"Matthew, Matthew wake up," the voice was urgent and Matthew's eyes flew open and he sat up in his bed.
"What is it?" Matthew asked, "what's wrong?"
"It's the searches."
Matthew was up out of bed in a matter of seconds, panic eating at his stomach, "are we hiding this time?"
"Yes, so you must be very quiet," Matthew nodded as he gazed at his father, Matthew put a finger to his lips. "Yes very good Matthew, quiet, now follow me." Matthew was led out of his little three room house to the back street that hardly anyone walked down. They made it out just in time as the sound of tires squealing on the cracked pavement and men climbing from the cars resonated around them. Matthew's father led Matthew into the wooded area that bordered the road, there they sat waiting for the search to be over. Matthew could see the people inside his house, going through his things.
"You don't have anything to hide do you?" Matthew whispered to his father.
"Of course not Matthew," but Matthew saw the fear in his father's eyes.
"If there's nothing to hide then why are we hiding?" Matthew asked.
"You're too young to understand, one day when you're older I'll tell you but for now be quiet Matthew and trust me."
"Okay," Matthew whispered but the nagging sense of fear for his father never left Matthew from that day forward.
****
"Have you seen the new city that they're making?"
Matthew turned his head to the girl sitting next to him, "no, I didn't even know they were making a new city."
"Well the President says that one lucky town will get to move into the new buildings he's making, my Mom thinks it will be us since we've been around the longest and I hope she's right."
"How do you know about this?" Matthew asked.
"Oh, we're one of the lucky families to have a television," the girl replied. "I'm Alicia by the way."
"I'm Matthew."
"Well nice to meet you Matthew, how old are you? I'm only twelve but my Mom says I'm mature for my age."
"Thirteen," Matthew found himself replying.
"Well that's nice. So, Matthew, what do you do around here to pass the days? I only have to go do some errands for my Mom once and a while, that's my only job, and my Dad works security around the town so I never see him, he comes home at least twice a month, my Mom worries that one day he won't come home at all, but anyway enough about me, what about you and your family."
"My Mom's dead," Matthew stated blandly and a little too harshly since Alicia flinched.
"I'm sorry," she said before Matthew could apologize.
"I didn't know her, its fine."
"How did she die?" Alicia asked.
"Like I said I was young, I think the plague probably but I don't know."
"Well that's awful, is your Dad still alive?"
"Yeah, he works at the local shop, we don't make that much money but it keeps us going I guess, my Dad says once I'm fifteen I should start looking for a job, he keeps telling me that he won't be around forever."
Alicia pondered Matthew words for a moment, "well he is right, our parents won't be around for too much longer and neither will we."
"I just wish there weren't so many rules about how I'm supposed to live," Matthew grumbled.
