13.Thirteen

2. Two

Alex was more underwhelmed when he saw how the kids were fed; All the kids had dog-like bowls and they had to line up and put their bowl underneath a metal tube, what they were fed was a brown glop. "Do you want me to share my bowl with you?", Eleven asked. Alex shook his head, he wasn't hungry, so he went to sit underneath a small dead tree. A deathly pale kid was sitting to his back to Alex, facing the wall. The kid turned around to see who was sitting in his spot and what Alex saw was truly frightening; The kid's eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep, he had scarps as clothes and he looked even more undernourished than the other kids. "What's your name?", Alex asked in a shaky tone. "I'm Thirteen", the boy replied. Twelve came marching over, grabbing Alex by the hand and marching him back to the food line. "What the heck, Twelve!", Alex said. "You don't understand, we don't communicate with Thirteen", Twelve explained. "Why?", Alex asked. "We just don't, okay. We have a complicated society". "Hey, you guys think we're ever gonna get anything different than to this glop?", Eleven said, trying to change the subject. "Tell me why you don't talk to Thirteen?", Alex asked. The whole food line turned around to Alex, Eleven and Twelve, murmuring and whispering. "Thirteen is an outcast", someone said. "That boy is starving to death and no one will help him!", Alex shouted. "Thirteen has sat under that tree ever since the arena was built", someone else said. "Alex, the reason we don't interact with Thirteen is that he is sick, okay? Now drop the subject please", Twelve pleaded. Alex dropped the subject and the food line continued with it's routine; higher numbers at the front who got the best food, the lower numbers got glop and the very low numbers got nothing. They ate scraps left by other kids. "You're lucky your with us", Eleven said. "Otherwise you would have got scraps like the rest of the lower kids". Alex was beginning to see how cruel the kid's made up society was. The black sun was beginning to set behind the grey clouds and that meant bed. Alex walked back with Twelve, he saw Thirteen get beat up by some guards by not getting to bed. How cruel was this system? Alex had only hit the tip of the ice burg with that question.