Number Seventy-Seven - Chapter One

Chapter One

It will be the Anniversary in a few days.

To the world, the Anniversary a celebration of the life that survived a catastrophe, however small and puny that life was. It brought hope to the world that they – we – could survive anything. The destruction of one time period brought about another, one clearer in mind and brighter in spirit. It was the anniversary of our beginning, a beginning that would last forever in the minds of the People. The beginning of a new race, a race that lived and was now the most prominent species on the Earth.

To me, it was a motivator. Every year, it would remind me to discover where we – the People – came from. Somewhere beyond the Dome, there could be an entire new world waiting for us and I all had to do was find a way past. Do that and I would make history.

However, I believe a little bit of an introduction is in order. My name is Kade Hook, sixteen years old, and I am number Seventy-Seven out of the One-Hundred. And by studying old history books from the time period before us, affectionately called the Larvae Age because of the people waiting to spring into the People we are as of now, I understand that we have changed drastically.

From what we were taught in school, not so long ago, the Larvae Age was all but destroyed by someone’s attempt to create nuclear fusion, a thermonuclear process that makes the stars shine. Radiation spread over the entire globe and everyone weak enough died. Only the strong remained. We became stronger, faster, smarter, different than anything ever known.

We adapted in ways that were never before feasible. Years ago – long before my time – when the radiation was incredibly strong, if someone wanted to swim to the bottom of the ocean, all that person had to do was dive down as far as he wanted to go. The radiation in his system would instantaneously create the necessary components needed, like a respiratory system designed for underwater movement, a way to counteract the extreme pressures found, a way to protect the body’s organs, and so on.

However, as time moved on, the radiation that was so abundant eventually weakened and now maintains a steady flow that hasn’t wavered or fluctuated in years. It still affects us but only at birth and then our Difference remains with us, always the same and never changing. Those who have tried to replicate the rare situations that our ancestors achieved, although an accident, have died.

What I was trying to discover got me Marked by the government. A Mark was a symbol that the government disapproved whatever the Marked Person had done or was doing. Criminals were Marked. People who started riots were Marked. Anyone who did anything against what the government approved of were Marked.

Me? I grew curious as to what lay outside the Dome. The Dome was, in essence, a huge  cage that told us the limitations of our territory. Anyone who ventured outside the Dome was never seen again and another Person would be born. The total population always always remained the One-Hundred.

I had never read any of this in any of the history books that depicted the Larvae Age and so I started experimenting. When I was very young, I would tie a string around a ball and toss it through the Dome. Then I would pull it back to me and examine it. It always smelled funky after that. Then the government caught me one day and they Marked me. My Mark was a tattoo on my neck, a choker-like design made out of words smaller than a millimeter that wrapped around my neck several times like a snake coils around a branch. Don’t leave. Don’t leave. Don’t leave.

“Kade, wake up! The house is on fire!” A small something smacked my face repeatedly.

I opened my eyes slowly, “No, it’s not, Arlo. I don’t smell any smoke. What is it?” I moved out of my slumped position on my desk and sat up, causing Arlo to fall from his place on my shoulder, tumble down my back and land on the ground on four paws. Arlo was a stoat or ermine, a creature similar to a weasel but much bigger with a black-tipped tail. Arlo was my Companion.

There were always fifty People out of the One-Hundred that had a Companion, or an animal with a Difference. Arlo’s Difference was that he could talk (sometimes unfortunately). The Companion, whatever it was, always appeared sometime during a Person’s childhood, around age three to eight, and stuck around for life.

Arlo rolled his bright black eyes, “The doorbell has been ringing for probably forever, but, whatever; I guess you’ll just leave Sadie and Russell outside, exposed to the elements, forever wondering about their best friend . . .” he trailed off, putting on his best ‘puppy-dog’ face.

“You could have just told me they’re outside,” I stood up and made my way toward the front door, Arlo scampering behind me, still talking.

“But that’s no fun. It’s been so boring around here! It’s taking so long to get what we need to make our little machine work and we’ve been doing absolutely nothing for weeks! I hate it; I hate not doing anything!”

I interrupted him, “Actually, you’ve been doing a lot of something.” As expected, his tiny ears perked right up and he stared at me expectantly. “You haven’t stopped talking.”

Arlo mock gasped and jumped onto my jeans, scrambling up and perching on my shoulder, his trademark spot, “Now that is not true! I don’t sleep-talk.” I rolled my eyes this time and opened the door.

Sadie burst in first, whipping her dripping wet, purple hair out of her pale face, frowning at me, “What took you so long!? I am soaking wet!" Her Companion, a white rabbit named Dana, hopped in and promptly shook herself, spraying smelly water everywhere.

