Simulation

Chapter 1

"Josie, Josie! Dad made pancakes!"

I squint my eyes open to see my younger sister radiating excitement as she grips onto her raggedy stuffed bear Dad had scavenged for her when she was born. It was the ugliest toy I had ever seen with one of its' button eyes dangling by a couple threads. She really loved that bear.

"Josie, c'mon!"

Rosie was the only person I didn't get aggravated at calling me by that nickname. My name is Josephine, and her name is Rosalie. It seemed fitting enough to our parents to have their only two daughters be named Josie and Rosie. I preferred to be called Jo. Everyone usually abides by this. It's just a losing battle at this point with my family.

I blinked hard to flick my brain out of a train of thoughts that would for sure send me back to sleep. As Rosie tugged at my sleeve, I managed to throw my legs out of bed, one by one. My bare feet plopped against the cold wood planks that was our flooring. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes with the base of my palms. As my eyes became adjusted to what little light we had flickering out of lanterns, I looked around and realized everyone was already out of their beds. I reached for my old bathrobe that was baby blue in color and had definitely been worn a few too many times. Faded pink hearts from the print peeked through less and less as the years went on.

I left my bed and joined everyone in the other part of our room. The entire underground system is set up through intricate tunnels. Mom says it is set up similarly to what used to be apartments. There are rooms lining down each side of the pathway. So you have neighbors beside you, and also across from you. A wooden entrance door opens up to an open room that contains a kitchen, dining room, and living-room. Then to the side of the living-room is another door that opens up to the sleeping quarters. That's where all of our beds are. Every family living space is the same. They are all pretty cramped, too. There are other rooms that differ in size according to what it is. The medical ward, storage room, and classrooms are bigger, for example.

I sat down at the table next to Tag, our only and eldest brother. Rosie was across from Tag, playing with her Teddy bear. Mom was humming a beautiful melody as she set glasses for everyone on the table and poured water into them. My throat was parched from just waking up. I took a huge gulp of water. We have a filtration system that keeps steady oxygen flowing in, and can also filter out things such as smoke in small amounts so we can remain undetected by the Elites.

Dad was finishing up pancakes. The smell of breakfast floated through our room and danced into my nostrils. I took a deep breath and savored it, because pancakes were a delicacy. We only ever had pancakes on special occasions.

Wait.

Tags birthday. I slumped in my seat and pinched the inner corners of my eyes with my thumb and index finger.

"What's wrong?" Rosie asked as her small face grew curios.

I breathed a guilty breath out and peered under my eyelids towards Tag.

I spoke softly, "Happy birthday, Tag. I'm sorry I forgot. I didn't get you anything."

Tag laughed his deep laugh and sat back in his seat. He turned towards me, still chewing his food. "No worries, kid. As long as we've got each other ."

The lump moved out of my throat and my guilt began to subside. Mom smiled as she walked by Tag and kissed him on top of the head on the way to her seat by Rosie.

"Scraggles too!" Rosie smiled as she help up her tattered stuffed bear.

Mom scratched the stuffed bears belly, and kissed right in front of the bears little ear. Then Mom playfully scratched Rosie's belly and she began to laugh. Rosie was small for her young age of 5. She was frail, with wispy brown curls. she had big doe emerald eyes, and her face was speckled with freckles. I was small growing up too. Tag came home with scraped up knuckles plenty of times. The reason behind them was always me. Tag always protected me, and had a very short fuse when people picked on me -which was more often than not. I fell into saddened thoughts as I rubbed the scar that ran from my upper thigh down to the top of my knee that sat underneath my pajamas.