The stone bounced off the wall. It skittered down the incline, clanging off of old metal and into darkness. The echo rebounded in the tunnel with loud insistence. That was good. It distorted the direction I’d thrown it from.

Footsteps followed. The voices weren’t far behind; a novice mistake really. I could see their shadows dance in the dim light of their lantern.

“Guttersnipe!” The first snapped. Her head swiveled about, her beady eyes narrowed behind a hooked nose. “Give it back, you stinking whore!”

I grinned from the darkness. Crouched low, I could make out the silhouette of her comrade, a big grunt. All brawn, tiny brain. His jaw was hanging open as he held the light aloft and peered hopelessly in each direction.

“That catch was ours! When I find you I’ll gut you. I’ll gut you and feed what’s left to Orion!”

Apparently that was the big fellow’s name. Judging by his nose wrinkling, he wasn’t fond of the idea.

I began retreating further into the darkness, slinking along a hidden passageway. They must have been new to the Ruins. The way they banged around they would probably invite something else to come for dinner. Something more inclined towards cannibalism than Orion.

“Find her!” She snarled at the grunt. He thumped down into the grime, his holey shoes sloshing through fetid pools. I grimaced. I wouldn’t go near that stuff if I could avoid it. Too many rusted pipes and glass shards were hidden in the muck.

That, and the lengths of fishing wire I’d tied right below the water’s surface.

When he tripped, I drew in a breath and threw my voice down the tunnel:

“TIMBER!”

The woman snarled again. She jerked on her heel and ran towards the sound, while poor Orion struggled with the wire, flailing as the water doused the lantern. I turned and made my break for it, feet quietly pattering like a rat on the run. Her swearing got fainter and Orion’s floundering faded. I found the ladder I was looking for, latched onto it, and hauled myself helter-skelter up the rungs until I could push against the door above and climb into the room it opened to.

Once I’d slid the bolt home, I let myself relax. Had they been brighter I wouldn’t have been so careless. If I were honest, I shouldn’t have been so careless anyway, but a girl’s got to have fun somehow.

Removing a glow-stick from my pocket, I gave it a twist and set it in a makeshift sconce on the wall. White light burst out to compensate for the room’s lack of it. I peered around with hands on hips, head cocked for the sound of someone clambering up after me.

I let a full five minutes tick by before I was satisfied. Carelessness does a dead man make.

All in all I was pretty proud of my secret compartment. The bolt hadn’t been there before; I’d made it myself. It was easy to pick but not easy to break, and there weren’t many folks around with fingers as nimble as mine. Another exit sported a getaway to the level further up. My guess was that the place used to be some sort of access point for storage or maintenance, but had long since been abandoned and forgotten with time.

I’d made a table of crates in the middle of the room. It was littered with finds, most of them routinely polished so I could get the ideal shine out of them. The more shine, the more people would pay. Pretties for the pretty.

The bracelet was a precious discovery. Silver-banded and littered with diamonds, there were faults and flaws in both but it was still a marvelous rarity. I’d been prying it off the wrist of skeleton when they found me and tried to call dibs on it.

Honestly, I have to wonder sometimes how people that stupid survive so long.

After admiring it in the light a while, I pursed my lips and hesitated. I hadn’t brought anything to my mother for some time. Part of it was because I hated her. Part of it was because she hated me.

I pocketed the bracelet again and turned towards the shelves. They were really just wooden boards precariously stacked on top of each other, but they served. I couldn’t just leave books on the ground. There was something sacrilegious about it, and books were so fragile that I couldn’t bear the thought of something wet and grimy crawling up to eat them.

Marta was due for a treat. I pulled off three and stuffed them into my bag.

Someone screamed.

My blood ran cold. There are different sorts of screams. The playful ones ditzy girls give when they’re pretending to be in love. The alarmed ones children make when their friends jump out from around the corner. And the gut-wrenching, blood curdling kind when someone’s afraid for their lives.

This was definitely the last.

I edged my way back to the door. The sound had been close, and I’d put at least a half mile of tunnel between myself and the other scavengers. Either it was someone new, or somehow they’d figured out the true direction I’d gone.

Neither option explained the scream.

