2056

I looked straight ahead, trying not to imagine falling to my death.

It was called, “crack finding day,” which, after everyone got done snickering, roughly translated to every sixteen-year-old in the Char got to spend the afternoon hanging off the city wall, searching for cracks the storms outside might’ve caused. Apparently, people did this every day.

“And why do we believe Emberfall was chosen as an untouchable city, Mr. Lake?”

I was too busy not looking down. “What?”

I met the irritated face of Mr. Daniels. He was clipped twenty feet away, his headlamp turned and facing me, his arms crossed over his chest. “How many times do I have to ask you to pay attention?”

Dude, I’m hanging eighty feet off the ground. I couldn’t care less right now.

I shrugged, the motion threatening to make me start spinning. I shot my arms straight out, planting them on the flat surface of the wall, blowing out a shaky breath.

“I don’t know either, Mr. Lake. Now, why was Emberfall chosen as an untouchable city?”

I tried to calm myself, staring at the wall in front of me, focusing on the hairline crack I’d found. Think, Mason. This is the fourth time you’ve been taught this exact same thing.

I thought for another moment, feeling the eyes of everyone around me.

I should know this by now.

“The Char was chosen for its geographical location?”

Mr. Daniels’ eyes narrowed. “Its name is Emberfall, and you’d do well to call it that. Was that a question or your answer?”

“I don’t know, man,” I said, trying to grab my luminescent marker to circle the damage. I ended up dropping it, watching it fall for a few seconds until it smacked onto the ground below. The harness pinched some, let’s call them sensitive areas, but it was better than the alternative that the marker faced.

Mr. Daniels sighed and shook his head, tired of me. He rambled on about the storms which, combined with the bombs, destroyed anything that was outside of the nine untouchable cities twenty-six years ago. We’d already covered it in a class that I actually did like, one that wasn’t trying to be taught dangling from a rope, so I tuned him out.

Above me, thunder boomed, shaking the wall and my nerves. One of those storms had stopped, like they always did, up against the edge of the Char. It was technically Emberfall, as had been so graciously pointed out by Mr. Daniels. Apparently, the city used to be known as Charlotte, but that was before the war. That, combined with the fact it’d almost been burnt to the ground in the immediate aftermath, led to its citizens lovingly referring to it as “The Char” ever since.

There wasn’t much that was good when sitting in an uncomfortable harness, hoping the thin rope holding you eighty feet high in the air didn’t snap, but there was one thing: there were no black-cloaked figures. They’d started showing up around a year ago in different places throughout the city, their faces hidden by the shadows created from the hoods they pulled tightly over their heads. Their all-black cloaks hid the rest of their bodies. Many hung around the school when it was nearing time to release for the day, waiting for those who looked the most desperate. By desperate, I meant poor, and willing to make money for their less fortunate families by accepting whatever they had to offer.

The truth was, nobody really knew what they were offering, because nobody knew who they were. Everyone had their theories. All that was known was that if you accepted, they’d hand you a little black metallic card with nothing more than a date and an address. I was told by my parents to never talk to them, which was easy. They terrified me, even though I tried to hide it from my sister when we walked by them each day. Our family wasn’t poor. We always had enough food and lived in a nice enough house, but I wasn’t going to let my guard down. I knew two classmates who’d accepted the hoods’ offer, showing me their cards before going to the address listed. Neither had returned.

Just the thought made me shudder.

Shortly after Mr. Daniels finished his lesson, he had us climb down and make the walk back to the school.

Shortly after that, he was droning on again, and I was back to watching the storms through the classroom windows. Soon, the bell that signaled the end of the school day jolted me alert. It sounded more like an air-raid siren, which it might’ve once been. Mr. Daniels shook his head again as the rest of the class packed their things. I gave him a sarcastic smile as I grabbed the only notebook I’d bothered to get out when we got back.

My sister appeared at my side, coming up from the back of the classroom. “You ready, Macy?” she asked. I wasn’t fond of the nickname, but only she and my mom called me it. It could’ve been worse.

 Skylar brushed her dark brown hair, a shade darker than mine, off her forehead, and wrapped her arm around mine. She knew what was coming too.

We joined the group of other older teenagers as they pushed their way out into the halls. We kids tried to stay in packs as we left the schoolyard; the hoods went after the ones who walked alone.

I eavesdropped on the conversation of the two boys ahead of me. “Who do you think they are?” one of them asked.

“You have asked me that every day for the last year. I still don’t know,” the other one said.

“I’ve heard they take you to the Blitz.”

“Let me guess: your dad told you that.”

