38

“Jake, let go of my hand.” His grip tightens. “I need to go up.”

“No.”

“Jake, you’ll make a scene.”

“I don’t care.”

“You should care. If you don’t let go, you’ll ruin any chance of us being together.” He looks at me, tears in his eyes.

“Not him, Faye. I would be ok with anyone but him.”

“I know. You have to let go.” He does and I begin to walk forward. The air feels thicker, and it feels harder to breathe. My chest hurts and tightens. My hands shake.

Panic.

It sets in so suddenly I barely have time to think. All I can do is look at my hands.

“38?” Suddenly, I’m back to reality and 23 is standing next to me. “You seem to have been lost in thought. Are you alright?”

“Yes. Do you have the envelope?” He hands me an opaque envelope with the time and date of our meeting with the council.

“I know this is probably not what you expected. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not. I’m sure the council had a reason for putting us together. I just need to sit. Actually, I’m going back to my room. I’ll see you at the meeting.” Without giving him a chance to respond, I turn to go back to my room. I lose sight of Jake in the crowd. Frantically, I search the crowd for him, all the while thinking of the girl he was chosen to marry. The thought makes me furious and panic is replaced with rage.

I run through the halls and slam the door to my room. Violently, I collapse on the bed and scream into the pillow. How could they do this to me? How could the Cell not see my relationship to Jake?
***
At thirteen years old with nothing, I was brought into a strange underground society with beliefs that I had only heard in whispers. All around me, people were speaking ill of the government I understood little about.

I was all alone.

My family was dead. My friends were far away. The only person I had was the man who picked me up from the hospital, and I didn’t even know his name. He put his arm around my back and brought me into an office. The room, like every other, had stone walls. Lamps hung low off the ceiling giving a strange dim lighting. The door opened to reveal a middle aged man, about my parents’ age with a hard face.

“Hello, child. I am sorry for your loss. I hope they treated you properly on your way here.”

“Yes, sir. Where am I sir?”

“The Cell. But we will get to that in a moment. How is your leg?” I look down at it. For a while, I had forgotten about it, but as I began to relax the pain returned.

“It’s sore, sir, but I can walk.”

“Good. Now I have your records in my file. Your mother gave everything to me when you were born, just in case this happened.” He pulled out a microcard and slid it over to me. “I will not look at this information for your safety, but I need you to confirm it before I can dispose of it properly. I looked through my file, my identity, and read it carefully. My mother was very thorough. After a few minutes, I confirmed everything and slid the card back the to the man. He looked pleased.

“You are no longer that person. You may remember being her, but she does no longer exist. Do you understand me, child?” I was scared. I had been Faye Turner for thirteen years. Who else could I be? I figured I had no choice.

“Yes, sir, I understand.” From that moment on, I became 38.

Training began when my leg was fully healed. When I walked into the crowded classroom, I half expected adults clad in leather and weapons hanging on the wall. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a regular history class. The teacher was strict but kind, and explained that the New Government’s aim was advanced education for all citizens. If we were ever in a situation where we needed to blend in, we needed to be smart, alert, and aware of our country.

When I turned 15, I was required to take a test that would determine my education path for the next few years. After hours of grueling testing and psychological exams, I was told that I would train to be a nurse.

It was shortly after I received my answer that I met Jake.

For two years, I had gone unnoticed. I preferred to be alone. I knew that someday I would be part of a bigger plan and I didn’t want any distractions. That soon changed when I met my monitor in training.

“Hi,” a cheerful voiced appeared out of nowhere as I exited my biology class. “I’m 35, and according to my instructor, I am your new monitor.” I stared blankly at him. I wasn’t used to people other than instructors talking to me. “Now, I can see by your vacant expression that you may be wondering what I am going to be doing. Basically, I am going to be your personal stalker while I train to follow members and communicate with them while they are on the surface.”

“I’m not allowed on the surface.”

“Not now, but we are going to get to know each other pretty well these next few years.” He turns to leave. “Don’t do anything suspicious because I will find out about it.” His smile is contagious.

