The Youth - Samiya Usmonkhonova

“Nope, not happening.” Dahlia blurts out with no proper explanation to back up her refusal. I can’t mask my disappointment quick enough and she sees my disappointed expression and pursed lips. Danté, who was standing next to me, developed a similar expression. “We’ve never been out past 9 before! You know how important this is, so why won’t you help us?” I whisper, cautiously looking over my shoulder like an old-timely detective in this dim lit, windowless bedroom. “I want answers too, but I’m not stupid enough to get myself in trouble to investigate another one of your silly conspiracy theories. It’s not worth the time, nor the consequences.” Dahlia muttered, shoving her brown trench-coat over her broad shoulders. Danté sighed as he knew there was no changing Dahlia’s mind. “Can’t you just ask your parents or something? Surely they’ll crack if you pester them enough.” He asked, but Dahlia shushed him quickly, his voice fading into a muffled hush. “You know that it’s the rules to do that. And don’t mention things of that sort around here, you never know who’s listening.” I can hear mothers voice calling out to her, asking for help to close the blinds and double lock the doors, which was pretty much a normal routine in all households in our district.

Ever since the new mayor came into office, life had changed for everyone in our community. And this wasn’t just minor changes, these were laws purposefully made more severe to dictate the population into conformity. One of these changes was that everyone shared a birthday, depending on what age you were turning. So for example, all the teenagers who were turning eighteen this year, were adjudicated to join the Spiritual Street Integration. This was a huge festival held outside, and as much as I would love to go into a deep description into what type of activities occurred, I had no idea. No one under the age of 18 was allowed to go into the streets from nine till sunrise. The new mayor and her fellow associates hated anything that had to do with the younger generations, and she made her opinions very clear to us. It was extremely painful, especially for me to see this false propaganda bleed into the relationships I already had with mother and father.

Danté usually stayed at my house during the hours of the festival, since all his siblings were much older and had their own families and partners to attend the event with. Our parents were fine with this arrangement, despite how strict they were, but we never complained about it since this is one of the only sacred things we had left. Our friendship. Mother, father and Dahlia said goodbye and left, repeating the same rules we had heard for years. “When are we leaving?” I say to him, lingering by the closed curtains with flower-designs imprinted on the fabric. “Oh, you were serious? I thought you were just bluffing to be honest.” He muttered, leaning into the sofa, pulling at the sleeves of his thin, grey long-sleeve shirt that had holes plucked in the cotton material. “Well, with all of the new kids joining today, it’s best we do it now then later so we can blend in with them. It’s not like we have forever.” He shrugged, a grin on his face as he pulled himself up. Danté was always up for a challenge; even one that was as dangerous as this. And the hardest part about this mission of ours was making it out there without there being suspected. The last thing we needed was a stranger in our case.

I knew where mother and father kept all of the keys for the house, assuming me and Danté wouldn’t dare do such a thing, since they had definitely put the fear in us before. But today, we’d be anything but fearful. There were many keys attached to this chain, varying in size, shape and colour. Some were a shiny gold colour while others were rusted and bronze. We first unlocked the front door and its many padlocks that were attached to it. As soon as the door plunged open, we were met with loud, obnoxious music blasting in the streets, the volume at such high capacity that the floor was vibrating. Hundreds, if not thousands of people were marching in a parade, chanting things I didn’t understand, acting in ways I’ve never seen. There’s a glint of something in Danté’s eye’s, and it’s a mix of several emotions. Confusion, frustration, and fear. The one thing we tried so hard to overcome. And in that moment, it was like the world caved in on us. Like we were swimming in a pool of unfamiliarity. But we continued moving, far from our house and down the road to where people spilled out of each corner.

