Her

Chapter three: Breeder (Edited)

Chapter three: Breeder

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and walk slowly to sit with the other Breeders behind the City Leaders. The Breeders applaud from behind them as I go and take my seat. But when I am sitting with them I notice the other fellow Breeders are all frailer then I am, so when I stand amongst them I look the strongest, probably because I have never known a day of work... until now. Another shot of fear shoots through me.

When the last one in my year group gets her career assigned to her – gardener – it is time to leave. We are one of the last careers to exit the Main Hall. I make my way down the stairs amongst our seats with the other Breeders and past our City Leaders who watch us from their table on stage as we leave. I look at all the other girls who were also assigned Breeders from my year group, but I don't know any of them very well. I know their names and their faces, but I don't know them and for the first time in my life I feel alone. I had never really thought about what career I wanted to be assigned and so I never really thought about any of them until now that I was assigned one. 

Breeder – the breeders of the next generation.

The crowd of Breeders lead the new graduates out of the Main Hall and down the stairs. This would be my last time using these stairs. Then all the new graduate Breeders start running and the other Breeders run with them, seeming to get new found energy from the new arrivals. I hear whoops and shouts and laughter all around me and dozens of thundering feet moving at different rhythms. Yet, none of us have any idea what we're running towards, only what we're running away from. "We're finally getting out of here!" I hear one of them shout. But I just keep running and so does everyone else. I am breathless when we reach the ground floor, and the Breeders burst through The Institutions front door out onto the city street. Isn't it funny that freedom had always simply been through one door... it always seemed to much further way in my mind.

Outside, the city is bustling with activity and movement with cars streaming past and buildings towering over our heads. We had never seen our city, only learned about it and now to be outside; amongst it all makes this feeling of pride rush through me. The Breeders begin walking across the street, up the sidewalk and all the new graduates walk quickly in anticipation with them. My eyes dart in every direction, taking every light, colour and sound. Outside The Institution people flood the streets in all different shapes, builds and colours. They bustle around with purpose in their stride, tackling errands and tasks their career has assigned for the day. Inside The Institution, we were always in a building, but out here we can see the sky and feel the air on our skin and taste the essence of freedom in the air. All the new graduates are walking quickly, with excitement in every step as we follow the other Breeders through our city's streets. I follow the Breeders down another flight of stairs from the city's footpath down into a tunnel underneath our City's street and hear a new sound; a mode of transportation I remember being taught as a train coming up to what I was taught was called a platform.

The train stops beside the platform and the Breeders pile into it and I and all the other new graduates pile in behind them. The doors of the train close quickly behind us and then the train is moving again. The Breeders sit down on seats within the carriages of the train. I and the other graduates follow their movements. "It's all quite overwhelming isn't it?" a girl, who is not a new graduate, asks me breathlessly. Her stomach is like a large hump on her frame. She has olive skin with short brown hair. I nod. "I'm Dianne," she says, offering me her hand.

I take her hand and shake it with a smile. "Leah," I say.

"Were you excited to be assigned as a Breeder?" she asks as the train moves through the dark tunnel. The only lights now are the ones, which light up the inside of the carriage.