, his hot breathing tickling my ear as he stood behind me, as we watched the deer graze

"then you walk behind it, wrap your arms around its neck, and snap."

I remembered hesitating

"I-I'm not sure, it's... So..."

Derek finished my sentence as he stared softly at me,

"Innocent."

We paused for a second as we stared at each other before he seemed to regain his senses and immediately put up that friendly wall that always stood between us,

"It's hard, I get it Lidia, but your uncoded, self preservation is something that comes along with the name. Won't Jamie enjoy a fresh meal for once? Not one that's half stale and rotting."

With this thought I pushed my fears reluctantly to the side as I took a breath, readying myself for the task ahead, my hands must have been showing my nerves as they visible shook. Noticing this Derek grabbed my hand pulling me back before I could walk towards the doe, he appeared torn about his next action before pulling me close and slowly whispering in my ear again

"If it makes you feel better, you can say something like this..."

"I'm sorry that your life had to end like this, I can only pray now that you are in a place better then this. A place where you can feel no pain and cry no tears. Just know that your life served a bigger purpose, one that thanks you even now."

I breathed in the fresh scent of upturned dirt and blood lingering in the air as I pulled out my dagger by the hilt , quickly wiped the blood trickling off it on the edge of my boot, staining the black leather a crimson red. As it glittered once more I shoved the dagger into the hole inside the material of my boot reserved for it. Standing up, I used my somewhat dirt covered hands to quickly wipe the tears starting to appear in my eyes before they threatened to fall. Calming down I began to realise the magnitude of what I had hunted, deers were becoming a rarity in the outer rim with more and more coded begging to drop out of the system. The last one I found was the day I taught Jamie how to shoot with a bow. He ended up missing the doe but it was worth seeing his little green eyes light up as the arrow proceeded to hit a bush that startled the doe away.

Steering away from my train of thought, I quickly calculated how long the doe would last us with strict rations; 3 maybe even four months. Thinking of my little brothers face in joy as he would finally get to add a few measly pounds to his skeleton of a body gave me plenty of strength as I bent over and tried to balance the weight on my shoulder. Though I had little to no meals in the last week, the hunting and intense drills that Derek had forced me to do every dusk had strengthened my muscles even though they hardly appeared there. However my brittle shoulders still cracked audibly as I evenly distributed the dead weight between them. I groaned loudly as the limpness of the dear caused the head to hang next to mine as its tongue hung out at an ungodly length. Beginning my trek with my new found bounty I headed north towards what many called 'The Gate'.

The Gate was a 50 meter plain and bleak opening in a stone wall that encompassed the city, which only security lied between solid metal bars that ran vertically and curved halfway down to form a ornate door and lock connected by swirling patterns. As well as that there were 20 guards positioned at different angles, like Hawks eyes scanning the perimeter throughout the day and night. Inside The Gate lied the outer slums of Redhall, my Glorious home, known for its abundance of rats, starvation and uncoded that were popularly hated by all those that lived in the Capitol. In Redhall you were uncoded or coded. Coded meant being captive to the machines that had taken over our city centuries ago once the blood war ended, they were given shelter, jobs, and rations but also a 4 digit number on their wrist that glowed a bioloscett green at all times alerting the machines to their every movement . To be uncoded though meant no privileges, weeks upon weeks of starvation and running from Capitol guards doing the inspections in your suburb, it did however allow you to be free, to not be in their systems, to be free of restrictions in your life.