Flood

The selection

I frantically search for my parents pulling my sister along behind me. The crowd had pulled us apart, I can only hope that we haven't fallen so far behind that we've been sectioned into a seperate pen.

Around half an hour later the rumbling of the crowd dies down into a mutter. I don't dare ask one of the electics which pen we are in. My sister tugs my blouse and asks why we are being squashed into tiny pens and where is mummy and daddy. I'm not sure how to tell her that we might not see mummy and daddy for a long time, if not forever. There's no chance we will be reunited with our parents if they have been located to another pen. So I just say to wait a minute for the lady to speak and to hold my hand.

A woman dressed in a black tight fitting bandeau dress walks up the stage. The crowds silence and you can only hear the clopping of her shoes on the metal stage and the occasional cough.

"I'd like to present to all head electics a register, please log everybody in your pen in with a cell sample." Her voice hisses like a snake.

The electics march up the stage , each collect a black folder and return to the the front of each pen.

"Now, let me explain a little to all of you citizens. There are 17 pens, each pen represents a type of bird." She points to all the different pens and recites a type of bird and a little speech about the meaning behind the name. We must be pretty near the end because it takes a while for her finger to point at us.

"Eagle, a strong hunter, often travels alone, has a strong mind set and a strong will."

That's it? that's all we get? at the start of the listing she started off with such enthusiasm and spoke more about the bird type. We just get a couple facts and the first pens get a whole paragraph about how... "fabulous" the bird is.

The que for registration moves along slowly. I'm still clutching my sisters hand, it's her seventh birthday tomorrow, I slipped her present into my skirt pocket. Our parents forgot to get her anything I even told them what she wanted but they just shrugged it off and started drinking again. I smiled reassuringly at Mindi she thought our parents were angels, I don't blame her. She was always their favourite, the beautiful one, the cheeky full of life one. I was just the outsider, I never spoke, some people mistake me for being shy, but i just cant seem to get their jokes or their conversations confuse me. I think its because im so stubborn. I just find it hard to trust people after our parents started drinking. Over time I've Learnt not to try to make new friends, I can speak with my eyes, if someone's talking about me behind my back I only have to glare at them for it to stop.

We're at the front of the que now, they ask my name and birthday. "Starr Hartsheild, 4th of March 3000, I'm 12" I add on the end. I push Mandi in front of me. "And this is my little sister Mandi Hartsheild, 27th February 3006, she's 7 tomorrow" I say. They stick an ear bud into my mouth and rub it around my cheek, they put it in a sealable plastic bag and slot it into my page.

We're escorted to a van and sit in two lines on oposite sides. while we're driven to the eagle region, I overheard two electics saying that eagle region was the largest of all regions and most of it was filled with glistening lakes and rivers, they said we even have a small sea. I had imagined eagle region to be a desert wasteland filled with scorching hot savannahs. Mandi is falling asleep on my shoulder, if the electics saw her asleep they'd surely punish her in some kind of way. I gently shake her awake and mouth not yet. but I have a feeling this is going to be a long journey.

The van halts to a stop and everyone looks around worriedly and starts muttering. but not me, I just stare straight ahead wrapped up in my own world, wondering what on earth has happened to our parents. The electics hush everyone and wave a shotgun around in the air, that shut everyone up. I catch a boy looking at me. He looks about 2 years older than me and he looked very... big. I don't mean big as in large but muscly big. He smiles at me and I'm not quite sure what to do so I just turn to hush my sister. The doors swing open and sunlight beams in. it hurts my eyes for a little while because the lighting in the van was so dim. We step out one by one I was 5th to step out and my sister after me. I take in the view we get from here, a turquoise lake shimmers in the distance. my eyes quickly sweep the landscape nothing much here just woods to one side and a lake to the other. Before we are all out of the van a few other vans pull up .

The electics haul two big chains with handcuffs out of the van. they cuff us along in the chain and attached the two rows of people together with another chain. I was walking alongside the boy that smiled at me. I was trying to avoid eye contact and I could feel his eyes burning into me. His foot touched my leg and he smiled once again, but i didn't smile back I just looked at him accusingly. "Clan" He whispered.

I cocked my head and have him a confused look.

"That's my name" he grinned as if he would've laughed, but we both know we would be punished.

"Starr" I mumble trying not for my sister to hear because if she did she'd assume it was ok for her to talk. and I don't want anything to happen to her.

I look away and think about wether our parents are in the same region as us.