Age:
High School
Reading Level: 2.2
Chapter 1
I remember the first time I saw Charles Thornton. He was the man who changed my family's life forever. He was on television during a debate for the 2084 election. It seemed like he was sitting with us in my family's living room in Baltimore.
Thornton's smile and good looks set him apart from the man he was against, Alvin Richardson.
My mother fanned herself. "Look how handsome that Thornton is," she said.
My father crinkled his face. I was only fifteen, but I knew her joke hurt his feelings.
"Just kidding," she said. "All of the Carmichael men are very handsome." Her left hand bounced against my curly black hair. "You too, Tor." She was the only person who could call me anything other than Torrey.
Thornton didn't look like my father, anyone in my family, or like most Americans. His skin was pale. Since 2050, most Americans' skin was a blend of tans, browns, and bronzes.
My father smiled listening to Thornton. "We have been through tough times, but we must return to glory!" Thornton said.
My father nodded at the TV screen. "He makes a good point," he said.
Other Americans felt the same, leading to Thornton's easy win on election night.
I was glad Thornton won because our country had been through a lot. We stayed out of wars in other countries for about twenty years. People were happy across the country because the economy was making businesses a lot of money. Plus, the money was put into schools instead of war. More money went to places like Baltimore for reading programs and creating Virtual Learning Communities, or VLCs.
Unfortunately, the good times didn't last. War broke out between China and Russia in 2080 over coal. They asked President Thomas Buckley to join the war. The president didn't want America to pick between our allies or friends.
China, Russia, and their allies ended trade with the United States. Businesses closed, Americans lost jobs, and money disappeared. Americans blamed President Buckley. He didn't run for re-election, leaving Thornton and Richardson as the only choices.
* * *
My family gathered around the television in our living room to watch Thornton's inauguration, the ceremony when he became president. My father rocked in his recliner. My sister Lake and I claimed opposite ends of the couch across from the television. My mother was in the kitchen preparing snacks. She called Lake to help her.
After a few commercials, the broadcast's theme song played. My mother and Lake heard the music and entered the living room carrying apple juice and popcorn, which they placed on the table. Lake sat next to me on the couch. My mother sat in the armchair next to us. As a family, we watched the event that changed our lives.
The camera scanned the joyful faces of the large crowd in front of the Capitol Building. People were bundled in jackets, knit caps, and gloves, but they all smiled.
The crowd cheered as Benjamin Hood, the soon-to-be vice president, stood at the top of the staircase. The skinny, seventy-year-old man waved to the crowd as a gust of wind ruffled his white hair. The wind almost knocked over Hood. He grabbed the railing of the staircase to keep his balance. He continued down the stairs to an area behind the podium, the stand where Thornton gave his speech. The wind whipped the American flags hanging behind the senators, judges, and other important people.
Seconds later, Thornton appeared at the top of the stairs. The crowd cheered together as Thornton made his way to the podium. Chief Justice Bernard Mills walked to the podium carrying a leather book. He was a bald man wearing a black robe. He held out the book and read the oath of office. Thornton placed his hand on the book and repeated the oath. In less than a minute, Charles Thornton became President Thornton. In less than a minute, the United States changed. Everything changed.
Thornton stepped to the microphone. A hush fell over the crowd. Everyone waited in silence to see what he would say.
"My fellow Americans, thank you," he said. "Our return to glory would be impossible without you."
The audience in Washington and in my living room cheered.
Thornton cleared his throat. "America will become powerful again. I am tired of being weak. We will be strong." Thornton's smile changed into a scowl. "Our biggest weakness is our lack of purity." He slammed his fist against the podium. "The National Purification Program starts today."
I didn't know what he meant. My family looked confused too.
"To be great, we must purify our country," Thornton said. "We must weed out the weak. Handicapped, mixed race, and other mutated people must be removed. Collection starts today."
Thornton stunned the crowd into silence.
"If you love America, you will support us in our return to glory!" Thornton said.
Suddenly, figures dressed in black armor rushed the crowd from the sides. We'd later learn that they were called the Purification Patrol.
There was no room to run. The patrol sorted people into lines. A man on crutches begged a patrolman to let him go. The patrolman shot him with a voltarizer, a gun that shot a deadly electric current.
My mother dropped her glass of juice onto the carpet and began crying. She ran out of the room.
"What's wrong with mom?" Lake said.
I waited for my father to answer. He didn't. He stared at the television, trying to think of an answer.
I tried to fill the silence, but I didn't know what to say either. "Mom... is upset about something the president said."
"What did he say?" Lake asked.
I looked at her innocent face. I was about to answer her, but my father threw his glass toward the TV. He missed by about three inches. The glass shattered against the wall. Glass shards flew throughout the room. Juice streamed down the wall.
"He said people like us aren't welcome anymore," my father said. He stormed out of the room.
