Oxygen

Chapter One

Aria Tompson

12:14 pm

The Grounds

The Daetre Learning Centre, Australia

The summer light of the midday sun beamed brightly down on the countless children and adolescents that were playing outside on 'The Grounds' during their half hour lunch break. Teacher Tompson watched them silently from one of the facilities windows, studying their movements and behaviour. She wasn't alone as many of the other Teachers were also studying their students. During such a pivotal point of the children's learning between the infant years and the final stage, it was important to study which of the students were the brightest and the best. They couldn't allow just anyone to enter 'Society'.

The room she was standing in happened to be a special observation deck for times like these when the Learning Centre didn't want the children to know that they were being watched. A large white room, bare except for a few tables and spare clipboards was unknown to the students and provided an excellent advantage to the Teachers.

The Daetre Learning Centre was one of millions of centres across the entire world and was dedicated to the growing and education of the thousands of children that were born into the world every month. As new borns, the children were sent to one of the centres where they would be cared for by qualified nurses until they were of age to begin learning - three. They were then sent on to 'School' were they went through rigorous academic, creative and sporting training to reach their fullest potential. After sixteen years of this, they would then enter the final stage which would consist of exams, tests and assignments that would decide if they were good enough to enter 'Society'. If not, then they were sent to the reformation centres - which didn't exactly mean what they sounded like.

Teacher Tompson smirked as she thought of that, relishing in the uncomfortable feel of the filter that was positioned deep down inside her chest, connected to her lungs. Although it may be an unpleasant experience to live with the device inside her, she was glad to pay the price. Immortality was something men had dreamed of for centuries and now everyone who had been accepted into Society had it. All because of a rather large discovery by the Yang Research Station in Antartica around 200 years ago. Now, instead of oxygen, they breathed in Rydien.

Rydien was a natural resource that could be constantly found beneath the ice in the middle of Antartica and the bonus, it didn't make humans age. Unlike oxygen, which was slowly killing the human race, Rydien seemed to keep the body at it's natural state. No one died anymore - at least of old age.

That was the reason why they had the Learning Centres, so that they could feed oxygen to the children to help them grow up to the ideal age. They lived in a perfect world now, whether you survived off a filter like Teachers who worked in oxygen filled environments, or by living in Society's domes which pumped Rydien 24/7.

But of course, with in an immortal age, population numbers would sky rocket so fast that life would become unbearable and ... stuffy. So the Government introduced the final stage to every Learning Centre and numbers remained at a more than handable level.

A fight erupted down on 'The Grounds' between two boys which quickly made everyone else scutter off. No one wanted to get in trouble from the Teachers because it always affected your chances in the final stage. Teacher Tompson watched in growing interest and excitement as other Teachers reached the scene and pulled apart the squabblers. She always enjoyed it more when her students did something wrong.

It seemed it was her lucky day as she recognized one of the boys. Not exceptionally smart and little talents. He was a lost cause already. Teacher Tompson smiled in glee as she took her red pen and scratched a beautiful red cross in one of the boxes next to the boy's name. There was little chance now that he was even going to be considered for 'Society'.