4522 {The Number Series}

11

A knock on the door startled me from the little table I was sitting at. Archer entered with a smile on his face.

"Hello, 4522," he froze and cleared his throat. "I mean, Remi."

"Hello," I greeted him with a smile.

"What do you think of this place?"

"It's strange," I said. "But I like it. Are you supposed to be here right now?"

"No," Archer grinned. "But I don't have a roommate to tell on me and a little bird informed me that you didn't have one either."

"Macallister?" I asked.

"Maybe," he said as he sat down on the wooden chair across from me. "I was told I couldn't say."

"They keep the genders separate here so we have to be careful."

"Yeah, I noticed. Why?"

"Because the children here are born and not raised in a lab like us."

"Born? Why would they want that?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. But I guess they are making sure teens under their supervision are not having children. I mean, they probably have a limit they can reach for how much life they can sustain here."

"We understand about limiting the child birth rate."

"Only the top one hundred every year," I laughed. "The best genetic combinations to create the smart and strong. Just look at how that turned out. We escaped their society."

"Do you think joining this new one is a good idea?"

"I think so," I paused to think. "If we don't then what would we do? We do not know enough about this outside to go off on our own."

"You're right; but, we eventually will know enough. I'm just wondering if we are going to believe in everything they support."

"Maybe we should talked to Macallister about these things. We do not have to seem like we're questioning their life or beliefs but we can seem more like we're just curious about this new society we are joining."

Archer nodded his head in agreement. We sat in silence. As we thought I found myself picking at my nails, causing one of the to bleed. Archer reached forward and grabbed my hand in his.

"Are you scared?" He asked.

"A little."

"Me too," he held my hand tighter. "But we've got each other."

"Promise?"

"I promise." Archer smiled. "You're the only person I think I have ever felt attached to."

From the books I had read the word attached meant not being able to leave someone or something because you felt a strong need for it. This was a word that was often used to express strong emotions and usually accompanied the word love. I didn't think Archer knew the word love. I would teach it to him one day. 

A bell rung loudly, startling us both.

"That's the dinner bell," he said. "I have to leave and join the other boys before they find out I've been here."

"See you at dinner," I called to him as he rushed out the door.

*

*

The girls lined up, with me at the back, and followed a woman with medium brown hair with grey streaks back through the tunnels. We went silently. I tried to memorize the length we went and which ways we turned. The last thing I wanted was to not be able to navigate the tunnels that separated everyone.