The Republic of Ellis

1

LS-499, or Ellis as he liked to be known, has lived in The Republic all his life with his parents (though parents were a loose term, all citizens of The Republic were genetically modified in utero to be the epitome of beauty and intelligence). His parents, MA-386 and RS-267, were well known leaders of The Republic. Reese and Emma worked in the Directory of Knowledge. The Directory was the main governing body of The Republic, where The Chancellor worked in tandem with Them. No one knows who They are but everyone knows what They represent. The Chancellor is Their face and mouth. The Chancellor, Lynn (LN-482) was the newest in a long line of Chancellors. Lynn worked with Ellis's parents to run The Republic at top efficiency, like all its citizens should be.

But Ellis was not perfect, by any means of the word. His auburn hair was constantly tousled and as much as Emma tried, she could not tame the stray pieces that stuck up in the back. He got decent grades in school, but never enough to match his parent's scores. He had never gotten in trouble for the mischief he always managed to get caught up in, though he had a sneaking suspicion his parents had something to do with that. He had gotten used to hiding behind the reputation of his parents to skate by The Republic's requirements, but all of the lies are about to catch up to him.

Currently, Ellis was headed to the Department of Knowledge with all of the other 18 year-olds in The Republic. In The Republic, once a citizen reached the age of 18, they were required to take The Test. The Test was a cumulative exam of everything that a Republic citizen must know. It was administered by Them, making The Test the only contact that most citizens had with Them. The Test told Them if a person was worthy enough to continue living in the Republic and what role they would have in the society. This is what worried Ellis the most. His past of being unexceptional was sure to bring about his failure in The Test and there was nothing his parents could do to help him now.

When he arrived at the Department of Knowledge, the main hall was already filled with about one hundred other 18 year-olds. He moved to the outer edge of the room, hoping to remain unnoticed for as long as possible.

"Ellis!"

It seemed his wishes were not granted seeing as not even two minutes after he had stepped into the room, his name was called out. He turned to see a large bundle of brown curls headed towards him. It was FN-537, or Finn, Ellis' best friend of sorts (If Ellis was being honest Finn was just his neighbor and Ellis found himself keeping his company simply because it was easy).

"Ellis! I was wondering when you'd show up. I'm nervous, are you nervous? Of course, you should have no problem, you've always been so smart." Finn rambled, the words spilling out of his mouth at a mile a minute.

Right, Ellis thought. It's not like I've been flying by the seat of my pants, dragged by my parents' reputation. But what came out of his mouth was, "I'm not worried. And you shouldn't be either."

"Oh, you're right. I'm being silly. Hey did you see Sam over there-"

As Finn started to speak about SM-672 again, he had had a crush on her since they were 8 years-old, Ellis' mind once again wandered to the impending doom that he now faced. No one had explicitly told them what The Test entailed, no one was allowed to. All he knows are the repercussions of doing poorly, of course the details of these consequences were not disclosed either. Ellis could only hope that he could scrape by enough to still pass The Test.

While Ellis had drifted into his thoughts, it seemed that Finn had finished talking about Sam, "Ellis? Ellis, are you okay?"

This pulled Ellis from the depths of his brain and he focused in on Finn again. "It's time to go." These four words were enough to make Ellis feel faint. He nodded to Finn, completely silent, as he started to walk towards the sign that was now flashing "LS-499". Below the sign was a mean-looking old woman. She told him to walk down the hall behind her and enter the third door on the left. He obeyed and found himself inside a tiny white room with only a metal stool and a large screen in front of it. The screen had a small box, only large enough for one finger to fit in it.

"Sit and state your identification code."

A large booming voice rattled through Ellis's brain. He complied again and sat down before saying, "LS-499". The voice did not say anything else, the only sounds that could be heard were the low machine hum of the screen and the rapid breathing from Ellis' own mouth. He could not remember ever being more nervous than he was right now. Suddenly the screen flashed to life, showing a bright white screen that almost matched the stark whiteness of the rest of the room. Then the voice returned, "Place your finger in the box, palm up." In case the instructions were too difficult the large screen also showed a diagram of exactly what to do. At any other moment, Ellis might have laughed at how pointless the diagram seemed, but now his nerves were making him so scatterbrained, that he greatly appreciated the help.

"Place your finger in the box, palm up."

The voice repeated the instructions, making Ellis realize that his finger was mere centimeters from the box, shaking uncontrollably, much like the rest of his body. He placed his finger inside the box and the screen turned black once more. All of a sudden, his finger was stabbed and he pulled it straight out of the box in shock. He was still holding onto his bloody finger when the screen flashed on once more. Now on the screen was his face, his light brown eyes staring back at him. Below his picture was his identification code and a flashing red light directly next to it. Then the entire room went dark.