Chapter 1

May 18th, 3624

Anya

The house is quiet, too quiet. Outside my window I see dark storm clouds, which is fitting since today is the day the next generation of the military will be announced. Fifty teenage boys are selected to train with the military and ten teenage girls are forced to accompany them as caretakers. They are divided into ten sectors evenly and will train that way for a year before being thrust into the war to fight against the City. I already know I’m going to be selected. I was practically born into the military. My dad was the leader of the military before he was killed, and my mom was his assistant. Now that I’m sixteen I get to be entered into the military with her and help the soldiers win the war.

“Eli it’s time to get up!” I yell down the hall. Since my mom’s usually working early in the morning it’s my job to wake him up. I start to make breakfast, and after a few minutes I realize that Eli isn’t up yet. “Eli I mean it! Today’s the day we find out who the new soldiers are going to be!!” I yell again, noting the faint shuffling from his room. He groggily walks into the kitchen and sits at the table with a good view of the screen where the list will be displayed. I bring him his breakfast and pull up a chair next to him just as the screen clicks on. It scrolls through the sectors one by one. I don’t see my name until it gets to eight.

 

Sector 8

Sergeant: Adrian Rivera

Caretaker: Anya Reilly

Soldiers:

Zeke Anderson

Ryann Carter

Eli Reilly

Scott Rivera

Derek Thompson

 

My heart stops. Eli’s only twelve. Why is he on the list?! I look down at him in shock and see him tearing up. “You knew didn’t you? Eli, you knew you were going to get chosen didn’t you?” I say.

“Yeah…I knew yesterday. I was contacted and they asked me if I wanted to train with you in your sector, rather than having me wait until next year. I figured if I was going to train anyways, I’d rather do it with you, and I might as well get it over with,” he replies, looking down at his feet.

I kiss him lightly on the forehead. “At least now we get to go through this together. Now eat. It said the train’s coming to pick us up in one hour. I’ll help you pack.”

“Anya? Can I ask you something?” Eli says quickly, grabbing my arm. I nod, unable to speak as I stare into his watery brown eyes. “Do you think I’m going to be a good soldier?”

“I know you will. One day you’ll be the next leader of the military just like dad was, and I’ll be right there with you the whole time,” I reply, tearing up myself. “You’ll be so good that I know dad will be proud.”

“How can he be proud if he’s dead? He doesn’t even know me,” Eli added stubbornly. He always gets defensive when we talk about our dad, but he reminds me of him so much, or the small part of him that I knew. “Why did dad have to die?” He asks me, nuzzling into my armpit to cry. “Why couldn’t someone else’s dad have died?”

“Oh Eli, you know that dad was a very powerful man. He was the head of the military and he was in charge of protecting everyone else, and the City wanted him gone because they knew he wouldn’t give up our land,” I say teary eyed, trying to stay strong for him.

“Mom said that he was protecting you when he died, that he saved you from the City people. So how come you can’t remember what happened?” He screams resentfully, crying more hysterically now. I tense up. I always hate when he brings that up. No one can figure out why I can’t remember that day specifically. The doctors said that my brain reset my Federation Chip somehow, to forget the traumatizing memory, but because I was the only one there for the preceding events, no one knows why I was even at the facility that my father was killed in. They said in time my memory might come back, but it’s out of my hands now. The Federation Chip isn’t supposed to undo a reset of memory. I only remember one thing, or I have dreams about one thing from that night. Whenever I think of the event, I see blue, just a flash of a blue something.

“I don’t know,” I sigh. “Let’s just forget dad ever came up. We only have 45 minutes now to pack. Go get your bag,” I continue, changing the subject, rustling his hair as he leaves the table. I start towards my own room, take out the Federation-issued travel bag, and start to pack my things, not that I need much. The training facility issues you a uniform and toiletries, so it’s mainly just a few outfits for non-training days and anything special that I want to bring.

Digging through my closet produced my few nicer outfits and my favorite book, a collection of fairy tales from the pre-Federation era that my mother got for me. The clock chimes eight, telling me we now only have fifteen minutes to get down to the train station. I call to Eli, but he’s already waiting by the front door, shoes and coat hanging on him lazily, as if he was rushing to put them on. I can’t tell if he’s nervous or excited. I don’t even know which one I am. I haven’t really thought about how I felt about this whole thing. Honestly I went into this accepting that I would be chosen, forgetting that the caretakers are often the one’s experimented on with new technology, and are very badly mistreated since the soldiers are the important ones, not them.

Eli and I walk to the train station in silence, passing by many other people carrying the Federation travel bag, all of them about my age. The train we’re assigned to is one of the nicest trains I’ve seen yet, with no chipped paint or ripped seats, only the best for the future killers of the Federation. In train car eight, there are six seats facing a man at the front. I’m assuming he’s the Sergeant. Eli and I take a seat in the back and put our bags under our chairs.

