A Beginning...

[Slam]

What…what was this?

She laughed. She laughed before the first name had even been called. A nervous, strained, completely unnatural laugh. Their school being called, their year being picked, the sort of thing that happens before someone yells “April Fools!”. Soldiers pouring out from the doors, the sort of thing that would happen at a surprise party, only not at all. Her classmates having their names called, which meant they were going to the front, then marching away, like nothing else except the thing that happened four times a year. Christmas times four, but Christmas for Satan.

What the fuck was this?!

Her fingers crawled over each other like knotted spiders, as her knees knocked together again and again and again. She felt her bladder loosen, just a little bit of pee slipping out. She bit into her lip, tasting blood. Her eyes pulled back into her sockets. Her thoughts swam. She couldn’t breathe. She was –

“Eleanor Fitzpatrick.”

…oh.

Huh.

Suddenly.

What did it matter?

She laughed.

She laughed again.

She laughed louder.

She laughed some more.

She screamed.

She screamed until her throat ran hoarse, as her strained under the torrent of tears that spilled.  She kept screaming, long after she should’ve. She kept screaming as a thick hand grabbed her without a care, and started dragging her out of the room.

She only stopped screaming when the same thick hand slammed into her skull, and she blacked out.

((Nellie Fitzpatrick continued in CQD Ward))

[Primrosette]

Laurie felt her heart getting heavier and heavier as more of her classmates' names were getting called out. The Program. She really wanted to cry but she forced herself to hold them back. She couldn't cry now. She had to put on a brave face. Even when Rodney's name was called out and her heart was shattered into pieces; she didn't cry.

"....Laurie Moran...."

.....

"....W-What....?" Her voice was barely loud enough to hear as her name was called out and she almost felt herself pass out from the shock and the blow.

I have been chosen for this? No way, this can't be true!

But it was the truth. There was no way that she can deny it. She had to get moving before the soldiers were going to drag her or shoot her on the spot. She had to be brave for her parents, for her friends, for herself.

She moved forward to her future.

She cried.

[Primrosette]

Scotty could only watch as more and more classmates were getting chosen and he wondered if this was worth it. Why was he here? He could be at home happily pissing his Mom off and she would ground him for a month, two months, three fucking months.

"....Scotty Ward."

The redhead lifted his head slowly. His name had been called out. He let out a bitter laugh. Of course, this was his true punishment for being a complete piece of shit to society. Shit, what was Mom gonna do without him around? Mom was gonna be alone. She hated to be alone.

I'm never coming back home, am I?

He made his way to the bus and he took a seat, staring down at his hands.

[Bowser]

"... James Bagstad."

James, though he was shaking like a leaf, wasn't shocked when his name was called. Why wouldn't he be called? He wasn't special, he didn't stand out much from his classmates, and he sure as hell had no reason to expect the government to give him a get out of jail free card. He was just like everyone else in his class, and all of them were at risk.

But why did it need to be him? After all the work he put into his future, how hard he tried to hide who he was from his parents, how much he did to pretend he was something he was not. Was it truly all for nothing?

... Of course it was. It always was from the start. He just didn't know it until now.

But even then, why? He knew why the Program existed, but why him? Why after all he did to appear straight just to make his nation happy! Why couldn't it be some stupid America hating brat instead! Lord knows his school has more than enough of those, they were practically a dumping ground for the shit stains!

... No, that wouldn't be right. As much as he wanted to be mad, asking his country to send in somebody worse wouldn't be fair. The Program was a test of one's loyalty to their nation, not something meant to kill off some kids who didn't like the direction their country was heading. Even then though, they didn't deserve to die either.

But still, as he stepped onto the bus with the rest of his classmates, the same question kept burning in the back of his mind.

Why did it need to be him?

[Aura]

Announcement Day.  The worst day that took place every three months.  Another class chosen for the slaughter, and more teenagers set to die for absolutely no reason.  And today it just so happened to be National Summit High that had to be defaced with that badge of dishonor.

Kassandra sat, arms and legs crossed, as she watched classmate after classmate get called up and sent away to their fates.  Some walked, some were dragged, but luckily none had been killed where they stood yet.  She was pretty sure that it was only a matter of time before one of the soldiers got too trigger-happy and offed someone, though.  After all, they were already sending a bunch of kids to their deaths, so she figured that they wouldn't be opposed to giving a live demonstration if the mood came over them.

"Kassandra Vaitaki."

"Shit..."

She kept her voice down, barely whispering her swear for fear of the soldiers taking note.  Her passive defiance was quickly supplanted by hard fear.  All attention was on her at the worst time possible, and yet there she was, sitting in her chair looking down as she was expected to make the long march toward oblivion.

