Amy Hadley 1. "Number Nine"

Chapter I

I don't have much time before the sun goes down, behind the mountain, taking away with it the last of his light, and giving back to the city her monotonous greyness. I look absentmindedly through the window, at the trees of a Boreal forest parading across the road. I lost myself looking quietly at those high fir trees with green and dark thorns, among some others with tinny branches and lighter bark. How many times did I, during my short childhood years, imagine myself running among theses big high fir trees, hiking theses mountains overlooking The Global.

   Little innocent girl, I was thinking my happiness would be full of freedom and bounding with nature.

   Then, things changed.

   I press the accelerator pedal, looking at the old and damaged road made of cracked pavers, full of bump. My old little car has hard time absorb shocks, and the idea of one of the wheels going on it way alone isn't reassuring me. I had to leave the suburb before the night, and as I don't know anything about cars and mechanical, I can only pray a God I don't even believe in, for not breaking down before I come at my final destination.

   The unpleasant little music that plays before the Announcement, is still stuck in my head. I have been, during many years, dreaming about this music. I was imagining this music, playing all around my hometown. This would have been during a beautiful winter day, with a bright sun high in the white sky, the typical sky that predicts snow, with chill temperatures, cool but not cold. I would have run to the big central place, where there is the Tower of communication. This sadly famous place which, behind the Tower, has the most thick and imposing wall made of stone. This wall is delimitating the elite of the population, and on this place, is the only gate leading to The Global.

   For now, my dream didn't come true.

   After that music played, it became a nightmare. I was running through the crowd as I was imagining it, pushing people to make my way to my goal, without carrying about the complains about my lack of delicacy and politeness. The Announcement is happening one time a year, every year since the end of the way. Usually, it's a day of celebration, inside The Global. It's the only day where I could see so many different people reunited in one place. There was so many young people, students, crowded at the same time, waiting for the same thing, eyes full of hope, standing right in front of this wall – the wall that was separating them from their brightest future.

   I succeed getting to the front row. My nose was almost stuck against the stone façade of the big Tower, as everyone was pushing on my back. I looked at the Tower. It's a monument built with the latest post-war technologies, and it's the center of the Global's computer and communication network. I was there, and I was holding my breath till my head was spinning.

   For being that close, it was even more impressive. As this music – this little repetitive and unbearable tinkling – was ending, I could see

every inch of the wall waving like an ocean wave or a shock wave. The ripple had spread from top to bottom and from right to left, and it was as if the wall was dividing into thousands of small squares a few millimeters in side. And each time the ripple spreads, it flips these little squares that become opaque, black and shiny like a screen. I realized that the division of these small squares actually corresponded to pixels, and I tried to move back to see the image better, colliding, in doing so, with the crowd which gathered behind me.

   The black screen was all over the Tower. Few minutes later, on the dark background, was appearing white writing that drew listing. One under others, they were sorted by sections. Everyone was stepping back to get a better look, creating an impressive crowd movement. As I was imagining it, the Tower was erected toward the white sky, and I was riding theses lists, looking for my name. I couldn't breath.