Zero

Chapter 1

I sat anxiously as guy next to me stood up once his name was announced. He got the same rank that he had before, a one. Everyone else was born a one except for the monitor, Ms. Emma. Well, she could've been born a one but she wouldn't admit it, nobody ever talked about their previous ranks.

I watched as he entered the rank one room. When Ms. Emma called my name, I almost fell out of my seat as I stood up. "Dawn Evalyn Rose, you have received a zero. Please sit down and wait for everyone else to go." My thoughts were scrambled up and I was hyperventilating. How could I have gotten Zero? I had studied for weeks to pass the written exam. I rehearsed for the interview for hours on end. Time passed and I barely heard as the remaining participants were called.

Then I was alone. "Come with me," said Ms. Emma, ripping me out of my trance. I nodded my head, stood up, gripping my duffel bag tightly, and took the agonizing walk down the steps. I gave her my navy blue and black badge with a rust-colored one plastered on the front for one that looked similar but instead of being navy blue and black, it was just black with a white zero instead of a one. I followed her to the emergency exit as she opened the emergency exit, yet, unlike what I expected, no alarm went off. We exited the lecture hall and met up with a pair of security guards.

They each grabbed one of my hands and lead me away from my former teacher. I looked back at Ms. Emma one last time. I thought about what could happen to me and why there wasn't a room for zeroes. Why couldn't I have just gone through the emergency exit in the beginning? What was the point of me waiting?

I snapped back to reality when one of the guards let go of my hand. In front of me was a limo that had white writing on the side. I only knew what a limo looked like from pictures. "Why a limo?" I thought, "Weren't those only for upper class fives and sixes?" I tossed my navy duffel bag on the floor and sat across from the only other person there, a boy with tan skin, messy brown hair and nutmeg brown eyes. He was wearing jeans and a tshirt, completely contradicting my outfit which was a white blouse, black tie, black shirt, long, white, kneehigh socks, and black mary janes. He felt familiar somehow but there were, after all, a lot of people in the world with brown hair and brown eyes.

"Oh my God." I thought, "These seats are softer than my bed." The boy looked up, smiling, "Hey, you look like my sister on Christmas morning," he giggled. The fact that this guy could be so calm astounded me. Yet, it put me at ease and I started giggling along with him. Our giggling died down and we fell into an awkward silence. We stayed like that for more than an hour until the boy broke the silence.

"The name's Zach. What's yours?" He asked, smiling shyly.

"Dawn Rose," I said and smiled back. Zach froze, stunned but shook it off.

I sat there shaking. I was gnawing on the inside of my cheek even after I started to taste the slight copperish taste of blood in my mouth.

"HEY STOP!" Zach shouted a look of panic covered his face. I noticed that blood from the cut on my cheek, from years of gnawing on that one area, had dripped out of the corner of my mouth. It wasn't anything serious though and there wasn't a whole lot of blood. Now that I had stopped, the reality of the pain from my inner cheek hit me like a train.

Tears formed at the corner of my eyes. "Fine," I muttered.

"Do you promise?" he asked.

"Why do you care?" I asked giving him a dirty look that astounded even me. I normally didn't act like that.

"Because, I might sound a bit crazy here, but I don't particularly like the sight of blood." he said. I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Ok" I responded.

I suddenly realised that the limo still wasn't moving. "Uh, why aren't we moving?" I asked.

"I was waiting for about a half hour before you arrived so I thought that maybe somebody else was coming," He responded.

"Yeah, that's what I thought too but the clock right there says that we've been here for two hours." I indicated to the electronic clock that now read two thirty p.m.

"You're right" he said.

A strange scent filled the air. I tried to place it and found that it was really similar to the smell of syrup. I remembered what I had learned in chemistry class, "Matropa, the most efficient sleeping gas on earth can take down a grown man in at most ten minutes. The sign that this gas has been released in the air is the smell of syrup."

"Matropa." I whispered. I pulled my top over my mouth and pulled Zach's over his. "What are you doing?" he asked, panicked. He started to claw at my hand until I let go of his shirt. I watched as he swayed back and forth until he finally passed out. I was starting to feel woozy as well. The fabric of my shirt was unable to filter out all of the gas.

My mind started to fog and my vision was blurry. I leaned against the door and I fought to keep my eyes open. Before I fell asleep I tried to say something but my tongue refused to obey me.

I was barely able to process a thought before my vision faded to black.