Blinked

Chapter Four

"Happiness is not the absence of problems. It is the ability to deal with them."
        ~Dr. Steve Mariboli       

    I wake up to the sun not yet shining through the open window, and soft sheets surrounding me. I sit up, stretching out the kinks from an unfamiliar bed, and swing my feet over the edge. I curl my toes through the fluffy carpet, loving the way it feels. Walking over to the window, I can barely make out the large building that stands in the center of the town. Behind it, you can see the first rays of sunlight struggling to creep their way through the darkness of night. They stretch out, their tendrils barely reaching the buildings on the other side. I close the blinds, preventing the light from coming in. Exiting the room, I find a package sitting outside the door, with my name on it. I pick it up, turning back around and entering the room again. I close and lock the door behind me, making my way into the bathroom. I open the package, and find a set of clothes. I take them out, laying them on the counter. The package consisted of a white, button-up shirt, pressed white pants, a pair of white socks, and hideous white sneakers. I quickly put them on, turning to look at myself in the mirror. It looks horrible, but I have no other clothes, so I sigh, throwing away the box and walking from the room. When I walk down the stairs and into the living room, I can smell oatmeal, eggs, and bacon cooking in the kitchen. I smile, sitting on the stool. Hunter looks up at me from his position at the stove, and smiles back at me.

"Your pills are in the container." he tells me, nodding to the small container sitting in front of me. I nod, taking the container and opening it. In it is a small pill, labeled with my initials. I get up, getting a glass of water, and sitting back down at the counter. I pick up the small pill and examine it, turning it from left to right in my fingers. Hunter places two plates, food filling each, in front of both of our chairs. He opens his pill container, and takes his out.

"What is this for?" I ask, inspecting the initials.

"It is what we were brought here for. Each person gets a different pill, containing a different amount of the medicine." he explains. "Each pill is marked with a person's initials, which helps prevent someone from taking the wrong pill."

"What is the medicine for?"

"This is the interesting part. The medicine makes us immune to hundreds of deadly diseases, which adds about thirty to forty years to our lifespan. The medicine also alters our DNA. From the moment you take the first pill, at every special or significant moment in your life, a new tattoo appears on your body in the area associated with that event."

I nod, and take the pill. Hunter takes his after I swallow mine.

"You look nice, by the way." he tells me, smiling a small smile.

"Don't lie." I joke, looking down at my shirt. "These are the most boring clothes in the world."

"That may be true, but everyone has worn them at some point in their stay here." Hunter explains. "Every newcomer wears them, supposed to make them feel the same. You'll get new clothes today, once you are given your job."

"What jobs are there again?" I ask, picking up a piece of bacon and eating it.

"There's my job, which is providing ratios of "dirty" bloods to "pure" bloods in each area. Along with my job are the Security. They make sure no one kills someone else in the town, along with going along with the Genetic team when we go do research." Hunter says, taking a bite of his eggs. "There are the librarians and assistants, which I told you about. The smaller jobs, that are still important to our town, are the tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, everyday people. But then there are the rarer jobs."

"What are the rare jobs?"

"Rare jobs are some of the top secret people. Only people with certain talents get those. There are the doctors, entertainers, authors, things like that. The top job, which only has about ten people working it at one time, are the pharmacists. They calculate the amount of medicine every person gets, makes the pills and any other medicine needed, research new advancements for the pills. They are base that keeps this tower that we call 'order' from collapsing."