Twelve.

Prologue

I hate it here.

I really do.

Locked up inside these buildings.

Not knowing what's outside the giant locked gates.

Sure, its nice having only 100 people here.

Its not so nice needing to have a codename resembling a number from 1-100.

My codename is Twelve.

I'm 13 years old.

Yeah, confusing.

I know.

I have no idea who my parents are.

No one does.

You are forced to have two kids here.

And as soon as you have them...

Your children take your codenames,

Then you and your partner are killed.

Your parents give you a real name before they die.

But you're not to reveal your identity to anyone.

For safety reasons.

In our government there are 10 people in charge.

Codenames 90-100.

Ninety is in charge of the small things.

Food and clothes.

That sort of stuff.

Then there is NinetyOne, NinetyTwo, NinetyThree and so on.

The higher the number, the more important you are classed.

Ninety being the lowest.

And OneHundred...

The highest.

NinetyNine and OneHundred are the ones most feared here.

OneHundred controls everything from their office.

Nobody knows what OneHundred looks like.

No one has ever seen them.

NinetyNine controls the building.

If she catches you out after curfew...

Or if she catches you stealing extra food...

She beats you.

Publicly.

We all live in dorms of 5 people.

1-5, 6-10, 11-15, and so on.

We are taken care of by the nurses until we are five.

Then we are dumped in a room full of strangers.

The one place I can escape is in a vent that leads from my dorm to the gates.

Which are always locked shut.

Only I know about the vent.

Or at least...I think.