The First Installment of THE BIRTHDAY CHRONICLES

The Birthday Chronicles

Everyone in the city knew when it was coming. Around here, birthdays were feared. The children could smell it in the air and were afraid that this would be their year. In this city, birthdays were feared. The city was located in a locked metal dome that let in no light nor rain. No one remembered how they came to be here, but they could feel the fear in the looks of others. When one came to their 19th birthday a armored iron van would stop at the doorsteps and drive away, and just like that, they were gone. The oldest person in the whole city was only 18 and knew that soon, he too would be taken. They didn’t necessarily accept it, they just knew it was inevitable and pointless to run from it. The children who ran the city in all its grime and smog were young, but somehow wise in their knowing. A person over 18 had not been seen in this city since the Hold was erected 4000 years ago. It took time to develop this system. The armored vehicles that took every 19 year old into the Hold never came out and never went anywhere else. Nutrient blocks were shipped into the dome from a small printer-shaped hole in the wall. Here, when you got sick, you died. Many died young which was considered a solemn mercy.
All of the babies that were shipped out of the Hold were entrusted to a house. There were 5000 houses fit into the dome, not counting business and the Hold. In each house, there were 38 people. There was a girl and a boy of each age. The oldest looked over their next in line. The only deviation from this was that when you and your partner turned 18, you were entrusted with a girl and boy child to look after, while the 17 year olds learnt to look out for themselves. In this case, Elisa and Mack were the current 18 year olds. Elisa was a small, pale, yet strong tempered girl with ash blonde hair and oddly inquisitive violet eyes. Mack was her best friend and he partner in crime. Mack had black hair, stunning blue eyes and great length of height and while he was a bit headstrong, he was also truly sweet. They had been saying goodbye and giving out hugs for weeks. They were scared and stayed up late nights talking about it. They didn’t fight it at all. Mack and Elisa thought they could never have a chance to survive. That’s when the truck came.
The Truck had come and gone leaving the new 18 year olds, Lola and Samuel in charge. The Moment the truck came, two figures, undistinguishable in silvery suits and masks jumped out of the car and grabbed them, roughly pulling them into the empty van. There were two sections, one for the female and another for the male, a thick wire grid separated both sides. They couldn’t hold hands. All they could do was wait. Elisa sat on the floor of the back of the van and pressed her fingers to the grid. She stared back at Mack, silent tears streaming down her face. Mack looked at the back door of the van with a stony expressionless look. Elisa knew him. She knew that he was trying to be strong, but she could see behind that look. His eyes glowed with terror and a veiled fear. “Mack…?” Elsa whispered, “Mack? What do you think will happen to us?” Mack immediately snapped out of his stony state and looked at her. “I don’t know,” He whispered back determinedly, “but whatever it is, whatever happens, I swear we will get out of this alright.” Elisa shivered. Mack put his had flat on the grill next to hers, as close as they could get to touching. A cloud of despair had settled around them and neither of them could shake the thought that this would be the end. Then, the van stopped.
Both Elisa and Mack looked up the moment the van jerked to a stop. The doors swung open. The indistinguishable people in the suits grabbed Elisa and threw her out of the van handling her like she was livestock. They pulled Mack out of the van by his arm. Not pleasantly, but with more dignity than they had allowed Elisa. Mack grunted when they jerked him sharply from his position in the van. Elisa began to sob. There were two solid iron doors; one was labeled Male and the other, Female. At this point Elisa began to fight and twist. She screamed "No! Mack! Don’t let them separate us! Don’t Go! DON’T!” The people restraining her held her tighter. Mack saw one of them bring out something ten inches long and shiny. A needle and syringe! “ELISA! STO…P!” It was too late. The person had already shoved the needle deep into her collar. The clear neon green liquid was draining into her system and she had fallen immediately limp. Poison? Is that what they did here to women? Mack closed his eyes as tight as he could. As if he could suck himself into a self-induced black hole. “THAT WAS MY BEST FRIEND!” He screamed, “SHE WAS MY BES…..” Mac trailed off as well, suddenly disoriented. What was going on? How could he be calm? They had just killed Elisa. Then he looked down. “Oh my God…” He was dying too. They had shoved a similar needle into his thigh. The moment he noticed, his vision became blurry and faded to black. He felt himself falling back.
