Nate's mother pulled him along through the thick snow in the city streets. He was tall for his age, but he was also very thin, and at barely six years old he found it nearly impossible to navigate the tall heaps of white. In a hurry, his mother had already pulled him over twice as he tried to keep up with her from behind. Again he felt his soaked shoes begin to slide, his center of gravity shifted dangerously, and he wobbled, finally falling in a heap on the icy sidewalk.
His mother held his right hand so he had only his left to catch himself. Nate's hand slid across the ice and the skin of his palm scraped painfully against the unfrozen part of the sidewalk. His knees, too, were now crimson with blood after scraping them all three times he had fallen.
"Damn it, Nate." his mother said exhaustedly "Get up, then." Nate slipped again as he tried to stand "Jesus" his mother said, condescendingly as she grabbed him by the armpits and stood him up again.
Everyone knew that Lacy Carson was a terrible mother, but there was nothing to do about it but watch. The flare took out every part of the government, save WICKED, and that included anyone that could help Nate's situation.
The boy was skin and bones from a lack of food that his mother and the many men who visited her apartment didn't seem to have. His skin was colored purple and black in many places after many of the men left, and some did worse than just hit him.
Nate was a quiet boy, in fact he rarely spoke, and when he did it was usually out of necessity. He was smart, though. Actually, smart was an understatement for Nate, who read whatever books he could find in the wasteland he knew as home- it used to be known as Canada.
Nate had read and remembered the encyclopedias of the letters F, M, Q, and T. He got bored one day and, using a stray textbook he'd found, taught himself pre-algebra.
All this, Nate's ability to learn, was why they were out today. His mother was taking him to a testing center. WICKED was going to pay the parents with the smartest kids to give WICKED the kids to keep for a few years while they did experiments.
When they got to the building Nate's mum released her grip on his hand.
"You'll take the test. When you're done you'll check the time. If it's before five o'clock you'll stand right here and wait for me. If its after five you'll have to walk yourself home, do you understand?" Nate nodded silently, but his mother looked irritated "I said, do you understand?"
"Yes, Mum" said Nate quietly.
By the time the word "Mum" was all the way out she had already left him standing before the daunting building alone. Nate walked in on wobbly knees, and was immediately lifted off the ground by a guard standing around the corner of a long corridor. Nate cried out as the guard put pressure on a rib that had probably been cracked earlier that week.
The guard saw the bruise soon after, and paused. He plopped Nate into a chair, and looked the Nate in the eye.
"Sorry Kid." He said "I'm Adam. I'll be with you all day, but first we have to make sure you're not sick, understand?" Nate nodded his head, and Adam, who was an enormous black man, pricked his finger and popped the little glass piece holding his blood into a small machine.
They waited, and after just a few moments the machine gave back a small green slip. Nate looked to Adam, whose worried look gave Nate quite a scare, until he said
"Well, you're not sick. I've got to say though, I was hoping you'd be immune." Nate figured he couldn't have hoped for more.
"C'mon then, boy" he said pulling Nate gently out of the testing chair and holding his hand as they walked down the corridor. Nate followed silently, but he was content. It was warm here, and he'd heard that the testers usually give the kids food before they test. And having had nothing all day he was excited.
After walking a little down the hall Adam turned to a door, he opened it up and gestured for Nate to go in first. The first thing there was a ginger man behind a desk who waved Nate over.
Nate went to him and the desk man handed him a long form and said
"Go and fill out what you can, then bring it back to me." Nate gave a smile and a half nod to show that he would do as the man said, and he went to sit in one of the small plastic chairs behind the desk. Adam plopped down next to him, and Nate thought the tiny chair might totally collapse for a moment, but it held out. He began the form writing his name, and birthday, and everything else it asked
"Hm" said Adam "your name's Nate, then" Nate nodded and finished the form, which asked all kinds of odd questions like did he talk in his sleep, or had he ever had a food allergy that could kill him, and was he physically disabled in any way?
He said no on almost all of them, and put the form on the desk, Adam following closely behind him.
