Saving Insanity

Chapter 1: Classifications

There wasn't a whole lot to the New World. Lots of farming fields, lots of residential areas, lots of vegetation and lots of pavement. Basically a planet with seemingly sparkling streets and luscious plants. It was almost like a mask, where when you peeled back the first layer there was nothing but exploitation and power seekers.

The sun had even seemed to give up on our world, never giving us a bright day. The districts were usually gloomy, besides the full trees and tall buildings. The government wanted us to see a world of perfection, and for many people that was exactly what it was. Those with their noses high only saw the beauty and the ease that lay right in front of their faces, practically walking on the bodies of those beneath them.

To those beneath, our world was the opposite of perfect, to them it was hell. In my mind, the worst thing about that was that they barely even knew that they were so far down below us. They did their jobs, said nothing, and kept their eyes down. These people were the Mutts. As mentioned previously, they fell among three different groups: Home Mutts, Worker Mutts, and Institution Mutts.

They were usually placed into random districts, however the richer districts tended to have more Home Mutts and housed more institutions and factories. The districts outlined the Idols, the sane. There were seven different districts, ranging from A-G. In the Old World, these districts were called continents, or, as they had told us growing up.

The higher the letter you were in, the higher your Section Exam score had been. That was my career. I worked for the government, in the tallest building in District A. That was where the exams took place, where beings took a series of tests that first classified them as Idols or Mutts, then what district or kind their intelligence placed them.

Once a being turned six, they were required to take the Section Exam and were taking by jet away from their families to District A. It was of little importance what district a child's parents inhabited, they would be placed in a district not accordingly and would join another home if necessary.

If one refused to take the exam and were found guilty of not taking it, there was no excuses. Death would follow. That was a rare case, simply because the government sought out each individual to take part in the exam. We usually went through a thousand exams a day, with myself being the one to examine each being's test scores and place them in the district accordingly, known as a Sorter.

"Please make your way down the hall," my voice was monotone as I gestured widely to the little boy standing in front of me. About 55% of the beings each day were classified as insane and were sent to take different tests to classify the level of their soul instability.

I had taken the Section Exam when I was five years old, after my father had passed away. I was flown straight from District D and passed the exam with one of the best results the government had ever seen. I was placed in with a large family in District A for nine years before I was granted my own house and a job at the Exam Facility. At age fourteen I began working, and had been for six years.

"Failed level one."

My fingers lifted off the keyboard, my dark eyes landing on an Escort, the ones who traveled the building and delivered the children to new levels and tests. I rose to my feet, nodding at the Escort. I waited for his departure before I bent down to the petite, blonde girl that he had brought. Her eyes were wide with fear, glistening with tears that she had more than obviously been trying not to shed.

"My name is Ireland," I enounced the words slowly, realizing I had been talking to the insane. Ireland had been the name my mother had given me, according to my father. Many children were named after countries from the Old World, almost as a symbol that those countries have no existence anymore and were nothing but a name for a child.