The first thought running through Mack’s head when he woke up was “Bloody Hell! I’m Alive!” and then, “That means Elisa is alive too!” and then finally, “Will I ever see her again?” The last question was answered by the voice of a wizened man who has seen much in his day. “No.” The voice repeated firmly and almost sadly with something that made Mack want to trust the source of this voice. “We believe it is for the best.” How could leaving Elisa behind ever be for the best?! Mack was almost pushed to fury, but for the soothing voice. “How could that be for the best?!” Mac struggled to keep his voice settled. The mans voice sighed, “No, it never is for the best, I suppose I wont keep it from you. The chemical dose we gave you was adequate and worked correctly. On this girl you call Elisa the chemical dosage was much too potent and we didn’t have enough time to measure it. It was still being tested at the time and, well, Elisa is dead.” With that, Mack broke down crying while the vice continued. “The reason you are here is because outside this place that you have known for your entire life, there is a bigger place. Let me tell you a story. Once there was a beautiful velvety blue thing called space that was sprinkled with shiny diamonds called stars. In this ‘space’, there was a solar system in which seven planets revolved around a large ball of fire called the sun, that provided them with energy, light and heat. The Sun was the pinnacle of the only planet that could support life, the Earth. Then the Sun exploded and the earth was thrown into darkness and chaos. The people began warring. The crops died as well as plants and animals. Nuclear weapons were being procured rapidly and not just as a threat. Nuclear bombs could wipe out many miles of life for years. The planets atmosphere was quickly deteriorating. It seemed that we would all die. Then some of the wiser men in our city devised a plan. That plan became the City and the Hold. The City is actually buried 500 miles into the earth with a truly remarkable air filter system as well as heating and cooling. The food supply is dehydrated and has been stored since we built the Hold 4000 years ago. We have also had no contact with the upper world since then other than providing them with soldiers. Some Soldiers stay down here to help with certain basic functions to keep the Hold and the City running correctly. I can see that you are not a man for war now, but we will train you until you are twenty. That is when we send men into battle. If they come back unharmed, then we let them take over some of the functions of the Hold while going into war every other month. I suggest you put your anger away or use it for other things. It won’t save you.” Mack Closed his eyes and made a silent decision.
Elisa felt so heavy. Her eyelids were weighted shut and her thoughts were like lead. She didn’t want to think of what had happened to her or Mack. She simply lay there, not thinking about tomorrow, basking in the delicious dark coolness of wherever she was. Slowly the earth stopped spinning around her and regained order. Elisa slowly ascended into conscious thought and was no longer weighted, but light. Her eyes flickered open and everything was fuzzy. As her vision become less fuzzy and more substantial, all of the light floaty feelings left her. She was in a cold, colorless, stall of a room. Her bed, which was low to the ground, was soft and comfortable with big warm blankets. Her bed was the only luxury afforded to her. The room was extremely small, cold, and barred. The toilet, the sink, and the open shower head and drain were all right out in the open next to her bed. There was a small smoky mirror over the sink on the cracked cemented walls. There intercom crackled loudly, buzzed, and shut off. The ceiling was sound proof with grey tile carpeting. At that moment, the fluorescent lights on the ceiling flickered on exposing the true dinginess of the room. There were cracks in the ceiling. Elisa sighed. The intercom buzzed on with a crackle of static. A harsh voice commanded that “All stock on floors 1 – 3 should report to the feeding room immediately.” Elisa cringed. She didn’t like where she was.
The soap provided was a harsh ‘all purpose’ soap. She showered in the open right next to her bed and sink. She had only one pair of clothes and put her old pair on though they were a tad ripe smelling. She put on her clothes and combed out her hair with her fingers. She flopped down on her bed Indian style, leaning her back against the headboard. She put her hands to her temple and massaged. Just how long had she been asleep? And suddenly, her door wasn’t locked anymore.