"Torrey, what are we going to do?" Lake said.
I tried to think of some words of wisdom, but I had to be honest with her. "I don't know," I said.
Chapter 2
The next morning, I replayed the events in my mind. I couldn't stop picturing the patrol shooting the man on crutches. I wondered if it was real. I ran to my computer to check the news. The headline said, "New president has new plan."
I watched videos of the Purification Patrol capturing Americans. They were herded onto trucks and school buses like cattle.
It was almost time for my VLC. VLCs were online classes for students from the same area. At eight every weekday morning, I logged into my VLC on my computer. Lake joined a different VLC from her bedroom at the same time.
I had two best friends I hung out with in real life from my VLC. I knew Jess Butler since first grade. Her family moved to Baltimore from Atlanta. She was an only child. Her family lived two blocks away. Jess had kind green eyes and beautiful olive-colored skin. It was hard to tell by looking at her, but she was the toughest girl I knew.
Her mom died of cancer when we were thirteen. Her dad was depressed and drank heavily to cope with the pain of losing his wife. It was a struggle, but Jess convinced her dad to go to rehab to get help.
Jess and I never talked about her mom's death. We just had fun being kids. One of our favorite things was watching the swarm of people buzz on and off the Beltway Area Train System (BATS). The BATS was a fast train powered by magnets connecting Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
Times like those didn't happen as much. We started spending time with Bradley McNabb, my other best friend. Brad was taller than most fifteen year olds. Light brown freckles dotted his milky skin like stars in the night's sky. Shaggy orange hair hid the tops of his ears.
Brad's parents were born in Ireland. His parents and brother Oliver were all redheads. Some people called them "copper tops." The McNabbs were the only redheads I knew. The McNabbs lived in a small, two-bedroom apartment above their market on Sinclair Street.
Jess, Brad, and I wanted to go to college. We wanted to go to the same school. Brad wanted to study business. Jess wanted to be a veterinarian because she loved animals. I wanted to study English.
When I logged into my VLC, no one was logged on. I sent a video message to Jess's computer and cell phone. I waited for a response, but there wasn't one. I was worried the patrol already got to her.
I was about to check on Brad, but there was a loud knock at the front door. I looked out my window. A school bus was parked across the street. School buses and school buildings were no longer used because of VLCs. I couldn't see who was at the front door, but I guessed it was a patrolman.
Loud thuds came from downstairs. The patrolman bashed open our front door.
I put on my sneakers. I threw open my door. I ran down the hallway to Lake's bedroom. I woke her and tried to pick her up.
"Stop! Put me down!" Lake said.
I told her the patrol was at our house. I heard a crash followed by screams from downstairs. "Please, not my babies!" my mother said.
As I opened Lake's bedroom window, I heard heavy footsteps coming upstairs. "We need to go," I said. I popped out the screen and swung my right leg out the window.
I reached for my sister's hand. The footsteps thumped closer. The door flung open. A patrolman stood in the doorway. He wore black armor made of plastic. The patrolman reached for Lake. She screamed. I panicked. I pushed myself off the windowsill. I grabbed a branch of the oak tree outside. I dug my fingernails into the bark to keep from falling.
I peeked over my shoulder. The patrolman tied Lake's hands behind her back. He shoved her to the floor and came after me. I let go of the branch and dropped to the ground. I got to my feet and ran away in just my T-shirt and black track pants.
I cut through yards and checked over my shoulder for patrolmen. I ran toward Jess's house. I hurried to her front door. I knocked twice, but no one answered. I knocked again.
"Jess, open up. It's Torrey."
Footsteps shuffled toward the door. "Hold on," Jess whispered. She unlocked the door and looked outside. "Are they coming?"
I hurried inside. She shut the door and locked it.
"They were at my house," I said. "They are probably coming here soon."
"Did they get your family?"
"I think so," I said. "They almost got me too, but I ran." I felt like a coward saying that. I was not proud of running.
She was about to speak, but a groan came from the living room. Slivers of the morning sun peeked through the blinds, but I couldn't see who groaned.
"Torrey, I have something to tell you," Jess said. I crept to the window and yanked the cord. The sunlight brightened the room. Jess's father was on the couch. Empty beer cans crunched under his bare feet.
Jess ran out of the room. She hurried upstairs. I chased after her. She rushed into her bedroom and tried closing the door. I blocked it with my sneaker.
"Jess, what's the matter?" I asked.
"Go away," she said.
I opened the door. "I'm not leaving you until you tell me what's wrong."
Jess flopped onto her pink quilt. She told me her dad started drinking again because of Thornton's plan. He had already lost her mom. He did not want to lose her too.
"I cannot do this anymore," she said. "I am done taking care of my dad. I have to make a choice."
"What choice?" I asked.
