The System

Chapter 7

I woke to turbulence, sitting on a silver chair. I am confined between four walls so I must be in a box. I can't be bothered thinking about where I am but all I keep wondering is how the dream felt so real as if I was actually there. Who are the ROBINS and is there a similarity to the RAVEN? I drift off into another sleep.
I sleep until I am woken by a thump to the ground signalling the aeroplane landed. I stretched out my limbs as far as they can go in the box and groan. I am still so tired.
My mind is foggy and I can't quite recall where I am. Oh yeah. I was in the middle of being kidnapped.
Woah!
The box was just lifted up and I think I might be sick. Yuck! I can feel it now. It's hot and hurts my throat. Here it is. Ew. I clutch my stomach and wait for the movement to stop.
Suddenly the box is cracked open. Light seeps threw and all I can see is a silhouette. It is feminine and crooked. It is Mrs Loudmouth.
Every line under her baggy eyes. Every nook in her crooked nose. There she was in the flesh.
"Forget this happened. Never think nor tell," she whispers intensely. "Never act nor move upon and never ever speak nor say about what you've encountered!"
She throws me to the ground as punches my ear.
"Disobey and your regular punishments will seem as painless as a butterfly tickle."
I nodded my head but held my posture. I strong and won't be held down. Then I stiffen as she drags me along the floor to my room. Inside Fake Maddie is making my bed. The quilts are still a luscious gold.
"Hannah!" She squeals. "Where did you go."
I stare at Mrs Loudmouth remembering her words. 'Never ever speak not say about what you've encountered.'
"I received my punishment for being out after curfew. I got what I deserved," I lied because as I said before, lying is my speciality.
I scooted away from Mrs Loudmouth and onto my bed like an ashamed girl who had just receive a beating.
"Oh!" She exclaimed.
Then Mrs Loudmouth slammed the door and I held back tears.
"Hannah?" She whispered. "Are you okay?"
I looked at her long and hard. This girl was not mean Maddie, the Real Maddie. She is the perfect girl and I need a friend. This is when I decided I must get out if there. The falling apart city with wicked punishments and cruel systems. I couldn't leave Fake Maddie here. This is when I confronted her too.
"What is your name?"
She laughed, "Maddie of course."
"Don't try and hide the truth," I muttered kindly. "I know your not Maddie."
She frowned.
"How?"
"Well you are too kind and too friendly, you forgot who Claire was, you sang the anthem which the Real Maddie never did plus, I saw Maddie leave with another identity," I blurted.
Her mouth made the shape of an 'O' and she flew to her bed.
"Fine!" She yelled unlike the normal her. "I am not Maddie. My name is Cassandra and I am seventeen and I switched with your Maddie. I was going to be a model until I was recruited by the ROBINS. I was unwilling to do so, so I left."
Now it was my turn to have my draw dropped as an 'O'. She started silently sobbing into her silver pillow. I plonked myself next to her and comforted her with a rub on the back.
"It's okay," I whispered. "You are safe."
She lifted her head am and pleaded, "Am I? Will you protect me?"
Her eyes were soft and I never thought I would see that look in Maddie's eyes. It made me want to keep her safe.
"Yes," I replied. "What's wrong with the ROBINS?"
She huffed, "They are forceful with methods that can be cruel and anyway..."
The hotel room door swum open. It was Mick.
"Er. Hannah!" He exclaimed.
"What?"
"I didn't know you would be here! I was just... Er... Looking for Maddie," he stumbled.
"Why?" She sniffs, her eyes still puffy.
"You said you would meet me yesterday. Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Cassandra mumbled.
"Maybe later then..."
"No," she mutters. "I'll be outside in a second."
"Er... Okay," he turns and stumbles out like a lost puppy.
I look at her with pity.
"He's a bit thick so you know," I giggle.
"Yeah, but not bad with the looks," she smiles.
I have never really thought Mick that way. It might be because we all know that love is just a fairy tale as we have all been told. Not to mention are partners are already chosen. I guess the spiky messy hair and tan toned facial features aren't that bad. Just like Jason. Why did that make me think of Jason?
"I better go," she mumbles.
"Yeah," a silence echoes between us. "First what were you going to say before Mick got here?"
"Oh. Right. The System seems to be working anyway. Why have a violent rebellion hen you could jut make the most of our lives. Long or short. Happy or sad. Live them to the most," She pauses. "I better go."
I watch her leave through the door that Mick entered with.
I sit down. I realise my head is throbbing because I haven't had my H2O tablet. I pull out a large blue tablet and chew it down. I can taste the sweet minerals and feel the smooth texture of it on my tongue.
"Argh!"
I hear the yell from Cassandra's mouth. She suddenly bursts in from the hallway.
"What?!" I yell. "What's wrong?"
She blushes, "I guess Maddie and Mick had a thing for each other."
"What?" I gasp. Normally that kind of thing doesn't just happen. "How do you know for sure?"