I grasped the bolt and slid it slowly. Reaching up, I twisted the light again and dimmed the whiteness to a hesitant glow, before I slunk down the first rung and squinted into the tunnel again.

Amorphous shadows congealed in the distance. I recognized some: abandoned subway cars that lay torn from their tracks, a statue of a naked woman knocked from its pedestal. None of those ever moved, though, and the shapes peeling away from them certainly were.

There were three. They got closer, and I could hear for the first time a whispering that the screams had drowned out before.

“I don’t want to. I don’t, I don’t want to. But I have to. You don’t understand. But you will. I’ll make you understand.”

The first to step into my light was Orion. I could see his face, white with horror. He hadn’t noticed me. His attention was fixed on the figure before him. It wasn’t a large man, but his eyes were wide with madness. His teeth chattered rhythmically, and his hand held a jagged, makeshift knife. It dripped blood.

His other hand held the woman’s head by the hair. Her throat was slit, and her mouth was in the final throes of trying to pull in air past a severed windpipe. A fish on the end of the hook. She found me from my vantage on the wall, and her fingers twitched once, upwards, while the others grappled at the blood gushing from her. With a final wheezing gasp, she went limp.

“Abby?” Orion whispered, backing up another step. “Abs?”

“You’ll see,” the man insisted. “Yes, yes you will. And then they’ll be quiet, because I did it. What they asked. You know what I’m saying?”

He stepped into the light, dragging Abby’s corpse with him. She trailed blood behind her. He was completely naked, his body all reedy muscle. His legs were severely scarred, tiny marks like a cat’s claws had raked violently up and down his shins and thighs.

He’d found an entire pod of bugs, and they’d carried disease into his flesh. The illness they’d given was the Voices.

Horror churned in my gut. I knew what was going to happen, but I couldn’t force myself to move. I clung frozen to the ladder in the wall, unblinking, unbreathing.

The madman lunged. Orion let out a cry of rage, grabbing his wrist. It snapped like a twig beneath his grip, but still he came at him, dropping both Abby and the knife as he howled and battered at Orion’s chest.

The grunt pinned his head between his fists and rammed it against the wall. Again. And again. And again. The scrawny body went limp between his hands, and the skull made sick, wet smacking sounds against the stone, but still he continued, shrieking like a lunatic and hammering away until he’d painted the grey to red and his attacker’s face was completely flattened.

It was when he was bent over and panting that the bugs came.

They were sleek and smooth and metal. They thrust out tiny, filamentous legs and crawled through the dead man’s flesh. They skittered along his skin and clattered to the floor, hundreds of them surging towards Orion. He let out another shriek, this time of raw terror, and tried to run. He only made it a few steps when the first reached him and slithered into his ankle.

His leg stiffened. There was a sickening crackling sound and he fell to the ground as they fell upon him. Their tiny bodies disappeared into his and the immobilization continued, spreading to his other limbs, his muscles and ligaments calcifying instantly.

He did not scream, though his face was a mask of agony.

The pain itself killed him.

I could hear the skittering start up the wall towards me.

My immobility vanished. I ran up the ladder. The door would not stop them. They would crawl through the cracks, through the tiny keyhole in the bolt itself. I grabbed at the tiny canister in the corner and pried it open with my fumbling fingers, gasping over and over, “Oh god oh god oh god-”

Gas erupted. I threw the canister down and the instant it hit the floor, I sent a match tumbling after. I slammed the door shut and ran behind the shelves.

The explosion took the metal straight off its hinges.

I gagged and coughed. The smoke filled the room, and I pulled my scarf over my nose and mouth. There was no way of telling if I’d gotten them all. They were fragile but small and hard to burn. I climbed up the second ladder and out into the darkness of the tunnel above, running, running, tears streaming down my face and praying I wasn’t Tainted. Praying I wouldn’t change.

It was still early morning when Nessa first opened her eyes. With a silent groan she rolled over to look out of the bedroom window, and she knew she wouldn’t be getting any more sleep that morning. The first hints of the grey light of morning were beginning to stretch across the sky, and a thick fog had rolled in and was hanging low over the fields that stretched out beyond her house.

A soft moan came from beside her, and she turned her head around to see her little sister, Leia, just opening her eyes. They watched each other for a few seconds before Leia gave a small smile, “Are you scared, Ness?”

