Population Zero

Chapter Two

The first Friday of every month we had our life skills meetings. At those meeting we got grouped together with the teenagers which were ages 13 to 17. After dinner we all congregated outside, at least those of us who were level 4. If you were a level 3 or below you had your meetings separately, indoors with the other lower level kids. I've been a level 4 for as long as I can remember and I figure it's because I'm pretty easy going and I always follow all of the rules. I really don't see how the others have such a hard time with it, the rules are there for our own protection. So this meeting started like most every one I've ever been to. I walked alongside Elijah to the back patio where we met with the others at the round tables under the pavilion. A group of teenagers from the table beside ours bursted into laughter, howling and whistling and making sexual gestures by sticking out their tongues and dry humping each other. I turned to see what the fuss was about and I saw Benjamin walking by, arms linked with a youth officer hanging his head down low with his cheeks flushed bright red. I suspected that he was being busted for the video he played for us last night and we wouldn't be seeing him again any time soon. The youth officers became extremely irritated with the sudden outburst of laugher and began shouting "Quiet! That's enough!" They roared and growled at us until every last boy was still. My heart was pounding in my ears and I had sweat building up on my brow. I thought I was on the verge of a panic attack so I grabbed my milk carton from lunch and slowly drank the rest of it. I started to feel better and slowly caught on that we were being interrogated. At the round tables there must have been at least 25 boys; About 15 of the preadolescent boys and 10 of the teenagers. Eric, the youth officer of the teenagers was clearly very angry, while Dustin, our youth officer had a much more solemn look on his face. It seemed that Benjamin had been up to a lot more than just smuggling pornography into the east wing, but he had a whole operation where he stole tons of videos and traded them with the teenagers in exchange for alcohol and cigarettes and the youth officers were finally cracking down and figuring out what he was up to. Now they are trying to bring down the rest of the criminals and any willing participants. I had no doubt that anyone that got accused was headed for the same fate as Benjamin. Dustin was trying to assure us that if anyone steps forward and gives any useful information that they will be rewarded graciously. Eric has gone the route of threats and was slamming his fist down on the table in a fury. I reached down deep into my pocket and wrapped my fingers around the video I had swiped off Benjamin earlier this morning as sweat began to build up on my forehead again. All the boys were visibly shaken including myself and I really wished I knew what the right thing to do was. Before I could tell myself to stop, I stood up.

"Lucas, do you have something to say?" Dustin stared me down with a "you better have something good here, pal" look on his face.

"Benjamin brought a video in last night and played it for us using this." I set down a portable pocket projector about the size of a small keychain. The youth officers usually use these portable projectors as educational videos during our classes but this one was very different from the ones we were used to. For starters, it was much smaller and much more discrete. It was all black with no markings to indicate what it was but I could tell the youth officers were immediately able to identify it. All the boys started murmuring angrily and I heard Asher shout from two tables away, "What are you doing, you idiot!" Oh crap. I took the video out of pure curiosity and I never intended on bringing it forward but here I stood. Apparently, this was not the right move and I wished I could sit back down and pretend that I never stood up at all. But it was too late. Eric jumped out of his skin nearly tripping and snatched the video off the round table and held it tight in his left hand now closed in a tight fist. He patted me hard on the back of my shoulder.

"Great things are coming for you, boy. What's your name?" He shouted so loud I nearly jumped. Dustin interjected before I could open my mouth.

"That's Lucas. He's my star pupil. If there were a level 5, that boy would be it." A smile creeped across his lips and his eyes seemed to glisten when he looked into mine.