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Chapter one: Daniel

"He stepped onto the train not knowing the life he knew ended at the platform"

The alarm blared in his ears erasing the memory from his mind once more. He cursed as he picked himself up from the floor. He often ended up there when he'd been dreaming. He was so close rhat time though. He could practically feel the cold metal dood between his fingertips before it slipped out if his grip once again. The alarm seemed to target him in that way, waking him before he could get a proper feel for the memory. He knew it wasn't true but it seemed designed to stop him remembering. It wouldn't surprise him though, a lot of things worked differently in the transfer.

A pile of neatly folded clothes sat at the end of his bed like usual. Black cargos and a black top, the same he wore everyday. He wasn't sure how the clothes got in there and hed given up looking. He was a bit disturbed by the possibility of someone coming in whilst he was sleeping though. But then why didn't he wake up? Once again it didn't make sense. 

He could hear the others getting up from across the hall. It added to the confusing mess his life was. At least the routines in the transfer put some organisation in it. The question always buzzed around his head like a fly he couldn't swat. Why was he alone? The past three years might have been more bearable if he had a friend to talk to. Instead hed spent the time walking sround talking to walls. And they weren't even good talkers. 

"You're different" the professors would tell him whenever he asked. It was a bit stupid of them to say he thought since he knew he wasn't a clone but the other boys werent the same either. He wanted to reply with some sarcastic remark but backchat didn't get anyone far in the transfer. And he wasn't the best at sarcasm. 

He hopped around the room trying to get his top over his head whilst his trousers sat around his ankles. He couldn't pull it over his visor, the neck of the top was too small. The visors were mandatory so they could've at least made the tops fit over them. He hated wearing it but he'd rather not live on the streets in the junkyard. He had a vague memory of seeing the people there. He knew he used to live there but at least he had a roof over his head unlike the junkies.

He'd heard that people had tried to take them off and succeeded but not totally. They normally got taken off by force and apparently it was painful. He tried to avoid pain where he could, who didnt? A shrill alarm sounded and he slipped his shoes on before walking through a hidden doorway that had slid open in the wall. He had to get out quickly or he'd be stuck in there until the next day. He knew from experience. 

In the corridor he could hear the footsteps of the guard behind him. He knew the way to the canteen but it was for "security purposes". He used to be able to roam around by himself until sbout a year ago. He didn't have much sense of time here. One of the girls had tried to run away. Apparently she'd gotten pretty far before the guards started firing. 

He heard the group of girls approaching from around the corner. The genders were split here snd they tried to keep them separate but they still crossed in the corridor sometimes snd he liked to shoot his shot. He realised he hadn't styled his hair and hastily ran his finger through to make it look a bit more presentable. There wasn't much point though since he just got an eye roll and one muttered pathetic. They were hard to impress but it wasn't like he had much to offer. 

The building wasn't to big and he'd reached the canteen in around a minute. He stood to get searched and could feel the stares of the other boys in the line next to him. There was quite a few of them now since they kept arriving. From little five year olds to teens like him. He didn't blame them for staring he'd probably do the same in their position. 

In the hall he found himself a corner table and sat awaiting his "nutritional breakfast" as they called it but it looks like grey slop to him. A sheet of paper on the table caught his eye, it looked like a blank white sheet but a single line of black typed letters read "prayers list out tomorrow". Confusion filled his brain. The prayers list usually just appeared and the kids on it were whisked away; five boys, five girls. They'd never announced it like this before though. 

He looked around to see that all the kids were on the other side of the hall like usual and they didn't seem to be bothered by this announcement. None of them even dared to sit near him; when he first joined a boy called Jack came and sat next to him. The next day the prayers list came out and his name was at the top of the list. No one saw Jack again. It was a pretty off putting event, it could've been a coincidence but it didn't feel like that. 

He wasn't sure what to so he tried to look normal as he threw his breakfast goo in the bin even though there was a million different thoughts running through his head. Why had the system changed? What did it mean? He thought that the routine was tedious but one small change and his nerves were on edge. The others didn't seem to care so he couldn't let them see that he did. He just had to copy what they did. 

And that was how he found himself walking towards the wrong door. The bell rang and he was so focused on behaving like all the others that he didn't realise he was following them until he felt the gun in his back. A voice snarled in his ear "Get back to your door or this bullet goes straight through you". He didn't even look at the guard as he walked to the opposite door. His faced burned with embarrassment, all the boys had seen, they all knew now. He kept his head down as he walked to his room. His day somehow got worse as the door opened and his maths professor stood there with a fake smile plastered across her face, holding an algebraic textbook.