1 Chapter One
Violence will always remain the one true constant. After all the dust has settled, after all the pages of our history books turn yellow with age, after nature has erased all traces of us ever being here, violence will remain. Hate breeds hate, war breeds war, violence breeds violence. Through all our abuses, through all our follies, through all our killings, violence has always been the one true constant.
The scratching sound of pencil on paper filled the small classroom I was in, drowning out my thoughts. I stared down at my paper, willing the words I wanted to appear to flow from the tip of my pencil, but they never came. I let out a sigh and glanced around the room.
Other students were currently heads down, rapidly scratching away at their respective essays. The silence wouldn't have been odd twenty-something years ago, but now there was something added to the room, a sort of tension that could be felt all the way down to the bone. We weren't taking a test, we were simply working on our assignment. But there was not a voice nor a whisper to be heard. Everyone was dead silent. Of course, I wasn't any better, but it was difficult to have conversations with others when those people refused to have a conversation with you. I let out a barely audible sigh. Oh well, it's not like I expected anything out of anyone our age.
I glanced back down at my paper and scowled. I wouldn't be able to get anymore work done, not with the mind numbing sound of those damn pencils. I grabbed my paper and roughly stuffed it into my bag with a huff. Mindlessly. That could very well describe how everyone was these days. Mindless. No talking, no friends, no emotions other than anxiety at an event you know is going to happen, but you didn't 't know to who. I reached into my front pocket to slip out my cell phone, conscious of the wandering eyes of the teacher, when I felt a sudden light bathe my face in a pale glow from the right. And I stared back down at my desk, sweat suddenly down my face. Silent, shoulders tense.
The student who had been the source of the glow looked down at his body and screamed, a mind numbing sound that pierced me down to my core, a sound of pure terror, a sound of a cornered animal. In the silent room, his scream echoed loudly, out through the open doorway into the hallway. And nobody batted an eye.
In fact, other students began displaying emotion for the first time in a while. Relief. Shoulders visibly lessened in tension, sighs of relief were heard throughout the room. The glowing kid continued to scream, forcing his way around desks and out into the hallway. We could hear his scream receding into the distance, signaling his retreat. It wouldn't matter. The government would catch up to him eventually, and then it was straight to the caves with him, where he would either die, come back with PTSD, or tough it out and become one of the few who survive, who thrive under the immense pressure of being selected.
I looked at the empty desk next to me in quiet relief. Not me, I thought gleefully, not me! My mind began to wander in relief, and I thought about the first time they informed a group of my classmates and me of the current state of the world.
The Selected are a group of individuals randomly chosen by a mysterious higher force that we do not yet understand, or even have a clue of figuring out. Twenty years ago, the first Selected appeared, right after the first caves began to appear. All around the world, holes opened up, and when explored, were found to contain monsters straight out of a fantasy novel. Terrifying creatures that were only ever dreamt of in the fictional stories of authors long gone. Not quite fictional anymore. The first explorers of these caves were decimated on sight, and the only thing found by the second wave were bloody splotches and torn clothes. That is when it was discovered what made The Selected "different".
Those that participated in the killing of these monsters became stronger. Faster, better, almost as if they grew proportionately to the amount of monsters they've killed. After news of this spread, elation was rampant. Yes, we wouldn't have to worry about these terrifying creatures! But that relief was short lived.The monsters around the world were strong, and once Selected started being sent down, many of them did not come out. And when those Selected died, new Selected appeared, all over the globe. It seemed that whoever had invented this sick twisted scenario made sure to always keep the amount of Selected in the world the same. But that number was constantly fluctuating. They hadn't told us that day in the classroom, but a quick search online revealed the terrifying truth behind being Selected. Eighty-five percent die on their first expedition down, with another ten dying off sometime before their time was up.
The bell rang and interrupted my inner thoughts. Students around the room began sliding papers in bags, or into folders, while I slung my bag over my shoulder, still lost in thought. And I thought about the one thing that kept everyone going through a time of absolute horror. Only those between ages fifteen to twenty were ever Selected, and of those miraculous few who made into the later years of their twenties lost their abilities as Selected, and a new one was chosen in their place. It was that information that got me out of bed in the morning, and that information that constantly made me remind myself, one more year, one more year!
I glanced around the silent hallway and stalked towards the entrance of the school, ready to be out of what felt like forced prison. I weaved through the crowd of silent students, and finally made it to the front door before pushing it open with forceful shove. I stepped outside into dreary weather, the clouds looking heavy and ready to burst. I could still remember the shocked and terrified faces of my classmates as it was spelled out for them that some of them would not make it past highschool.
And if that information didn't terrify us, the government officials who walked into my class thay faithful also had the courtesy to inform us that if the Selected never went down and dealt with the various creatures underground, they would claw and stratch their way up to the surface, prepared to wreak havoc and mayhem on whatever unfortunate city they happen to see.
I smiled in contentment. I wouldn't have to worry about that though, I'm about to be free of the possibility of being selected, with my next birthday marking the end of that possibility for me. I smiled quietly to myself before taking a step forward away from my colleges front door, before a white glow enshrouded my body in a light. And I was left with the sinking feeling of death smiling at me from the shadows.
