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A story that takes place in te future

My mother and I walked down the street. She was wearing a thick, pink coat. Her cylinder shaped hat was pulled tightly over her head. Her form of dressing was acceptable because of the weather conditions.

The sky was a dark, cloudy gray and it was so windy you could be lifted off the ground by a quick breeze. She held the shopping bags tightly. She gripped them as though they were slipping from her very fingers. I walked close to her side. There were only a few other people on the side walk. Many were women and children.

I felt my mother tug on my arm. I glanced ahead to where she seemed to be looking and I spotted the guard. He was dressed in his long, dark blue coat, heavy black boots, a dark oval shaped helmet, and he was heavily armed.

I knew exactly what my mother meant. She didn’t even have to speak a word to me for me to understand. The guard stood on the corner of the side walk. We needed to make a right turn where he was to get around the corner. There was no other way, so we would have no choice but to walk around him. The guards were everywhere. They were on every street corner and every sidewalk. They all seemed to have the same cruel, snobby personality. We usually avoided them but today it seemed it would be inevitable we’d be confronted by one. Mom usually hated bringing me out in public because of the guards and Claim Order 16 16 16.

I knew the routine. We both stood close together and looked down at the sidewalk as we walked on. My heart was racing with suspense. We neared the guard. I glanced up quickly at him and then back down at my feet walking on the side walk. He had been staring at the street at the slow moving traffic.

We got closer and closer and closer, until we walked in front of him. I felt his menacing eyes on us as we walked around him and were halfway around the corner. The last thing you wanted to do was make eye contact with these guards.

“You,” he said in a cruel voice.

I froze in my tracks but my mother kept walking. You had to obey the guards. My mother noticed I stopped so she did too.

We didn’t even turn around. We stood frozen and listened as the guard’s heavy footsteps smashed against the pavement and he approached us.  He walked around us so that he stood in front of us. This guard looked to be in his mid-forties. He had a permanent scowl tattooed on his face. My eyes locked on his large gun that he gripped so tightly.

“What is your name?” he asked harshly.

He appeared to be speaking to me, but to my surprise my mother answered for me, “His name is Dan,”

The guard scowled and said coldly at my mother, “I was not speaking to you. I was talking to the boy. He has a mouth. Let him use it,” he turned his attention back to me and repeated his question, “What is your name boy?”

I tried to answer confidently but my reply came out shaky and nervous, “D…Dan,’

He barked another question at me, “How old are you?”

Again my mother answered, “He’s 15. He just turned it a month ago. He isn’t 16 or older yet. He’s only 15,”

The guard spoke in his harsh voice, through clenched teeth, “Let the boy answer,” he was losing his patience with Mom, “I’m not going to warn you again,”

I hoped my mother would obey. The last thing I wanted was for the guard to hit her and me to be unable to help her. My mother was silent. She had fear written all over her face. The guard looked at me waiting for an answer to his question.

“I’m…15,”

He stared at me for a moment as if trying to decide whether I was telling the truth or not. He then asked in a suspicious tone, “Do you speak the truth boy?”

I nodded, “Of course,” people walking by stared at us with concern but they said nothing. It was never a good thing if a guard spoke to you, “I…I know the law. I’m 15. Had I been older I would go and help fight,”

The guard nodded and said, “Get out of here,” Out of all the guards I had encountered in my life he had to be the kindest one. Others would probably punch Mom or me and tell us to get lost before they hurt us.

My mother and I quickly walked away. As we hurried off she muttered, “I should have never brought you out here son,”

I understood her remark completely. No caring mother with a son near or over the age of 16 would even dare take the risk she took today of bringing their son out into public.

It was all because of the law passed 3 years ago called Claim Order 16 16 16. 100 years ago in the year 2011, technology on Earth began to develop rather quickly and became more advanced. By 2020 technology became so advanced that mechanical robots could walk and talk roaming the planet. They were maids, worked in stories, and usually did the jobs many humans didn’t want to do. In a few years there were millions of them on the planet and people used them for everything and they were everywhere.   They were like mechanical slaves.

Only one man, by the name of Render, was against using technology such as the robots to do our bidding. He hacked into a large computer system and reprogrammed all the robots on Earth to attack and harm humans.

At first no one was really concerned but the robots got their hands on some nuclear weapons and for decades human have been at war with them. It got so bad that the robots actually conquered certain parts of the world. Soon there was a compromised the humans and robots reached by 2056, so that the fighting could end. The world was divided into 2 parts. One side for humans and the other for robots.

So for many decades the war and fighting stopped. Humans stayed on their side. Robots on theirs. Everyone lived in peace. Then 3 years ago, in 3008, the Robots finally decided that they wanted to get rid of the humans all together. So they started attacking and blowing up major cities, with their highly trained robot army. For 3 years the wars has been going on.

It’s been so bad that our own army was running out of soldiers. No one wants the robots to conquer us. Only for them to be defeated, we need an army. So Claim Order 16 16 16 was passed saying that any male 16 years old or older, automatically has to join the human army and help fight off the robots. Everyone was against it so our leader, Richard Len Brook (The political system and government ended long ago when the robots first began attacking. So in 2050 when all the humans were forced to one side of the world everyone choose a leader and since then we’ve had a leader) had to make sure the law was enforced. So he had guards take anyone who was a male and 16 or older by force if they didn’t come by themselves.

The robots attacks are random and unpredictable so guards are on every street corner to prepare. The guards are mean mainly because they are angry with the robots. They also treat women and children badly because they feel they are weak and can’t contribute to the fighting. The females who do volunteer aren’t treated any better. The world is a scary place.

Mom has always been against me joining. She was older than most mothers. She's almost 60 years old. I was all she had. Of course she didn’t want me to go off and fight. Only in a year’s timing she won’t have a choice.