“Anya?” The voice surprises me. I whip my head up to look at who said it and end up hitting my head on the chair in front of me. I moan and grab the back of my head, staring into the eyes of Zeke, my old neighbor. He moved to the other side of town after my dad was killed and the war broke out. His parents thought that my mom would pressure them to get involved in the war, and they were very anti-violence. I never got in touch with him after that. We went to the same secondary school but we still never talked. I’m surprised he even recognizes me.

“Oh, hi,” I mumble, unsure of what else I’m supposed to say. “Zeke, I hardly recognized you,” I add quickly as he sits down. I know I would have recognized his name on the list if I hadn’t been so surprised at Eli’s. Oh well, it’s not like we’re friends anymore. I haven’t seen him in eight years; I don’t have to remember him.

The train jerks and starts moving efficiently fast in a direction I know I’ve never been before. The training facility is in a very secluded area that even my brother and I haven’t ever been to, even if our dad was the head of the military. The man in the front of the room stands up with a weird looking pen in his hand. He twirls it around his fingers once, graceful and practiced, like a nervous habit.

“Congratulations future soldiers, I’m pleased to see all of your bright smiling faces despite the recent events,” he recites sarcastically, as if it were a memorized speech. “I am Adrian Rivera, Sergeant of sector 8, your Sergeant for the next year. I am about to come around and set your Federation chip to the military setting. What this does is it displays a number that reflects your statistics. Each of you already has a number associated with you based on things like school records, any small job records, and police records if any of you were to have one.” He takes the pen and sticks it behind one of the boys’ ears, right where our Federation chip is located. He flinches a little and then Adrian stands him up to reveal a green number behind his right ear: 58. “Now this here is my seventeen-year-old brother, Scott. His score is pretty high for someone who hasn’t started training yet, but that is because he volunteered at a bunch of places before this. His number is green because the last thing that was placed into his stat program was a good thing, or something that added points to his score. If ever he were to do something wrong that number would be red after the correct amount of points were deducted,” he continues.

I glance at Scott. His face looks hard and merciless, someone who is very fit for a war. His stance is casual: crossed arms, distant eyes looking at nothing in particular, annoyed frown across his face, and so on.  Adrian sits him back down and moves back to the next recruit. He performs the chip setting and tells him to stand up and introduce himself. “This way all of you can make use of this time a learn names,” he explains.

The boy stands up and I can see his darkened eyes clearly. Maybe it’s just his longer, ear-length hair shading them, but they almost look too dark, closer to black than brown. “My name is Derek Thompson,” he starts with an oddly deep voice and a mysterious smirk on his face. “I’m sixteen years old, and some voice in my brain just told me that my number is 67. Is that right?” He looks out at each of us for clarification, but he’s correct. Adrian’s eyes widen.

“That number’s a bit high. You must have a really clean record then,” Adrian remarks. Derek smugly smiles and sits down as Adrian moves hesitantly towards Eli, as if he thinks Derek’s number is wrong in some way. I see why though. I wouldn’t think someone with long hair and dark eyes would be mister-goody-two-shoes either.

Eli stands up. “Hi, I’m Eli Reilly-”

“Wait you’re the son of Nathan and Jessalyn Reilly, the leader and head secretary of the military branch, right? Well, former leader I guess,” Derek observes. He turns in his chair to look at Eli, making him shift uncomfortably. “But that’s not the point. Your parents are like legends. That must explain why you’re here even though you look like you’re about ten.”

“I’m…actually I’m twelve,” he replies uneasily. “I’m just short for my age. But yeah those are my parents, and Anya here is my sister.” All eyes instantly shift over to me. I blush in embarrassment, but then see Adrian standing behind me and take that as my cue to stand up. I turn my head to the left, away from him and lock eyes with Eli. I know he’s just nervous, so I can’t blame him for trying to shift the attention. I catch a glimpse at his number: 30. It’s not as high as Scott’s or Derek’s, but he is also four or five years younger than them. They got to finish school before this, he didn’t. Everyone finishes school at age fifteen, unless you join the military first, so Eli would still have three years left before he graduated, but not anymore.

I can hear my number ringing through my head, 46, before I start talking. “Uh…I’m Anya Reilly, as he said, and I’m sixteen years old,” I state mechanically, feeling as if my introduction is too simple, but Adrian moves right onto Zeke.

He stands up and I can really see how tall he is, and way more mature than the last time I saw him. But he’s probably still the same stuck-up rich kid I grew up with. That’s why his family didn’t like mine, because they thought they were too good for the military. I mean my family had a great deal of money too, but we never let it get to us. Zeke’s starting number is a 50, and the boy next to him, Ryann, age fifteen, starts with a 45. Adrian takes a seat up at the front of the train car again.