Then, in the centre of all the chaos; the mayor. She’s standing on a podium, towering over all citizens and dominating them with her powerful and voluminous voice. “Here we are again, for the 181st time this year, but today isn’t like an ordinary day. We are accompanied by all our new members!” A round of applause begins, impossibly loud and as soon as she inhales to start her next sentence, it stops. “Just like always, we will begin with a toast, and to those who aren’t familiar with our traditions, you may have the honours to take the dose first.” A woman, who had a smile that seemed too ingenuine to be true, placed a cold hand around me and Danté, sending chills down my spine and throughout my body. I am not that surprised they believed we were turning 18, since me and Danté were taller than most kids our age, and we had mature faces, unlike Dahlia who everyone thought was our age due to her light features. We are both handed a generously large sample of this greenish-purple, translucent concoction that had a suspicious odour leaking from the seams. We exchanged a final glance before downing the liquid in one, large gulp. The taste was quite indescribable. It was bitter with a slight minty aftertaste that tickled my taste buds. But as soon as the fluid ran down my throat, I felt an excruciating pain grow in my body, spiralling and sending spasms in my back and legs.

But my mouth made no noise, no groans or winces despite the shooting agony that was inflicted upon me. It made my knees weak, but they don’t buckle to the floor, but instead stay in place. Everything about me is still, but inside it’s like a monster is clawing its way through me, it’s nails scratching at the lining of my bones. I feel myself grow two feet and my vision blurring and then focusing. It was as though I was transforming into this demonic creature with these scales forming on the surface of my skin. All my thoughts are blocked out, like I am underwater, and now the only sound audible to my ears is the mayor. “Now you are all in the right…form, we can discuss the predicaments that are at hand.”

What’s happening to me?

My mind didn’t have a concept of what I look like externally, but I can use the mayor as an example of what my appearance could be now. Her posture was completely straight and her overall aura was significantly more confident yet frightening than before with her now beady, red eyes and scaly skin.

What am I doing?

All the words she says sound normal to my ears now I have taken that flavourless potion, but I still can’t comprehend the words that come out her red lips. “Our plans to wipe out the population of 1-17 year-olds has been in the making for the last years and will be finally commencing in the near future. We have successfully made a clone for each member of our community that is currently underage, who may seem the same, but are just a more polished, perfect version.”

My blood turned into ice, and I can feel my heart drop to my feet with that last sentence. “We will terminate the most recent generation in the next 24 hours, and as this is an automatic procedure, we can continue with our regular ritual that we do most days. I advise that all of our new members meet a senior, as they will guide you to the necessary places.” I can feel my once circulating thoughts begin to come through again, and my consciousness is coming back to me, drawing me back to reality, alongside that infamous, excruciating pain. But then it finally kicks in; this wasn’t just some regular pain that came with the potion, it was the potion wearing off. This meant that we would be brought back into our original form anytime soon, ruining our disguise and revealing ourselves to the thousands of citizens surrounding us.

I quickly grip onto Danté’s wrist, pulling him off of the cobblestone and onto the grassy terrain where we weren’t as obvious to the others. “We need to go, quickly.” I repeat to him, shaking his shoulder in a frantic rush. “We’re going to die.” He responds coldly, but before I can respond, that small pain grows even further inside me, transporting me back into our human form. “We’ll be fine, just listen to me,”

“Mabel. We’re going to die. We’re already dead to them.” I huff, grabbing him again and moving further away from our original spot. “What are you doing?” He stammered, eyes squinted. “We need to stop their plan before it's too late. We’ll make it to the mayor's council and then sneak in.”

“But they’ll surely be people guarding the area?” He questions, exasperated and out of breath from how fast my pace was. “They’ll all be at the ritual, this is our only chance to go in without any extra supervision.”

