The King of Mars

The next morning, I woke up and jumped out of bed. Generally, I am not a morning person, but I was excited for today. There is never much to get excited about in the Hex, but over the course of the night, the frustration and dread I initially felt with the situation turned into excitement. Technically, I had a date with Rina J'An, one of the prettiest, most popular girls in my whole generation. If I play my cards right, this can be the start of something beautiful; and I had the perfect idea.

I hurriedly showered, threw on a jumpsuit, ate a ridiculously small breakfast, and left the apartment. Both of my parents were already at their jobs, of course, both scientists were devoted fully to inventing new ways to make the Hex run more efficiently and not at all to their son. But now wasn't the time for feeling neglected. Today is going to be a good day.

The corridor was filled with the other kids of my generation flocking to the Institute, our high school. I joined the stream of beige jumpsuits; in a moment I felt a hand clap me on the back. "So, you study for the test?" It was Warner, my best friend.

"Test?" Shit. I completely forgot about the big test Mr. Ovsky, our physics teacher, was giving today. "No, fuck, I'm screwed." I slapped myself on the forehead.

Warner laughed. "Damn, man. What the hell were you up to that made you forget about it this time?" Even though he's my best friend, I have never told him about the walking.

"Uhm. I don't remember." I lied.

"You realize we're almost 18, right?" Warner asked.

"Well duh.”

"I don’t get it, you’re so smart but I never see you apply yourself. Do you want to be a custodian?"

"No!" Warner often chastised me for slacking in my schoolwork. Though he was bigger and much more athletic than me, he was also surprisingly intelligent. Sometimes, I was jealous of him, but I never spoke up. Unlike me: slightly shorter than most of the boys my age, so pale that the few pimples I had showed like beacons, and too scrawny to be any good in a fight; Warner was tall, had absolutely no blemishes on his smooth, dark skin, and was one of the best athletes of our class. I often wondered why he kept me around, being in with the popular crowd, the somebodies. True, we were very close when we were children, when there was no elitism in our generation. True, our parents were friends all of our lives. True, we grew up together, shared all of our childhood dreams. But once you slipped through the cracks and became a nobody like I did, keeping a friend like Warner seemed too good to be true. Though I think this intimidated the other nobodies and as a consequence I made virtually no other friends, I do not regret it.

Our conversation drifted from the chastisement into other topics; mostly girls for Warner, technology for me. We talked until we came to the entrance of the Institution Complex, a row of large elevators that descended deeper into the Hex. Kids went up to press the buttons, the elevator doors sliding open at each touch like a hungry mouth. One elevator load at a time, we piled into the tiny room and made our trips to the Institution, down the gluttonous throats of the elevator shaft, into the stomach of the Hex.

"Well, I'll see you later." Warner said, clapping me on the back and disappearing into the mass of students. I stood alone for a moment, feeling as vulnerable as always once Warner left me, before I made my way to my first, and my least favorite, class, Organic Chemistry. I knew Rina would seek me out. Before I could make it into the chem lab, she caught me around the shoulder. "Hey!"

I turned, Rina was alone, which was unusual due to her horde of friends. "Hey yourself," she said. Already, we were getting unwanted attention from the other students around us, probably wondering why Rina was suddenly talking to me. Play it cool, Aleks. She brushed her long hair over her shoulder and looked up at me expectantly. "When do you want to do this?"

Of course I knew when, but I hadn't fully thought out how I wanted to do this. In order for my idea to work successfully, we'd have to leave right now, but cutting class was dangerous if you got caught. I decided to wing it. "Now." I grabbed her wrist, she gave a startled yelp, and together, we ran. She didn't protest as we hurried through the crowd of students, who looked at us with confusion. The adrenaline was already taking effect, I knew we had to make it back to the elevators before they shut, locking the student body inside the buried Institute until the day's studies were completed.

We moved as fast as we could, I could see the last of the students getting off the last open elevator. My heart beat angrily against my ribcage as I tried to weave us through the crowd before the door slid shut. Oh no, we aren't going to make it. The last student got off and the metal door was beginning to slide closed. Rina raced ahead of me with startling speed, through the last of the crowd and into the shutting elevator. I cursed my body, willing it to move forward. Rina's brown eyes were wide with fear as she watched me. "Hurry," she mouthed.

