Authors: Megan White
I knew if I ran with him we would have taken care of each other the best we could, for as long as we were allowed to live; which would not have been long.
We reached the square as it was beginning to fill with the rest of the Testers. We were all around the same age, and I saw the fear in their eyes as I searched the courtyard, spotting the Keepers closing us in on all sides.
Our parents were not allowed to accompany us, another one of their rules. We were on our own in more ways than one.
Five Keepers stepped onto the podium as the last batch of Testers arrived. There was no mistaking a Keeper, for their black robes set them apart from the rest of society.
They stuck out like sore thumbs when surrounded by the commoners. Their black robes flowed over the ground as they walked, like dark shadows in a sea of white. White, because that was the only color we were permitted to wear. Government issued garbs, all the same.
“
Shh
.” John hushed in my ear. “The devil is about to speak.”
“Good morning!” The sickly sweet voice of the head Keeper boomed over the crowed. “It is so nice to see such a turn out! We here are all very excited to begin this journey, and all of you young people should feel honored that you are amongst the few that will be the first!” His cheery disposition was nauseating. As I heard his words, felt them sink in, my stomach heaved… I was going to throw up. I could feel the panic beginning to rise inside of me, sweat soon dotting my forehead. John’s hands grasped my shoulders when he felt my body begin to sway involuntarily.
“Don’t pass out on me now,” He teased for only my ears to hear, “You had your chance to run.”
And as I sat in my cell, all I could do was wish I would have run. A swift bullet to the back of our heads when caught would have been a thousand times more merciful than the life a Tester was force to live.
I could feel the eyes of one of The Keepers on us. He was young, not much older than us, with jet-black hair and piercing blue eyes. Those eyes were what held me, ice blue, almost translucent. Nothing about those eyes was human. I stood frozen, captivated by his gaze as it burned into me. We were not allowed to make eye contact with a Keeper. It was a punishable offence, at least three days in jail, and a Keeper’s jail was the last place anyone would want to be.
To them, eye contact showed defiance, and they held their controlling reign over us with such fear that most would never challenge their rules-- unless they had a death wish.
I knew what the Keeper was thinking without him even saying. It was illegal to touch in public, another one of their laws that was forced upon us.
“I’m all right.” I whispered to John who was still trying to steady my swaying. “You better let go before…” I tilted my chin up toward the Keeper that still had his hawk eye on us.
“Screw him.”
“Ehh,” I wrinkled my nose up at him. “I’d rather not.”
“We will be dividing everyone up by housing for the bus ride to the testing area.” We heard the head Keeper announce in his fluid voice that just screamed ‘Supreme’. “Apartment buildings one through five will go on bus one,” He pointed his ridged finger over to the line of armored military busses that lined the square. “As I assign your bus, please line up in front your assigned Keeper.”
“Well,” I sighed, straightening my spine. “I guess we are on bus one.”
“Goody.” John was sulking. He had every right to. We were the only two who knew that the lives we wanted for ourselves would never be possible in a world that was ruled by The Supremacy.
They owned everything and everyone. We were not permitted to speak in public unless spoken to by a Keeper. We were not allowed to move outside of our assigned Zones without a freedom pass, which were rarely given. We were granted the privilege to live only to serve The Supremacy.
We were just the first, the Testers. But there would be more.
Chapter Two
Across from the square our buses were waiting. Their thick armor should have clued us in that there was something amiss but we were all too nervous to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
“How long do you think they will allow us to stay together?”
“The bus-ride over will probably be the last time we see each other until Holiday.” He whispered into my hair, trying to conceal the movement of his lips, “Unless we test into the same school.” He added with a knowing chuckle.
Besides being able to hunt, John and I had no abilities in common, “
Pfft
.” I snorted. “I doubt that. You will probably test into some big bad Keeper school and become everything that we hate.” I nudged his shoulder playfully. John would never willingly become one of those heartless policy makers but we had no choice in what we would become. Physically, John could give any one of them a run for their money, that’s if they gave him a fair shot and put down their weapons. “Black is so not your color.”
