Chapter 1

This is the first chapter of my novel. Please review it.

 

Chapter 1

 

Extracts from ‘British History 2000-2600AD’

 

Nutrition Act of 2211

 

All members of the United Kingdom must eat food checked and regulated by the Ministry of Food. Meals must follow the guidelines of a healthy diet providing a range of nutrients. Anything that is not low fat or low salt or necessary for human life shall be banned. This includes chocolate, crisps, fizzy drinks etc.

 

People are ordered to take at least two hours of rigorous exercise a day to keep up the nation’s fitness and reduce obesity. All fast food chains are to be closed.

 

Weekly weighing sessions both at work and in school shall be compulsory to ensure the upkeep of health.

 

Not only shall these confectionary items be banned but other substances including alcohol and cigarettes are now illegal. Anyone found in possession shall be severely reprimanded with a sentence in one of our Rehabilitation Camps.

 

Environmental Act of 2218

 

The use of vehicles is now illegal. All modes of transport shall be removed from our roads excluding the new hybrid lorries and buses. This move is to cut down on the increasing carbon emissions released into the atmosphere which are damaging to the planet and our health.

 

Fossil fuel burning power stations are to be closed down and replaced with wind farms and other renewable energy sources. To prevent complete collapse of these stations due to overuse people are not permitted to use lights in the day and electrical appliances will be only available in the day.

 

Social Movement of 2260

 

Due to the obviously damaging influences of religion on our world society today it has been decided that there shall no longer be religions that segregate our communities and cause conflict and violence. Instead everyone shall follow the belief of the atheist.

 

Because of this, festivals such as Christmas, Easter and Diwali shall no longer be part of the calendar.

 

Social Movement of 2264

 

Because of the seriously fast pace at which the world’s population is increasing people shall be restricted to one child only and this shall be conceived within a wedding contract and not out. Sex is only permitted inside marriage and anyone not following this law shall be punished.

 

If a child is born a b*****d they shall be killed. The same rule goes for any number of multiple births; only one child shall be left. Disabled or mutated babies shall also be removed at birth to save difficulty for it and society in future life.

 

Disciplinary Agreement 2289

 

Despite the introduction of our new Patrolling Droids on the streets, people are still persisting in breaking the law in terms of consuming illegal substances and breaking the curfew that has been put in place for your safety.

 

In punishment for this worldwide offence comedy is to be removed from life. It is already thought by scientists to be a bad influence on children and adults, a fact that has been meticulously tested. Jokes, laughing and anything else to do with comedy are to be banished from society. Joke books, comedy television and other ‘funny’ merchandise will be burnt.

 

If this law is breeched then severe repercussions could be in order.

 

                       ***

 

3608 Present Day

 

The classroom was grey: the walls were grey – not a single display in sight – the ceiling was a grey and littered with dull, barely luminescent, environmentally-friendly lights; the floor was a dirty greyish-brown and even the students in their identical black uniforms looked grey.

 

On each face was a sullen, despondent expression formed over years of spending time in the same room. Their eyes were fixed on the identical text books, one between two, laid out before them with scrolling pages of endless writing. They barely blinked as the information sunk into their brains.

 

At the front of the class stood a large grey robot. It was a form of the Teacher Droid 300 sent to all the schools around the world. This particular model went by the name of Miss Crusher and she’d been teaching students at Bilvard School for over fifty years. Well, when one says teaching it could be argued that the way she treated the children was more like an army drill sergeant, forcing the information upon them and ordering them to learn it.

 

She was currently scanning the group of pupils for any wrong-doings. It was a pointless exercise as none of the children dared mess around for they knew they would be caught straight away by Miss Crusher’s hawk-like vision and punished dreadfully.

 

Colin Hart sat at the back of the rows of desks staring blankly at the moving words in front of him. He hated TeleText, it confused and perplexed him no end. He much preferred reading the old novels and comics stacked away in the attic by his dad. Those were stories he could understand. Plus, he disliked learning about the past and all the things that had made his life what it was.

 

At fifteen years of age Colin had never once laughed, he’d never even heard a joke or something remotely humorous. Neither had he travelled in a car or left the place where he lived, the capital of England, London since his birth.

 

Although the rest of the world also followed the rules and laws that had been set in Britain there was no way of reaching them leaving the little island very segregated. There were still imports and exports of food and material but these were tightly monitored for stowaways and immigrants. Nobody just went on holiday to a different country.

 

Colin surreptitiously glanced up at the clock on the far wall, he was supposed to keep his eyes glued to the book but, quite frankly, he’d had enough and he wanted to see how long he had left. It was 3:28pm. That meant he had exactly two minutes until the bell went. It always went on the dot.

 

With another sneaky look he glanced at his neighbour. His neighbour was a very tall, gangly boy hunched into a ridiculously tiny desk. It was a very silly sight, worthy of a laugh, but that wouldn’t even cross Colin’s mind once. The tall boy’s legs were bent awkwardly beneath the wooden frame, his knees around his ears. His head rested on one palm as he too stared at the book with a void expression. Light brown almost blonde hair flopped gracelessly onto his forehead in its usual, typically un-brushed, messy fashion. Somehow though, Colin mused to himself, the teen managed to make it look reasonably cool.