Her door, the obnoxious two and a half feet of iron, swung open and another person in a metallic suit was standing there. It, He or She, grabbed Elisa by her elbow and dragged her outside, and resealed the door. They dragged her into a small elevator and stood with her as it descended. The moment the door of the elevator rolled up automatically, Elisa quickly observed her surroundings. It was a small room with three doors going off of it. They shoved her into the blue middle door. The next room wasn’t so much of a room as it was a hall. There was one large conveyer belt running down the center of the hall. Twenty other metallic people or MP’s as Elisa had begun to call them, were lining the room. The MP next to her threw her onto the conveyer belt harshly. She stumbled as first, and then stood with as much dignity as she could muster. The MP’s attached a harness and cuffs to her to keep her in place. The first row of MP’s scanned her, the second stripped her clothes of her. At this point she began to cry. They were stripping her of not only her clothes, but also of her dignity. The whole thing went on as a physical and once she was at the other end of the conveyer belt, they pushed one of two buttons that opened a door that continued the conveyer belt. She proceeded and the doors shut behind her. She was drenched and vigorously cleaned with steaming water and soap then blown dry. Another syringe came out on a robotic arm and pierced her where the skin was still tender from the first shot. The last thing she remembered was a light electronic metal collar being locked onto her neck by another of the robotic arms, and the knowing that she would not break.
Mack had thrown himself deeply into his training. He had decided that for Elisa, his best friend, he would work his hardest and overcome just for her. The old voice had told him it was for the best.
What Neither Mack nor Elisa knew was what happened in the women’s side of the hold. None of the MP’s were female. Women were animalized (by stripping of their clothes and dignity) and put into stalls. At 20 years old, the optimum age, each was assigned a number and a partner. The women were all given the things necessary for optimum health and were disposed of if incurable or sickly. Women were given no contact other than the soldier assigned to them once a month. Since the Hierarchy of the City and the Hold liked to upkeep moral, there were papers and a sick mock of a wedding through intercoms and barred doors. The truth was, the woman never got to see the soldier, as he was assigned to wear his helmet at all times and show no emotion. Women were expected to produce as much offspring as possible which would be taken from her a week after his or her birth. If the women tried to refuse the soldier, the Hold hierarchy had other methods. The women were never even told of this until they were forced to discover it for themselves.
When Elisa awoke again, naked. She cried at the loss of her clothing and the foggy future leering at her. She cried for Mack and for Lola, Samuel, Casey, Jordan, Ellie, Joaquin, Anna, Rowan, John, Michaela, Samantha, Paul, JJ, Kate, Quid, Jemma, Sahara, Ben, Betsy, Ross, Titus, Johanna, Minnie, Cooper, Oceania, Devin, Dee, Michael, Rain, Hudson, Mimi, Rachel, Gordon and Grey. All of the children she had looked after since they were tiny. She cried even for those who left before her. The horrible things that they had obviously been subjected too. Then she saw her collar. It was silvery chrome with a tiny blue screen and green lights on the side. Apparently, she was classified as #77849. She wiped her tears. She had to think of a way to get out of here. Sooner or later she would find out what was going on and then she would find a way to spring herself.
Mack was deep into his training. His job as a lower soldier was currently working the Hold. He worked on the trivial things that many fully trained soldiers were too haughty or important to do. There were about 3000 other people in his rank. The Hold was a large building and he was almost proud to be a part of it. He never enticed the thought that the voice that evoked so much trust was lying to him. He was glad to help the Hold and the City thrive. I was almost as if Mac had forgotten the fear of his childhood, his best friend, Elisa, and everything else of his past.

(ONE YEAR LATER)

Elisa and Mack both had fallen into their own routines. Elisa would wake up, take a shower, exercise or play mind games to keep her from going crazy. She wouldn’t submit. Her floor was summoned to the feeding halls every day about twenty minutes after the lights came on in the morning. She tried to talk to other women, but most had submitted long ago and just looked right through her, so bare and exposed. So dead inside. Elisa wondered sometimes if they could even talk anymore or if they had forgotten how.