He grabbed my hand in a fierce squeeze. “I would rather die than become one of them.”
“And you will if you don’t follow protocol.” I turned to him once we reached the landing of the bus, trying my best to hide our faces behind the crowd that had gathered around us. “Please don’t get yourself killed.” I begged him with pleading eyes, “I am rather fond of your face.”
He leaned down to me, making me think he was going to whisper his reply but to my astonishment, he placed his lips lightly over mine. “I will try my best.”
If a Keeper saw, we would have both been imprisoned.
John’s back immediately stiffened and upon turning, I saw why. The Keeper from the square, the one that noticed us talking, was standing directly behind me. My heart lodged itself in my throat as I watched him watching me. He drifted over to us, his robe making it look as if he were floating rather than walking.
I thought that was it, we were both going to jail. That a simple kiss would be reason for prison time would have been a joke to anyone a few years ago, but that was a time long past. Our lives would never be the same, and now a man that could end both of our worthless lives floated toward us with no emotion in his icy blue stare.
He stopped only inches away from my face, and I could feel his supreme attitude radiating off his body. Never had I been that close to a Keeper.
His expression was vacant as he looked me over. Watching his eyes graze over my figure, it took all my willpower not to vomit.
“
Erin
,” He breathed my name in such a way that it caused my scalp to prickle, and sent goose bumps racing up my arms. How they all knew who we were was unnerving. “I will be your Keeper for the duration of the ride, is there anything bothering you?” He cocked his head to the side, regarding me suspiciously. “I couldn’t help but notice you in the square. Are you nervous?” His voice was sickly sweet as he spoke to me, but I knew what lay beneath that somber appearance, a man with the ability to kill any one of us with one swipe of his prod.
I wanted nothing more than to ignore him, but ignoring an official was not allowed. If a Keeper spoke to you, it was law that you must answer in a respectable and timely fashion. “As nervous as can be expected, Sir.”
Blahh
, just saying ‘sir’ was almost my undoing; I thought for sure that whatever remained in my empty stomach would be plastered all over the bus by the end of the trip.
“
Well
,” He breathed, stepping even closer to me, invading all my personal space and tightening the knot that presently resided in my core, “If there is anything I can do to ease those nerves please let me know. After all,” He smiled, revealing unnatural pearly white teeth, “There is nothing to be nervous about.”
His presence alone was chilling to the bone. I knew that under that robe he held a weapon that could kill us all before anyone had time to run. He knew it as well.
I nodded, returning a small smile of my own; all the while silently wishing I could punch him in the face. “Thank you, Sir.”
As the Keeper turned away, I felt John’s hand at the small of my back, squeezing me in reassurance. John had always been protective over me, and I really hoped that it wouldn’t get him killed.
“If only you would have run with me.” He muttered under his breath.
“Yeah,” I managed to choke out, “I know.”
We boarded the bus in a single file line, and it was then that I noticed the armor that protected the outside of the vehicle was also present on the inside. As the first few on the bus, John and I had the advantage of sitting in the back. At least we would be able to speak a few words to each other without being noticed.
“Is it just me or does this feel like a prison bus?” He mumbled, pointing to the cage that separated the driver from the passengers.
I had yet to notice that there was a steel cage that bisected the front of the bus, inclosing us in. The cage was constructed to separate
us
from the driver, and whatever Keeper would be accompanying us.
“Why would they need to be protected from us?” I asked, following him down narrow aisle.
“There are more of us than there are of them.”
“Yeah.” I whispered, looking over the last of the Testers as they took their respective seats, “but none of us have guns. They could kill us all without much effort.”
“Guns aren’t the only weapon, Rin. A crowd this big could easily disarm a handful of Keepers with very few casualties.”
That was John, he was always thinking of a way to get free. He would spend hours on our rooftop planning different scenarios where we could make it out of our Zone alive. There was only one thing John never took into consideration, there were always more Zones. After ours ended, another began. We would have nowhere to run, except into another Zone and once there, the Keepers had orders to shoot us on the spot. That’s if they were feeling generous. Sending us back would have been not only a death sentence, but one that would end only after they grew tired of torturing us.