 

This boy was called Jonah Silvas and he was one of Colin’s best friends. His other friend and class-mate was sitting to his left, Rory Gunner. With a shock of spiky red hair, Rory made quite a statement on the otherwise bleak grey society. Saying red hair usually means a shade of orange, even ginger, but Rory actually had red hair. He’d dyed it at the age of twelve as a sort of small rebellion against the rules set upon his life because it was one thing that would ruin the uniform community without breaking the law.

 

Rory was like that, he liked to push things to the limit whether it be something as trivial as staying up later than his mum wanted or more majorly, the law. Colin was sure, although he knew his friend would never admit it, that the reason for Rory’s rebellious personality went all the way back to his birth.

 

                       ***

 

When Rory’s mother, Jenny, had fallen pregnant she had been horrified to discover at her first ultra scan that she was to have twins. Jenny knew that as soon as her children were born she would have to choose one to live and the other to die. Instead of perceiving this double conception as a miracle the young woman spent nine months in a nightmare of worry and fear.

 

The day finally came, 1^st October 2592, when Jenny Gunner was rushed into hospital clutching her husband’s hand screaming for painkillers. Despite the considerable advancements in medicine, including the cure for cancer, labour was still a painful process and probably always would be.

 

She’d been attended to by several Nurse Droids along with a human midwife called Dr Jones. He’d greeted her with a false cheery smile that betrayed his reluctance to take part in the birthing. Jenny knew at once that he’d read her notes because no one wants to deliver a baby into the world knowing it’s about to be killed.

 

Two hours later one little baby was born, a boy. The young woman had stared at the infant with absolute joy. He was so tiny and perfect with minuscule fingers and toes and a small button nose.

“Do you want this one or the next one?” Dr Jones grunted, reluctant to intrude on the first bonding.

 

Jenny immediately knew she’d made a gigantic mistake. Now she’d seen her son she knew there was no way she’d be able to give him up. There was no longer a choice. It had to be this infant. 

“This one,” she’d whispered, cuddling the baby closer, savouring its warmth. Her husband stood beside her and nodded in agreement. Neither had any idea of the sex of the other twin but they knew the boy was the one they were keeping.

 

The woman had given birth to the next child six hours later and as the baby was removed from her body she desperately tried to ignore its pitiful wail for comfort. She looked away as the Nurse Droid carried the blanket-clad bundle past her. Jenny knew she would never see her baby again.

“Did you want to know the sex?” A passive Dr Jones questioned. Jenny nodded mutely. “It was a girl.”

“Rosa,” the young woman said, “Rosa and Rory.”

 

                       ***

 

The bell rang shrilly through the classroom startling several students from their work. There was a unified scuffling and scraping as the youngsters pushed back their chairs and grabbed bags ready to go home.

“Homework,” Miss Crusher grated loudly, “Finish reading British History 2000-2600AD.”

 

Colin groaned quietly to himself, in that whole lesson he’d only read about a quarter of the entire text. He was going to have a lot of fun tonight.

“Hey, buddy, why the glum face?” Jonah asked clapping him on the shoulder, “It’s the weekend in two days and then only a week ‘til the summer holidays! Life is good.”

“Oh nothing,” Colin shrugged; he didn’t need to think about homework right now. Jonah was correct; they had a lot to look forward to.

 

Once Rory had caught up with them, a big grin on his face, the three exited the room together and joined the torrent of kids trying to escape the school building. There was supposed to be a system to moving through the corridors which was enforced by the Teacher Droids but by the end of the day there was no point as the students streamed out of the doors and onto the street.

 

A few children jumped onto the single hybrid school bus that stopped by to give them a lift into the countryside; others hurried over to the bike shed and grabbed their transport before departing; the last kids headed off in groups or pairs to walk home.

 

The boys lived in roughly the same area of London so they all walked together. It was quite a trek to the outskirts of the city but they enjoyed each others’ company.

 

Just as they were setting off on their journey a sharp shout caused them to halt in their tracks – Jonah with a groan on the tip of his tongue. He spun on the spot to come face to face with a small, slim girl. She had a disgruntled expression on her face: deep frown marks engraved on her forehead marring her usually perfectly flawless face.

“Mum told you to wait for me,” the young girl sated hitting the tall boy on the arm.

 

The Silvas family was a very rare scenario of domestic life considering Jonah had a sister, Annette, otherwise known as Netti. As previously stated families with more than one child were not permitted. However, Netti and Jonah were not related by blood but by the marriage between their widowed parents.

 

Sophia Wilde was eighteen when she married Tomas Green, a farmer who lived in Somerset. They had lived an idyllic existence in their little farmhouse surrounded by rolling countryside and acres of woodland.

 

Tomas made his living producing organic products such as vegetables, fruits and milk which were in great demand in this new ‘healthy eating’ society. He had a large herd of dairy cows, several chickens, an orchard and a few fields to grow his root vegetables and grains.

