Selected
First

I stared up at the concrete wall. It was huge and intimidating. I didn’t even bother looking over at Koontz. I already knew that a huge smile was plastered all over his face. This was the day. The day he had been waiting for since for God knows how long.

“Come on, Em.” He crouched beside the wall with his hands interlocked.

I stared at him with one eyebrow raised. “What on earth are you doing?”

“I’m getting ready to give you a boost.”

I scoffed, “Um, no you’re not.”

He stood up, “You don’t want to climb the wall with me?”

Again I stared at him. I couldn’t believe he thought I was going to do this. It was a crazy and stupid idea. “No, I don’t think I want to be shot today.”

He rolled his eyes, “You’re not going to get shot.”

“Koontz, if you want to see what’s on the other side of the wall, then go through the gate, but you are not getting me to climb that.”

“I have to have an official business reason to leave, you know that.”

I smiled, “My point.”

He sighed, “Come on, Em! It’ll be a great adventure to tell your grandkids.”

I shook my head, “I’m not having grandkids.”

“Why not.”

“Because I’m not having kids.”

He groaned, “Are you going to rant about Selection again?”

I nodded, he knew me all too well. “Yes. Yes I am. The government matches us up based on DNA so we can create the perfect race, and I’m not going to take part in it. Marriage and starting a family is about love not genes. Call me crazy if I want to be with someone I love.”

“Crazy.” He smiled while I frowned at him. “Please, Em? Tonight is our last night together. Tomorrow you’ll be whisked away to another Sector and we’ll never see each other again.” Koontz put his arms around me and kissed me.

When he broke the kiss, I shook my head, “I’m still not climbing it.”

He sighed, “It was a good try though, right?”

I rolled my eyes in response. “What is your obsession with this wall?”

He looked up at it, “I want to see the other side.”

“Its just a bunch of trees. Not worth getting arrested over.”

He shook his head, “No, I want to see the other side. I want to see what’s out there, and I want to do it with you. Come on, Emmary, we’ve been best friends for eleven years and this is our last day together. Let’s do this.”

“Twelve.” I corrected him.

He smiled, “Come on. I need to see it.”

I looked up at the wall once again. It was at least 12 feet high. I sighed and weighed my options. I looked over at Koontz. “You really want to do this, don’t you?”

“Desperately.”

I sighed and reluctantly said, “Just don’t look up my dress.”

His face lit up, “You’ll do it now?”

“Don’t make me change my mind.”

He laughed and then interlocked his hands for me. “Okay, put your foot in my hands and I’ll try to lift you up.” I did as he told and stepped into my hands as he gave me a boost. I could just barely reach the top of the wall. “Jump up to the wall.”

I looked down at him, “Excuse me?”

“There is no time to argue, just do it!”

I huffed and jumped off his hands and grabbed at the top of the wall. For a second I just dangled there. I then pulled my other hand on top and began to slowly pull myself up. Soon I was able to swing my leg over and lay flat on the wall. I had done it! I had climbed the wall. I smiled, exhausted from lifting my self over. A rock pelted me in the arm. “OW!” I looked down at Koontz, who had his arms spread out.

“Well, don’t just sit there, help me up!” He lifted his hands up for me to grab. I laid flat on my stomach and reached over the ledge. I could feel the tips of his fingers brushing against mine.

“A little farther, Em.” I groaned as I leaned a little farther. “A little more.”

“Any more and I’ll fall over, now grab my hands.”

I heard him laugh before I felt his hands grasp mine. I started to help pull him up. Soon we were both laying on the top of the concrete wall panting, too exhausted to actually look at the view. “Well, Koontzy, we made it. How’s the view?” There wasn’t any answer, so I sat up to look at him. He was already facing the outside world the wall kept from Sector 16F. I smiled at his face. He was glowing, he was absolutely giddy. I looked too, curious of what this whole thing was about.

The view was more than stunning. It looked as I imagined scenes from the romance novels I secretly read. It was the perfect time to do it too. The sun was setting, sending pink and gold streaks across the sky. I was right, it was only trees, but then again it was so much more. It was the outside world. I had no idea what was out there. It excited and scared me at the same time. Tomorrow I would be venturing out into that world, and never returning. “Wow.” Was all I managed to say. I had only been outside Sector 16F once in my life and that was when we went to Registration at Sector 16′s Capital building in 16A. I looked over at Koontz, who had already been staring at me.

“What did I tell you?”

I smiled, “Thank you for making me do this.” I paused, remembering something, “You didn’t look up my dress, did you?”

He shrugged, trying to hide his smile, “Maybe you shouldn’t have worn a dress.” I slapped him on the arm. “OW! I was just kidding, jeez. Besides, it’s not like its anything I haven’t seen before.” I slapped him again, this time harder. “Dammit! That hurt!” He rubbed his arm. He laughed. “Who’s going to hear us?” He then took a deep breath and yelled, “I, Quinton Koontz, had sex with Emmary Eaton!”

I shoved him, “I said to shut up!”

He started to wobble and loose his balance. I reached out and grabbed at his shirt to hold him steady. “Thanks a lot Em, you almost killed me.”

I shrugged, “You deserved it for shouting that out to the whole world.”

“HEY! You two!” Koontz and I looked over his shoulder at the guard standing on the ground only a few yards from us.