Nessa twisted her body around to be able to view her younger sibling more easily, “No.” She said as she looked into her sister’s brown eyes, the complete opposite of her own grey ones, “Why should I be?”

Leia shrugged, “You could be going away.”

“Leia, the serum only reacts to five percent of the population, that’s only about five people in my entire age group. The chances of that happening to me are pretty slim.”

“But it could happen.” Leia protested. When Nessa didn’t reply, the younger sister continued, “Do you want it to?”

Nessa watched her sister for a moment or so before finally shrugging, “I don’t know. It’s a lot of responsibility.”

Leia nodded, but was smiling, “But it would be so cool!”

Nessa rolled her eyes, but gave a small smile of her own, “Yes, I suppose it could be.”

Unlike her sister, who was still so young and full of dreams and creativity, Nessa understood the consequences and responsibilities that came along with a reaction to the serum. She would have to leave her family, and her friends. She’d have to leave Leia. She glanced down at her sister once more, and smiled at her before she sighed, “I guess I had better get up. I don’t want to be late.”

Leia tilted her head, and a few strands of her blonde hair fell down into her eyes, “Nessa, it’s just a long line. You can’t be late.”

Nessa laughed and reached down to move the strands of hair that had fallen and push them behind her sister’s ear. “I guess you’re right, but I’m meeting Jenna and we are going together.”

Leia nodded, and Nessa ruffled the girl’s hair, which only caused the strands of hair that she’d just moved to fall back down. “I’m going to get up now. You go on back to sleep; you have another hour or so before you have to be up for school.”

Nessa kissed Leia’s forehead before she sat up and climbed her way out of the bed that the two siblings shared, and stood up, looking down once more at the small form of her sister. The two of them had shared this bed since Leia was two. There had been times when it hadn’t been so easy. They had both woken the other up plenty of times with nightmares, or just needing to talk about whatever had been bothering them. It wasn’t much, just a mattress on the floor in the corner of the room. But as far as Nessa was concerned, it was one of the safest places on earth.

She finally made her way over to the dresser and took out what she needed, and moved to the bathroom where she changed, pulled her dark hair up into a loose bun, and headed into the kitchen to find her mother already up and making coffee.

Her mother smiled as Nessa walked in, and poured some of the freshly made coffee into a mug, handing it to Nessa, “Are you nervous?”

Nessa shrugged, and decided immediately that she might as well get used to that question, “A little I guess.”

Her mother, Joan, nodded, “Well, whatever happens, I’m sure it will be fine.”

Nessa took a sip of the coffee and leaned against the counter. After a few seconds, she looked up at her mother, “Were you nervous when you took the serum?”

Joan’s brown eyes, the same as Leia’s, blinked a few times before she smiled, “I was terrified.”

Nessa felt her eyes widen, “Really? Why?”

Her mother was about to answer when a new voice sounded from the doorway, “Your mother didn’t want to react. She wanted to be able to stay home, get married, and have a family. None of which you can do if you react.”

Nessa smiled as her father, Jeremy, walked into the room. He was the one she had gotten most of her looks from. She had his dark hair and grey eyes, while Leia had their mother’s blonde hair and brown eyes.

Nessa looked at her father, “I see. What about you? Were you nervous?”

He smirked, a look that made him seem younger than he was, and poured himself a cup of coffee. “I was excited. I wanted it to react to me.”

Nessa nodded and looked down into her coffee mug. She still wasn’t sure what she wanted to happen. She’d never been much of a fighter, and she couldn’t really picture herself out hunting down bad guys and fighting with criminals. But then, she couldn’t really picture herself doing much of anything else either.”

Movement caught her eye and caused her to look up to see her father crossing the kitchen towards her, and putting his arm around her shoulders. “Just know that we love you very much.”

Then her mother was there beside her as well, “Yes, we will be proud of you no matter which way it goes. We love you.”

Nessa smiled, and pulled away to put her mug in the sink. She’d never been one for physical displays of affection, even just within her family, but she gave each of her parents a hug anyway. “Thank you. I love you both as well, but I guess I’d better get going. Jenna will be waiting for me by now. I’ll see you later.”

She grabbed a light jacket to put on over her shirt, and pulled the front door open. “Nessa.”

