Hero

Prologue: Welcome to the Competition of Life

Jackson Philips was having a great day. He had done so well on his weekly examinations for school, and today was the last day of school. Well, at least for him. Not for everyone. And not for forever. He had finally finished his level ten year, and now, he was to transfer to the upper school. He wasn't even half way through school, he reminded himself. He would finish his education by the age of sixty. Unless he would get a job at the age of fifteen. If that were to occur, he would finish his education at the age of fourteen, and would have a small job wherever the Council of Prodigies request him to be. If you were lucky enough to pass a test to be a "prodigy" then you would finish school the day before your fifteenth birthday. Jackson hoped to become a scientist's assistant.
By the age of twenty, he would also be entered in a contest for a wife. He would give the names of five females he would want to marry. The council of marriage would , a week later, send him a paper in the mail, giving him the names of his competitors for the females he wanted to marry. All of the competitors would be male. It would be the females' turn once the competition would end for the males. He would then be tested multiple writing tests in one week. They would question him everything he had learned. This would measure his ability of knowledge. The next week would measure his ability of strength. He would do multiple physical activities, while five government officials watched, and scored him. The next week would measure his ability of wisdom. He would face difficult obstacles, where he would choose right from wrong. He would be scored on that. The very last week was the hardest. It would measure his ability of memory. They would lay out several items in front of him, giving him one minute to memorize them. Once he finished that part of the test, they would make him give the story of his tests, in complete detail. If he missed one detail, that would be one point taken off his test score. They would compare his answers to the live footage of him in his actual tests. And the final part of the test was the part everyone, no matter what gender, dreaded the most. They would attach you to a machine, and would look through your memories. Everyone should have exactly one billion memories from their life time. If they have too little, or too much, they would be taken out of the competition to be questioned. If their answer wasn't reasonable, they would be exiled or killed. Depending on the situation. Jackson didn't know how the killings went around, but he did know, that your family would be the ones to kill you. He only knew one family who had gone through that. His neighbors, the Homers.
They had lost two children actually. A male and a female. Mercy and Levi. Mercy was exiled, but Levi had not such an easy way out. He had failed the major parts of his test, and had gotten a very bad score. No one had ever failed that badly. For years everyone is trained for this non optional competition. His parents had even gotten many tutors for him. His mother, Paris, was a tenth ranked official. Each member of the government had to take a test that would take a year. If they passed, their test scores would determine their rank out of twenty. Twenty the best, one the worst. And to get a ten rank, is astounding. Barely anyone made it pass five. His father, Julius, was a fifteen rank official. His parents were the same age, (as you have to be in order to marry) and had been friends for years. They were both a good match, and had gotten the same test scores. They were both number one on each other's list, they received after the competition. The Council of Matching were the ones to compare the test scores and create a list of females/males that were choices to marry. You could only marry someone from that list. The people your wanted to marry, were just considering choices for yourself. There was no guarantee that they would be on the list. Paris, and her husband, Julius, had the same amount of children everyone else had. Four children. Two girls two boys. Levi, Mercy, Jacob, and Luna, who was Jackson's age. Ten years young.
When Levi received his test scores, he had to go to a questioning. To have to go to a questioning was seen as shameful. To protect his public image, Levi refused to go. He began to become insane. He had only one speck of sanity left in him when his family had killed him. Their family was to never speak of the killing. The news quickly spread, and the family was full of shame. People wanted the family to be killed because of their failure. Well, because, failures never happened in the Emerald Cities. Everyone must succeed under any circumstances. It was Mercy's turn a year later. But, her memories had ticked something off. The memories were not clean and clear. They were jagged, and sharp to the touch. This time, she went to the questioning after seeing what her brother went through. Through all of her therapy, her memories still wouldn't improve. She was sent to exile for ten years. Tens years later, she would be questioned again to see her improvement. If she passed the test, she was able to try again, and receive her spouse. She could then have children. Ah, tiny humans!
After you would receive your spouse in court, one year later, you could apply for children. Everyone was to have four children. Nothing more, nothing less. You would learn about the life of parenthood. Like everything else, you would take a test on it. Once you passed, you would go to the council of children. You would be assigned to have a boy or a girl. The wife would be pregnant, and would give birth on the exact due date. A year later, you could apply for children. As long as you were able to have children, you would be able to apply for them. But everyone reapplied the next year.

*Another strange fact about the Homer family: after their first two children, they waited to have the other two. Paris thought labor was to painful to endure for four straight years. She wanted to wait. People had thought they were a strange family from then on. After the failure of Levi, they had two more children to fill the gap. The government approved of them only having three children living. Then came the failure of Mercy. They were now a bit old, only fifty, and had two young children. Luna, who was ten, and Jacob, who was only thirteen. The two children were complete opposites. Luna, with her long, curly, bleached blond hair, and sharp bright blue eyes. While her brother had dark jagged hair, with a cloudy night color for his eyes. As you can guess, they were a family of freaks.*

Jackson, or as many people called him Jack, was thinking about his life time. He had done it everyday since he was very little. He couldn't wait to see the gleam in his parents eyes, their proud smiles and puffed out chests. He would, like always, be the proud son.

He was the oldest after all. His younger sisters and brother were all trouble makers. They never took anything seriously. And that always has seemed to agitate everyone, which was their plan all along. Jack was a complete opposite. Ever since he was little, he was serious about everything. He never laughed at inappropriate times, and certainly... NEVER... Hid a stink bomb in his teacher's desk. It was too immature for a young adult like him.

He had finally come home. It was not like anything he expected. He stopped in his tracks, breathing heavily.

Memories of his mother filled his mind. He was her favorite child. And she was his favorite parent, even though he didn't like to admit it. Memories of them at the park, running into the city's limits, as far away from the Competition of Life. To just... Relax. To act like the people he had listened about in the past from his Human History recordings for school. She would often steal thick copies of paper, with colorful covers and bindings. She called them books. Jack didn't know how she got them, or how to read them. And neither did his mother. But she got the ones with many colorful pictures, so they could understand the story a bit. But they laughed at the absurd sloppy drawings in the books. Artwork now was so detailed and serious. But then again, they were just pictures of government officials. It was never about a dog who had a drooling problem, and couldn't find his toys.

Big, fat, tears rolled down his face. Everything was moving in a slow blur.

The yellow tape. The ambulances. The sad, tear streaked faces of his family, reaching out to him in sympathy. But he shrugged them off. He ran inside. The result of a murder scene was laid out in front of him, like a map.

The paramedics were shaking their heads sadly as they noticed his presence. Everything was blurry except for one object that stayed perfectly clear. The voices were drowned out to small muffles. Like he was underwater. Maybe because it felt like he was.

The object was disturbing. One male paramedic was sealing a black bag over a red streaked body. Red was the only color the body was wearing, which made Jack shiver in disgust. The body itself was unnerving. Brown hair streaked with highlights of blond. Her face a long oval, with a jutted chin. He knew what had happened.

His perfect day was over.
Reality hit him hard.
His mother was dead.
And he had come home to a crime scene.