Safe Under 18

Chapter 1

The buzzer in my ear goes off, signaling my half hour for lunch is over. Luckily, I'd finished my Lima beans and fish before my tray disappeared below the metal table along with the other 17 year olds that were assigned lunch at 1:45.

But for the kids that aren't such fast eaters, their lunch disappears. Finished or not. Another ding in my ear tells me that I'm dismissed. I stand and leave the cafeteria, the only place where all boys and girls of all different ages meet. Of course they were careful to put us in different sections, but still.

For example, I am in section G17-3. That stands for the 3rd group of 17 year old girls. There are 5 groups of each. So you can only imagine how big the cafeteria is. I make my way into the court yard and scan the crowd looking for Carmen.

She's the closest thing I have to a little sister. She's a little 10 year old with blue eyes and short brown hair. I met her when she was just 3 years old. I love her as much as I would my own sister. But of course having a sibling in this establishment is next to impossible, due to the fact that our parents are killed the day we are born.

I wish I could say I wish I had parents. But I can't. I've never had the experience of having parents. The closest I've come so far is Ms. Hillary. But she gets paid to take care of me, my best friend Fasha Zelds,  and 18 other seventeen year old girls. Even though she's extremely protective of us and we all look up to her it's not the same.

Finally, I spot Carmen's brown bobbed head. "Carmen!" I shout, hoping she'll hear me over the noise of the hour we're given after lunch to mingle and socialize. Her blue eyes meet mine and her face breaks into toothy grin. I feel a smile stretch across my own face as I push my way through the crowd. When I finally reach her she practically jumps into my arms and giggles.

"Hey kiddo!" I laugh setting her down on her feet. "What's knew with you? Considering I haven't seen you since yesterday." I tap her on the nose and smile wider. 'Well, Ms. Mel started talking about how we shouldn't get sad that we will never know our parents and how we should embrace society. Not turn away from it like the Rebels do."

That's the thing about society these days. It's all about the kids. From birth to the day you turn eighteen your practically pampered. But as soon as you turn eighteen your kicked out of the Compound and thrown into the world. Then on your 21st birthday your matched with a person you may or may not know, and forced to marry them. Within the first year your expected to have a child. If you or your partner aren't pregnant by then your hung. But, even if you are the day your child is born your given 10 minutes to sign a birth certificate and say hello and goodbye to your baby then are injected with poison so in minutes your dead.

But, of course there is an alternative option. You can choose to become a Compound employee. Only one in ten people are even considered to become one of these people. Only one in five people are actually chosen. Here's the catch: You are forbidden to marry and if they find out you broke this rule they cut out your tongue, and you are forced to become a food server or a maid or something. So really your better off just dying.

Then the double doors swing open and five or six Compound guards walk in. In a perfect line they march to the center of the room and come to a halt. They then turn and one of them says "we now present new comer Cole Summers." That's odd we never get new comers.