Arlo hid himself in my thick brown hair, poking his head out and scowling at Dana, “Watch it! I just had a bath!” Dana’s nose twitched and Arlo sighed, “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Towels are in the lowest drawer on the far right in the kitchen.” She squeaked and bounded off.

“Why didn’t you wait in the chair out there while Arlo got me?” I asked, leaning out the door to see that it was already occupied by my other best friend, Russell.

“You weren’t sleeping again, were you?” He questioned with a smirk, standing up and walking inside quickly. His Companion, a Bearded Dragon lizard named Calix, flicked his tongue out at me but I couldn’t tell if he was mad at me or was just doing what lizards do.

“No, I wasn’t. I was just . . . thinking,” I retorted, closing the door and shivering from the cold wind that turned the previously warm air chilly. Realizing how uncomfortable Sadie and Russell must be, I lead them to my room.

Arlo, still snuggled in my hair, turned to Russell, “She says she wasn’t asleep, but her head was lying on the table and her eyes were closed. I think she was.”

“Yeah, well, it doesn’t really matter. Go play with Dana and Calix,” I tried to persuade him to get out of my hair but to no avail.

“Naw, I like it here,” he burrowed deeper in and made the tangles even worse. “It’s like a heated blanket.”

Annoyed, I dug my hands in and found him snuggled up against my neck and managed to pull him out, “That’s why you have fur. Calix doesn’t and he’s handling the cold better than you are.” The stoat glanced at the sand colored lizard, who flicked his tongue at him.

Arlo grumbled, “And I suppose you expect me to play the good host and get him a towel?”

“Unless you want him to freeze to a lizard-cicle.”

He muttered again, but complied, landing squarely on his hind feet, “Ha! Bet you can’t do that, Calix!” Arlo said smugly, balancing on his back feet precariously. At that point, Dana hopped in and Arlo perked up, “Hey, Dana, check it out!” He tried to walk forwards, but his long, slender body wasn’t balanced properly enough for walking like a Person, and ended up toppling over. Arlo scrambled back up to his normal four pawed stance and scrambled off in the direction of the kitchen, “Towels in here! Get your towels,” yelling like an announcer.

I rolled my eyes. Arlo had been trying to impress Sadie’s Companion for years. The purple haired teenager laughed, “I wonder when Dana’s going to tell him she likes him.”

“Really? She does?” I asked, pulling out an old t-shirt of mine and tossing it to her and digging down for sweatpants. Since Russell had stolen the only chair on my small porch, he was dry and lounged on my chair lazily while Sadie retreated to the bathroom to change.

I had just sat down on my bed when Arlo raced in and, with one massive leap, landed on my shoulder and burrowed in my hair – again. I sighed but decided to let him stay. Scratching Arlo’s head affectionately, I asked Russell, “So what are you guys doing here?”

“There’s another announcement from the government on the TV at five o’clock. We can’t see it at our houses because the storm blew out the power,” he turned on my television and the countdown until the announcement came on was displayed clearly on the small screen; t-minus twenty minutes.

Just as he said that, the lights flicked off from a power shortage. The room was turned a dark gray, near impossible to see. Arlo immediately leapt out of my hair and cried out, “Don’t worry, Dana! I’ll protect you!”

I called out after him, “From what?” But he ignored me and raced out of the room. I faced where I knew Russell was, “You jinxed it.”

Before he could answer, Sadie opened the door and made her way with ease to the bed, putting her wet clothes by the door in the plastic bag I had given her. Her Difference was being able to see in the dark like a cat does. A small piece of reflective tissue, called a tapetum lucidum, is what allows a cat to see in near complete darkness. Her eyes glowed an eerie yellow, “Now what?”

I stood up, “I guess I’m the only smart one here, because I have a fully functioning generator in the attic. I’ll go get it.” I tried to make my way toward the door but the quick flashes of lightning wasn’t enough light to see clearly.

Russell was up before I could even ask, “I’ll help, Kade.” He held his hand out and ignited a small flame in his hand, just enough light to illuminate the room. Obviously, creating fire was his Difference.

“Thanks, Russ,” I smiled.

“I’ll make sure nothing got damaged in the surge,” Sadie called, already leaving the room.

Sadie, Russell, and I have been best friends since our early childhood. We all met in school and have been inseparable ever since. We’ve been with each other through thick, when our parents died, and thin, when our Companions arrived. And we were helping each other in our own endeavors; me in trying to discover what lays behind the Dome, Sadie in figuring out what made a Person gain a certain Difference, and Russell in finding out who the really government was. All of our work was all highly illegal to the government, but I was the only one who was caught and Marked. Sadie and Russell both have gotten away with it by being more careful than I was.

Russell led the way toward a side window. The top door in my ceiling was broken and wouldn’t open, so the only way to get in the attic was to go outside and then through the door on the roof.

“Are you going to be okay? There’s still lightning outside,” the redhead asked in concern.