She rose to her feet and started the walk, dragging her feet across the auditorium floor.  She mentally cursed every single thing that led up to this point.  The system, all the stupid assholes that blindly followed what they were told, the corrupt assholes who loved throwing around their power, and most of all, the asshole that they all unquestioningly answered to.  All of this was their fault.  Every single but of it.

She retained her slouching stroll as she reached the end of the seats, and a soldier waved her onward.  She sneered in response.  She was about to go fight a pointless battle for the amusement of a bunch of sadistic shitbags, so she was going to walk at her own pace.

Her annoyed facial expression was met with the soldier roughly grabbing her by the back of the neck and marching her out the door.  She kicked herself for not taking her own advice earlier when it came to expecting a violent reaction for anyone not following the script exactly.  She was practically thrown into her seat on the bus, and she received an icy look from the soldier who had dragged her before he left to go watch over the next unlucky contestant.

On the bright side, she didn't get shot.  And she was pretty sure that was the last positive thing she would ever be able to point to.

[Ohm]

Jason Rosser sat there in stunned silence as name after name was called up. Person after person standing up to walk to the bus of death. Jason felt his hands tighten on his crutches til the knuckles were white. His feet were glues to floor, one covered in gibberish and symbols. He could hear his heart beat, one big thunk after another.

Please don't be me.

"Jason Rosser."

Fucking fuckity fuck. Jason took a moment to get himself up, pulling himself up with his crutches. He could feel the eyes on hims and his cast. Oh, why the fuck did he try that stunt? He had figured it'd look good on film, there was no way for him to fuck something so simple up right? And yet here he was, about to board the bus of death. Offically sanction by the USM fucking A.

As he moved, He looked over to where his sister sat, their eyes connecting for a moment. She'd always talked about the virtues of their goverment, of how the The Prgoram was a necessity to get rid of the riff raff and all that propaganda bullshit. He mouthed out something to her..

"It should have been you."

[Sh4dE]

Announcement Day as usual. A ceremony to fall asleep to. But at least it was better than class.

Mick did not realise he was not going to exit this room the way he thought he would when Mina's name was announced and she revealed her breasts.

National Summit Academy. They said National Summit Academy? They did.

Damn.

Fuck.

Mick could only react to his classmates being called one by one.

He stared at Zeke's, Reese's and Jason's face.

His face did not change at all, it was still the bored, serious face. There was no need to overreact, or to pull down his pants for the sake of provocation.

Jason was called and left.

"Mickey Lee Sexsmith."

His name.

What a dumb silly sounding name. But he couldn't chose it. America has lots of dumb names. What were founding father's William Williams thinking?

Well, it was time to find out what it's like to be in The Program as a contestant.

He eye contacted the remaining boys one last time and left.

[Somersault]

"...Yvonne Barnett."

Yvonne was blinking, because she had no idea what to do. Yvonne was blinking, because she was desperate trying to keep herself from crying, from looking like a mess in front of the entire school. Yvonne was blinking, but the tears still kept on coming out like a waterfall, rolling down her sort-of oily face, onto the floor.

Every single time this happened, every single time they were put into this auditorium, she had prayed for some sort of salvation, a guiding light in those dark and hopeless times. Now though, the path she had to take looked darker than the alleyways she had to walk through at night. She was...she didn't want to use that word. Never was one for profanity, anyways.

But, she still thought about it in her head just the same, slowly shuffling her feet towards her doom. She was fat, she was black, and she sort of had a temper issue. Horoscopes weren't gonna help her here, and marching band? Marching band. She didn't know what to think about that.

It definitely had been a pretty chilly day, but the announcement had only made everything even colder. Chills down her spine, goosebumps on her skin, all of it. Hadn't the military man mentioned something about Mexico? Oddly enough, that made her feel even colder. Never had been out of the country, was going to die a pretty long ways away from Denver. That thought wasn't exactly comforting, but it allowed her to focus on other things.

Namely, the fact that her face was now tear-stained and red, and the fact that pretty much all of her classmates could see that. While she was pretty sure that wasn't the most outrageous thing they had seen (Mina flashing everyone probably took that), it was still extremely humiliating. She was the sad girl who couldn't even keep it together before getting on the bus, oh no, this is gonna end awfully for her. That's probably what they all thought, looking blankly at her as she was led away.

It probably would, but those thoughts gave Yvonne a sort of steely, although somewhat grim determination. She would fail, probably, but there was a chance, right? Always was a chance, a little ray of light in a room filled with darkness.

She wiped her face with the sleeve of her jacket, and began to march, in perfect posture, all the way to the bus. Just like the marching band, but no one was surrounding her. Instead, she was the ringleader, and the bus was her destination. One-two step, one-two step. It was in that pattern that she continued, finally getting to the bus.