Her father’s voice caused her to pause in the door way, and she looked back. He smiled and held up his coffee mug in a sort of salute, “Good luck.”

She smiled, and nodded once, before stepping out and pulling the door closed behind her. Then she was on her way. She took a deep breath of the cool, autumn air, and walked down the concrete walk and out to the road. It was the middle of fall, and the leaves were finally beginning to change their color, which made the walk a little more pleasant in her own opinion.

“Nessa!” The familiar voice caused her to look up from where she’d been watching the gravel road pass beneath her feet, to see Jenna coming towards her. “Today’s the day! Are you excited?”

Well, at least she wasn’t asking if Nessa was nervous. That was a nice change, “Sure? I mean, I guess. I don’t know.”

Jenna laughed, “Yeah, yeah. I don’t know why I ask really.”

Then she started talking about how she hoped it would react with her, because she wanted to be an Enforcer and that was the only way to become one, a reaction with the serum. Nessa eventually had to tune her out because it was the same speech her friend had been giving for the past month and a half, and Nessa knew it word for word all the way through and backwards.

Honestly though, Nessa really didn’t understand why Jenna was so keen to become an Enforcer. Jenna was the type of person who screamed and jumped up onto a table at the first sign of a rat or spider. How did she expect to hunt down criminals? Nessa really couldn’t imagine Jenna as the tough soldier type. Come to think of it, she really couldn’t imagine herself as one either.

She looked at Jenna, who was still going on about how she wanted to save the world. Nessa smiled despite herself. She really found it hard to believe that they were best friends. Jenna spoke with such enthusiasm and excitement, about anything. She had always been like that. Nessa on the other hand, was quiet and withdrawn, and happy to be on the outskirts of any social situation. She didn’t like large groups of people, and was much happier observing than taking part. Jenna picked on her about it all the time, saying that Nessa needed to “come out of her shell,” but that was just the way she was. Honestly, as far as personalities go, the two girls were complete opposites.

“Hey, are you listening?” Jenna asked, pulling Nessa back to the present conversation.

“Of course,” she said almost too automatically, “you were just saying that some people who react to the serum go crazy.”

Jenna grinned, “You know, sometimes I think you only pay just enough attention to be able to parrot back the last line of whatever I was saying.”

Nessa smirked, “Well, I guess you’ll never know for sure.”

Jenna laughed, but her laughter died as the two girls reached the bottom of the stone steps that lead up to the entrance of City Hall. Jenna looked at Nessa, her eyes shining with excitement, “Nessa! It’s time.”

Nessa forced a smile and nodded, but didn’t say anything as they began to ascent the stairs.

“Hey! Nessa! Jenna!”

The two girls weren’t even three steps up and they paused in their climbing to turn and see Gage running to catch up. By the time he reached them he was tired and out of breath, Jenna laughed, “I hope you don’t react. You will never be able to keep up with the training exercises they’ll put you through.”

Nessa rolled her eyes, “He’ll be able to keep up better than you will.”

Jenna made a mock face of horror, but then shrugged, “Yeah, you’re probably right. But I’ll get used to it.”

Then the three of them were climbing again, and finally reached the large double doors. Gage pulled them open to allow the two girls to pass, Jenna walked through without acknowledgement, as she always did, Nessa nodded in thanks.

The large lobby was filled with people, maybe a hundred or more, and they were all standing or sitting in little groups, little pieces of paper in hand, talking amongst themselves. She recognized most all of them from her school, but she also realized that there were plenty that hadn’t arrived yet. Also there was still the other school across town which also had eighteen year olds ready to be injected. She couldn’t help but think that sounded like a cow being prepped for slaughter. But that was a ridiculous notion when it came to the serum. People had been being injected for the past forty years, and no one had reported anything negative because of the serum.

“Excuse me.” Nessa looked to her left to see an older woman with thin glasses staring at the three of them from behind a counter. Her glasses had long since slid down her nose and she was glaring at them over the rims, “Take a number. When that sign,” she pointed to a large sign hanging over the center of the room, “pops up with your number, report to the room specified.”

Three slits of paper popped out of a thin slot on the counter, and Gage, Jenna, and Nessa all reached for one. Nessa was the only one to say “Thank you.”