As we made it outside of the council, its overall appearance was much more eerie and ominous with the absence of lights and the humming of the wind. I feel a sense of guilt that comes across to me as we walk up the stairs of the council, but I don't let my emotions grab a hold of me, and continue walking until we made it to the two, glass double doors, looking daunting as ever. I place a hand against the cold surface, pushing to see if it would slide open but to my luck; it doesn’t. “Great. What now?” I mutter to myself, feigning defeat. “Look, there’s a safety key,” Danté suggests, and in the corner of my eye, I see a glass container with a golden key dangling inside, waiting to be used. We both send repeated jabs at the glass, despite the bleeding cuts and gashes it left on our knuckles. 10 punches later, the glass shattered into hundreds of small fragments that fell down onto the floor. Danté takes the keys, his hands bleeding like a faucet. He presses the key into its lock, churning it to the right twice, and with a small click, we’re in. Darkness envelops us as we enter the council, and we’re making quiet footsteps and slow movements since we had no concept of space.

In the distance, I can see the glow of something too far to reach. It’s like it's teasing me with its bright lights and distorted image. As me and Danté approach it, I notice that it's a digital screen with a text that reads, “FACE RECOGNITION NEEDED FOR ENTRY.” We stand there in silence for a while, trying to figure what to do next. “We could drink some of the potion? That might help us get inside.” Danté says, his voice tender and quiet against my ear. “We don’t have any left, at least I don’t.” I responded, a laugh leaving my mouth that carried no humour. “I do,” He says simply, and with a few shuffling noises he pulls it out. I can vaguely make out the shape of the bottle with the help of the electronic screen, and from what I can see, there is a decent amount left. He takes a small sip and hands it to me. Within a matter of seconds, I can feel my body begin to change, the pain growing and spreading throughout my body and my height increasing all within a minute.

He scans his now distorted face, and the screen flickers for an odd moment, before switching to a slide that stated, "ACCESS APPROVED. DOORS OPENING NOW.” I hear a shifting noise, and as I look ahead, I see the walls split, revealing a secret room that was barricaded from the public eye. We stepped inside in awe, unable to comprehend the sight that was ahead of us. Millions of glowing capsules, filled with bodies of people I knew, stacked up on each other like cargo packages. They’re eyes are closed, and they look so realistic it's concerning. “I’m guessing this is what they meant by ‘clones?’” He says, hands in his pockets, pupils dilated. “I guess so.” The room was tremendously large, to the point where I cannot fathom the amount of replicas there are in the room. Bright, artificial blue lights are gleaming all across the room in different directions alongside other colours. To our left, I see several wires that connect to this humongous server that made weird beeping noises and clanking sounds that sounded too dangerous to touch. I find it quite ironic that this whole important system was attached to this small CPU that was so available to anyone who was lucky enough to make it inside; which happened to be us.

A small sign was placed just next to it with a laminated text attached to a metal holder. It reads, “DO NOT TAMPER. AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY. THIS TECHNOLOGY IS USED TO KEEP CLONES ALIVE AND VIABLE.” I could see that Danté shoved his hands in and out of his pockets as if he were looking for something in my peripheral vision, but I didn’t question him since I was far too absorbed in the gargantuan things they had hanging from the ceilings. But my eyes soon met him as I saw him unscrew the bottle of his potion we had drunk to get inside. “What are you-” He tilted the liquid so that it fully submerged the CPU, steam fuming in the air and loud screeching noises fizzing. The bright lights that surrounded us began to flicker before cutting into the darkness I was so used to. Within a few seconds, an alarm began to ring, flashing a red light with a piercing siren tune. My eyes widened at the catastrophe and chaos that was breaking out in front of me, but I didn't even have enough time to comprehend what just happened before being yanked by Danté, who was halfway through the door.

We ran out faster than ever before, my calves throbbing with an unavoidable burning sensation that I just had to dismiss all for the sake of escape. I heard screams and yells calling after us and people that ran back into the council as I looked back, but Danté quickly assured me to keep my face forward, since there was no way we would ever find our ways back here again. It left an empty feeling in my stomach, a sense of guilt and longing to go back and give my friends and sister a better goodbye rather than this runaway ending that would make the city resent us. I didn’t ever remember when we stopped running, I only remember tumbling onto a green patch of grass, sucking in gulps of air like a fish out of water. But I only properly relax when I looked off into the evening horizon and saw nothing but greenery.

THE END