A1

Chapter
One
"DANIEL! WAKE UP!" I hear my Mother's scream and immdiently sit up in my bed. The sound of sirens and things toppling over fill my head. I see Kate across the hallway pulling a jacket over herself. I quickly do the same and run after her, down the stairs, and to the front hallway where mum and dad are waiting for us, a petrified look on both their faces. "COME ON!" mum yells towards us and dad picks up car keys, but I know they're useless. I've heard of these kind of things happening to people. Last year, every 7th grade student in our school disappeared, and only a few came back for eigth grade and beyond. Mum and dad both run towards the garage door, but before they can get there, the giant window next to the front door explodes, and men clad with black leather and guns come in. They immidiently run for me, knocking the wind out of Kate in their haste to get to me. She topples to the ground, and mum and dad run to her. The men run to me, and each one of them grabs a limb. I manage to kick one of the people holding my legs, and scream, "MUM! DAD!" but soon after that, the man I kicked stands up again and has my mouth covered. They start lifting me towards the smashed glass window. "STOP!" both mum and dad yell at the men and start running towards them. "Feeling rebellious?" one of the men say with a smirk and fine to the ground in front of mum and dad. Our immaculate grass explodes in front of mum and dad sending them back. "MUM! DAD! HELP ME!" I yell to them but I don't see them move. Unconscious. Kate looks at me through the smashed window. Her face streaked with tears and dirt. The men through me into a truck, and slam the doors shut. I don't bother protesting. They're not going to listen. I hear a shudder, and feel it too. We start moving, daylight just around the corner. I assume they want to get out of here before anyone, who slept through all that chaotic noise, wakes up. If there is anyone.

We drive for a little longer, for at least a half- hour. In that period of time, I sit in my blank walled cell on the back of a truck. I just think, about my family I may never see again, as with my friends. I think about how much I'm going to hurt those men at my next opportunity. I'm fairly good with one of the spears that our school provides for the kids. That's what happens when you live in the shadow of A1. The capital city of the A- State. The richer of two states. The B- State is mostly the poor. Even the capital of theB- State, B1 is poorer than A20. To put it more plainly, A1 is the richest city in both states. A20 is the poorest of the richest. B1 is the richest of the poor. B20 is the hopelessly poor. As poor as it gets. The poorest of the poor. And then, I hear a noise, and the truck stops. The doors open and a man runs in with a black piece of cloth. He ties it around my head, and my view of where we are going is obscured by darkness. He places a hand on my back and leads me towards... Somewhere. "Where are we going?" I ask, as calmly as I can handle. "That doesn't concern you." He says to me In a grumpy voice. "Well, actually, It does, because this whole, probably illegal procedure was all plotted so you could get me." I earned a punch in the back for that cheek, and that's exactly what the man did to me, while saying "Shut up and walk." At this, he picks me up and throws me into something. I hear a slam, and realise I am free to take off my blindfold. I'm sitting in a cargo train car, red with rust and corigated metal walls. Yippee. Being kidnapped, and getting Tetnus.

"Hello." A voice say from the corner. I turn around, bewildered. I hadn't noticed anyone before. "Hel-Lo?" I say. "What's your name?"
"Lynn." She says. "You are?"
"Daniel. Where did you come from?
"A20" she says. "I assume you are from A15. My captor said that was their next stop. Where you snatched out of the markets as well? Or bed. One of the people I live with was taken from their beds last year." I stay quiet. It amazes me how much she knows. And also that she is A20. The citizens of the farthest city from the capital rarely venture past A17. They are the last Semi-poor city. "How- do you know this?" I ask. "I told you. My captors were saying it when they took me from the truck to the station.
"They didn't blindfold you?"
"No. Did they blindfold you?"
"Yes."
What do they fear in me, that they don"t fear in Lynn? Enough to keep where they were taking me mysterious. Because I'm a boy?
No
Because I killed that man last year.