Bluebird

Hi, my name is Ember Lorden and I'm in hiding from the law. I didn't do anything terrible, I didn't steal anything, or kill anyone. I just don't like Lima beans. I know what you're probably thinking, why would a distaste for Lima beans force me into hiding? Well, it's kind of a long story. To start, I'll give you a little back ground. Where I'm from, everyone is Programmed. Programming starts when a baby is 1 month old, and ends at 4 years old. This means we like the same food, style, music, entertainment, everything. And we all have a small chip embedded into our arm at birth, it monitors our behavior. After years of monitoring the Programming and people’s behavior, an algorithm was created that can predict what a person will do. And it is never wrong. And we all go to a sort of boarding school from birth until we reach adulthood. No one lives with their parents, no one even knows them. Anyway, my life was pretty good, it was normal. For 16 years my life went smoothly. And then one day at school, everything started going wrong.

We were all sitting in the school cafeteria, all 127 of us. All wearing the same clothes, our hair in the same style, liking the same food. Speaking of food, we were eating something new today. They looked like beans, but not a kind I had ever tried before. “What are these beans?” I asked no one in particular. “I think they’re called Lima beans.” Someone I didn’t know answered. I thanked the unknown person and looked around, everyone else seemed to be enjoying the beans, so I most definitely would like them too. I took a big bite and ... Ugh! It was disgusting! I spit it out, rinsed my mouth out with water, scraped my tongue with my napkin. And then I realized that everyone had stopped eating. Not only that, but they were all staring at me. No one else was spitting out their food in disgust, just me. Now, this might not sound very odd to you, but it was very odd to us. No one had ever had a different preference of food before. Ever. The cafeteria monitor Myrtle Kellynch was at my side in seconds. "Come with me." She ordered, hauling me to my feet and dragging me out the cafeteria doors and down the hall. "Where are you taking me?” I asked, growing increasingly concerned. She didn't answer, just kept dragging me down the hall until we reached the Nurse's Office. Ms. Kellynch opened the door and shoved me inside. "Sit." She commanded, gesturing to the bench that was for the patients. I did as I was told, even though my instincts were telling me to run. I told myself I was overreacting, that I was just sick and that was why I didn't like the Lima beans. Ms. Kellynch pulled a small device from her jacket pocket and brought it over so it hovered just over my right arm, it made a beeping noise and she frowned at whatever it said. Just then Nurse Meller came in. "What's wrong?” She asked. Ms. Kellynch looked up, her face expressionless, "We have a Code Bluebird." I didn't know what that meant, but it made Nurse Meller gasp. I looked around for an explanation, some sign hanging on the wall that detailed whatever terrible disease I had, or maybe a bluebird flying around, but there was nothing. I looked at Nurse Meller again, she was filling a syringe with some sort of liquid. She walked over to me. "This will sting a little sweetie." She said sadly. "What is it?" I asked, growing more panicky by the second. "It will help you." Nurse Meller said, as she stuck me with the syringe and pushed the plunger down. ‘Will it?’ I thought, but I couldn’t say it aloud, I was too tired. Suddenly I couldn’t keep myself upright anymore, I fell onto my side, and the world went black .

I don’t know how much time passed before snippets of a conversation finally woke me. “Program … unpredictable … second case …” I slowly opened my eyes, still very groggy. Then everything that happened in the nurse’s office came back to me, and I sat up. Or, at least I tried to. I was strapped to a gurney that was most definitely not in the nurse’s office. The room I was in was dark, like someone forgot to turn all the lights on, and it smelled like a hospital.  I turned my head towards the voices. Two men in suits were the source of the voices. One was tall with blonde hair, the other short with black hair. But, their looks seemed to be the only difference between them. They were dressed the same, they stood the same, they crossed their arms over their chests the same way. When the short one saw me awake, he motioned to the other one and they lowered their voices. After a couple minutes they came over. “Hello Miss Lorden.” The tall one said. All calm and collected! Like he did this sort of thing every day. Although, for all I know, he probably did.  “Who are you? Where am I? Are you gonna harvest my organs?” He continued speaking as if I hadn’t said anything at all. “You went against your Programming, the algorithm can no longer predict your behavior.” He said this with disgust, as if not liking Lima beans made me the worst person in the world. “And that isn’t good, it’s dangerous.” His friend added. (I assume they’re friends, they could hate each other for all I know.) “We’re going to run some tests" The tall one continued “To see if we can pinpoint the problem and fix it.”  He turned to someone I couldn’t see from my current position. “Begin.” Then they both left. Or maybe they just left my range of vision, it’s hard to tell. A bunch of doctors suddenly swarmed around me. At least I think they were doctors, they were all wearing lab coats. They hooked me up to a bunch of different machines, and asked me all sorts of weird questions like: “Recently, have you felt the desire to brush your teeth with dirt instead of toothpaste?” and gave me a bunch of different scenarios, “You’re walking down the street and you see a piece of trash on the ground, but no trash can nearby. What do you do?” I personally felt like it was a lot of trouble for some beans . When they were evidently done, they gave me a shot, probably the same thing Nurse Meller had given me because pretty soon, I was asleep again.