“Now, I’ll explain your numbers more, since you know what they are. During your days of training, your performance of the different tasks will be rated by me. There are many different categories such as speed, accuracy, form, repetition and so on. They will be rated on a scale of one to ten, and then overall averaged. The person with the highest score will have three points added to their number. It will then decrease by one as you move down, leaving the last person with a choice. They can either have a point deducted from their score, or take an extra half hour of conditioning with me,” he smirks. “Anya, your score will go up by one for every task you do for the recruits, for example: wrapping an injury or getting an icepack. It will also increase by one for each day that your chores are assigned and completed which will probably be about once a week or so. I’ll explain more to you later. Once we arrive at the training center, you all will have the rest of the day to unpack and look around our wing. You must stay in our wing. There will be a sector lunch at one o’clock, so about one hour from when we arrive. It will give you six a chance to get to know each other before training starts tomorrow.

“Anya, you are the caretaker for this sector, so your job is a bit different. In case you weren’t already informed, you will be sitting in on all of the training session, mainly watching, but if anyone gets hurt or something spills, then you will be in charge of fixing that. I would recommend not bothering the recruits, although that might be difficult given your brother is here too. The other one’s you should have no problem avoiding. It’s for the best. As for the rest of you, the rules are simple: Do not leave the wing, do not use any violence outside of the training rooms, and do not disrespect me or your fellow recruits. Anything else should be common sense. If I see you doing something that I find bad, then I have the authority to deduct point, regardless of what you think, any questions?” he adds just as the train jerks to a stop. The doors open to reveal the inside of a really high-tech building.

Everyone races to grab their bags and file out the door. In the training center, there are loads of other people from the other sectors walking off of the train. Adrian leads us immediately to the wing for sector eight. It’s a lot larger than I expected, with at least nine or ten doors stretched along the narrow hallway. The first door on the left is open and leads to the bedroom, so we all file inside and choose beds. I take the one closest to the wall on the far side of the room, and Eli takes the one next to me. All of the other recruits start talking to each other, but Eli stays by his bed. I can see fear in his eyes, as if everything is actually real now. I walk over to him and give him a hug, knowing it’ll make him feel better.

“Anya I want to go home,” he cries quietly into my shirt. “I’m scared to train. I know I’m not going to be good enough.”

“It’s okay to be scared. I am too. Just take a deep breath and relax. You don’t need to train until tomorrow. But I’ll always be here for you, okay?”

“Yeah, Eli your sister is here to protect you from scary things. Maybe she can fight the monster under your bed too, or the boogey man in the closet.” I dart my eyes up and see Scott standing in front of me, laughing. Who knew the oldest one here would be the most immature? In response to that, I roll my eyes and glare at him. “What’s the matter, not going to fight back? Oh wait, that’s right, you can’t.”

“You know what? I don’t care about that. You do not pick on my little brother. He’s five years younger than you and he’s here willingly. I’m sure your brother wouldn’t think that teasing is being ‘respectful of the other recruits’ and wasn’t that one of his rules?” I snap. If he wants a fight, so be it.

“You think my brother is going to care whether I’m nice to you? I’m the best one here by a mile; the military is in my blood. I’ve been involved in strength training all my life. This is just the next step, and he knows that. I could get away with anything I wanted to,” He sneers. It takes everything in me to calm down and not smack him in the face.

“Well I mean you aren’t the best one here, remember? Derek has a higher number than you, so wouldn’t that make him better?” I add, looking over at Derek standing on the opposite side of the room. He seems to be just watching the conversation. He isn’t laughing, smiling, anything. He’s just standing there. Scott’s face turns the lightest shade of pink, his eyes narrowing at me. I pissed him off. Perfect.

“Anya, stop.” I turn to look at who it was: Zeke.

“Excuse me?” I don’t even try to hide my surprise. He wasn’t even involved in this.

“It’s better for you if you don’t fight with him, especially not the first time you’ve ever met him. Just let it go, it’s fine, he’s just trying to irritate you,” he adds calmly, as if this whole thing were my fault.

“Oh, sure, I’m sorry I didn’t realize that you knew me so well after not talking to me for like eight years. The Anya you met back then changed. You have no authority over her anymore.”

“Anya, calm down. I wasn’t…I mean I didn’t…I just didn’t want you to get into a fight. I’m trying to help you out,” he stammers, looking down at his feet. “You don’t have to be defensive about it. It’s just me.

“Oh, of course, I’m sorry. It’s just like when you were trying to ‘help me out’ the day your family cut off all communication with mine. But just like back then, you have no freaking clue what’s really the best for me. You’re just in it for yourself aren’t you?” He opens his mouth to reply, but says nothing. “Wow, you really are the same kid you were back then: Selfish. Maybe I changed, but you sure didn’t.”

I push past everyone’s watchful eyes and slam the door shut. I don’t know where I’m going, but anywhere is better than there.