Rebirth: Part Of The Dead Earth Series

Partners in Crime

"The devil's son?" William asked.

"Hey I'm no saint, I've always been a troublesome kid. I like to call myself the devil's son, especially since I was Booted." I almost tripped at the mention of those kinds of people, I was always a perfect soldier, daughter of a powerful soldier at my old fort Finem and out here. 

We always looked down on the Booted ones, my father was one of those who made the decision. Our laws worked like this, you had five chances, each one a worse punishment than the last. Usually kids never made it to five, those who did were usually looked down upon and most of the time just forgotten. Any kid who was Booted ended up a story, everything surrounding their very existence was destroyed, the forts didn't like the idea of failing to raise successful humans, forts who raised too many Booted were looked down upon, the fort which held the record for most Booted was Proibiden, it used to have a different name but after all of the Booted they began to rename in, the name stuck and now the fort is but a myth. Some say Divites bombed it for being a disgrace, the Divites symbol has one big shiny diamond in the middle representing itself, six smaller one's around it representing every other fort in their color. Divites wants to remake their fort symbol, excluding Proibiden, the fort's location is unknown, anyone who knows isn't allowed to tell, if they do the punishment is immediately being Booted. 

Booted is when your fort sort of gives you two options, and by give you I mean takes one say from a member of your family and the rest make their choices. Reboot, or Booted. Reboot is when they wipe your mind of any old thoughts of bad doing and any memory of you doing so, all you remember is your family and friends. Not a bad deal right? Wrong. Those who are Rebooted can never make any decisions true to themselves, you get a completely different personality, different mind and you are basically someone else. The side affect is you are now just a walking zombie, these thoughts and actions aren't your own a computer from the fort makes every decision for you with a chip implanted in your brain. Some of those who are Rebooted even forget who they are and who their own friends and family are, they go crazy and end up harvested. Their mind might be ruined but their bodies are not and there are children out there born with defects, so they need donations. If Reboots so as start to remember who they used to be, all hell breaks loose. Some even die because their brain sort of just, explodes.

Families usually choose the option of being Booted, you get to keep all your memories, your personality and no one can control you. You get to remember the people who you loved and thought loved you, the ones who chose for the fort to deny your very existence, destroy any evidence of you even being born. To top it all off the fort kicks you out, you are sent out into whatever is left of the world, out there with the Unmentionables. Most of the people who are Booted just give up on life and kill themselves, others just get a burning rage in their hearts and want to do nothing but survive, shove it in other peoples faces that what they did to them affects them in no way, Salvages. My dad helped make those choices based on the crimes they've done. I felt guilty.

"Booted? What for?" I  questioned practically choking on my words.

"Well, there was skipping training, which lead to the first strike. Fighting with a fellow trainee outside of the classes. Stealing, and at the age of fourteen I beat the living out of a guy who made fun of me for being, well you guys know. After that the fifth strike wasn't even needed, they just sent me out."

"Wait you actually killed a guy?" William exclaimed, he sounded almost proud of him. 

"How could you guys talk about this like it's the greatest achievement being Booted at the age of fourteen, it's sick!" 

"Oh I'm sorry, I forget that your like the ultimate royalness back in Finem. High rank soldier's little miss perfect, listening to all the rules, such a good little girl you are." William and Jess started to laugh.