Bridge of Secrets

Chapter One

"William!" I heard a shrill voice yell. "It's time to get up!"
I sighed and rolled over. Oh course David was trying to make me wake up this early. My little brother always did this.
"I know," I said. "I know. What do we have today, training with Daniel?"
"Yeah," David replied. "And you were late the last time. I don't want to get the last pick of the weapons just because you can't get your lazy ass out of bed."
I threw myself out of bed, pulling on clothes like a wild tornado.  David, curly brown hair bouncing everywhere, watched me carefully.
"Don't forget your knife," he warned.
"Why would I?" I asked. "The world is a ruthless place. You never go anywhere without some way to defend yourself."
★★★★★
On the bridge, life is hard. We may have our fabulous Leader, but there are rarely any punishments for killing another member of the bridge. The only people you can't mess with are the Leader, the Subordinate, and the rest of the Cronies. Normal citizens like David and me are subject to challenges, duels, fights, and other unseemly things. And if we die, no one will even care.
The only time we actually have harsh punishments is when someone falls in love. It doesn’t matter with who; it’s normally off the bridge, with some woman from the raids. If you try to even think the concept of love is real, you get whipped. After that, you are shunned, and not allowed to go on a raid for sixteen years.
Love is perceived as weak. It makes you lesser than a woman, less than even the weaklings that were killed. And even though we’re assigned brothers, we are not supposed to love. We are only supposed to raise them until they turn ten, then basically just leave them behind. I had an older brother once, but I don’t even remember his name. No one ever does.
From the time you arrive at the bridge, you are fighting for your very life. You have to survive three years of getting rid of everything that makes you human. When you are only a baby, you are taught not to cry. If you do, you're basically hung from the ceiling until your body rots off or gets chopped into pieces.
I knew I was lucky. I just didn't think much of it until I met David. He almost died so many times; was literally about to be strung up. From the moment I laid eyes on David, I knew he was lucky, and I was gonna care for this kid.
The worst thing about all of this is that our bridge is supposed to be a utopia. It's a perfect world, because all the weakness is bred out.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. It makes it even worse. It makes everything even worse. So I hid my love for my brother, and hid everything that made me myself. To survive, you must pull on a mask and forget your emotions.
So I now walked to weapons training. Daniel, the Subordinate, was my teacher. It was only because of how good I was at using knives. David went to a separate class, and was getting better. One day, he would train under the Subordinate, too. I knew it in my heart.
There were a few other people in my class, but it was mainly the eighteen-year-olds. I was only sixteen years old. That never happened.
Daniel was a tall, muscled man, with brown hair and stubble. He always wore a white shirt and khaki pants, hair brushed back. He stood at the front of the classroom, writing something about how to gut a man on the chalkboard. He turned around the moment I walked into the classroom, closing the door behind me.
"Hey, William," Daniel said. "You're early this morning, huh?" No one else was there in the metal-barred classroom, with small slits of light shining through and landing on the floor.
"David woke me up this morning," I explained. "He wakes me up way too early."
"I know the feeling," Daniel replied. "Our grand and glorious Leader wakes me up early, but it's all for the good of the bridge."
Even Daniel, a nice person, had to spew propaganda. It was almost a requirement.
"How have you been doing?" I asked.
"Good," Daniel said. "I'm all good."
The door banged open, and Victor strode in.
Victor was just a causal acquaintance to me. I wasn't supposed to hang out with him. A long time ago, something had happened involving him and another man. Because of that, he was less than nothing. Basically, he got challenged several times a day, and it was pure luck he managed to survive. I wanted to help him, but I wasn't going to risk my own status for someone who was close enough to death.
"What are you doing, Victor?" Daniel asked very carefully. "You're not supposed to be here."
"I need a sword," Victor said. "You're supposed to give out weapons if we want, right?"
"Not for people on your level," Daniel replied in a nonchalant voice. "But you can stay here for an hour until you are done being challenged."
"Dammit it," Victor said, brushing his long black hair out of his brown eyes. "I can't hide anymore. I need to be able to defend myself. I'm down to a scalpel as a weapon. It does nothing. Help me out here, or we're gonna have a problem."
"Fine, fine," Daniel said, gazing into Victor's eyes for a second, then glancing away like he wasn't supposed to. "But you're going have to help me with weapons training."
"Deal," Victor agreed. He grabbed a sword, though, and stuck it in the hilt on his hip. Daniel just stared at him, and Victor sighed, looking like he wanted to move closer. But he didn't. The pain in his eyes was apparent.
A few minutes later, class started, and the world outside of the classroom changed, but I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know how lost I would be as things changed forever.