L.O.T.U.S

Chapter 1

"Did you hear they're lowering the conscription age to sixteen?" Valencia asks me as we walk our daily route to the education building.

Valencia had missed the announcement yesterday because she hadn't felt well. So, she went to sleep early. When I woke up this morning, her bed was empty and already made. She caught up with me just as I was leaving the house.

"How could I not when the announcement was on every channel," I groan as I retie my rebellious black hair as strands flap wildly and tickle my face.

I flicked through every channel on the television in the common room, to get away from the news presenter with her overly bleached hair, blood red lipstick and too-white teeth. The lotus flower surrounded by a triangle, the emblem of our government, flapped proudly behind her on a phantom wind. But she persisted and was live on every channel, telling the nation of the state's new law and requirements from the young girls of Lotus.

"I wonder why they lowered it. After all, they say that it's best for the speci-"

"-Species if the brain is fully developed to encourage biological advancement," I recite with a mocking tone but my wringing gloved hands displays my anxiety. Those words have been droned into our heads by the state since we were born; spoon fed to us since we learned to listen and follow them blindly.

The woman who presented our new fate that we have been condemned to, didn't tell us why they had created a new conscription age. She only told us that it was happening and had been ordered by the government. Nothing more and nothing less. Even the way she had revealed this life-changing news had been aggravatingly detached and calm when all I wanted to do was scream and cry.

But I managed to keep the churning storm and boiling blood trapped beneath my skin for the sake of the younger girls who had stayed up to watch with us. Quinn, a girl in my year, had run from the room with tears streaming down her dark cheeks and plopping onto her shirt. One of the other girls left the room after her to console her - I was too caught up in my thoughts to notice who. Later that night and throughout it, I could hear Quinn sobbing. Not just her, but others too. Myself included. I lay awake while my tears dripped down my cheeks and onto my pillow. Sometime into the night, my eyes ran out of tears.

Valencia frowns as she mumbles worriedly, "now we are only a year away from leaving".

I kick a stone out of frustration, causing it to skitter rapidly across the path and disappear into a bush.

"I don't want to be some human incubator and have my choices stripped away from me," I spit out scathingly.

Valencia sighs at my comment of defiance. She knows my anger is not directed at her but at the government and its system. If anyone else had heard me, I would have been severely punished but kept alive just in case I am fertile. So, a few broken bones here and there.

I remember a girl from a few years ago who was ungraciously dragged into our home by the female guard. It had been late evening and a few of us were keeping ourselves occupied in the common room. The door slammed open and thudded against the wall. The two women held the slumped girl between them. Her legs trailed behind her and her dull brown hair hung defeated. They dropped her on the worn carpet in front of us and left. The Mothers flocked inside and carried the girl away. I saw her hands were black and blue. Her fingers were swollen and splayed at awkward angles. Blood dripped down from her disfigured face. I stared at the small blood stain she left behind on the carpet for a long time.

I later learned that they had broken every finger on both of her hands. After that, the rest of the girls made sure to be submissive but I struggled to keep my rage hidden.