I don’t know how it happened, but we became very close soon after. He would sit with me at meals, tracked me to my room and woke me up in the morning. He would comfort me when I missed my parents each Memorial Day.

When we turned 18, we were inseparable. He knew my every move and I knew his. He was in my ear when I went to the surface for survival training. One day, when I returned from a trauma class on the surface, he cornered me at my room.

“If we were ever caught in an explosion zone, I would trust you completely to take care of me.” His face was flushed and his tone strangely serious.

“Ok, 35, what’s wrong? This is out of nowhere.”

“I was watching you through cameras and I heard you during training. You were amazing out there in the simulation. I just wanted you to know that I trust you.” He grabbed my hands. “Do you trust me?”

I hesitated. It had been so long since I have had any intimacy with anyone, whether it was familial or romantic. “I do.”

“Completely?”

“I think so. It’s hard in this world. I don’t even know your name. I don’t know anything really about you.” He looked around the room, checked the door, and came close to me. He whispered gently into my ear.

“Jacob Elijah Foster. Born December 14, 2044.” Tears came running down his cheeks. “I trust you. I want you to trust me.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him to me as close as I could. “Faye Louise Turner. Born May 30, 2044.” He kissed me gently. “I trust you. Completely.”

***
A knock on my door startles me out of my thoughts. Before I can get up, Jake is walking in. I had given him my code a long time ago. Seeing the tears on my cheeks, he climbs on the bed and pulls me close. “I’m sorry for the way I reacted, Faye. That was uncalled for and I feel like a total idiot.”

“Good.” That makes him laugh and he kisses me. “So, who’s the very lucky lady who gets to marry an adorable idiot?”

“No one. I was never paired with anyone.”

“What?”

“After you left, I waited as patiently as I could for my name, but I was pulled aside by 01 himself and was told that I was to have a meeting with another pair.”

“This must be a very important mission.”

“I guess, but I plan to take advantage of this situation. Maybe, since I have no pairing, we could fight your assignment and be matched.”

“Let’s talk about that after the meetings.” Noticing the late hour, I start getting ready for bed.

“If we wait too long, it could be too late and we could never see each other again. I can’t let that happen.”

“We don’t know what they are planning, Jake. What if we win the war? We could both survive this and we can be together. We can raise our children in this country or we can be free to leave and go wherever we want. We will never be able to do that if we start fighting the Cell.”

“What happened to trusting me completely, Faye?” His tone gets louder, and I can see his clenched fists.

“Don’t turn this around. I have trusted you with everything. I love you.” I grab his hands and relax him. “Listen to me. Fighting is not the answer.”

“You of all people should be fighting this.”

Without another word, he leaves.

He’s right. I should be fighting this. Every cell in my body is telling me to fight this. But something inside of me holds me back. In this situation, duty trumps any gut feeling I may have.

I turn to my bed and see the unopened envelope containing the time and date of my meeting. Carefully, I tare it open and read the card.

0000 hours. May 31, 2067. Tonight.

All of a sudden, my life turns into a vintage action movie. I laugh at the irony and prepare for the long night ahead.

I walk down the stone and steel halls. The dim lighting and the silence are signs of the night that I would otherwise not know. Without windows, the outside world is more mysterious, but we are protected from the government and the Corruption that rages all around us. Soon, I will have to leave all of this protection behind.

I walk into the large office and 23 is already there. His dirty blonde hair is neatly combed and his blue eyes just stare at me. I sit beside him and he reaches to touch my shoulder. Hesitating, he pulls back and his cheeks flush. He resorts to just asking, "How are you?"

I smile to reassure him. "Fine. Just tired."

01 walks into the room and we stand. The commander has changed into his military uniform, US Army contraband circa 2012, and held an old fashioned USB in his hand. The resemblance between the commander and 23 is uncanny. There is no doubt they are father and son. "23 and 38?" We nod. "Congratulations on being the top students in your graduating class. Because of your high achievements in biotechnology and nursing, the council has decided to give you more responsibility. We have discussed this at length and have decided to send you to Washington DC."

Both my fact and 23's face go red. We are being sent to the heart of the Corruption.