The Divided

Chapter 3

I can feel the temperature of the house rising slowly. My doorknob is ice cold to the touch, it takes too much effort to push my door open. So much that I had Ricy do it. The camera follows us through the doorway. Whatever we do will be recorded for my parents to watch later. There has to be another way. I turn to Ricy.

"Stand over there." I mouth silently while pointing across the room by my window. It traces the room with him, ignoring me. I take of strip of tape from my backpack and put it over the microphone. At least it will muffle our voices, and covering the lens would cause suspicion. Ricy stands there in confusion. "Well do you want to get turned in?" He shakes his head.  I go down to my knees and reach under my bed. My hand finds my laptop. The outside of it is blanketed with dust. I wipe it off with my sleeve and my nose begins to itch. Ricy has now taken a seat at the foot of my bed and laid his homework out across the sheets. School ended yesterday, but hey like my parents will even notice. I give him a puzzled look.

"Shouldn't we at least make it look like we are doing work?" He bites the end of his pencil as if he were thinking about a tough question.

"Good idea." I poke his notes, pretending to point out an answer and he nods and circles the words. It turn to my screen, it is decorated with bright silver and white icons. I found this thing called "Google" a while ago. I was a search engine used by people in the old days. Supposedly, it knows everything. The keys are dusty and click loudly. I enter "Aestate" in the box. In less than a second a page of endless information appears. I click on a set a blue words linked to "Wikipedia".

"What is that?" His face shows confusion and curiosity, his eyes darating across the screen.

"Neat, huh? The people of the old days aren't as stupid as they say." I smirk a little. "This is so illegal." I laugh. I shouldn't be laughing, this is grounds for excecution.

"You bet." He stares at me. "Here, I'll read it." I place the laptop on his lap and lean towards the screen, 1 foot away. "Aestate, also meaning summer, pre war. A time of the year where the tempurature is over 70 degrees Farinheit. After the Division it was named Aestate (Latin) and declared 1 of the 4 sectors, see Ciembre, Veris, Tempore." He pauses and looks to me like he is afraid. That is a lot to take in. "People in 'Summer' genrally have tan skin, blond hair, fit bodies, and are uncharacteristically tall." His body goes tense.

"Click that." I point to the 'show images' icon. The screen fills with photos. It looks like mostly people our age. All tan and photos have both boys and girls intermixed. Boys arms slung over girls shoulders, laughter, girls in skimpy two pieces, kissing, it all seems unreal that a world like that exists. I quickly snatch the computer from Ricy and type in Braxton Hues, hoping I spelled it right. A page comes up with information about him and Aestate Highschool. He is currently reported missing. "I knew he wasn't from here." I shove the computer of my lap and onto my pillow. I stand up abruptly and begin pacing the room.

"Are you worried about Bronte?" That hadn't even crossed my mind. Who knows what he has told her...or not told her. I sigh and lay on my back at the foot of the bed. He sits beside me scrawling notes about beach boy in a notebook.

"How could I not be?" I shake my head and gaze at the ceiling. It is while and the light attatched to it still flickers every couple seconds. "It isn't illegal where he is from. He doesn't know the rules." I run my fingers through my hair and sit up. Ricy bites on his pencil, his eyes still looking at Braxton on the screen. "This is ridiculous. Out of all people in Ciembre she had to run into him." I rest my chin in my palms and frown. "What do we do?" I look up at him. He is taller than me even when he is sitting down.

He shrugs. "Well, there really isn't anything we can do." His eyes look shallow and dead. "I guess we could just not let them be alone, maybe." He shakes his head. "We only have three months give or take." He is right. Our birthdays are getting close, the thought is frightening.