"Is everything in order, Marv? Adam asked. The desk man looked intently at the sheet for a few moments, and then, without looking up said
"Yeah, he's good to move to physical," Nate's heart skipped a beat. He would never pass a physical test. He was thinner than paper, and his legs were so long that Nate could barely keep them under himself. He was famished, and hoped that there wouldn't be running.
Nate's hopefulness crashed around him when he saw a treadmill in the middle of the room Adam took him to next
"You might as well not test me." Nate said, speaking aloud for the first time "I won't pass. I'm too tired to run, and I can barely do it when I'm not"
A man in a doctor's coat who looked very like a rat, in fact the similarity was shocking, turned and said "Doesn't matter." he was American "we're not testing how fit you are, just how fit you can get. We won't hold much against you since you're obviously nearly starved."
"Really?" said Nate "He'd never known that his skinniness was all that noticeable.
"Yup" said the rat man, looking impatient, now.
Nate did the tests, and by the end he was beyond exhausted. As he stepped into the hallway he saw black spots cover his eyes in a pattern that looked like someone was burning up his eyesight. At the same time he felt like he could feel the world spin, and his legs fell out from under him. He felt Adam catch him.
The next thing Nate knew, he was back in the room with the treadmill, but this time he was lying on a cot in the corner of the room. Adam was watching him from a chair next to the cot when his eyes opened.
"Here, drink" Adam said, holding out a glass of juice. Nate sat up, feeling like the one motion had sapped all the energy that sleeping had given him, and took the glass. He drank.
Nate could feel the energy from the sugary juice pump through him, and he felt better than he had in days.
Adam tousled Nate's dirty blonde hair with a sympathetic look.
"How long's it been since you've eaten, mate?" He asked, looking sad. Nate shrugged, he honestly didn't know. Maybe the day before, but probably not because Mum'd had someone over.
"I'll go get you some food since you're looking better." said Adam
Adam came back after a short while with a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. It had probably come from a can, but Nate hadn't had a hot meal in ages and he began wolfing it down
"Slow down, there mate. you don't want it to bloody come back up, do you?" Nate shook his head, and slowed down.
His shirt was loose, and one of the sleeves of his shirt slipped up his arm, revealing a handprint shaped bruise on his forearm. Adam gently took Nate's arm into his hand.
"Who did this, then?" The man asked "Your Dad?" Nate shook his head
"Never knew him." Adam looked worried
"Mum, then?" he asked
"Not mostly," Said Nate, now extremely uncomfortable. But he knew that he'd have to answer if he wanted to go with the people from WICKED. "She- she has people over sometimes" he answered hesitantly
"Does your mum know they do this to you?" Adam asked. Nate nodded, looking at the floor in embarrassment.
"Things will get better for you if you get chosen." Adam said with a sad sort of smile.
"What's next?" Nate asked, trying to change the subject.
"That'll be the intelligence testing, it's just across the hall, but I'm going to put a bandage on your hand first" Adam bandaged Nate's scraped hand, and Nate wondered how he'd known it was his writing hand.
The test was easy for Nate- it did takes some time, but the other kids in the room all seemed to just give up about halfway through, so he was the only one remaining when he finished.
After that he was allowed to leave, and Adam said that he'd pick Nate up fom his house in a week's time if he'd been chosen. Nate looked at the clock, 6:15pm. He sighed unintentionally, and headed for the door.
"Are walking home? the address you put down in ages away. Have you even got anyone to walk with?" Nate shook his head. Adam grabbed Nate's hand and they wordlessly walked towards Nates home. Finally, they arrived. The apartment building was on the very verge of falling down, and it was a dark winter evening.
"Bye, then," said Adam who truly did not want to leave the boy there "want to know a secret?" Nate nodded "I'm pretty sure I'll be seeing you next week." It warmed Adams heart seeing the light that filled Nate's eyes. He remembered his brother Isaac before he'd gotten sick.
As the boy walked into an apartment and Adam heard a scolding, and a ruckus he hoped didn't involve Nate, He hoped he'd been right about seeing him next week. Nate would surely be picked, but Adam had a horrible doubt that he might not make it that long.