"To run. Like you did." I wished she didn't say it like that. Running wasn't brave. "Let's run away and not look back."
I reached for her hand. I was about to say yes, but there was a knock at the door.
Her dad's footsteps thumped toward the door. We ran out of the room and downstairs.
"Don't open it!" Jess shouted.
Jess's dad must not have heard her. He unlocked the door. In an instant, our plan of running away together was gone.
Standing in the doorway wasn't a patrolman. It was a bloody version of Brad.
Chapter 3
Brad's T- shirt and jeans were torn and covered in blood. He was missing a sneaker. Blood dripped from his lower lip. His left eye was swollen like a balloon.
Jess ran to him. "What happened to you?" she said.
Brad tried to answer, but no words came out. She invited him inside. "You poor thing." Jess shut the door behind him. She made Brad sit on the bottom step. She ran upstairs to get medical supplies. Jess came back with cotton balls and rubbing alcohol. She cleaned Brad's face.
"They attacked us," he said.
"Who?" I said. "The patrol?"
"No," he said. His voice shook. "Our neighbors. A mob of seven or eight people. They called us freaks. They beat us. I was lucky to escape. They dragged my parents outside."
When Jess finished cleaning Brad's face, she went upstairs to find him clothes. She returned with a red hooded sweatshirt and a pair of sneakers. Brad pulled on the sweatshirt. It was a little short, but he could wear it. He tried on the sneakers. They were too small.
"That's okay," Brad said. "I'll go barefoot."
Jess motioned to the door. She wanted to escape without her dad noticing. I unlocked the door. We stepped outside, but Jess's dad saw us leaving.
"Where are you kids going?" he said.
"I'll see you later," she lied.
"When will you make dinner?" her dad said.
Jess did not answer. She closed the door. "Bye, Dad," she whispered to herself.
Making our move in the daylight was risky. We had no choice. Our homes weren't safe. We left our homes so quickly that none of us had a cell phone. It wouldn't have mattered because we had no one to call for help anyway.
Jess led us down the sidewalk. We had no idea where we were going. The streets were calm. We didn't see any people or cars for the first ten minutes of our trip. Suddenly, a school bus turned onto the street. I told Brad and Jess it was the patrol.
Jess pointed to tall pine trees between the sidewalk and a big brick house. We crawled to the other side of the trees. I kept my eye on the bus. Seconds later, the bus stopped in front of us. I wondered if the patrol saw us.
People were shouting on the bus. I looked at the sad faces in the window. I saw all shades of people. A girl at the front of the bus looked like Lake. No, it was Lake.
The bus doors opened and four people were in front of the bus. There were two patrolmen, an old woman, and a teen boy. The woman and the teen had the same chestnut colored skin. A patrolman pushed the woman. She fell and scraped her knee. Another patrolman made the teen kneel. He hit the back of the teen's head with his knee. The teen tried to block his head, but his hands were tied.
"Why are you doing this to my grandson?" she cried. "He didn't do anything."
"Shut up," a patrolman said. His voice sounded like a robot.
"What did we do?" the woman said.
"It doesn't matter," a patrolman said. He took out his voltarizer and aimed it at the woman. "Say goodbye."
She looked into her grandson's eyes. "I love you," she said. She closed her eyes.
In a flash, the patrolman raised his gun and shot the teen in the forehead. The woman's eyes opened. Her grandson was dead. She fell to the ground. "He was just a kid," she said. "He had his whole life to live."
"Exactly," a patrolman said.
The patrolmen lifted the woman to her feet. They carried her back to the bus. They left the teen's body in the street.
I looked at Lake as the bus pulled away. She was looking for someone to help her. I didn't see my parents. Lake had no one. She was alone because of me.
Jess touched my arm. "We will help you find her," she said.
We stood up to follow the bus. A woman's weak voice stopped us. "You're not going anywhere," the woman said. The woman had gray hair and skin like snow. She pointed her bony finger at me. "I called the patrol. They will be here any minute. If you ask me, you should be laying in the street like that boy."
Jess broke our silence. "You don't know us," she said. "Why do you think we should die?"
"I don't need to know you," the woman said. "Thornton's plan is what we need. Thanks to him, we can be great again."
We ran. We didn't know where we would end up, but we didn't want to die in front of her. We cut through yards and ran through alleys. We would have made it farther, but we stopped when Brad screamed. He had cuts on the bottom of his foot. He picked shards of green glass out of his heel.
Jess went to Brad and looked his foot. She helped him dig out the shards. She kissed the top of his head.
I couldn't believe Jess kissed Brad. She should have kissed me. I turned away from them to see three shadows coming toward us.
Brad couldn't run with his injured foot. I could have, but I didn't want to leave Jess or Brad behind. I already did that to Lake.
"I'm done running today," Jess said. "It's time to fight."