The Fence Chptr 1

 

                       The Fence

                     Chapter 1

 

            It’s no use. Nobody crosses the fence.  

They can try, but they won’t make it.      

Nobody makes it.

There will be another attempt today, and everyone will be there.

                           

I don’t see why they even they try.

 

The fence fell on us exactly one year ago today.

                                A lot’s happened.   Many have been lost.

Let me explain.

 

When the fence fell, every person in the Southside St. Middle School grounds above the age of fifteen dropped dead at exactly 10:17 am on may 21^st 2010.

 

Today is the one year mark.

 

      And that year mark has brought on a death toll of 79 people. They either tried to jump the fence, were  murdered, or couldn’t take it any longer, if you catch my drift. This force brought upon us,

(now called the fence because its borders go around the fence of what used to be Southside St. Middle School.) its as if someone has put an invisible cardboard box over our school. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out. Only sunlight, and moonlight. No rain or snow, you can’t even see the other side.

If you try to cross, you vanish.

        All we know is that it’s not to the other side, for sure. When you cross, we hear the screams of pure torture, a sound that haunts the rest of us forever. At first, crossing the fence was brave, but now it’s just pointless.

           No ones ever going to get through, so we’ve created a colony. It’s not the best life, but it’s life. We grow our own food, and ration what food we still have of the outer world. Authority does not stop those who want to jump the fence, but besides that, we’re pretty civilized for the most part.

You’d think a school without adults would soon turn to chaos, (and well it did in the beginning just a little.) But we are sophisticated.

            There are groups, and each of those groups has a leader or two. Some groups have no problem with people switching in and out of them, but some groups have to accept you, and some even select you like the police force, counsel, cooks, lawmakers, and food rationers. If you are selected, you can’t say no. 

     There are gangs too. Those have selective leaders, and those groups you don’t want to be in. The gangs are separate from counsel; they have their own wing in the school that they’ve taken over by force. Somehow those barbarians have created their own government. The police track all gang members. But if one or two of them is caught alone unarmed, they will be locked in classroom containment.

It’s like jail.

      The windows are boarded up from the outside, and it’s heavily guarded. Sometimes there are small trials, depending on what you have done. Unless you’ve caused a death, the sentence is a year at the most. Accidental, 2 years, murder 5. That’s a long time in a classroom. Talk about detention.

       Lots of murders have been committed. One was locked in a kiln room; others hung on a flagpole. Those are more dramatic ones. Normally deaths are being beaten to death by gangs, or being thrown over the fence.

     If you throw someone over a fence, that’s permanent containment. Until you die. It’s as Simple as that.

       All bodies that aren’t criminals are buried in the outer baseball field. Nobody plays there. Gravestones are made of wood, paper, plaster, anything your loved ones can find to mark your grave.

 

               Anyways, we still have fun stuff like sports. Football, basketball, baseball, track, floor hockey, and even skateboard races. And it all works out for the outdoor games because inside the fence it’s always 85 degrees and it never rains! So we do have some fun in this living hell. We try to make the best of things, like the dorms. Each “family or whatever has it’s own classroom. It’s a room that you can decorate. It’s your living space to sleep, eat, hang out, etc. I guess its kinda cool.

But not really.

 

     Every group has kind of a theme. Well, not a theme, but like the cliques or friend groups we used to have at school. The sports teams have their dorms, the preps, the artists, the police force, the government.

    Except your friends and your group really are the closest things you have to a family now. It’s hard to explain, but so simple to think about. Sadly, there’s a flipside to this happy little fairytale family.

   Sometimes, fights break out. Not like the little petty fights over toothbrushes and living space. Not the little fights that leave cuts, but the fights that leave scars. That’s how the gangs started.

Its kind of my fault.

Oops.

Author's Note

Chapter one with some edit, pardon my mistakes

Reviews

[halflives]

THIS. WAS. FAWKING. EPIC.

I loved it. A lot. Like Ella-Bella said, the cliffhanger is what really made the chapter. YES. GONE IS A LOT LIKE THIS. Only this one's a lot different, which is good. I'm drawn in, now I need to read on.

The only complaint I have is how it's set up. The paragraphs are kind of messed up. You might want to go over that a bit.

Well done! Reading on.

[obvious pseudonym]

its really amazing sarah and it reminds me of a book that i read called gone. i love the narrator its obviously not an adult but theyre not omnipresent. the whole system sounds really cool... love the cliffhanger