The alarm woke her up just like any other day, the sun didn't show itself yet. She turn around to shake awake her mat neighbour, but stopped right away. The body was hard and cold. He died during the night. Trying not to feel affected, she got on her feet and left the baraquement. They were already calling numbers. Silently, she took her place in the rows and waited.

 

-2638A! The officer called.

-Here! She answered

-2639A !

-Dead!

-You'll clean it up.

 

And the officer crossed out the number from the list before calling the next number.

That was all they were : a number on a list. 

 

After the call roll ended, they moved to their usual occupations. As she made her way to the mud lands where she was supposed to work, a commotion caught her eyes. Turning her head, she saw an old man on the floor. He apparently collapsed from exhaustion. She watched as his peers tried to quickly pull him back on his feet, before they were pushed aside by the soldiers. The men grabbed the old man and dragged him out of the way. Sighing, she turned away and continued walking. As she entered her work place, the faint sound of a gunshot reached her ears. This was how it was there, a weakness cost your life. 

 

The day had only just begun, and already, she wished she was dead.

 

She grabbed her usual work attire and got to work. She was to work all day in the rice fields. The camp supplied most of it's food itself, and rice was a must have for a healthy life. Or so she thought. She had never eaten rice in her whole life.  It wasn't for the Chrestnus, after all, eating proper food was a privilege only the Astralis were allowed to have. Bitterly biting on her tongue, she kept stickinck rice sprouts in the mud. Slouched foreward, she already felt her back and shoulders aching. By the end of the day, she would feel nothing but a numb pain resonating throughout her entire body. She fronde at the thought. The monotonous labour took away her energy, but she payed no attention to it. It had always been like this, she knew no other way. 

 

"Heeran, hurry up!" a middle aged woman muttered behind her. 

 

She had unknowingly slowed down. She picked up the pace, careful not to be seen by soldiers.

 

Heeran. It was the name she had been given by her peers. She had no last name. None of them did. They were a community, a mass of people without clear distinction. Numbers. Heeran did not have a mother. All the women of their clan were her mother. She was everyone's daughter and sister and vice versa. As for her father, she had no idea about his identity and she didn't care. 

 

One of the soldiers came to a halt when he arrived at her level. He glanced at her, looking up and down at her figure. She knew exactly what he was doing. They all behaved like this. Every female in the camp  having reached puberty was subject of their vicious stares and actions. Sometimes they even targeted girls younger than that. Heeran fell the hatred fill her up, but she did not show anything. Pretending not to notice the attentions the soldier was giving her, she lowered her head and kept working. The soldier soon walked away and the day went on like this. 

 

The grey sky hurt her eyes, her body ached more and more. She felt hunger and thirst make its way through her body. And dizzyness took her over. But she did not fall. She did not faint, nor did she stopped working or slowed down. The faces of her people surrounding her felt foreign. She knew all of them, their numbers as well as their names, but hunched over the ground, hair falling and sticking to their faces because of sweat. Heeran could percieve what those soldiers saw when they looked at them. A bunch of miserable beggars, with no ambition nor education. Unabble to stand for their own rights. If they don't try to get them, do they even deserve them ? Heeran wasn't even sure of that. And as she lost herself in her own thoughts, the day went by. As slow as a snail, yet as fast as the wind. Just like any other day. She had counted three deaths since the beginnign of the - including the old man of that morning - and hoped that the news hadn't reached the men in charge  of food supplies. It would mean some more to eat for the survivors. Not much, but that was still a progress. As the day came to an end, she felt disgusted by her own thoughts. But the hunger distorting her stomach quickly killed this feeling.

 

 

Like everyday, nothing happened. Like everyday, each move she made distanced a bit more her mind from herself. Like everyday, they held in their relieved sighs when the drill announced the end of the work day. Like everyday, she went to bed with very little food in her stomach. Like everyday, she hoped that, just like 2639A that day, she would not have to wake up in the morning. 

 

 

 

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Here comes chapter 2 ! It is much shorter than the first, and nothing much happens, those are mostly chapters to introduce the main characters and install the setting of the story ^^ I hope it's okay this way, I like to developpe my stories so it may seem a bit long at times, sorry about that!

Feel free to comment and I hope you enjoyed reading this ! :)