Green Lines of Death

My name is Lucintha I was born into what is now called Center City, but it isn't much of one if I say so myself, more like a wasteland of broken down buildings with no windows or doors, there is no electricity or running water, and trash is strewn about the muddy roads that have been carved out of foot traffic for as long as I can remember, it has also rained as long as I can remember and I have never seen what they call "sunshine". The city is surrounded and secured by a wall of lasers that if penetrated is met with certain death, we call them the Green Lines of Death. We scramble for food because there is no more of what was referred to as "money" which would be completely useless now anyway, who would have thought a piece of green paper with a mans face on it in different denominations could be so powerful? I heard tell that this peice of paper ruled the whole world at one time in history, I can't even fathom the thought. How could that be? It never made sense to me, but anyway, we now barter with things like rusted old cans of corn and bean soup, and sometimes we find something rare like tomato or mushroom soup, we can trade them for big bags of rice or beans, which last longer and feeds alot more people. I hear speak of the betterments growing food in the ground, but I have never seen any, they call these the "good greens" and they are supposed to be very good to eat. We got lucky today and trapped two good sized rats for meat, also we found some chicken bones in the trash outside the palace where the "Watchers" go to eat, and even though I have never seen or had the pleasure of eating any such chicken, the bones make a good soup. We are know as Dregs, because we are the dregs of society, so pretty much useless to anyone who has more than we do, and those people are the Watchers who are a policing system here and the Betterments also know as Puritans in the city. They are the people who have and run everything here, and they believe that if you are not a pure person you are a dirty disgusting dreg, which they have deemed to be the lowest form of life here, we are lower than rats to the Puritans and they like to use us as bait for thier hunting games because they do not see us as people, but animals to be hunted, so they take 45 of us to the "farm" to be hunted every year. To be a pure person you have to be born into it. I was not, I was a mistake and was not meant to survive, but my parents hid me from the Watchers and I managed to grow up beneath the city in an underground secret world only known by certain dregs. We are 400 strong and we are very good at keeping our existence a secret. Most dregs have a barcode tatooed on the back of they're necks that is unique to them for identification, which in turn is scanned, and that is how they get into the food depot to pick up their rations. My parents escaped underground with 130 other people when world war 3 came about, so they did not get a barcode and nobody underground possesses such a number, so, if I were ever to be caught, I would be deemed a trespasser and either killed or imprisoned for the hunt. I have been trying to get out of Center City since I was a femchild, the Puritans decided that they didn't want to get any older so they did away with the yeartime system and now the days just pass. the dregs up top never know if it's "day or night" because it stays dark and wet all of the time, and the only light is one green flashing light hanging in the middle of town.

We keep a calendar in our large but secluded underground city we call Oldendays City, because it was built by people from the olden days, they managed to save quite a few things, (one of them being a calender from 2028 which we have managed to copy and continue to add the years) from the past and made a story board for all to see, like a museum of sorts so we would know how things used to be "back in the day" as is written on the board. Some of the things are called "Shoes" these are things you are supposed to put on your feet for protection, but I have never had any because only the Watchers and Puritans got those. There are also things called "hairbrushes, toothbrushes, toilet paper and soap" these were things they used back in their day to get clean and smell good like the Puritans are, but I have never gotten to use things like that. None of the dregs have any hair, they are made to get thier heads shaved every month to keep the lice away, we shave ours to fit in up top.

My teeth have always been black and they do bleed if I eat but that has been my whole life and since most of us only eat once a day, they don't bother me much. They built this city so we could hopefully restore the world someday back to some semblance of sanity. I am what we call a "Runner" simply because I am 5 ft 2, lean and fast. I was taught from a very young age to run so as not to be seen or heard, it is crucial to be very quiet, if caught it would expose the underground city that so many sacraficed thier lives to build. We have several secret entrances around the city that are very secluded so nobody can see anyone coming or going. My mother and father were very active in the societal ladder down here, they helped to build this city by taking some materials a little at a time from up top, it took 15 years of grueling everyday work by the first citizens to come here and volunteer to build the foundation. These were people who started here with my parents, did not agree with the Puritans way, and who could be trusted with the sacred city's secret location. Before the walls could go up they had to make sure it was far enough underground that we could not be heard up top so they dug tunnels 75 feet underground to make sure, then they built a strong foundation from cinderblocks and a cage of rebar which they found at an old abandon factory on the outskirts of Center City. Now 30 years later, our city looks like a smaller rendition of a place that was called "Prescott Arizona" and according to the storyboard this was a great place to live in the olden days. There they had seasons of summer, winter, fall and autumn, they walked free and lived a life free of tyranny. I long for the day I can escape from this place and see the world outside of the green lines of death. I know how old I am and if I go by the calender we have, I was born on January 30, 2028 and the city was started on September 25, 2023, I was born 5 years after the start of the city, and it is January 23, 2058. I will be 30 years old in a week and sworn in as the new leader of Oldendays City which is a great honor, but I really don't want to be, if I had my choice I would run far away from here, but I need to keep the city thriving for the others. I am told that I am what they would consider "middle aged" which means I am middle way thru my life span I think? I will have to consult the elder chronicles about that. Those are books that were written to explain "back in the days" to all who were born after the olden days.

I have to go up top to relieve Donan, he is my manchild and I his birthgiver, he is 14 years old, and like me he is a runner, and our job is to find food in the city and bring it back to share with all of the others, there are alot of runners in Oldendays City, so we are always bringing food, as well as checking all the rat traps we set everyday. I went up to the top to find Donan and as I come to the place where he is, I see that he is nervously talking to two Watchers who grilling him about who he is and why he has no identification number, this is making me very uneasy, because none of the underground have the tatoo of identity, we know the grounds if they discover this about him could be instant death. As I listen to them ask what sector he is from and he has been taught to say "GLS" which is the green light sector, because that is where all the new arrivals are sent until they get the tatoo, thus saving him from death, but one of the watchers doesn't believe him so he wants to take him back to the commander of the green light sector to find out who checked Donan in, and I have to move quick if I want to save my manchild. I decide to run past them in a flash so as to make them aware of movement but not so they see me clearly, and it works, one of the watchers moves away from Donan to see what it was. The first Watcher is standing with Donan to keep him secured until the second Watcher comes back, so I take this opportunity to run into the first Watcher and push him into the green lines of death where he is immediately disintegrated into a hundred tiny squares within seconds. He manages to get a small scream out before he is disintigrated and this alerts the other Watchman who comes back and instanly assumes Donan pushed him into the Green Lines of Death so he immediately pulls out his shockstick and secures him in wristlinkers. I have moved to the shadows and am beggining to become greatly concerned for the manchild. As the Watcher begins to walk him to the Green Light Sector, I begin to run from about 50 feet away building speed very quickly, I aim for the Watcher, he turns quickly, sees me and he suddenly hops back sending me flying into the green lines of death! As I try to stop myself, it's too late...a split second of pain...and i am gone just like that..as if I never existed.