Jenna was the first to glance down, and rolled her eyes as she lifted the piece of paper for Nessa to view, “452, this is going to take a while.”

Nessa nodded and glanced down her own for the first time, “453.”

Gage glanced at his own piece of paper, and smiled, “451. Actually, there is every possibility that it might NOT take that long at all.”

Jenna rolled her eyes, “Oh really Brainiack? What gives you that idea?”

He paused hesitantly and glanced at Nessa, who nodded, encouraging him out of her own curiosity, so he shrugged, “Well, that sign over there reads ’Now serving number 347. And there is only about a hundred people in this room, and we have numbers 451, 452, and 453. There are ten rooms being used, and my brother said last year that it only took about two or three minutes. So there’s no reason we couldn’t be out of here before lunchtime.”

Nessa grinned at her friend’s logic, while Jenna again rolled her eyes, “Ok. Sorry Smarty-Pants, I’m sorry I doubted you.”

Gage shrugged once more, “It’s no problem. You always doubt me.”

Jenna nodded, “Yep, and I always regret it later.”

Nessa laughed, “Maybe one of these days you’ll learn.”

Jenna seemed to consider this briefly, but shook her head, “Nah. I wouldn’t count on it.”

The three found a bench to sit on, and Nessa started watching the activity in the room while her other two friends chatted amiably. City Hall was, as Gage had observed, split into ten rooms where injections were being done. There was an enforcer behind each door, and Nessa watched as people would go inside, and then leave, rubbing their arm gently. The Enforcer posted at the door nodded to each one who came and went, and even chatted with people who were standing or sitting nearby. There wasn’t necessarily anything in particular to set her off, but for some reason Nessa still found them intimidating. With that realization, Nessa made up her mind. She did not want to react to the serum. She didn’t want to be an Enforcer.

She glanced up at the sign the lady at the counter had pointed out, and nudged Jenna. “437, it’s almost time.”

Jenna did a little dance in her seat, and Nessa rolled her eyes, “Finally! I can’t wait.”

Nessa glanced over at Gage, who she could tell was just as nervous as she was. His foot was tapping a mile a minute, and he was subconsciously tapping his fingers on his knee. He caught her watching him and stopped his shaking, and did his best to give her a reassuring smile.

Jenna suddenly jumped up, she’d been watching the sign, “Hey! It’s our turn! We’re next.”

Nessa looked up to see for herself, and sure enough, they were up next. Gage was supposed to go to Room One, Jenna to Four, and Nessa needed to locate Room Six. Nessa and Gage both stood up and the three did a group hug. Nessa sighed as she pulled back, “Well, here we go.”

Jenna nodded, and bounded off, “See you on the other side!”

Nessa and Gage were left alone then, and Gage smiled, “Well, I guess I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

Nessa nodded, and the two parted ways. Nessa saw a sign that said “Room Six” with an arrow pointing down a hallway. So she headed in that direction, and found herself on a long hall way with white walls and doors every few yards on either side. She assumed they were offices for city officials, or conference rooms. There was one door at the end of the hallway, and there was an Enforcer posted outside, just as there was for all the other rooms that were being used today.

As Nessa got closer, she saw the door open, and a girl with long red hair came out. It was Kara from school, they’d had classes together. Nessa smiled at the girl as they passed, and Kara said “Hi.” They weren’t really friends though so that was all the communication that passed between them.

The Enforcer on the other hand, had the door open already for Nessa, and gave her a polite nod as she passed him and entered into the large conference room.

“Have a seat.” The voice came from a female Enforcer, who didn’t look to be much older than Nessa was, maybe twenty, with dark curly hair.

Nessa stared at the big table, “Any chair in particular?”

The girl smiled as she took out a syringe from a box. It was filled with blue liquid. “Nope. Just pick one. I’ll be there in a second.”

Nessa nodded and took a seat at the head of the table; it was the closest after all, and watched as the girl made her way over to her.

“Arm.” The girl gave the order, and Nessa lifted her arm to her. The girl smiled, “This won’t hurt.”

Then the needle was pushed into Nessa’s arm, and the girl had been wrong. It had hurt. She gave a slight gasp, but was silent other than that. The girl laughed as she injected the blue liquid, “Yeah, I lied.”