I smiled, “Yeah. I’ll be quick and I only have to make one trip. The attic door opens from the inside.”

But he was persistent, “I could go to my house and get my generator; it would be a lot safer than you being out in the lightning.”

I snorted, “Nice try, but we broke your generator last year when we tried to power a giant telescope and Sadie’s is too far away.” He still looked worried, so I tried to reassure him, “I’ll be fine.”

Russell frowned, “Whatever. Just try not to die, okay? We still need you to finish building your little machine for us.”

I slapped his shoulder happily, “Now that’s the spirit!” I yanked the larger-than-normal window wide open. Fortunately, the wind was blowing in the opposite direction, so the rain didn’t flood my house. I waited until after a lightning flash before flinging myself out of the window and putting my Difference to good use.

My Difference was that I could fly. Free-falling in the cold, wet air, I spread my brown and white speckled wings to their full, fourteen foot wingspan and soared up. Because of the driving wing, my thin but strong wings cut through easily and I had landed on the roof in a matter of seconds. I scrambled over to the door that lead to the attic as quickly as possible; not that I would ever tell Russell, but I was worried about the lightning, too. You’d have to be a fool not to.

“Ugh, dust,” I muttered, covering my nose with my sweatshirt. It had been years since I had gone into the attic and I made my way around slowly, still unable to see things, looking for the generator. Finding it behind an old box, I dragged it out when I heard something fall. I froze; nothing was supposed to be up here but me. I slowly turned to face where the noise came from, hearing more shuffles.

I cleared my throat, “Whoever you are, show yourself!”

“Boo.”

I probably jumped more than I should have, but I was expecting it to come from across the room, not right by my ear. I whirled around to see the small bit of white on Arlo and the twinkle in his eyes visible for a split second, courtesy of a lightning flash, “Arlo! What are you doing; how did you get in here?”

He hopped from the shelf to my shoulder and laughed in my ear, “I got in here through the air vents.”

I tried to ignore him and gripped the door handle that lead downstairs, yanking it a few times before it creaked open like a horror movie.

Sadie’s glowing yellow eyes peered up at me from the hallway a story down, “Hurry! It’s only five minutes left.”

I hulled the bulky generator over and called down, “Heads up!” Arlo winced and rubbed his ears.

I heard Russell say, “We’re ready!” After a minute or two of carefully lowering the generator, we rushed to get the TV hooked to it. The government monitored how many People watched their announcements through a camera on the TV. If one-hundred People aren’t counted, then the People who missed it were taken and weren’t seen again. None of us wanted that to happen to us and we had the generator set up just in time. The TV turned on just as the countdown finished.

The government symbol, a snake coiled around a silver coin, appeared on the screen and began to spin slowly. An automated message began to play.

“The following announcement is as follows. Beginning at May twenty-ninth, Third Bear-Cat Year, video cameras will be placed in all homes that end in the number nine. People whose number ends in nine will be contacted later for further information. End of transmission.” The TV flicked out and plunged the room into darkness.

All three of us were shocked into silence, although Sadie, number Seventy-Nine, broke it rather quickly, “How can they do that?! It’s outrageous – atrocious! Completely unethical!”

Russell was absolutely livid, “The government is overstepping its bounds way too much! We have to do something about this!”

Always the level-headed one, it was my policy to see everything as a whole and to figure out the reason. I rested my head on my hands, “We are doing something, Russ, figuring out what People don’t know. But why?” Both Sadie and Russell stopped and looked at me. “There’s no reason for this. Crime’s down, People are behaving; everything is running smoothly with no reason to set up surveillance in certain houses. So why?”

“Because they think they control everything and do it because they feel like it,” Russell put in. When he was five, someone set fire to his house and it killed his parents. He was convinced the government did it and it has fueled his hatred for them ever since.

“If you think about it, they do. Tell me one thing they don’t control – one thing.”

Russell had his answer ready, “Nothing. They’re control every aspect of our lives.”

“Well, whatever the reason,” Sadie sighed, already admitting defeat, “I guess I’ve got to go and get ready for that phone call.” She stood up, shoulders hunched, when a flash of genius hit me.

“What would you think of a little espionage?” I asked with a sly smile on my face. I dashed out of the room before they had time to answer. Every house, all one-hundred of them, were built and designed exactly the same way. All the houses were completely identical, all built by the government years ago. Only, mine had an extra story; a basement. I used my basement to construct a huge number of different contraptions – some that worked and most that failed – that were designed to travel beyond the Dome.

But what I was looking for was something my dad had invented, before he was taken. My dad was a brilliant inventor and he, too, had sought to discover what lay beyond the Dome. He nearly succeeded, but before he could, his time came and he got Gold.

