Escaping Lusarin

Prologue

The dark towers spiraled up high into the air. Their obsidian faces reflected light from the burning, setting sun. Pristine streets sliced the city into even blocks. Not an ounce of litter or speck of dirt could be seen anywhere, let alone vandalism. No artwork was permitted and the names of stores were printed in blocky lettering outside along with a brief description. Cars shot out of the city on ten lane, one direction highways. With so many lanes, it was still slow moving. No one wanted to be in this place.

But everyone had to be at some point in their lives.

Prentia was a great big country, but this was it's most important city. Ironically nicknamed 'The City of Life', Lusarin was the nation's birthing center. Children were born here, taken from their families, and raised to think a certain way. Once they were adults, the people rushed from the city as fast as they could.

Even brainwashing couldn't convince them that this was a place they would want to live in.

While walking down the street, it was pretty obvious that there were no alleys, but there were what many referred to as 'Sink Posts'. They were called Sink Posts because police officers would just sink into the shadows and hide there. Sink Posts were small spaces in the outer walls or in between buildings. They were hard to get into and nearly impossible to spot anyone inside of them. Rumors said that all of the Sink Posts were connected by trap doors and an officer could snatch you off the street and drag you away. No trial and certainly no mercy. The 'City of Life' had the largest fatality rate over the entire country.

But there was little crime.

Nixon Alexander Hunt was born on Tuesday, July 31st, 3211. He was lucky and got an entire day with his family because he was born at 12:02 a.m. and all babies were collected at midnight. Nixon was taken away to Little Sun Children's School. They were responsible for making sure kids were proper and knew the rules for school and life. If they didn't...well, a lot of kids and teachers had disappeared. From as young as when the kids could walk, Lusarin's school systems pushed them in physical activity, training them to be fit and athletic. This training lasted through all of their levels of schooling. Children's School took from when they were born to the age of six. If they passed Children's School, they moved on to Elementary. Nixon went on to Little Sun Elementary. They stayed in the same school system their entire educational careers. In Elementary, they learned all of their math and language arts information. From punctuation to calculus, they learned it all. This would consume the next five years of their life until they were eleven. At the age of eleven, Nixon moved on to Little Sun Middle School. Here, he and the rest of his classmates learned about science and Prentia's history and laws. Most importantly, they learned about Lusarin's laws and the treacherous punishments for the supposedly hideous crimes such as littering and bringing rocks and dirt onto the sidewalks, or even worse: inside buildings. Middle School went from the age of eleven to the age of sixteen. High school was placement for and special job training. Basically what you were going to do for the majority of your life. High school lasted from sixteen years old to twenty-one. Though it didn't work that way for the rest of the schools, on their twenty-first birthday, job training was over. They could leave that same day, and 99.999% of them did. Nixon didn't make it to High School.