Chapter one

The Killing age

I opened my eyes it was still dusk out side. I was sacred, I honestly didn't know why though. I forget almost everything when I wake up in the morning it just takes some time for it to come back to me. I stood up from my bed, the wooden panels of the floor creaked as I stood. The shattered widow across from where I stood seemed to have a colder breeze flowing into my room. The winter was near; it was harder to survive in the winter. It was harder to find good food, to find water, and just to keep from freezing to death. That's how cold it gets around here. But we don't normally have trouble keeping warm because of our cat shadow, he is so warm in the winter I just cuddle with him to keep warm. I walked into the other room, witch we know it as the kitchen. I was careful not to step on the broken plank on floor, you'll just fall right threw the floor and into the storage room downstairs. My mom also knew the kitchen as her bed room. she always slept in the little wooden rocking chair in the corner. All she seemed to do was sleep, or just be plain old lazy. I sort of raised myself of course. I guess that's why I'm so independent. I looked at the ripped up calendar on the wall that was above the beaten wooden table. It read January 29th 4020 that's why I was so scared! Tomorrow is my twenty-fifth birthday. Witch means the end of my life, I honestly had no way of getting out of it, but I should try. Or at least enjoy the last moments of my life while I still can. I had to say good-bye to everyone I knew or at least cared about. It was cruel what they did. We ran out of all of our energy sources except for the sun, but we ran out the materials and mirrors that we needed to make that work. So what they do now for energy is by using the energy in the human body that flows threw us to get the energy. But the only way to get the energy is by killing that human. So on your twenty-fifth birthday they kill you for energy. They pick out a handful of people who live to be mothers, witch one of them is sitting right in the kitchen like a fat ass. I didn't want to die, well not yet anyway. But they probably will kill me publicly because I was never nice to them at all. i did have the right to be a jerk to them but they don't care. I grabbed my knife and head out the door. Where am I going to go? I thought, for my last day of living I wanted to go somewhere cool. I wanted to go and talk to zero first actually. He would know what to say. some how he always did. He has always been by my side but he's also a year younger then me witch means he'll have to live on a year without me. even though the thought of dying didn't really bother me, it was the thought of losing my best friend, and what he will do. It was the thought of being swept away from everything I knew. I didn't care for my mom, she was a fat ass who didn't care anyway. She never did anything to help me, she never loved me, and the only reason why she had me was because she would get a full life in return. So screw her I didn't care about her thoughts on things, it's my life so my fat mother can't tell me what to do. We all normally get to do what we want and make our own decisions, but we just never get to decide when we die. No one was outside in the crappy streets. We were treated very poorly as well, so our living conditions aren't all that great either. But I still loved where I lived because everyone greeted you. but the thought that really made me want to burst into tears was the thought of losing Zero. I don't really know what I would do without him, so I have no idea what he's going to do when I go. after walking for about five minutes I made it to zeros house that was in line with all of the other crappy houses that were in the men's part of the town. I knew he would always be fine if not happy to know what was on my mind. But it still felt wrong to tell someone else about my problems, I wouldn't be telling anyone this if it wasn't bothering me so much, and I had no one else to go to. he actually told me once that he would be fine with it, and he said that he would also talk to me about things as well. But again it still felt wrong having to depend on someone else. I mean why would anyone care anyway? But I knew Zero wasn't like that. I then stopped thinking about it and just accepted that I was going to tell him. I knocked on Zero's door. He lived alone witch I honestly don't know why I didn't move in with him. we spent all day together anyway right? And I hated staying with my lazy mother. He opened the door and smiled at me. seeing him made me a little happier.

"hey, what's up Zenra?" he said

"um… do you mind? I have to… talk to you about something." I said looking down

"not at all come on in." he responded happily as if nothing was wrong. he closed the door behind after I walked in.

"do you know what tomorrow is Zero?" I asked staring at the wall not even looking at Zero.

"um… yeah it's January… oh god no, it's not… I mean you're not going to…" he was shocked, I was a bit shaken up too when I figured it out. I nodded, tears now welling in my eyes. he hugged me, holding me close. His warmth was comforting, but it couldn't stop my tears from falling. I cried on his should still unable to hold back my tears. He held me closer not exactly knowing what to say. he told me that it all was going to be alright, but how was that even possible now that my death was so close. He moved my head off his shoulders and looked right into my eyes, it was as if he could see right threw me. I also looked in his calm blue eyes, but no matter what he did nothing could stop this from happening.

"look, it's going to be alright." He told me again as if this time it was going to be true.

" how do you know that? how do you know? There is no way of escaping their cruelty." I cried

"I know, I know, now just calm down okay?" he wiped the tears off my face and pushed my brown hair back behind my ears.

"I just need to cry right now." I told him with a shaking voice that was barely even possible to hear.

"I know you do but just listen to me for now. Look into my eyes and listen." he told me sternly. "we swore to protect each other no matter what right? That we wouldn't let anything hurt each other in anyway? So crying isn't going to get us any where right?"

"no… but it helps." I said forcing a smile on my face. he held me close again, I just sobbed, I have never been so scared, ever, in my life. I guess it's a good thing that I have Zero then. We did promise that to each other when we were younger. We promised that we would protect each other with our lives no matter what even when it came to the killing age.

"I thought you said that you weren't afraid of dying?" zero said

"I'm not, I'm scared of losing you and what you might do after I die." I said now feeling a bit better.

"really it's that scary to you? I would feel the same way. Hey! I know what we can do!" you can go to that place where in exchange for your life you work for them." he said happily like it would fix everything, but it was an idea.

"no never." I said stubbornly

"and then I'll rescue you and we run away… or something of the sort." He finished ignoring my comment on it.

"no." I said lifting my head from his shoulder. "there's nothing we can do all they do there is slowly torture you until your death. And I would never see you again. And then where would we go? the woods?" I was still crying so my words weren't all that clear. I pulled away from his grasp. "all I can do is wait here to die." I said now standing for myself because I didn't want Zero to get hurt just trying to save me from this. I sat down against the walk and curled up into a ball.

"but at least I would know that your alive. And the woods would be a perfect place. But I know that there is nothing that we can do, but it's still worth thinking of a way right?" I didn't answer

"I know how about we go to the woods for the last day of our freedom."

"um… sure but what do you mean by that?" I asked, but he didn't answer.