Human Untouched

1

One of them sighed. It sounded robotic, coming through the masks. "Ma'am, please control yourself."

"No!" She shook her head vehemently, her brown bob dancing around her ears.

She still wore the earrings I'd bought for her birthday. A gem had fallen off but she still wore it. It had taken six months of saving up to buy that and the gem fell off within the first ten days. I'd been ready to go and pick a fight but dad had stopped me.

"You killed my son but I won't let you have my daughter. You'll have to... You'll have to kill me."

I got jarred back to reality. Enough was enough. I couldn't keep delaying this. Placing a hand on mom's shoulder, I pulled her back, shoving her behind me and throwing dad a glance. He understood immediately, wasting no time reaching out and grabbing mom. His hand wrapped around her waist, eyes staring at me with the same fear and worry as my mother. But he didn't say anything as he backed up. He would protect what he had left because what he didn't have anymore, were his children.

Mom thrashed in dad's arms. Her brown eyes filled with tears and her mouth now screaming cuss words I'd never expected from her at the Peacekeepers. Her grief was replaced with anger.

My lips stretched up into a blank smile. "Bye, mom. Bye, dad." My words weren't filled with any emotion either. They were spoken as nonchalantly as if I was just leaving to find some odd job for the day. "See you later." I threw over my shoulder, catching the glint of tears on dad's cheeks.

I stepped over my brother's stub of hand, trampled all over the white sheet he'd arrived in and stepped right over the threshold of the door for the last time. It was surprisingly bright outside for winter.

History was repeating itself. I was seventeen now, like my brother had been. A few months away from turning 18 and enrolling and getting my parents out of here. Guess that wouldn't be happening any time soon.

I'd always wondered how my brother felt when he was taken away. Did he feel sadness? Regret at not being able to spend more time with us? Relief to be leaving Section D? Fear for the unknown?

Or did he feel nothing like me?

There was nothing in me. I could feel a tightness in my gut that had taken residence since I saw my brother's body on the floor, but apart from that nothing. No fear, no regret, no sadness. I wanted to feel something. It felt hollow inside me.

I heard the door close behind me and the heavy thud of the Peacekeeper's boots. There was a small nip in the air despite the hour. Other kids, my age and younger, were already being escorted down the street to where two ominous trucks awaited.

The view down the narrow street of dilapidated apartment buildings with their makeshift doors and broken windows was the same. Parents crying in the doorways over ones they'd lost or ones they were about to lose, white sheets visible on the floors through the ajar doors as Peacekeepers either made their way back or waited to take any of their leftover offsprings.

I looked down on the cracked sidewalk, randomly choosing a stone to kick and keep myself occupied with instead of watching friends and acquaintances being pushed towards their possible deaths.

"You didn't cry."

I faltered in my step at the robotic voice, looking up at the shiny helmet to my right. Surprise had me dumbfounded, making the Peacekeeper repeat himself.

"You didn't cry." He said it slowly this time, like I was a challenged child. "I was expecting more of... something. Some screaming, some crying, a lot of anger. Your mother fulfilled those expectations."

My hand curled up into a fist as I looked down at the rock again, kicking it way too hard and forcing it off of my path. I had been asking myself the same thing. Could they read my mind too?

"Don't get me wrong." He continued. "I don't enjoy subduing kids, but... do you feel nothing?"

I looked up once again, glancing between the two suits. The other Peacekeeper wasn't saying anything, but his head was also turned towards me.

"Speak, girl." He finally intoned as I kept staring at him. A grimace crossed my face as he shoved his gun's business end into my shoulder for added threat.

I stifled a hiss of pain before speaking. "I don't feel like answering that."

"Just like you feel nothing for your brother?" The one on my left snickered. "All you Section D kids are the same. No regard for family. It's only looking out for yourself all the time, isn't it?"

"What would you know, you spoilt, armored freak." I growled through gritted teeth. "Give me the gun and I'll show you the tears, begging and screaming you've missed out on, you sadistic fuck."

The one on my right laughed, probably in amusement, but the robotic overtone made it sound dull. "Kids these days, no manners for their-" I gasped in pain as he slammed the butt of the gun into my side. "-elders... Keep moving."

My hands flew to my side as my body instinctively curled into the pain. It took a few moments to force myself to straighten, just breathing deeply to push it away as I closed the distance to the truck.

"Tch. She's too slow." The one on my right complained. "Your problem now, man."

"Please, if I didn't hit her, you would have." A harsh hand closed around my upper arm. "She just needs a little more encouragement."

His grip tightened as he started dragging me towards the truck. I hissed in pain, pulling my arm out of his grasp. "I can wal-"

His armored fist slammed into the side of my face. I'd been at the end of several punches in my life. But none had impacted this hard. I felt this punch pass through my entire body like someone slamming a brick into the side of my face. My vision blanked out as blood filled my mouth. My lip split under my own teeth.

My ears were ringing as I stumbled away from the punch, but my legs somehow held steady, refusing to fall to the ground. Exhaling harshly, I blinked heavily to force the black spots out of my vision so I could glare up at him. There was silence amidst the two Peacekeepers before the one who'd punched me chuckled.

"You know how to handle a punch." He sounded impressed. "Wouldn't have guessed it from your stick-thin figure."

"Look at that glare on her." The other one stepped forward too, making me take a step back. "I like it."

My body tensed once more, making them both aim their guns at me. I gulped, freezing where I was as I stared down two barrels at the same time. I knew about these plasma rifles. They were carrying the old models- the unregulated ones. The new ones had different stun settings ranging four levels from low to extreme. These would kill me immediately. There was no regulation in these. The pressurized gas itself hurt like hell, that is if you survived the several thousand volts of electricity that boiled your blood while you were alive.

"Just get in the truck, sweet cheeks. I don't want to deal with the paperwork of a dead kid."

My parent's faces crossed before my eyes and I grit my jaws. For them. It's for them.

Turning mechanically, I joined the ever-increasing line. The blood from my split lip was dribbling down my face. I swallowed whatever was in my mouth, reaching up to try and hold the wound closed. But it was soon dripping down my elbow, leaving a trail behind me as I walked up to the truck. Ignoring the outstretched Peacekeeper glove, i reached out to pull myself up into the truck.

I was the last one to be loaded in. My lip hadn't stopped bleeding but it had slowed. It felt like we were cattle being sent for slaughter. Everyone had a terrified look in their eyes, tears running down dirt-caked faces. Some others who sported bruises like mine held anger in their eyes aimed towards the Peacekeepers getting in.

I shifted to get as far away as I could from the Peacekeepers, but one of them grabbed my wrist, pulling me to sit beside him.

"Where you going, sweet cheeks?" He leaned down to whisper in my ear. The menace in his voice clear even through the robotic monotone. "We have to get to know each other better."