Short Stories!

The Vagues

Riots have begun all around our city, each one worse than the last. People get killed, shot at, murdered, all by those who live in the same town. Even people from the Only Other town come over to participate, and all because of these stupid tattoos. These tattoo's label us from birth as to what profession or job we will do when you get older. This tattoo is usually on your left wrist, but some people have it in all different places. I heard of one boy from the Only Other town had his profession labeled across his forehead for all to see. We are all told not to show other people our tattoos until we trust them, which is unfortunate for the boy, for fear they could be spies. I always wondered who would spy on us if there is only this town and the Only Other town. Our president, Mrs. Ember Valor, has told us repeatedly that there is nothing beyond the forest surrounding us and we all listen. If we don't, we get hunted down and killed by the border division of the government. The only reason we go beyond the forest is to visit the Only Other town, which is only on rare occasions. It's not like we want to leave though, we have everything we need in our town of Yaz. Everything from bakeries to shopping marts, we have it all! So every day we stay the same and never leave the town. The riots kill lots of our people who are fighting against their people, just because of their professions. Most of the time you get a solid profession, like bread maker or airforce pilot, but some people get vague professions such as artist or government worker. These people are quite obviously called Vagues and many people think they are unfair. They think it's unfair because these Vagues get to pick what they want to be, within their profession tattoo of course. So people are dying and crying because they think it's unfair. Some of them are even making false claims that the Vagues parents paid for them to have their tattoo's like that, but no one knows for sure. I am not supposed to really be thinking about politics and riots right now, I am supposed to be studying. My profession is social studies teacher, so they trained me from birth all about mythology and our city's past. It was sort of fun learning about mythology, but our cities past is just plain boring. It's all this stuff about them settling here in 3016 and starting to build a colony, blah blah blah, I rather learn about Valkyries and goddesses then how our country was founded. But I can't and I have to study it so I can become the best of my profession! That's really the only thing anyone wants in Yaz, to be the best. Like everyone else, I have to strive for perfection or I will be taken out of school and forced to work in the fields for three days. Right now I am sitting next to my best friend, Seamus, who still won't tell me his profession. He promises me it's not because he doesn't trust me, it's just somewhere he doesn't want me to see. We are sitting on my porch while listening to music on the radio. We are talking and laughing our heads off over the tiniest things, like usual. I knew everything about him but his profession, like his favorite color is pink, his favorite game is basketball, and most importantly, he loves to spend time with his friends. As we were talking,  I began to hear a commotion coming from down the street. I didn't really know if I was truly hearing it, so I turned down the volume of the radio.

"Do you hear that?" I asked him and got off of our porch swing.

"Yeah," He said and stood up next to me. 

I peered off my porch and over the long set of stacked houses. All the houses in Yaz were not normal, to say the least. They were built on top of one another, using force fields and magnetic pulls to keep it upright. The only way to get to a house that wasn't on the bottom was elevator the stretched all the way to the top house. I looked around for what could be making a commotion and spotted it in the middle of the street below. I know what your thinking, this is the future, where is all the hovercrafts and hovercars? My answer, with the rich and the government. The best builders take over a year just to build one of them, plus it costing a lot of money to build, making the whole thing worth a lot of money. We still have streets because people still use cars, buses, and other forms of public transportation. On the street was a bunch of people in the way of a bunch of cars trying to make their way down the road. The people blocking the cars were shouting and yelling while holding up signs in their hands. The people in the cars only looked partially annoyed, these riots go on all the time, and this one didn't seem violent. All the protesters were probably Vagues which was cool because I have never seen one before. In Yaz, you really only see the people in the same profession as you and in the same neighborhood, so this was definitely a surprise. Seamus looked more curious than surprised and headed towards the elevator. 

"Come on!" He said and gestured for me to follow him, "Let's see this up close!"

Even though it was a stupid idea, I reluctantly went. I went because if he went alone, something bad could happen to him and I wouldn't be there to stop it.  I got in the elevator with him and we went down to ground level. Looking back at this, I should have known this was a super bad idea. More than just plain bad, worse than that, awful even. So when the elevator opened and we stepped out, five things happened at one. Police came running in from behind the cars, shooting their guns at the protesters. The protesters hid behind their signs and shot at the police. The glass on someone's car window shattered and of course, they started to ramble and complain. Everyone in their cars got out and started to run away from the scene all while bullets zoomed past them. The last thing that happened was that Seamus grabbed me and forced me to the ground so we wouldn't be in the line of fire. I couldn't believe that this was happening to me at the time and my heart rate increased by the second. I closed my eyes and listened to the gunfire as people shot round after round. Then someone lifted me off the ground and ran me away from the commotion. This person had dark skin, dreadlocks, and designer clothing. They carried my to the porch of one of my friend's house and sat down next to me.

"I am DD okay? I need you to trust me or you are not going to make it out of here alive! Do you trust me?" He asked.

I nodded my head, agreeing to the worst decision I ever made.