As soon as she got into her seat, she began blinking again. There was hope, but no knowledge.

[Katie]

Brittany had made good on her mental note to visit the guidance counselor after that embarrassing experience in the library, and what the guidance counselor had told her had been occupying her thoughts ever since. She'd been told that not only was she gay, but there was nothing wrong with that. At this point she'd pretty much accepted that she was indeed a lesbian, but was having difficulty reconciling her belief that homosexuals were inferior with her belief that she was superior. She'd been having mental battles about this quite often lately, and The Announcement was no different. She was so lost in her thoughts that she nearly missed her name being called.

"...Brittany Chesterton."

A nearby friend nudged her in the side to signal that her name had been called.

At first, this made her go even deeper into though. She'd been chosen for The Program, huh? Her parents had always told her The Program was a barbaric and low brow piece of entertainment meant to appease the idiotic masses. It was at this point that she realized just how much of her beliefs had been shaped by her parents, which led her to realize something else:

Her parents were wrong.

Why had she put so much stock in what they said anyway? She was superior to them, and everyone else, so really the only opinions that mattered were her own. Homosexuals couldn't be that bad if she was one. In fact, since she was one, that had to mean they were in fact superior. Not that she would expect her silly heterosexual parents to understand this. And surely The Program couldn't be so bad either if she was picked for it. In fact, she was going to win The Program in order to show just how superior she was.

And with this, she quickly got up and haughtily marched to the bus, ready to take on the world.

---

"...Marion Williams."

Goddammit, Marion thought to herself. She wanted no part of this stupid program thing. That said, she wasn't real keen on being executed either, so she got up and grumpily marched to the bus, flipping off the soldiers in the distance as she did so, which earned her a slap on the back of the head from the one escorting her.

[Polybius]

"Mary Wieczorek"

Ah. There it was.

Mary didn't cry, or scream, or anything of the sort. Surprisingly, she felt... fine wasn't the right word, was it? As she slowly stepped her way to the front from her position on the back wall, Mary felt like she was going through the motions. Like it was just another boring assembly and she was just doing what was expected of her while her mind was a million miles away.

Mary was halfway across the auditorium when she felt the stares. All of the eyes in the room were on her. All of the eyes in the country were on her. She stopped and looked for Natalie's face in the crowd, but she couldn't see it. There were too many people, and everyone was packed in too tight. After a few seconds, she stopped looking. She didn't want to be in that room anymore.

Mary put her head down and made for the exit. She could hear her heartbeat, and her breathing, and the fuzzy sound of quiet murmuring all around her. She kept moving.

Finally, the murmuring was gone, and Mary felt the cool December air.

[Pippi]

There had been a smile on Faye’s face when she’d first walked into the auditorium. She had shared a joke with the girl walking next to her, a girl she didn’t even recognise, but if there was anything Faye was good at it was making friends with complete strangers. She could barely remember the joke now. Something about how much of a waste of time announcement day had been. Something about the girl wanting to wear something outlandish to see if they’d still take her.

Hahaha. How funny that had all been. How she had laughed.

Then the officer onscreen had started speaking, and how desperately Faye wanted to scream, now that she was hearing the names of her closest friends for the last time. She stood stock still, rigid as a post, eyes fixed on the screen in front of her as people slowly started filing out in front of her, and the sound of shuffling footsteps came and went behind her. She bit down hard on the inside of her lip, blinked as fast as she could, tried to fill her head from white noise, anything to stop the water forming in her eyes from becoming anything more.

“… Faye Xandora.”

She didn’t move. Slowly, her mouth hung open, a tiny ‘o’ of disbelief. The notion that there had been a mistake swiftly came and went as she felt eyes burning into her skin. She sniffed. There wasn’t anything she could do. If she resisted, she died. If she complied, she died, unless a horrifying miracle happened. Maybe it would be easier to just get it over with as soon as possible.

In the end, she took a faltering breath, turned to face the exit and took one, two, three steps towards it, looking almost composed, ready to face death with dignity.

Then her lip wobbled, and she almost ran out the door, covering her face, not wanting the nation to see the tears streaming down her cheeks.

[CondorTalon]

"...Carolyn Senn."

Carolyn looked up.

"What?" she said, quite audibly. She was sure that everyone around her had heard her say that. She looked around. He'd... He'd said her name, hadn't he?

"Oh..." she said, stepping forward and falling into line.

Oh. It hadn't really caught up with her then. She filed out of the auditorium. In the hall, she tripped, stumbled forward, and quickly righted herself.

It was only then that she realized what she was doing. What was happening to her. She paused in her tracks momentarily, a whimper escaping her lips.

