elimination
Chapter Fifteen

As the class heads outside to run, the air is sullen. It menacingly presses up against my lungs threatening to stay there forever. The run starts off in an eerie silence broken by the occasional whisper that multiplies with every mile until it is a mass of hushed panicky voices. Switch and 14 have pulled ahead and are cautiously conversing with heads down and close together. Switch might have heard something. I exchange a look with 12 who seems to be thinking the same thing.

We attempt to subtly approach the two boys. 12 goes around to where Switch is running while I cautiously whisper my greetings to 14. He responds with a weary smile that doesn’t quite make it to his eyes. “28,” 12 begins with precise tongue and weighted words, “Did you..?” Switch cuts her off. “Yes.” He responds with a careful, withdrawn tone that is most unlike him. “I don’t know what is going to happen exactly, but yesterday at Acquisition of Sustenance the officials were saying they were going to have to unpack more bio hazard bags. I didn’t want to mention it and panic anyone until I had more information.” 12 shivers, no doubt reliving her Mesopotamian ordeal. I can just imagine Apocalypse and Doomsday sitting at Acquisition of Sustenance with crooked, unhinged smiles nonchalantly discussing the trivial task of unpacking more bio hazard bags.

The thought makes my skin prickle with anger at the sheer unfairness of it all, the sheer morbid ridiculousness of it. We are reenacting the cruel and unusual punishments that people were subjected to thousands of years ago and the only justification is that it builds up our willpower! It expels weakness, but apparently you can’t just say it once. Weakness, weakness, weakness, weakness, weakness, weakness, weakness, weakness, weakness. List it out a few thousand more times and you’ve got yourself a textbook. Sometimes I think there is no rhyme or reason to this world. Sometimes I think that whoever created this society is crazy and is just having one big laugh at all of us. 14′s glittering green gaze bathes me in concern. I realize my eyes have been burning holes through the atmosphere. His hand quickly sneaks up to my right shoulder where it rests for half a second, radiating warm reassurance. Then instantly, it materializes back down at his side. I am left wondering if it was ever there at all. Yet I can still feel a tingling warmth. I shoot him a pursed lip smile.