“Time to go.” Koontz grabbed my arm and lowered me down. There was a few feet gap between me and solid ground and before I knew it, Koontz let go of me and I fell butt first on the cold hard ground. I stood up quickly, ignoring the pain. I heard the guard take a few shots, and before I knew it, I was sprinting back towards home.

A few minutes later, I could hear footsteps behind me along with heavy breathing. I looked behind me to see Koontz closing the distance between us. “Thanks for waiting for me, Em.” We ran a few more yards before he spoke again, “I think we can stop now.”

I slowed down with him. “I hate you, Koontz.”

“What? Why?”

“Because you said we wouldn’t get shot at.”

He shook his head, “No. I said you wouldn’t get shot, did you? No.”

I noticed his sleeve was turning a deep red color. “No, but I think you did.”

He looked down at his sleeve, “I don’t even feel anything.”

I tore his sleeve off to look at the wound. “I think it’s just a scratch.” I handed him the sleeve I tore off, “Here apply pressure with this.”

He laughed, “Who made you a doctor?”

We reached town square fairly quickly. With the curfew in place, most people were inside before the sun even went down. We were a quite Sector, nothing much ever happened here. Everyone did their jobs and stayed out of trouble. Well, except for Koontz, he caused a scene every now and then just to liven the place up a bit.

We walked into Koontz’s house and I grabbed a pitcher of water along with a dish towel. “Okay, move your hand.” He did as I told him to and I looked at the wound again. It was a lot deeper than I thought. I applied the wet towel and tried to clean the wound as best as I could as he winced.

“Emmary? What are you doing here? It’s past curfew.” I looked over at Koontz’s mother, who just noticed that he was bleeding. “Oh Lord, what did you do this time?” Teyland Koontz went to the cabinet and to get me a fresh towel.

Koontz grinned at his mother, “We were-.”

She held up he hand to stop him, “You know what, I don’t want to know.”

“You don’t want to know how much fun we ha! OW! Em, that hurts like hell!” He scowled at me.

I shrugged, “I’m sorry.”

Teyland smiled, “What do y’all want for dinner?”

“Thanks for showing your concern for my well being, Mom.”

“Plausible deniability, Honey. Does deer sound good to y’all? I bought some this morning from Jordis.”

I looked over Koontz’s wound after the bleeding started to settle down, “Tey, do you think you can sew this up? We should get the doctor to do it, but it’s probably better if we don’t announce that it was us the guard was shooting at.”

Tey smiled, “Of course. Will you start dinner for us?” I nodded and got up from my seat as she grabbed her sewing kit and took my place. Teyland was Sector 16F’s unofficial tailor. She fixed and hemmed clothes all the time. Most people around here can’t afford to buy new clothes, so they come to Teyland and let her sew them up for a reasonable price. It was how she made income after her husband left. At the time, I didn’t really understand why he did it, but now that Selection was getting closer and closer, it seemed more reasonable to run away.

A few minutes later, Koontz’s younger brother came bounding in from his room. Elex was 8 years old and completely adorable. A smile lit up when he saw me, “Emmy!” He gave me a tight squeeze.

“Hey buddy, how’s it going?” I let him go and looked down at him. He was small for his age, but so was Koontz when we were younger. If they were closer in age, him and Koontz could be twins. They both had tan complexions, as did everybody from being in the sun all day. They both had dark brown hair and the same straight nose, although Koontz’s nose now sat crooked on his face after he got into a fight last year. The only real difference I could tell was that Elex had dark emerald eyes like his mother, while Koontz had soft pale blue ones.

He nodded, “Good. Did you want to play?”

I shook my head, “I would love to, but I have to cook dinner. How about we play afterwards?”

“Okay.” I smiled at how cute he was when he ran off.

After Teyland finished sewing Koontz up, she took over cooking dinner for us. Koontz and I sat and talked and played with Elex until dinner was ready. Afterwards we sat and talked a little while longer. I looked over at the clock that hung on the wall. It was already nine o’clock. I sighed, “I guess I should get going.” I didn’t really want to leave, but it was going to be a busy day tomorrow and I was already starting to feel tired after the adventure we just had.

Koontz got up and walked over to the phone hooked up to the wall, “I’ll call an escort.”

Teyland sat up, “Oh! I almost forgot! Wait right there, I have to get something for you.” She ran off towards the bedroom.

I looked over at Koontz, “What is she getting.”

He simply shrugged and Teyland was back in a matter of seconds. “Here you go sweetheart.”

She handed me a black hanger bag. “What is it?”

She smiled, “It’s a dress, for tomorrow.”

I shook my head, “I can’t accept this.”

Tey nodded in return, “Yes you can. I started it when I was pregnant with Quin. I was hoping he’d be a girl, unfortunately he turned out to be a boy, and so did Elex. I don’t want all my hard work to go to waist, and you’re such a big part of our family, Emmary. I want you to have it. Someone should wear it for Selection.”

I smiled, “Thank you.” I didn’t know what else to say. I was so grateful, not just for the dress, but for what she had said. I was part of her family. She wrapped me in a hug just before there was a knock on the door.

A guard was standing on the other side to escort me back to my house. I waved goodbye to the Koontz family and made my way across town square.