“I think he’s right.”

“Just walk next to me so you don’t find out.”

They moved a little closer as they squeezed through the doorframe, into the cool October air.

The Blitz? I thought. Why would they send people there?

Skylar’s hand squeezed my biceps, drawing me back to the current problem. Hooded figures called out to students as they passed by, the sunlight overhead glinting off the metal cards in their hands. Most of us kids hurried past without a second glance. The brave few would acknowledge them, calling them names such as hoods, cloaks, or blinders. I watched a kid call one a “wanker,” flicking the card out of its hand before sprinting away.

The hood bent over, retrieving the shiny black business card. It stood back up, turning to face me. I panicked, knowing whoever’s face was hidden by the shadows had already locked eyes. My blood ran cold as a scratchy voice came from the blackness. “Mason Lake. This one’s for you.”

“Wrong Mason Lake,” I said back, trying to add something to my voice that would mask the terror I felt. “Don’t worry, I won’t take it personally. It happens all the time.”

Skylar squeezed my arm again for responding to it. She was right; I shouldn’t have, but the way I see it, if I didn’t take the card, I wouldn’t disappear.

As the blocks passed, more kids broke away, until it was just us as we arrived home. I began my after-school routine, which included chucking my bag onto my bed and forgetting about my homework for as long as possible. Tonight, however, I paused in my room. The cloaked figure’s coarse voice echoed in my head.

This one is for you.

How did it know my name? I’m sure they, whoever they were, had the names of all students. That was easy enough to find in a city like the Char. But to know my face specifically. I didn’t want to think about it.

Instead, I went to make dinner. My mom was usually just waking up, getting ready to work the night shift at her job. My dad, if he got home in time to eat while it was still hot, would go to his room and rarely come out, so dinner was my responsibility.

I make it sound like I resented them. Truly, I didn’t. They worked long hours, but they took care of Skylar and me. Helping around the house occasionally was the least I could do.

Just as I’d grabbed a box of noodles from the pantry, the front door swung open and both of my parents entered, their hands holding bags that had a logo from a restaurant a few blocks away from home.

My dad strode in first, his suit jacket in his hand, the tie around his neck loosened. It was an unusual look for him; different than the steam-pressed suit he normally had on. My mom trailed behind him, dressed for her job as a mechanic for Emberfall’s government vehicles, her dark hair partly covered by her grease-covered headscarf.

 “No offense, but I’m tired of your cooking, Macy,” she said with a wink. I tossed the noodles back. Like I said, they were good parents.

Minutes later, I’d stuffed my mouth full of a chicken and rice meal that was way better than anything I was about to make.

“How was school?” my mom asked.

“I hung from a wall,” I said. “Then got questioned about the war and the Char for the fourth year in a row.”

“That’s very important stuff,” my dad said with a disapproving look on his face. If my goal had been to get one of those from every adult I saw today, I would be doing pretty well. “All your classes are taught for a reason.”

“Macy still doesn’t know why it was chosen as an untouchable,” Skylar said with a smirk. Who had told her?

I gave her a look that said, you’re going to pay for that, but she saw straight through my attempt at hiding a smile. “Snitch.”

She stuck her tongue out in response.

“Mason,” my mom said, putting her fork down.

There’s another look. Scratch her name off the list.

My dad smiled at his little angel for ratting me out.

I didn’t answer, looking at my food.

“You’re sixteen, Mason. This is your final year before you join the rest of us. You need to be prepared.”

Because you’re nothing if you’re not. I finished the saying in my head. It was one he liked to use often. I can’t wait.

“We’re still covering all the history lessons.”

“Which you should be paying attention to,” he said, tapping his fork on a piece of chicken in his bowl.

Another lesson over the storms and the importance of the city walls was coming, but my mom put an end to it.

“Donovan. He understands,” she said before turning to Skylar. “How was your day, dear?”

The rest of the food didn’t taste as good. I could feel my dad’s sharp eyes on me the whole time. I knew it was love that made him push me so hard. But he was the type that could’ve learned a thing or two from my mom and worked on how he showed that love. I’m not oblivious; I could’ve been better about it, too.

The rest of the evening went as normal. We had a family conversation about weekend plans, then my parents made sure me and Skylar had everything ready for school tomorrow before my dad retired to his room for the night and mom went to work. Normally, I’d hang out in the living room with my sister, but tonight, I lay in my bed, staring at the ceiling fan and doing my best to get the image of the cloaked figure out of my head. I didn’t do a great job, and whispers of This one is for you snaked in and out of my ears as I fell asleep.