A Life Not Our Own

The Knife

Mae
That night was hectic. Everyone was getting ready for the ceremony. I'm sure the officials were already choosing couples to procreate. I didn't want that for me. If a shifter or bender was pregnant, they would be excused from the war and sent down to the nursery. If your base happened to get bombed, the officials take your children and leave you there to die. When I was young I wished for children, but I knew that the second they were born they would be taken to a boarding school. You could only keep your children if you were a commander.
That's how our world works.

Anyway, just before the ceremony would begin, all of the screens in the big dining hall illuminated to life and the commander of base 2204, Commander Larstin, appeared on the screen. "18 of our own have been taken hostage by the benders." She growled., making the long red scar across her face dance. "We received a letter from Commander Alenna Cross, a filthy bender in her own right." The second she said that I felt my face drop. She was talking about Eve.
"All alliances made in the past shall cease. They crossed the line when they took our own. All ceremonies are cancelled, everyone shall be preparing for war. I want Commander Cross's head on a stick." She finished.
The room cheered and yelled and everyone was running back to their rooms.
Everyone except me. I don't know why but I couldn't see her that way.
The Eve I remembered was creative, brilliant, and had the biggest heart. She wasn't the cold cruel commander the shifters feared. I couldn't bear the rumors.
She was practically my sister, but now..she was just a memory.

"Mae, let's go we have to go to our rooms for our instructions." Thea whispered. She took off her diamond earrings and stuffed them into her bra. "Shame. This was going to be a wonderful night." She sighed wistfully. She then hiked up her satin blue gown and led me straight to my room.

"I have to go. The official will be at my room soon, and please please please try to keep your head out of the clouds for once Mae. Life is not memory lane. There is a war just around the corner and we need to be ready for it." With that, she whipped around and marched back to her room.

Brielle was laying down on the bed knocked out after one too many drinks containing alcohol. I gave her a sharp kick and she jolted awake. A knock was heard at the door and in came a male official holding two sets of white shirts, cargo pants, and standard athletic boots. After a disapproving glare at Brielle, he dropped the clothes on the bed and told us we had rigorous training to do in the morning. He handed us two weapons with numbers on them, Brielle got a gun and I got a poisoned knife. I put it in my drawer next to my com device, reading book,and handgun.
With that, he left.
Brielle and I changed into our nightclothes, and she turned off the light. I climbed into bed and I couldn't help but wonder about the future. If the Shifters win, the benders will be destroyed, but if the benders win, WE could be destroyed. And if it gets too bad then the human race will be extinct within the year.

We shifters were always in debt, and we could certainly not afford to pay ransom for the Shifters the benders took hostage of, the only other option was war. A war that would cost us dearly.