Nessa narrowed her eyes as she watched the needle be pulled out, “Yeah, I figured that out for myself, thanks.”

The other girl smiled and stood. She walked to the other end of the table, threw the syringe away in a small trash can, and pulled out her clip board. “What’s your name?”

“Vanessa Fletcher.” She rubbed her arm gently, now understanding why everyone she’d seen outside had been doing the same.

The girl nodded, and scribbled something down on the clip board, or more accurately, the paper that was on the clip board, “You’re free to go. If you react you’ll know within the next thirty four hours.”

“How will I know?”

She only smiled, “Trust me, you can’t miss it. Have a good day.”

Nessa sat there for a few more seconds, hoping the other girl would elaborate a little, but of course she didn’t. Nessa finally sighed and stood up, moving to the door, “Yeah. You too.”

She nodded once to the Enforcer as she passed once more, and made her way out into the lobby where Jenna and Gage were already waiting for her by the door. They both smiled as she approached, and for once Gage beat Jenna to the punch, “Was that weird for you?”

Nessa only nodded, but Jenna shrugged, “If you say so. Who’s ready for lunch?”

Gage smirked, “I told you we’d be out by lunch time.”

Jenna flicked her hair back with her hand, “Yeah, I get it, you’re smart. Seriously you guys, lunch?”

Gage looked to Nessa, waiting for her to answer first, but she shook her head, “I think I’m going to go on home. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Jenna made a face, “Sure, unless one of us reacts.”

Nessa sighed, “Jenna, even if that does happen, we still have twenty four hours to say goodbye to friends and family. I’m sure we can make time.”

Jenna gave a dramatic sigh, “Alright, alright. Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow. How about you both come over to my house around five tomorrow afternoon?”

Nessa nodded, “Sure. I’ll see you then.”

She headed towards the door, which Gage opened for her, “Would you like me to walk you home?”

Nessa smiled politely as she passed, “No thanks.” She said as she paused just outside the door, “It’s only a few miles. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He gave a slow nod and let the door closed and returned to his conversations with Jenna. Nessa watched them through the glass doors for another second before turning to descend the great stone stair case. She was about half way down when she saw the bus pulling down the street. She sped up so that she could catch it. In all reality, it would probably be faster for her just to walk home. The bus made several stops and went in a circle before finally heading out to the suburbs and farms outside the city, but it was a good chance for Nessa to sit and think without being bothered by people.

She reached the sidewalk just as the bus came to a stop and she climbed on, told the bus driver where she was going and paid him, and made her way towards the back to find a seat by the window. The city went by slowly, one building at a time, and she thought the time to really think about her situation. What were the chances of her reacting? Surely they weren’t that good. She had just told Leia earlier that morning that only about five of the kids at her school would react. Yes, the chances of one of those five being her, or Jenna or Gage, were very unlikely.

“You look nervous.”

Nessa looked up to find a young man, maybe twenty five, twisted around in his seat watching her. She tilted her head slightly, “Maybe a little.”

He nodded, “Why should you be nervous? We’ve all been through it.”

She watched him carefully, “Weren’t you nervous?”

He seemed to contemplate this for a moment, “I guess I was. I wanted to react.”

She lifted an eyebrow, “Really? Why?”

He only chuckled, “You mean, aside from the obvious?”

She nodded, “Aside from the obvious.”

“Well, aside from the obvious, you have a chance to help people, really help people, and make sure the laws are upheld. You learn a lot about our civilization that you wouldn’t learn otherwise. And then there’s the obvious – you become very powerful indeed.”

He was smiling, but she still wasn’t very convinced, “But weren’t you afraid of leaving your family?”

He was silent for a moment, and gave a slow nod, “Most people are. But not everyone has a perfect family. Some people are more than willing to get away.”

Nessa considered this for a moment, “I guess so.”

He didn’t reply to this, and she looked up to see him gathering his things. She took this moment to really look at him. He was a handsome man actually, with dark blonde hair that fell down to his shoulders, and bright blue eyes, which suddenly looked up to meet hers. “Well, this is my stop. Good luck”

She nodded as the bus came to a stop, and she looked out the window at the building it had stopped in front of. The letters along the rooftop, in all capital letters and looking very official, read “ENFORCER HEADQUARTERS.” She watched as he climbed down off the bus, and turned back to give her a wave before turning around once more and headed into the building. Then the bus surged forward once more and she was again headed home.

