Everyone is born the same here. Twelve pounds, eight ounces. Any heavier or lighter and youre unhealthy, kept in the hospital until youre better. Youre wrapped in a yellow blanket, no matter what sex you are, and put in a small sink for cleaning. I guess thats the most normal part about it; the cleaning. Then after the cleaning, youre given to your mother or father and taken home six hours later. Then you live normally for four or five years. Then it appears. You ask your parents about it, and they all say the exact same thing. They have to.
It happens when it reaches zero. All six numbers; year, month, week, hour, minute, and second. It doesnt happen all at once, no of course not. Its a countdown. It happens over a lifetime. Some numbers never reach zero, some reach zero too fast. Others reset and start all over again, or drop a few years unexpectedly. Some even gain a few unexpected years. Nobody ever likes that. Especially the school girls, giggling excitedly about when it would happen. Some kids never talked about it. Others even kept it covered. Ive always had a theory that theirs were already at zero and they were embarrassed about it.
Oh, I guess youre probably wondering what iti is.
After the first through third war generations were wiped out, there werent many people left. It didnt take long, either, what with the infection and disease going around. One virus in particular, created by the government to wipe out the disease, went airbourne, and instead of killing only the infected, it killed everyone. Every sick and healthy person alike. Except those who were in hiding or born into families that were in hiding. There werent many actual blood related families anymore. Just people close enough to be called family. My grandmother, who was in her thirties at the time, was close with a few people she called family. Our family and their family are still close.
Anyway, the first child born after the infection was wiped out and almost everyone was dead, was a little boy they called Mika. He was a beautiful kid, or so I was told, with bright eyes and dark hair. But, since he was the first born with it they didnt know what to do. And they killed him. But then the second baby after the virus was released was born and someone had the sense to keep it alive. The baby grew up with this thing on his wrist; a set of numbers. Everybody thought the countdown was a death countdown. His read 16:04:05:00:12:43 when he was born. Sixteen years, four months, five hours, twelve minutes, and 43 seconds. And when it was finally in the seconds, everyone panicked. The family had been travelling to another 'state' to find family they hoped were alive. Of course they werent, but they happened along another family, who were also in hysterics.
When the boy met the other families son, his counter zipped to zero. And so, apparently, did the son from the other family. Everyone was astounded. It seemed the other family had been worried that it was a death countdown, too, and were more than happy when both boys were still alive after it hit zero. The two boys shook hands and smiled. They happened to glance at eachothers wrists in the process and saw the countdown. So naturally, they spent a lot of time together. They were, after all, two of a kind. And also the first of the new generation.
The boys spent their lives together, eventually getting married and settling down in the New New New New New- well, this could take a while, but it was originally somewhere near where Georgia was in the 2000's. Since they were the first, they never figured out what the countdown meant, but over time, it was originally discovered. The countdown, was a countdown to the day you met your soul mate. I know, sounds cheesy, but its true.
When your timer resets, that probably means your soul mate moved away or something. If it drops to zero, they most likely died. If it drops to zero then resets, it was a near-death experience. Sometimes, in odd cases that have been studied for years, youre born with all zeros. Those people usually wear specially designed wrist cuffs to cover their marker, just because theyre embarrassed about it.
My name is Mish. But this isnt my story. This isnt even the story of those two boys, even though it was quite a happy one. No, this is the story of two boys who had never really fit in, had kind of hard lives, but found eachother in the end. Yeah, its kinda sad, but its one of my favourite stories that I was told as a child. Im in my twenties now, but I still love this story. It means a lot to me. Because this is the story of two men and how they overcame every obstacle in their path to come together. Even though one hated the idea of a soul mate and the other was rather indifferent about it. One kept resetting. The other jumped around a lot.
This is the story of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson.