Across Nature's Circle

7: Zyra

No one knew what to do. Each death in Clada was planned out very carefully. If a citizen wants to die before the day after their 100th Day of Birth, which is standard procedure, then the citizen puts in a Request of Death and Government either accepted or denied it. If accepted, then you proceed to make arrangements for your family and your funeral. Then, the day before you are scheduled to die, you go to Government, they take your chip out, and inject you with a disease to kill you. No one died spontaneously or without explanation. The chip should've prevented this from happening. It should have. . .

"Zyra," Tad whispered and gestured for me to stand up. I pushed the thought away temporarily and got up to do the Blood to Ashes part of the ceremony where the spouse and two children of the deceased cut open their hands and dripped their blood onto the ashes of the deceased.

"Pace," I said, running up to him after the ceremony was over. I got the idea in the middle of it and was itching to tell Pace about what I. When I came upon it, I wasn't sure if I should be happy I figured it out, or mad because the government lied to us.

"Are you okay?" he asked and enveloped me in a hug before I had time to answer.

"I'm fine," I said, shaking him off. "More than, actually. I figured it out." My smile was so huge that people gave me looks like I was some sort of monster for not being in pieces like my brother and Patra.

"Figured what out?" he asked perplexed.

"Matra's chip didn't fail like the government said it did."

"Zyra, Government doesn't make mistakes."

"They didn't. They did this on purpose."

"Did what on purpose?" He was playing dumb because he didn't believe that the government could lie to us.

"They killed her," I said, surprised that it came out more excited than I meant it to.

"Keep your voice down!" he said and dragged me around the corner of a nearby building. "Now, in full and complete sentences, tell me what is going on with you." I rolled my eyes, but did as he told me.

"The government didn't like us doubting them, so they used Matra's chip and killed her with it. The first head pain she had was probably some sort of warning, but it only made me dig deeper. That is what got her killed."

"Don't feel bad about it," Pace said, patting my arm and I had a sudden urge to punch him in the face.

"You aren't listening! The government is using our chips to spy on us, read our thoughts, keep us in their control, and to kill us. We have to cut them out."

"Why wou-" Pace started to say, but then yelled out in pain and started holding his head.

"I'm sorry," I shouted over his yells and grabbed the knife I kept from the Blood to Ashes ceremony. Just as I got my fingers wrapped around it, my head felt like it was on fire. The government was attacking us both. If I don't get these out, we will die.

I cut mine out first so that I would have a clear head when I dug into Pace's arm with a dagger. As soon as the little thing popped out of my left arm, I felt so much better. However, I didn't have time to think about this, as Pace was probably almost dead.

"Hold on," I uselessly whispered to him and held his left arm down. His screams got so much louder when I dug into his arm, but they too stopped when his chip landed on the ground between us. I gave into my pain and collapsed next to him.

"Damn!" he shouted from his position on the ground. He hugged his arm to his chest and that was when I remembered that we were both bleeding out.

I cut a thick bit of fabric from my shirt and wrapped it around my arm first, and then cut another equal size portion from my shirt and wrapped it around Pace's arm.

"Okay. I believe you," he said after a few minutes of letting both of our pain subside.

"Finally."

"That being said. We need to get out of here. Now," he said and winced as he pushed himself from the ground.

"Why?" I asked, fairly certain the government caused me some brain damage.

"Because the government will really be after us now that we cut out our chips, and we won't want to stay in the place that they have marked as our last known location."

"Good point," I said and got up. My body screamed from pain, but I went anyway.

"Ready?" he asked, clearly with the intention that we will run as far away from here as possible.

"Nope," I said. He smiled and we both started to sprint.

{Unknown}

"They have cut their chips out," he said, wishing that he wasn't the one saying those words.

"Shit!" the commander shouted. "Follow them!" he yelled.

"Sir, they would have moved by now," he said.

"I don't care! Follow them!" the commander shouted again, and several soldiers sprinted to teleporters to hunt down the teenage fugitives.

"Sir," a woman said. "The Founders wish to speak with you." The commander let out a string of inaudible curse words before walking up to meet with the scariest people in all of Clada, hell, in all of the world.