SEVENTEEN years to Live

18 ●○► THE DEPTON CITY EXECUTION BUILDING

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

●○► THE DEPTON CITY EXECUTION BUILDING

As we begin to take the road, terror builds up in my chest. The Depton City Execution Building doesn’t scare me that much. It just reminds me of Beth, whose fate makes me more terrified than ever.

I lean back on my seat, watching the buildings we pass by outside the window. I don’t know how far we’ve gone but we’re driving for more than thirty minutes already. I wonder where the Building is. It must be in the center of the city, I think.

“How much farther?” asks Janine at the back.

“Not that far anymore,” Bryan replies. “We should be there in ten minutes if there is no traffic in there.”

“Why?” I say. “Are there too many people going in there to claim their deaths?”

“Actually, most people that go in there are middle aged and elderly,” he says. “The years of every person here is between thirty and eighty-five.”

My eyes get wide. “Wow,” I mutter. “That’s pretty long.”

“It is, yeah.” He pauses and takes a long breath. “But it’s unfair for the other people living outside the city. They can only live for a minimum of five years.” He shakes his head. “You know, I always want to save even just one life. But I couldn’t do it. The rules are very strict. I can die if they catch me.”

“You’re the son of the mayor,” I remind him. “You can tell your father to stop the guards from killing you.”

“Mary.” He says my name calmly. “There is no exemption. They’ll kill me even if I have a surname. Even if my father begs them not to do it. No one can escape.”

For a second, I glance away from him and get quiet, gathering my thoughts. There really is no safe person in Depton Republic. Everybody has to die. We all have to be killed by the guards whether we like it or not. We will be killed whether we committed crimes or accused. We will be killed on the day that we were born. The thought sends shivers down my spine.

I glance back at him and ask, “Do you know any person like you who got killed by committing crimes?”

He takes a long breath. “I know just one,” he answers.

“Who?

He sucks in another breath, longer this time. “Patrick’s mom.”

For a moment, Patrick occurs in my mind. I see him at the corner of my head smiling, happy, while playing soccer with the boys. He seems to be an enthusiastic guy, but deep inside he grieves for the loss of his mother. I thought there is nothing about him. I cannot know because all that was on his face the last time I saw him was smiles—nothing else. But now I know.

“You mean Patrick Castillo?” Janine says, appearing between us.

Bryan nods his head in reply.

“Why did they kill his mother?” I inquire.

“It was because the guards thought she aborted her child,” he starts explains. But before he speaks again, I ask:

“Abortion is a crime in Depton?”

He simply nods his head. The look on his face changes; it becomes blank, unreadable.

“Why did the guards let her explain what happened?” My tone turns angry now. I am so enraged by the way the guards just seize innocent people and kill them.

“She can’t explain what happened,” he says. “No one can explain what happens when you are accused. As long as the guards have at least one proof about your accusation, you’re dead.”