 

Sophia fell pregnant a few months into their marriage and Jonah Green was delivered into the world in the early spring. In the July of the same year a tragic accident occurred which put paid to the perfect family lifestyle. Tomas received a fatal goring to the stomach from a rampaging bull in rutting season and the doctors were unable to save him.

 

At the tender age of nineteen Sophia fled the farm to escape the terrible grief with her five month old son cradled in her arms. She bought a ticket on the very expensive hybrid bus that travelled all the way from there to London to start her life afresh.

 

Upon reaching London, Sophia knew she had few options as a widow with a newborn baby both for jobs and men. The fact she was a single, homeless mother with a squalling baby put off any job offers she may have received. And as she had already conceived, men who liked children wouldn’t want to marry her because she would not be allowed to carry another baby.

 

In dire poverty for several months the world looked bleak for the young woman. However, by some stroke of luck, that others might call fate, Sophia met a man by the name of Robin Silvas in a park near the centre of London.

 

He was pushing the pram of a tiny baby with locks of raven downy hair covering the crown of her head and massive blue eyes the colour of the sky on a cloudless day.

 

They had gotten talking about their children and Sophia discovered Robin’s wife had died giving birth to the one month old Annette in a very unfortunate, unforeseen complication during labour.

 

Brought together by the loss of loved ones Sophia and Robin developed a great deal of love and respect for one another. This bond eventually leading to their marriage in the next January.

 

The rarity of this case being because babies could only be conceived within a marriage and divorce was not permitted so for both to be widowed so early on in their relationship with children was almost unheard of.

 

Death was something that although was common for babies was becoming quite a foreign concept. With the advances in medicine people lived much longer, well into their hundreds. Also with the removal of cars there were no road traffic accidents to strike people down and the ban on drugs and alcohol meant no overdoses.

 

Having been brought up together from such a young age, Jonah and Netti were as close as a brother and sister could be. They fought constantly, got on each others’ nerves but when it came to it they would always defend one another.

 

“Sorry sis,” Jonah smiled down at her with a patronising glint in his emerald green eyes.

 

There was something vaguely comical about the two standing side by side: the towering blonde, slightly goofy, Jonah contrasting to the petite charcoal haired fiery Netti. There was no denying that Netti was extremely pretty with her dark complexion and orb-like cerulean blue eyes. She had plenty of boys queuing up to be her ‘friends’ but that’s when Jonah always stepped into the role of over-protective big brother despite only being seven months her senior. He was in the year above in school years though.

 

Ignoring the fact that Jonah was ridiculously skinny, so much so that if he lifted his shirt and breathed in he looked practically skeletal, he was still a giant in the school yard and no boys dared stand up to a tough as nails Year Ten kid. Especially as it was rumoured he’d been suspended at one point for breaking a Year Eleven’s arm because he was making stick insult jibes.

 

“Don’t make that face at me, Jo. Besides, you know how much I hate walking down the streets on my own when the Trolls are about.” Netti let out an involuntary shudder.

“I was going to wait for you, I just kind of…”

“Forgot?”

“Well…” Jonah looked sheepish, “Yeah.”

“Whatever,” Netti flicked her hair and shoved him forwards, “Let’s go. I don’t want to be out after dark.”

 

The foursome was almost home when they spotted a Troll. Netti visibly shrank behind her older brother with a blank expression on her face whilst the boys tried not to look at the monstrosity to their right.

 

Although cars didn’t fill the streets of the towns and cities any more something else did: Patrolling Droids aptly named Trolls. They were an extension of the Police Force, the branch that dealt solely with trouble on the streets, breaking up fights, keeping curfew and making sure there were no dodgy dealings going on.

 

The fact they were called Trolls was partially because they did resemble to some point the mythical beings that terrorized fairy tales. The droids were massive and grey, made of reinforced steel armour plating should they run into any trouble. They had nasty looking arms equipped with built in weapons including knives and guns. They were the stuff straight out of children’s’ nightmares and designed that way to deter any present or budding criminals. Red, lamp-like eyes which doubled as scanners could see through clothing and detect immediately if there was anything illegal on your person.

 

Despite being entirely mechanic and programmed to be ruthless these robots did develop different characteristics throughout their time on the streets as they acquired experience. Some were completely merciless having had one too many kids try to slash their circuits whereas the newer ones were more naïve and less imposing.

 

At the age of five Colin had had his first real close up experience with a Troll when he ran into the road past curfew, a bottle of water in his hand. Almost immediately the tiny boy was ripped from the floor by his neck, clamp-like hands crushing his vulnerable windpipe, so the droid could scan the bottle and return him indoors.

 

Ever since then, understandably, Colin had been extremely wary of the droids. He didn’t show his fear as visibly as Netti however preferring to just stand stock still whenever one came within a few metres, his heart rate rocketing through the roof.

 

The Troll paid them no attention because it was before nightfall and they were just a bunch of kids. The group past by with no trouble.

Author's Note

Please review! And tell me whether you think it is an interesting or intriguing beginning...

Reviews

[britty]

its very interesting! and hopefully the world will not be like that well i liked the part where they try to do something about the obesity.