NaNoWriMo 2014

Chapter Nine

I awoke to the sound of quiet voices out in the hall. I rose from my bed and - still wearing my clothes from the day before - stepped softly to the door so as to hear more clearly. One voice belonged to Amanda and the other to a man whose voice I didn't recognize.

The man was saying, "If you'd just let him see him, I was given orders to deliver the message personally."

"Absolutely not." said Amanda in a sharp voice.

"Please Amanda; I just have to be sure the message gets to him. Judge's orders." countered the stranger.

I opened the door then and stepped out into the hall. "What does the Judge want me to know?" I asked.

"No Bert," warned Amanda, as she saw him look in my direction and open his mouth to speak, "as I told you, I want to be the one to tell him."

"As you wish." said Bert, taking one step back to give me some room to stand with them.

"What is it Amanda?" I asked, directing my question at her now.

She looked at me sadly and said, "Ralim, you're father's been released from his death sentence,"

I gasped, he'd surely be after me for what I said in the court room. But Amanda wasn't finished.

"instead he has a sentence of twenty years in a labor camp, making munitions for our navy." she said.

"But, then he'll get out someday! " I exclaimed, "He get's to live after doing that killing mother, where's the justice in that?" I demanded.

Now Bert spoke, "Believe me, Ralim, this was not what Judge Lerwhite wanted, the fags in the upper government offices made the decision. Evidently they are calling for all free men employed in the military to go to training for fighting so they are calling all convicts to work the labor positions." he explained, "The Judge was firmly against it but he had no choice."

"Won't he come after me the first chance he gets?" I asked in an angry tone, "I mean, I'm the reason they had such a firm prosecution, he called me up there, sure that I would lie for him but what did I do? I told the truth. He will be angry for the rest of his life about that and you can bet that he will come after me." I ranted.

"Hold up kid, don't worry, he'll be watched after he's released to ensure that he's safe for the public. At the first sign of any dangerous behavior we seize him and shuck him back in the factory. He may stay there anyways since he has nowhere else to go, no job, no house, no life left for him. Plus, Chief Sandongsky told me that you were going to be working with him when you turn, you'll learn self defense and fighting there so you should be able to handle yourself by the time he's released." said Bert.

Amanda cut in now, "I'm still not sure how comfortable with him working at the station so young but when you put it that way it's not such a bad idea." she commented.

"Yes Amanda, it'll be perfectly safe and he'll be able to learn how to defend himself in case of trouble." reassured Bert.

I was twelve, Amanda were sitting at the kitchen eating cake while I transferred my old setting to the new, faster chip Amanda gave me. A chip is a small circuit that get's implanted into your cheek. It is for cruising the pages, flash messaging others, talking to others (although very few used it for that anymore), gaming, music, thought processing, hell, it could even show someone else my face as a 3D object to someone else in front of them through their chip without the need for the old, clunky cameras my grandparents grew up using on their forehead straps that you wore like a headband.