Then someone pushed at her from behind, and she continued walking. She was acutely aware of all the sights and sounds around her as she made her way outside.

She felt the wind and shivered. Because of the cold, she told herself. Yeah.

She was feeling really cold right about now.

[Polybius]

Mick stared at him. He stared back. Zeke recalled that day at the pizza place, when Mick seemed so scared over the possibility of being chosen. Now, he looked deadly calm. Zeke, on the other hand, was putting all of his effort into stopping himself from screaming.

Jason's name was called, and he left. Mick's name was called, and he left. They were both going to die, Zeke realized. He wanted to feel bad for them, but he couldn't. He would later, but not right then. He just wanted to be spared. The officer could say any other name in the world, and it wouldn't matter. Just not Ezekiel Brant. Please, not Ezekiel Brant.

"Ezekiel Brant."

Zeke felt like he could vomit. He muttered a "good luck" to Reese and shambled towards the exit. As he approached the door, he caught sight of the camera. It was looking right at him. Zeke suddenly remembered that his parents were watching. Was his brother watching, too, all the way over in Russia? What were they all thinking, what were they expecting of him?

Zeke stopped and took a few deep breaths. He knew what they were expecting of him. He was given a mission, and he had to fulfill it. He couldn't break down when he needed to be at his very best.

Zeke smiled at the camera.

"Mom, Dad, Drew. I'll make you proud, I promise."

[Sh4dE]

Stanley was attired better than all the other students. That's an actuality. All the rest was unstyled. Announcement Day, a good day, a patriotic day, a ceremony with The General addressing them. Stan looked up the screen, amazed by the encaptured portraiture of the handsome old man, hidden behind a computerised screen. The General, a hard working man having earned the title. Stan notioned to be like him.

The voice boomed.

Their faculty of education was picked. What were the chances? He wouldn't have expected, oh-.

Would Stan have to tussle?

No. He was no brawler. He was a talented vocalist, the supreme.

Mina Mashall exposed her bosom.

Him along with the others staring at her mammary glands. Mina was no person he tolerated, but he enjoyed the view of her majestic, unveiled cleavage. Stan saw her vanish and gulped. Several other comrades were picked, but Stan was optimistic to not.

"Ulrich Stanley Astley."

What did they just say?

Why him? Is it because of his brother? Why would they-

They could have left him out.

Stan did not react. The soldier looked at him and it made him move. The stare. No.

Stanley vanished desultory.

[Pippi]

GEMINI – You will meet someone new today. They might not seem to have any importance now, but you should remember their face for a later date. Blue is a good colour to wear, as it shall reflect the otherwise peaceful day you will experience. Avoid Capricorns.

“… Nanna-Fiora Kroos.”

If anything proved that astrology was a load of horseshit, this was it. She would never tell Yvonne that, and it was an amusing little diversion, but was there even a grain of fact hidden within it? It was more likely that one of those stars would fall to Earth and land right on The General’s head.

Nanna-Fiora shook her head, let out a disgruntled sigh, and trudged towards the bus waiting outside. There was still fear, nestled deep inside of her, making her heart pound, but more than anything, she felt a sense of resignation. Every single Announcement Day, Nanna-Fiora had stood shoulder to shoulder with her classmates, crowded into the hall to watch The General speak, and every single time she had thought that this would be the day her school and her year and her name would be picked. It had felt like an inevitability. She was sure she hadn’t been born pessimistic, but when you were as un-American as she was, in a world that rewarded you for falling in line, even if it was something you were born with, it was hard not to look at the glass as half-empty.

And now the inevitability had caught up with her. She hoped her mom and dad would remember to feed Vivaldi and Henry.

Nanna-Fiora glanced at the soldiers lining the hall, looking as though someone had dumped a box of army toys in here, with plastic, unmoving faces. All that was missing was a solid green tank, with the turret barrel snapped off.

What was the point of The Program? Aside from a thinly veiled way to kill off anyone the government deemed ‘un-American’, which was really anyone who wasn’t a straight white blockhead with a brain as small as his dick? To find people they considered proper, mature, perfect Americans, to show them holding up these ideals even in the face of death, even as they bled into the uncaring ground.

How could she show she wasn’t someone like that?

Crying and begging would make her look like a pathetic no-hoper. Doing the opposite and walking out there, head held high, nary a tear at the sound of her name would make her look like everything she despised. Not moving would get her shot, flipping the bird would be too obvious and might end in the same result, and she wasn’t gonna pull a stunt like Mina’s in a million years.

A wry smile found its way onto Nanna-Fiora’s face, and she blew a raspberry at the camera next to the door.

It was more than worth the smack on the head she got as she stepped into the chill Colorado air.