Test No. 103

Rose.

Loud sirens started going off in my head. I opened my eyes, and lifted to my head. The sound was way to vexing to ignore, so I looked over at my clock, wanted it to turn off. I allowed it to scan my eyes for a few seconds, then it dead silent. Thank God. I rolled off my bed and stood on my sleepMat, giving it a few seconds to read my vital signs.

"Congratulations Rose," it pronounced. "You have had another successful night of sleep. Your vitals are all in check. Your sleep record for last night is as follows: You slept for nine hours last night, three in level one sleep, two in level two sleep, and four in level three sleep. Please remember, your sleep is rated from a scale of one to three." It paused for a moment. "You have one waiting dream." It announced. "If you choose to watch the dream, take the dreamBottle over to the dreamReader, and then send it to the Tower, for government examination. If you would rather not watch the dream, please send it directly to the Tower for government examination."

As it finished, my pillow opened the dream compartment. I bent over to pick up the small vial waiting inside and peered into it. The dream was almost wispy, and silvery. A silver wisp. I smiled at it, and then stood up. I wasn't going to bother watching it, I wasn't really going to remember it if I did see it again. I check my clock. I had about five minutes to send this to the Tower, or my clock was going to start yelling at me once again.

I went over to the window I had in my bedroom, and opened the latch, letting the warm air into my bedroom. I leaned out the window for a second, looking down at the streets from the height of our apartment. Right under my window, there was a small, clear tube with a wind current contained in the tube, heading in the direction of the Tower. I opened the hatch, and dropped my dream inside it. It started zooming towards the Tower. There.

I stepped into my closet, pressing a few buttons to identify who I was. Within a few seconds, I was fully clothed in my school uniform and my hair was packed into the customary bun. I finally left my room, looking down at my uniform. It was a light gray with navy accents, which was pretty good looking for a uniform. There were stories, of children who got to choose what they wore, and when they did. Those stories always made me laugh. If they were true, they had to be at least two thousand years old. After all, it was the year 4017.

I entered the kitchen and smiled at the cyborg that our family had control of. Cyborgs were shunned in society, and it was supposedly our job as humans to remind them of that. I didn't like the system however, so I tried to be as kind as I could without getting an infraction. "I'll take scrambled eggs with juice." I said. I quickly ate them as soon as they arrived in front of me, then went to the front of the apartment.

The clock read 7:15. Perfect. Bus 23847 left at 7:30, which meant I had just enough time to arrive at the bus station. If I missed my bus, I would be denied access to any other buses, because the drivers would lose their jobs. Then, I would have to walk five miles to school, and have to suffer the repercussions for being late to school, which started at 8:00.

I scanned my thumb on the locker and opened it once my DNA had been identified. I picked up my bag and left the apartment. As I started walking down the stairs, I stopped three floors under my floor, and paused for a few seconds. The door opened, and Daisy walked out.

Yes. I know. Rose and Daisy. We didn't choose them.

"We have ten minutes," I said. "Come on." We started walking, and two more floors down, at the very bottom level, Matthew walked out of his apartment. "Hey Matt," I casually greeted. We continued toward the bus station.

When we arrived, I spotted our bus. Because we were all from the same apartment building in the same section, we were all on the same bus. As we boarded the bus, we walked back to compartment a10. our assigned compartment. Compartments were labeled from a-z, and 1-10 for each letter. Yes. Very large trains.

As I placed my bag on the overhead baggage area, I looked over at the two in my compartment, before hearing the noise. It was terrifying, hearing someone make that high pitch of a noise. It was foreign, especially after it came from a person. We never made those noises here.

I stepped out of my compartment as I looked down towards the door, trying to find the source of the noise.

"It hurts, it hurts," she cried. What a strange girl. We knew what the word hurt meant, but we were told we would never experience it. Ever. Pain was not a thing, according to the government.

The girl had gotten her leg trapped in the door as it was closing, (she was lucky to have made it) and even though the doors had a rebound reflex, it had almost been too late for her, she was lucky it was just her leg!

I shook my head as everyone was ushered back into their compartments. Stupid, stupid girl. EVERYONE knew that you don't try to make it last second. It was too dangerous, and you could be punished for causing damage to the property. I heard some people talking outside the compartment. She must have been ushered off the train and taken to a medical facility.

"Please find your seat and hold on to the leather strap above your head," the speaker instructed. "We will be departing in 3, 2, 1."

#EN