After what seemed like forever, even thought it was over the space of a half second, I ran past the last student and slipped through the sliding door just as it closed. I careened into the opposite wall and fell on my ass, gasping for breath. "You really need to work out more," Rina said, her voice was jubilant at avoiding the would-be catastrophe.

"You.. think... I... don't... know that?" I puffed out.

Catching each other's eyes, we suddenly burst out laughing like the giddy kids we are. "Let's not celebrate yet," I said. "I'm sure it won't be a problem, but we have to get to the airlock without being caught." You'd think that concerning our virtually totalitarian society, security would be tighter. Then again, misbehavior was so uncommon due to the harsh disciplinary measures, I guess it makes sense. Still, better safe than sorry, we were best off throwing caution to the wind. Rina was safe thanks to her father, but I would be so screwed if I got caught trying to smuggle the daughter of Commander J'An outside. I shuddered at the thought. My fears were unwarranted; the corridors were as blindingly white and empty as a tomb like usual. Yet we still walked with quiet urgency around every turn and corner until we came to the door of the airlock.

"Ladies first," I ushered Rina inside, following after one look up and down the hall to make sure no one saw us. She strolled along the sides of the airlock chamber, regarding each spacesuit as if she was shopping for a new prom dress. "One size fits all," I said, the slightest bit of annoyance creeping into my voice.

Rina gave me a sarcastic smile and picked one of the suits. Looking over her shoulder at me, she asked, "Well, are you going to just sit there and watch me change?"

"Oh, sorry." I stammered, warmth creeping into my face. I picked out a spacesuit and began busying myself with it. Of course, I stole a couple of glances. On Rina's beautiful skin, nestled in the gracious curve of her back, sat the barcode that each member of the Hex had tattooed somewhere on their body. Mine was right underneath my left nipple. These barcodes were used as a permanent, undeniable identity. When scanned by anyone of the Badge, the Hex’s discipline squad, for whatever reason, the file of your whole life was brought up from the deeply buried databases. Instantly, they could know everything about you from how many times you got put in the corner as a child to if you ever got caught sleeping in a class, even stuff like what you had for lunch that day. The barcodes are what help officers of the Badge work so efficiently to keep the Hex in working order under their law. And under Rina's barcode, I saw something very surprising.

Two red strikes.

Two thin red streaks partially underlined her barcode. When you break a really important rule, you are given one of these strikes. Accumulate three of them over your lifetime and the worst disciplinary measure is put upon you without question, without hesitation. Though there is no death penalty in the Hex, you get something just the same, expulsion. On your third strike, they throw you into one of the spacesuits that Rina's generous curves were slipping into now and throw you even further out of the Hex. They lock you out and you are left alone on the face of Mars to freeze or starve or run out of oxygen, whichever comes first. But expulsions never happen; no one ever risks three strikes.

Cutting class to walk outside without authorization was a strike-worthy offense.

“See something you like?” Rina asked, turning around as she zipped up, the wonderfully tight material squeezing her breasts together before her cleavage unfortunately vanished underneath the bright, orange suit.

“Yeah, I really like your tattoo,” I said without even thinking. “The red really makes it pop.”

Thankfully, that earned me a laugh rather than an awkward stare. “Thanks, but there will be plenty of time to compare tattoos later,” she said. I was secretly quite proud of myself. That went much better than expected. “Now, how the hell do we get out of here without setting off every alarm in the Hex?”

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot.” I zipped my own suit up and pulled my iDot out of its storage compartment. With Rina tiptoeing to look over my shoulder, I activated my customized proxy and typed in the commands. “Put your helmet on,” I ordered, “when I press this button, the airlock is gonna open.” I set the iDot down and took my own advice, grabbing a helmet off the wall. Once we both were strapped up completely, I looked at Rina and asked, “You ready?” My voice sounded hollow as it reverberated through the helmet. She nodded and I inputted the final command on the iDot. With a gigantic, serpent hiss, the steam shower permeated the room. I felt the anticipation rise in my chest as the airlock began to slide open painfully slow. Finally, the pale Martian sunlight filtered through the visor of my helmet and the cold desert of rust and stone stared at us like an ancient giant, daring us to uncover its long forgotten secrets.

Looking at Rina, I offered my hand. She seemed like she was lost, I could just imagine the look in her amber eyes behind the blackness of the visor when her face turned to me. She took my hand and my voice said, crackling in the radio, “Let’s go."