Operation A.D.O.L.E.S.C.E.N.T
Part 1
"Tim Crooks!", the guard yelled out.
A young boy about the age of 15 stepped forward.
"You Tim?", the man asked.
"Why the fuck do you care?", he replied with his head down.
The man clenched his fist together, brass knuckles lining his hand. He punched the boy square in the temple sending him off his feet. The boy laid on the ground, in his handcuffs and a puddle of blood, saying nothing.
"Fucking waste", the man said, spitting on the dead child's body. "Take him away"
Two more men came over and dragged the dead child's body away.
"These are the things that happen so little shits who think they're tough, take note of your friend there", he said.
The man looked back to his list.
"Kyle Sky!", the man continued.
A boy, about a year older than the kid before, stepped forward.
"Kyle Sky. Blonde hair, green eyes, 16 years old, 5'10, 150 lbs.", the man read from the list.
He looks over the boy and everything seemed to match.
"Get moving", he said to him.
Kyle began to walk, looking around at the horrible factory. Kids and teenagers with singed black skin in patches all over their bodies. The walls lined with corpses.
Kyle Sky, a young man from Seattle. Kyle was taken from his family at the age of 11 and forced into labor by the nation's new leaders. No child understood why adults would force them into these horrible conditions or how to get out. The factories were lined with 18 foot high fences with razor sharp wire at the top, lined with the bodies of kids who tried to get over it. Kyle works shoveling coal now, he was lucky enough to be in the same coal pile as his close friend Joshua. Josh always had hope that one day all child labor laws would be overturned but everyone knew it wouldn't happen. With the nation being run by a group of dictators no one could stand in their way. Other nations didn't even try to stop America. They were just going to let it crumble to the ground on its own.
Every day it was the same routine for Kyle and Josh. They put on their ragged clothes that they were provided with; they grabbed their shovels and worked for hours on end with no breaks in the blistering heat of the boiler room. It was their job along with 50 something other teenagers to shovel coal into the furnace to keep the factory running. Today was no different.
"Kyle!" Josh yelled to him. "Anything new?"
"Yeah don't worry I got ya something", Kyle replied.
Kyle reached into his pocket and pulled out one tootsie pop.
"You crazy son of a bitch! Do you realize how fucking hard it is to get your hands on this?", Josh said.
"I had to get passed Rupert, it wasn't that hard", Kyle stated.
"You use my gadget to break the lock?" Josh asked.
"Yeah it was a bit of a challenge but it got me in there." Kyle replied.
Josh always had a thing for picking spare parts off broken machines and building things with them. He managed to make a special lock pick for Kyle to use and get them goods from the vault at the end of the main hall.
Josh gave Kyle a brotherly hug and stepped back to unwrap the tootsie pop. By the look on his face and the bumps on his rib cage you could tell he hadn't eaten in forever. He savored every last bit of it.
"You're not gonna have any?", Josh asked.
"You savor it man, you work your ass off while I go out and get stupid little morsels of candy. You deserve it way more than I do.", Kyle said.
Kyle never really looked out for himself as much as he did for Josh. Josh was the only friend he had in the world. Well at least now he is.
"What else was in there?" Josh continued.
"Mostly working supplies, though today there was something new in there that I didn't see before", Kyle said.
"What's that?" Josh asked.
"Well I was going through and over by the shovel rack was this helmet, not like the helmet the miners are using but like a soldier helmet. There was this weird logo on it but I couldn't make it out." Kyle stated.
"Well maybe they're just getting new ones" Josh said.
"Yeah I guess that makes sense" Kyle said.
The alarm rang for kids to head back to their rooms, or cells in this case. The boys hung up their stuff and headed out. New corpses lined the wall.
"Just shut the fuck up and keep walking" Kyle whispered to Josh.
The boys walked past the guards and headed to their cells. Josh walked into his and Kyle continued walking. He arrived at his cell. He sat there in a small 10ft by 10ft room and thought to himself. He thought about where his parents are at, his dog, friends that he lost in the trade… his sister. He laid his head down and just tried to clear his mind until tomorrow. All the lights in the hall went off and kids lay in their cells quiet. Even sitting in his cell he can hear the sound of kids screaming in agony outside of the hall, followed by the blast of a shotgun. He almost looked forward to the sound of the gun; it meant he could finally sleep in silence.
(to be continued…)