Every Person had a set amount of time. The entire life of a person was laid out for them and it was to be followed to the strictest point. From age three to eight, if the Person was one of the fifty, their Companion would arrive (Arlo came by waking me up one morning and complaining about being hungry). At age ten, their parents would get Gold and then get taken. When someone got Gold, their vision, everything they saw would comprise of different shades of gold. When that happened, a Person would be taken within a week. By this time, the oldest child would be ten and would have to live in the house all by them self. Any other siblings were taken.

But the most talked about was at age twenty, when a Person had to get married. If they didn’t get married by the time they turned twenty-one, they were taken. At age twenty-five, the first child had to be born. If, at age twenty-six, you had no children, you and your spouse were taken. Nothing about our lives was free-willed. And at age thirty-five, you got Gold and were taken. No one had ever lived to be older than thirty-five.

Still, before my father got Gold, he managed to teach me as much as he could. He had ignited a passion in me and the desire to discover hadn’t dimmed in the least over the years. The same could be said of Sadie and Russell.

The last thing my dad worked on was a small electrical virus, a sweeper, he called it. A few days before he got Gold, he told me how to use it. “Now, Kade,” he had said in the lighthearted, almost goofy tone that he had never outgrown, “this sweeper bug is probably the single most greatest thing I have ever created, excluding you, of course. All you would have to do is hold it to the side of an electrical device and it’ll do the rest. It picks up the background noises of the electrical wiring, converts it to code, converts that into something you and I can actually understand. And, presto! A secret hacking device, perfect for spying on the government. All we have to do is find something that goes straight to wherever the government is.”

That object that led straight to the government hadn’t been found, but perhaps the video feed on the camera lead to a sort of government facility. The government, whoever they really were, has never been seen but has been around since before our history books began. It was widely accepted that they operated in a space beyond the Dome, called the Space. If I could get the sweeper attached to the video camera in Sadie’s house, then I could perhaps find out if the government was, indeed, located in the Space.

“Kade, what are yo—oow!” The almost deep voice of Russell suddenly turned shrill at the same time a solid thwunk was heard. Pulling my head out of a dusty cabinet, I saw Russell holding his forehead with both hands and Sadie, still distressed at the announcement, slip by him and walk softly toward me.

I beckoned Sadie over and, grinning, held up the sweeper. Nothing too flashy, Dad had managed to fit all of the wires and do-da in a metal box no bigger than a cockroach. “This,” I shook it to emphasize it, “will be out little spy. All you need to do is hold it to the side of the video camera for a few seconds. After that, it’ll attach itself to it and start sucking up loose information. Then it’ll transmit it to my computer; stored in a special file where the government can’t poke its nose in.”

Sadie exhaled slowly in awe, “Incredible. Are you sure they won’t be able to detect it?”

“Positive. My dad made it before he got Gold; it’s foolproof.”

Russell, recovered from his run-in with my low ceiling, scowled, “If it works so well, why haven’t we used it before?”

Regaining some of her spark, Sadie smacked his arm, “Didn’t you hear her? It only works if there’s an electrical device that goes right to the government. This is the only shot we got.”

Arlo, who had been unusually quiet on my shoulder, spoke up, “I remember Dad making it. There’s only one and it only works on one device ever. We can’t reuse it after we attach it. Also, Dad began to experiment in inventions when he was sixteen, Mom told me, so the government is sure to keep an extra eye on you, Kade; I’m as sure as the fur on my back is furry. If we don’t use this chance, we won’t have another. We’ll be watched too closely for any remote chance of planting the sweeper.”

There was silence as we all thought about what Arlo just said. The introduction of the video camera simply reinforced the fact that we were constantly watched, like the rats in the experiments I had read about in history books. I had already been Marked and still Sadie and Russell hung out with me. That put us all on the governments watch list, I was sure.

I saw the ruddy eyes of Russell light up in anticipation of what the sweeper would reveal. It could even tell us directly where the government was, if the wiring was faulty or something. I wasn’t quite sure how it worked.

Sadie smirked as she nurtured feelings of satisfaction, I could see it in her molten golden eyes of hers. The government had taken her parents when they got Gold and now they were going to invade her privacy like they owned her. She flashed me a grin that could light up a house, “Let’s do it.”

As I handed her the sweeper, the realization of what I had just started struck me. We were spying on the government. We were learning about them when no one else even knew if they were human or not. The first step had been taken and, sooner or later, we will have traveled miles, far beyond the Space.

We had started something that will change the world, all with a little metal box of wires.

The government didn’t stand a chance against us.

Hi! This is just my comments and concerns about this chapter. First, I don't like the very very ending. I don't know why, but I don't think it sums it up good. If anyone as any suggestions, they would be welcomed warmly.

If anything in here wasn't explained well, then please let me know. I will fix it as soon as possible and then other readers would be able to read with ease.

~Melanie