The Reduction

CHAPTER TWO

JAMES

A boy who is always followed by trouble.

James woke to the sound of the community horn for group gatherings blaring outside his door. He lifted his heavy, aching head and opened his eyes to see it was dark outside. Something was wrong, there were never unscheduled gatherings, especially not at night. Confused and still dazed from a strong bottle of whiskey, he laced on his boots and grabbed his I.D. card out of his safe before walking out into the humid night air.

     As he was locking the door to his flat, he noticed some of the neighbors poked their heads out, cautiously looking to see what was happening. It was obvious everyone was as confused as him.

    As James passed by the other apartment doors he realized that some of them had their safety locks on. Still a little buzzed, he didn't think much of it. He trotted down the stairs, he saw a group of his neighbors walking towards the designated gatherings area.    

   Getting closer, he recognized them as the guys that he drinks with at the bar. James had never seen them outside the bar or even when they are sober, other than a couple times they stopped by the tattoo shop. He only drinks with them because they are too drunk to notice how underage he is. He stealthily makes it around them trying to ignore them. He can still smell the alcohol as he swiftly passes the group.

    James relaxes and lets his guard down until he hears a deep voice yell, "Hey, boy!" He instantly recognizes the voice and his heart drops, making his head pound even more. If these men expose him for drinking with them he could get punished by the community.

    James slowly turns to the group of large, middle age men and gets a huge whiff of what smells like whiskey. His brain automatically starts to crave the drink but James's anxiety soon takes over the thought.

    "I thought I recognized ya. Boys, it's the little man that ditched our drinking shesh early! Guess he couldn't handle it tonight, huh bud?" said the biggest of the group. His name was Danker and he is one of Zara's main body guards. His daughter was Reduced for having brown eyes so he's been against the government since. To deal with the grief, he's become an alcoholic and treats Zara like his prized possession.

    Laughing nervously, James gave a slight smile and a nod making the other guys in the group laugh.

    "I'm going to look for Zara, you guys and little man go see what's up." Danker said slapping James on the back roughly leaving a burning sensation. As Danker walked away, the other boys swarmed around James pushing him toward the gathering check points. James started to look around the night sky and watch the citizens of the community.

    Most of the citizens seemed confused, some were practically sleep walking and the rest seemed very suspicious of the whole situation. As James reached the checkpoint, he definitely knew something was off. No guards were checking I.D.s, they were just letting everyone through. James approached one of the less harmless looking guards and got his attention.

    "Hey what's going on?" James asked. The guard looked at him and shrugged.

    "The Operator rung up our radios and told us to immediately gather everyone here, didn't say why though." James thanked the man even though he was no help and started towards the stage.

    The noise from all the citizens of the community was making James dizzy. There was too much activity for his brain to handle at the moment. His eyes focused on the Operator of the community as he walked to the middle of the small outdoor stage where he made regular announcements.

    The booming crowd then went silent, everyone was eager to hear what this was about. James noticed that Zara wasn't on stage with him like usual. This was a huge red flag. Something was definitely wrong here.

    The Operator looked so nervous that people in the crowd started to get uneasy. The humid air was even thicker with all the people gathered, filled with anticipation. The Operator tapped on the microphone sending the noise vibrations to the other side of the community. He then began speaking.