He was an Enforcer. Now she was even more confused. He hadn’t acted, or even looked like the others. He had seemed friendly enough, and hadn’t been intimidating in the least. She gave a frustrated sigh, because just like that, because of one conversation with a stranger on a bus, she was confused again. He made becoming an Enforcer sound like a good thing. He had said it was an opportunity to help people, and defend her family. She supposed that was true, she just hadn’t really thought about it, despite all of Jenna’s ramblings.

The bus came to a stop once more, and with a start she realized it was her stop. How long had she been thinking to herself? It must have been quite a while because she knew that there were other stops between the Enforcer Headquarters and hers, but nevertheless, here she was. She stood up quickly and made her way down the aisle of the bus and climbed down onto the gravel road that would lead to her house.

After just a minute or two of walking, she was on her front porch and opening the front door. Her mother was in the kitchen cooking dinner, and greeted her, “Hey! How did it go?”

Nessa only shrugged, “It went.”

Her mother smiled, “Well, your father will be home soon, and your sister should be home from school any minute. Want to help me finish this up?”

Nessa smiled, “I would, but actually I’m kind of tired…I think I’m going to go lie down for a while.”

Her mother nodded, “That can happen after the injection. Go on, I’ll make sure Leia doesn’t bother you for a while after she gets home.”

Nessa gave a grateful smile, and gave her mother a hug, before heading into the bedroom and collapsing down onto the low bed. She closed her eyes, and started thinking once more about everything that had happened, and whether or not she wanted to react.

She must have fallen asleep because the next thing she knew, she was suddenly aware of Leia climbing into bed beside her. She opened her eyes slowly and realized that it was dark outside. “Leia?”

“Shoot.” The girl said, “I was trying not to wake you.”

Nessa smiled, “It’s fine. I probably need to get up and get something to eat anyway.”

Leia nodded, “Mom saved you a plate. It’s in the refrigerator.”

Nessa grinned, glad that her mom had thought about her, not that it was surprising, “thanks for letting me know.”

Nessa sat up slowly, and started for the edge of the voice, when suddenly a loud voice sounded inside her head. She gave a loud gasp and pinned her hands against her ears, but it didn’t help. Leia gasped as well, startled by her sister’s reaction, and moved to sit in front of her. “Ness? Ness are you ok?”

Nessa couldn’t hear her over the voice sounding off in her head, over and over again, “If you can hear this, congratulations. You are one of the lucky five percent. Please report to Enforcer Headquarters no later than eleven AM Wednesday morning for further instructions. First part of your training, learn how to block out this announcement.”

She couldn’t believe it. She really couldn’t believe it. She had reacted to the serum. Out of everyone in her school, she had reacted. “Nessa!”

Her sister’s voice pulled her back to the present, and with the voice still sounding in her head, Nessa looked her sister in the eyes. She didn’t need to say anything, her sister understood immediately, just as she did...she had reacted.

The first man through the Rift corrupted himself. The second was executed. The

third was imprisoned. Any following were killed quietly and quickly, deep beneath the

city in what was known as the Pipes. Whole batches of caught time-jumpers were

apprehended by the Harbor 14 Troupe, and brought to their knees in the dark of the

tunnels underneath Home and buried in the sewage to rot. Good intentions or twisted,

they were tortured till they bled dry under the white-grey pavement.

His name was Collin Lindsey. He took the title ‘Father.’ He slipped a knife

between the ribs of the Harborman and pawned the crime off on a guard. Lauded as

hero for bringing to his knees such a corrupt leader, the people adopted him as Father.

The Father. Trusted with civilians’ every concern, problem, thought, he held his rightful

place over the people, tightening his fist imperceptibly. The date was celebrated every

year as Liberation Day. March the twenty-fifth, 2149. A marked day. The day the solar

tiles on Home switched to 2150. They day they celebrated.

Fourmonths of preparation were underway.