"Well he did just kiss me..." Cassandra blushes.
"Oh."
There is a pause but then I look at her and laugh. She gives me an odd state but I jut laugh. Maddie was always complaining about how thick and what a moron Mick was but it was just a cover for what was really going on. No wonder Mick was the one to point out she had disappeared.
"She always said she hated Mick," I explain. "She said she felt sorry for his partner."
She lets out a snort and we laugh. Then we get a but nervous.
"She could have gone to jail," Cassandra mutters.
I nod and realise it's true and that's why she must have left. But why the yelling at Mrs Loudmouth the day she disappeared.
"What did Mick say to you?" I questioned.
"'I'm so glad you didn't leave,'" she thinks. "Oh! And 'don't leave without me ever. I love you.'"
I think until a risky idea pops into my head.
"Follow my lead."
I open the door and see Mick crouching on the floor looking devastated. He almost seems dead.
"Mick," I say. "Come in now."
He looks at me with shock and slips into the room behind me. I tell him to sit on the bed and be quiet until all has been said.
"Look Mick," I sigh, " I know your not the sharpest guy in this school but I need to tell you something."
"What?"
"Shut up until I finish," I grumble.
He looks at Cassandra pleadingly for support but she just says, "You'll wanna hear this."
"Maddie here," I sway my arm in her direction, "isn't Maddie. She is Cassandra. Maddie isn't here."
He looks at me with a blank expression. I sigh.
I speak with slow clear words, "Maddie-left-school."
"What!?" He cries. "But she's right there!"
"No," Cassandra exclaims. "I am Cassandra and Maddie and I swapped identities. She is a rebel for ROBINS and I am a student at NE School."
There is a pause. I wasn't planning on telling him that much. Just that Maddie's not here and if he wants to find he tells us what Maddie has talked to him about lately. Not about the rebels! Surprisingly he doesn't seem confused.
"Maddie already left! Without me?" He yells.
"What do you mean 'already.'" I question. "You know something we don't."
He sighs, "Maddie and I love each other. We were planning to run away just before I was due to leave NE School. We had a plan. She finds out dirt on Mrs Loudmouth so we can escape and I find contacts outside of the cities. I did. I was planning on telling her out in the corridor just now."
"Oh," I say shocked by the fact that Mick and Maddie weren't who I thought they were.
"When are you leaving?" He adds.
"Do you mean my date of birth?"
"No," he laughs. "I mean running away."
"What!?" I gasp.
"Because I want to come with you."
---
He told us away to escape the building and where we would go. He gave us the same date him and Maddie would go on the 6th of December. We would leave with Cassandra at midnight just as Mick turns sixteen so we have access to the cities and an identity that allows us to be recognise. When someone asks for prof of our age we will only give them Mick's until we are sixteen.
By the way. Earlier on when Mick said we would have classes outside, he lied. It was a distraction so he could check out a flight timetable. Not as thick as I thought.
When the day came to leave we weren't just nervous but terrified. Cassandra and I went into out room to pack during the cooling. After we would go down to the airport. Mick was going to fill us in their.
As we packed I thought of how Claire disappeared. Their was rumours around the school like she was dead. Of course they weren't true but the teachers never mentioned or explained. I found that a bit odd.
"Hey, Hannah?" Cassy asked. That's what she asked me to call her now. "I don't know if I want to leave."
I stared in shock. Then I thought why did I want to leave? Was it to save Claire? Maybe for an adventure. No, there is more to it. I should be happy with my future yet the idea of leaving, on an adventure, with Mick and Cassy made my head sway with excitement. I want to learn about these rebels. Find Claire and Maddie and... I want to say Jason. But why? He was so arrogant and depressing yet... I feel nervous when I think about him. Why? I also can't stand this awful place. The lack of freedom, the harsh punishments and the falling apart buildings.
"Why are you leaving?" She asked.
"Well," I started. "There must be more to this world than eight cities with future planned out for decades. We must be more than toys in a game. My friend, Claire, was going to be demoted but she was so deserving of a better future. We all deserve our own freedom."
As soon as I said it I knew it was true. I meant it.
"I guess so. It's just..." She trails off. "You haven't seen what the world is like yet. How do you know if it is good or bad? I was meant to be a partner to Mattie Jones but I was kidnapped by the ROBINS because I had good design grades. 'You are an incredible sewer and inventor. You could be our next weapons designer.' That's what the ROBINS said. I was so creative and at School. We didn't just learn to strut but about mechanical devices to enhance our costumes. I had a costume that shot fireworks out of my head and shone like a star."
I smile as she does to at her familiar home.
"I can't do what I love out in a weapons factory. They wanted invisible costumes with tracking devices. Not fashion."
"Was your future good though?" I pry.
"So maybe I wasn't going to design the costumes. Just wear others. But I could have had hobby," then she frowns. "I guess your right. If I had a choice I would have been a movie costume designer."
I hear the buzz of the cooling stop. I smile.
"Let's go."