The Selection

Chapter 1

'There is always hope' was the quote Peter said to himself anytime he was felling down.

There was always hope for a better world, he remembers.

The world was a complicated place, a hard one, especially for those who lived in the second section, like Peter, constantly fighting to live another day.

It wasn't always like this, according to his aunt, that is, although she refused to tell him more about the old times especially since the war took the lives of his parents first, and then his uncle, striping him from his family. Nobody his age knew a lot about the old world, it was forbidden to talk about it, at least in his section was, nobody also knew how life in section one was all they knew it was they didn't starve like they did.

But Peter prides himself in the information he had gathered along the years, it was not much but compared to his classmates it was a lot.

The world took its downfall many years ago with the third world war, countries were decimated, millions were killed, only when there were only a couple million survivors that the countries made truces, all international relations were cut off, no more trades, no more communications, it was every country for themselves.

After the war there was hope again, a small sparkle that lighten up the dark, but then came the droughts, the hunger, there was no government, no order, so the richer took their place and a monarchy was put in place by the stark family. A family that ruled with an iron fist, spared no one, but at least put order back on the streets.

The first law came not long after the coronation of the king

1- a border will be created to divide the country into sections: section 1 and section 2.

2- it is forbidden to travel between sections without justification

Of course, all the rich people moved up to the first section that thrived in all aspects, and the rest were pushed down to the second section where hunger and violence still were a problem, where no hope was left.

For a few years the country began to stabilize, the section two long forgotten, and section one living comfortably in their newly built homes, hospitals, farms, there was nothing that they didn't have.

Until king Stark noticed the first issue, the birth rates were dangerously low, both sections were affected, although one section more than another. Section 2 were still a little bit higher due to the lack of contraceptive methods.

The problem was serious and at that rate in a few decades' section one would cease to exist, so it was made a new law, a law that would change Peter's live.

1- Every child of section two will go through a mandatory selection

The law was vague, and in the beginning no one of section two understood it.

Until one day some people from section one sent by the king gave orders to build a couple of schools.

It was a new milestone free mandatory education was provided for all children, ending at 15 years of age when the selection would happen.

The people were happy with the changes, starting to see a brighter future for their children, full of knowledge and hope, that until the first selection happened, the selection that no one knew nothing about.

At first people thought that it was only a simple exam that qualified their children for jobs, but then a couple of weeks later a few royal officials came and started to take children away, without even getting to say goodbye to their loved ones, no one ever saw them again until this day, no one knew what happen to them.

The next selection came, and the locals were ready, barricading the entrance of the schools, guarding them with all the weapons they could find, waiting for the officials to arrive. No one was prepared for the manslaughter that happened.

When the royal guards arrived, they were ready as well, with orders to take the select children using force if needed. The locals tried to save the children from being taken, but as predicted, they failed. The guards shot everyone that stood in the way, and the ones that weren't dead were sentenced to death the next day, from that day forward no one dared to cross the guard's way as they took their children away. They could only see and sob from the distance.

Of course, the king was informed about the events that took place and decided to calm the minds of the citizens and give a little information about the whereabouts of their young ones.

The information was clear and simple

"All the select children will be taken to an academy, in section one, where they will expand their education, anyone that try in any way to block the exchange will be sentenced to death and given a public execution"

The statement didn't do much at easing the people, and many questions surface, the main one 'what happen after their education was over' but that remained unanswered, all they could guess was to not expect to see their children again.

With the years passing by, they would come to the conclusion that the higher the score, the higher were the chances for you to be selected.

With that new information, things started to change in the minds of some people. Some started to look at that exam as an opportunity to give their child a chance at a better life, full of luxuries that the section above was known to have, to be able to see what they weren't able to see, a chance to not starve or die due to the lack of medical care.

They may not know what lied ahead of the select kids, but worse than what happen in their section was not. Hunger, diseases and crimes were a daily occurrence, lack of police forces and hospitals didn't help either, so people started to get really desperate. Some parents started to dedicate all their time and little money that they had on making sure that their kids were chosen.

But the exam was hard, really hard, and only the brightest of the brightest got a pacing grade, and only a handful got a high grade to get selected.

But what others dreamed about scared Peter. Peter was terrified of the selection; it was a prohibited topic to talk to the boy. He didn't want to be separated of his last leaving member, his aunt may.

His aunt was the person he admired the most, she was a fighter, and always taught peter to do good in a world where only bad existed. They could not have much, but his aunt always did everything she could to help others, on top of her brutal working schedule, to only receive a couple of scrapes at the end of the month. But Peter was happy like that and didn't need to go anywhere near the other section, as long as his aunt was by his side Peter didn't need anything else, he was whole.

So from day one Peter made a commitment to not stand out on that test, or anywhere for a matter of fact, he was just one more kid in a land of nobodies. The problem was that doing too bad on that exam was not an option either, as the results would impact on what job opportunities he would have. There weren't many jobs available that he could dream of getting, just boring stuff in his opinion, but the little jobs that exists were reserved for the ones that had a decent grade on that damn test. So, he had to do well for May, to give her a slight better life, to not be a burden to her.

If it was up to him, he would already be working and helping May out with the bills, but the selection law prohibited any child working until they have done their exam, so no one would give a job to peter even if he worked almost for free, believe him he tried.

But the time he dreaded the most was coming, in two weeks' time it would be his turn to do the selection exam, he just hoped his plan worked.