Home brand liquor was procured and sold on street-corners for a Euro. Carried

over by ‘modern medicine,’ the elderly residents of Home praised the Father for

reintroducing the currency that had been made moot in 2125 by the Harborman. And at

a better exchange rate than they had been for fifty years. People stocked up. Their

crumbling cupboards bore the weight of the synthetic-glass bottles with astounding

dedication. Almost twenty-five years old, and they refused to detach themselves from

cracked plaster walls.

All around town, people sat in their twenty-five-year-old, partially repaired

furniture and toasted to the Father. And what a good Father! Long live the Father!

Children’s ears rung with the toasts, from January until March every year. But this year

it was different. They were spoken louder, as if to cover up the doubts they all kept

locked away in their chests. To drown out and replace phrases like, hen do you think

the Father will pay to have the stack-buildings updated? hen, do you suppose, will the

school system be patched-up? Do you think man-made grain prices will ever go down like

they did in 2126?

These were left unspoken.

And children played in the streets alongside soldiers wrapped in black cloaks.

Rifles propped in their elbows. Boots thumping rhythmically on the concrete and to the

sky. Underneath the wire crews who crawled like spindly grey spiders across power

lines and construction wires, to the sky. Most of the boys, destined to be recruited and

militarized by fourteen. The scrawny ones, to be sent three hundred feet above the

unforgiving ground to bite wire-cutters between their teeth until they splayed.

Repairing and re-repairing the faulty, twenty-five-year-old wiring. Until then, they

kicked government-issue inflatable balls down the sidewalk with their grey,

government-issue sneakers and stayed out of dark alleys.

New recruits were shuttled in every year from the just-out-of-town sectors. The

Hills. They were the boys with the long, bow legs and mops of yellow hair and beak

noses. They were the boys their mothers sent off to the Force, as something to make them proud. Each morning, they laced their boots a little tighter. Wrote their letters a

little shorter. Told everyone that they were enjoying their training. Enjoying the

privilege of protecting the Father. Long live the Father. And they left their ink pots open,

tossed their capes on, and slipped out between the cracks.

Each day up and down the narrow, winding streets and into alleys they poked

their rifles. Each day searching for some sign of the Dragons, before they could get a

grip on anything important. Vigilance was key, the Father said. If you’re always

watching, they’re always doing something. You only have to know where to look.

Dragons, cloaked in white, with swords on their hips and hoods on their heads.

They vaulted from rooftop to rooftop, silent like a prayer. They were drawn up as a

stereotype on posters. Propaganda for the father. “Don’t become a useless lizard—long

live the Father!” Their black hair hung over their eyes. Hoods draping over to hide

features. A sword drawn, to the right. And flashed across screens that hung two stories

up. Day in and day out. A five minute loop of propaganda. A five minute loop of “long

live the Father.”

The Father himself was not a very imposing or impressive man. Bent-over with

age and failing medical treatments, he sat by his window and absorbed what little sun

he could. Five months earlier, and the physician had ordered all buildings in the nearby

city blocks to direct their mirrored sides at his window. Besides painstakingly frying

him the inside, it reduced the amount of shadows present around the Father’s tower.

Reduced the probability of Dragons planning an assassination attempt.

Every day, the Sons paced in and out of the monumental glass doors, their cloaks

buttoned up to their chins, and a stiff, frozen-over air pervading. Folders and binders of

files on civilians passed through the doors each day. Some packed full of details, from

the tiniest scar to body type. And others, skimming over as if the person mattered no

more than howmuch they ate per month.

Trained in professional data-filing, they were of little use anywhere but where

they were employed. The rest born into their station were recruited just like the Hill

boys, and sent off to mass army-camps. Trained in tactical. Armed to the earlobes. They

were reduced to the same office as any of their inferiors. And all because the Father

appreciated the benefits of a mind. Of having one, and of using it. And using it not for

emotional satisfaction, but logic. Thinking-ability. Strategy.

Anyone thought to be under the standard level of logic and emotion suppression

at the end of their final year in school seemed to vanish. No word of how or why was

given, and none was asked for. “The Father knows what is right.” “The Father will take

good care of them.” “Long live the Father.”

For ten years, no one had heard of a time-jumper surviving the fall, for one thing.

Or, for that matter, living long enough to tell his harrowing tale of time-warp. But

February the twelfth, 2149, Garret Lockley fell through his bathroom mirror.