I woke up in a prison cell, my hands in handcuffs, and the handcuffs chained to the wall. I think these people seriously overestimated my strength, like if I wasn’t chained up I would bust through the metal bars. I held my face in my hands, and just started to have a good cry when a metal clang snapped me to attention. I looked up and you will never guess who was standing in the doorway. (Go ahead, try and guess … give up?) It was Nurse Meller! She walked closer and I saw that she had a scalpel in her hand. I knew someone was going to harvest my organs! I considered yelling for help, but anyone who came would probably help her, not me. When she crouched down I kicked her and she fell over. “Hey!” she cried. “Calm down, I’m trying to help you.” ‘Yeah right.’ I thought, standing up. ‘Help relieve me of my liver.’ And then, out of the blue, she tackled me! Nurse Meller who seemed so nice, tackled me! She held me down, her knee digging into my chest, making it difficult for me to breathe. She took the scalpel and started cutting my arm. Odd, there aren’t any organs there. I cried out, because funnily enough, having someone slice

your arm, hurts. “Be quiet. Do you want them to hear you?” Them? The guys in suits? Was she not working for them? When she was done with the scalpel, she put it down and produced a pair of tweezers, she started pulling something out of my arm. I tried not to yell, but a whimper came out. When she was done, the tweezers held a small chip. My chip! The one that monitored my behavior, she took it out. Nurse Meller quickly bandaged me up and collected her things, then she pulled some keys from her pocket and unlocked my handcuffs. “Come on!” She urged. We don’t have much time.” Now, I did not trust this woman. My recent interactions with her led to me being either unconscious, or bleeding. But, I was probably better off with her than I was here. Or at least, my chances were equally terrible. So I walked out the door.

There was a guard laying unconscious on the ground. Wow, I got chains and a guard. Wait, did Nurse Meller knock him out? I turned to her but her eyes were focused straight ahead. She led me down a maze of hallways, until we finally reached the doors. I was a little surprised we were going out what seemed to be the front doors. But Nurse Meller didn’t question it, she just pushed the doors open and kept on walking.

“What’s going on?” I finally asked, when we were about a couple blocks away from the building. “What's Code Bluebird?” Nurse Meller sighed, and for the first time tonight she sounded tired  “It’s a long story.” She said. Now, I was getting a little sick of people dodging my questions. “Go slow, and use small words, I might be able to keep up.” She turned and smiled at me. “All right.” That was easier than I had expected. “It all started about sixty years ago, when some of us started to escape the Programming.” My jaw dropped and my eyes went wide “What? How?” How could a little baby do that? She went on: “That is an equally long story, that we don’t have time for right now. Anyways, before long an underground colony was started. It was very small, it still is, but it’s functional. Some of us live underground, others live on the surface acting as Programmed people, like me. About twenty five years ago, we received word that someone had acted contrary to their Programming and was no longer predictable. The girl was only sixteen years old at the time, and had been taken into custody.” She looked at me. “Just like you. Her entire case file was codenamed Bluebird. Anyway, a mission was arranged to get her out. That was my first mission and it was a success. Before long she became a crucial member of our little family, she married someone from the Colony and they got new identities and moved above ground. A little while after that she found out that she  was going to have a baby. We tried to think of a  plan to get the baby away before it could be Programmed, but it was difficult. If they went back underground their sudden disappearance would raise questions that we couldn’t afford. It was decided that I would go in as a nurse, write up a death certificate for the baby, and get her safely to her mother. But everything went wrong and, we couldn’t get the baby out. And as I’m sure you know, records of the baby’s parents aren’t kept, and so looking for this child was like looking for a needle in a stack of needles.” She turned to me again, looking like she was on the verge of tears. “I’m sorry.” Sorry? "For what?” I asked. “Don't you see? You were the baby. And I failed to get you out, you grew up without the love and care of your parents because of me. Can you forgive me?” Now, a lot things were running through my head right now, mostly that this woman, who had been my school nurse for the past year knew my parents were, who I was. “Of course I forgive you. But wait, you said that finding the baby, would be like looking for a needle in a stack of needles. How do you know that I’m her?” She smiled, you mean besides the fact that you’re a Bluebird? Do you remember last week, when you had a cold and I took a swab of the inside of your cheek?” I nodded. “Well, I used it to run some tests , confirming that they are your parents. I’ve been helping your parents look for you in every school I could get in for sixteen years.” At this point I may have started crying … Ok I definitely started crying. But hey, wouldn’t you? Nurse Meller hugged me, and after I got my act together we started walking again. After a while, she stopped. “We're here.” She said. I looked up, and saw that we were standing in front of a book store. She unlocked the door and held it open for me. I walked in and saw two people inside, a man and a woman about Nurse Meller's age. I recognized my hair, and mouth on the woman, and my eyes, and nose on the man before Nurse Meller introduced them as my Mom and Dad. I ran over and was promptly embraced, after a while Nurse Meller (Who's first name I later found to be Iris.) joined in too. After about ten minutes of hugging and crying they showed me how if you went to the right shelf and pulled out the right books, in the right order, the door to the underground tunnels was revealed. Then I had to say goodbye to Nurse Meller, (I mean Iris.) Who had to go back to her fake life. And then we walked down the tunnels until we finally got … home. I found my parents and a place that’s truly my home, all thanks to some Lima beans. Which my Dad hates too by the way.

Anyways, that’s the story about how I became a fugitive of justice, living in a kind of creepy underground society with my parents, who are awesome by the way. I don't know what’s next for me, but if I did then it would be predictable, and where’s the fun in that?

The End