We had all heard stories of the ones that ran. John’s father and mine was one of those infamous stories. From what we had been told, they ran together and were to come back once they had established a place for their families. They never came back, at least not alive.
From the stories we were told, they were both beaten and tortured, tried for treason and shot. The stories of the runners were told from time to time, whenever The Supremacy felt the need to strike fear into the population. Whenever there was talk of us rising up, the Keepers would swarm to that Zone in droves. No one was brave enough to rise up against them, and there was not a single soul that blamed them.
I rested my head on the back of the seat, looking up at the armored ceiling of our bus, “I wish I didn’t have to leave you.”
His hand found mine, “Me too.”
John was my best friend, my only friend in a life that made Hell look like a vacation fit for a king. The thought of not seeing him for three months hurt more than being shipped off to whatever place The Supremacy had chosen for me.
The doors shut with finality, the steel doors clanking together as they met, with our Keeper locking them tight with a
thud
. And the bus fell silent.
***
The cage that protected the driver and Keeper rattled metallically as the Keeper opened it. His eyes scanned the bus until he found me. My blood ran cold as I watched a sinister smile creep across his face.
“I think someone made an impression on the devil.” John whispered into my ear. I wish he wouldn’t have. The Keeper’s eyes immediately locked on John, and I feared what he would do to him. Surely, he wouldn’t go to extremes in a bus filled to capacity.
I froze when he began to float down the narrow aisle, his authoritative glower still locked on my best friend.
“Why did you have to do that?” I mumbled to him.
“Because I am not afraid of him.”
“You should be.”
He came to a stop in front of our seat, “Erin,” He spoke my name gently, his voice oozing the same eerie sweetness as it had before, “I would like you to come up to the front and sit with me.”
We were not allowed to question the orders of a policy maker, but the inquiry was out of my mouth before I could stop it. “Why? Have I done something wrong?”
I had done
many
things wrong, but I hoped that he would leave them clandestine.
He chuckled without humor, his outstretched hand awaiting mine. I felt John’s leg stiffen beside me as my hand slowly neared the Keeper’s.
I took the Keeper’s hand without reproach. I had no other choice but to go with him. I would go peacefully, or by force.
The instant our hands met, an ice-cold chill ran through me causing my entire body to shiver. I noted the way his eyes lit up and widened. His nostrils flared once I stood from my seat, our eyes locked on one other as he pulled me closer to him.
John’s hand came between us, landing firmly on top of mine. “No!” He yelled at the Keeper that held me. John stood, putting his body between me and the Keeper that was still pulling me into the aisle, “You won’t take her anywhere!” John’s voice boomed through the silence of the bus.
Sharp inhales of frightened and stunned bystanders followed; we all knew what would happen next. A Keeper had all authority to put down any that they deemed a threat.
“
Please
, John,” I begged him with my words and pleading eyes. He would end up dead if he did not start complying, “I’ll be okay.”
He wrapped his arm around my waist and pushed me behind him until his entire body shielded mine from the Keeper that wished to take me away.
I heard John’s tortured scream before my brain had enough time to register what happened. His body laid limp on the seat, his chest smoking from the electrical prod that had been used on him. I flung myself to him, rubbing my hand over top of his chest, trying in vain to cool his heated flesh.
My eyes shot to the Keeper, watching him tuck his wand into the inside of his robe. “What did you
do
!” I cried. All I could think was that he had just killed my best friend when all he was trying to do was protect me.
I wanted to murder the Keeper that stood in front of me, but I knew that he would have me on the ground before I let loose my first swing.
He raised his brows in challenge. He
wanted
me to push him, “He will wake up soon enough.” He breathed, offering me his hand once more, “Come with me.”
It was not a request. Keepers did not request things from the commoners. I took his hand and stepped over the only person that had ever tried to protect me.
I left John unconscious on the seat. I thought it was going to be the last image I would ever have of him, and that memory would have been burned into my mind for the rest of my days.