I Believe We're the Enemy

10. Purgatory

Backstory time!!!!

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Mikey's POV:

It was pouring outside but we were safe, sheltered inside the apartment. We lived on the outskirts of town only a mile from the Zones. It never felt scary to me, but the way that adults always described it made it sound terrifying.

The zones were outside of the city. They were the desert, dry and hot and unfriendly to anyone who ventured into them. Today started like any other day, I woke up beside my brother and ate breakfast before taking my pills and heading off to school. The last two years had been really hard on everyone, from the natural disasters to the economic downfall of the country everything was a mess. I might've just been a kid, but I was well informed about the current world news, Better Living Industry made sure that everyone was.

In the year 2012, the fires broke out leaving the world in ruin, chaos and fear. That was when we moved from the east coast to here. It was said to be safer in California, but after living here for two years it didn't feel much different. People talked and acted slightly different, but there was still that blanket of fear that hung heavy in the air. I was thirteen when we first moved, but two years later and I was starting high school with Gerard.

Gerard and I walked to the school together, it was a few blocks away from our dwelling on the outskirts. The area of town where the school was located was a decent one, much cleaner and more upkept than ours. That's how it was though, the closer to the center of the city you got, the nicer the neighborhoods. We weren't poor or anything, my parents said that they liked living close to the zones.

My mother would always tell my brother and I how claustrophobic the center of the city could be. She said that's where all the important people lived. It was much more densely populated yet still managed to have room for everyone.

We made our way around the corner to the school building where clusters of children were gathered in front, talking amongst themselves.

"Gerard!" A boy called from one of the clusters, I didn't recognize him but Gerard seemed to. They gave each other a quick handshake when we got closer and he introduced himself to me.

"Hey, I'm Bert," He said with a smile, I nodded at him. I didn't really like new people, and even though the pills were supposed to suppress negative emotions like anxiety but they didn't seem to work quite well enough for me to feel comfortable with Gerard and his extroverted friends.

"Hi," I muttered softly, looking away and tugging on Gerard's sleeve to try and get him to walk with me into the school. I wasn't exactly thrilled to be starting high school. It didn't seem all bad, but that didn't mean I wasn't absolutely terrified of it. It was definitely much less horrifying than the constant talk of rebels in the zones that my peers couldn't seem to shut up about.

Gerard complied and followed me into the building, giving me a quick pep talk about how high school isn't that bad and that I'll be fine. Of course, he was a completely different person and his pills worked perfectly for him. That's the main flaw with drugs, they have different effects on different people. When we got to the classroom marked with a triple digit number that was the same as the one printed on my schedule, Gerard let go of me and went off to his own class. I went into the room and took a seat in the very back just to be sure I didn't draw too much attention to myself. People who seek attention don't last long in a place like Battery City, you can't always get what you want, and compliance is what gets us through the day.

"Hi," A boy said, taking a seat in the chair beside me.

"Hi," I squeaked, still not managing to muster enough courage to start up a conversation.