Every mother is getting themselves and their kids ready. The markets are closing for today. You can hear just about every soldier, in their thick, navy blue uniforms. What feared people the most about them is that they’re not afraid to shoot anyone who they don’t approve to be entered in the city hall where there they choose who will fight in the war. Every three years, we have what people down here in 208 call “death day” but actually called Liberation day. But liberation day was no day to be excited about. See what happens is the capital tries to see the progress grown in operation 208 and 205, so what is the only thing to do? Kill. Kind of like a show for the capital. They choose one boy and girl from each city. The only ages able to be in the fight are late teens and mid-forties, see but they just don’t choose names, they already have you chosen.
Our country, Widosin had been separated into a half. We were separated into operations, lands that were different in every way. Operation 208 was south of Widosin, up north is operation 205.We had been separated about 45 years ago, after the people had token notice that each people were different up in the north and in the south. The north had riches, you know money. They had everything that the south didn’t; education, money, and luxury.  Operation 205 was the only operation that has the capital in it, Operation 208 wasn’t so important to the capital but were lucky enough to still be a part of Widosin, were basically noticed as a wasteland to operation 205.its kind of confusing why were noticed as “operations” instead of states, the only thing we know is that were separated into operations by our personality, but not even the capital knows each and every individual personality down here in operation 208. Down here in operation 208, we had farmers, hunters, and a lot of dirt and trees, more hunters than anything. You were a lucky one if your own kid knew how to hold a gun correctly at the age of 2.My name is Carthia, I’m from Rowan Ville, there’s only three cities in each operation.

Operation 208: Rowan Ville, Ayden, and Smithton
Operation 205: Gledia, Conformia, Euphoria.
My father was chosen in liberation days when I was about 5. Kind of hard to say I never saw him again. I remember the fear in my mom that crawled on her every day. She couldn’t sleep without just looking at the door for twenty minutes before. I remember the day his death was seen everywhere, it was like something clicked in my mom. She never wanted me to be chosen.  She hated liberation day, and today is liberation day.
My mother laid a cotton stiff dress on my bed; I can tell that she had made it with her own hands. The dress wasn’t really me. I’m not really a big fan of pink yet again I don’t think none of the girls done her in Rowan Ville are? I looked at the dress with disgust, not really feeling it to where the dress but it wasn’t my choice to look good for today, it was a force, not my mother’s force but the capital’s force.
The pink dress was comfortable; I’m no girl to please anyone. I decided to put a pair of black long socks that stop at where my only pair of brown boots stops at. I always carried my brown shoulder cross bag with me, I only carry three things that keep me safe and sounded.
A gun
A bracelet my mother gave me when I was 6
And a book of poems

One of my favorite quotes that is written on the first page says “we don’t choose who we are in fear, we create who we are” doesn’t say who said it but I took it to every moment in my life. Fear to me when like a dictator, it controls you but sometimes you have to fight back for your own freedom. I wanted to go see the woods before I it’s time to go to the city hall.
I walked through the city. The market I had worked in had seemed to be having a quick sell.  I walked in the old building, brick rusted, to see if there would be any help later on. Working was the only thing I did every day since my mother doesn’t work anymore after a year ago my older brother had been missing. Obviously I hurt me to know he was gone, but I always promise myself to never stop giving hope on him. Many parents were there buying fruit and vegetables for their families. I walk pass the lines to go to my bosses office, Klaudia. I walk in to a smell of strong alcohol.
“Klaudia? - Are you in here” I say coughing at the smell filling the room
“Carthia? Is that you my darling?” I hear a sudden voice coming from the back door from the door at the corner.
“Yes, the only one who actually comes in her” I took off my bag, throwing onto the couch that she has right next to her desk.
“Oh thank god you’re here, I have to give you a little something” I was kind of confused on why she got me something. Klaudia was like an older sister to me, she treated me with love and protected me whenever I needed her, and sometimes I wish we were the same blood. I walked over to the door where she is raffling through a box.
“Is everything alright?” I asked going towards her. She was quiet for a moment still raffling through the box.
“Here it is! There’s something I’ve always wanted to give you Carthia” she stood up away from the box walking out of the door into the light that only hit half of her room.  I stood face to face in front of her and there she put out her palm that revealed a velvet black box.
I looked up at her pleased and back to the box.
“What is it?” I said looking back at her.
“Open it” she put the box right where my hands were. I open the box that showed the most beautiful thing I’ve ever touched. It was a necklace.  Gold necklace, a heart-shaped stone.
“Oh. Klaudia, I really can’t take this” I said with my mouth still open. The necklace was too beautiful to lay against my chest.
“No! Carthia you deserve this... I wanted to give you this for such a brave girl you are” she grabbed the necklace out of the box and I turned around for her to put it on, pulling my hair away from the back of my neck. The cold metal send shivers on my spine for a second.  I turned back to her. She grabbed my hand and sat me down with her on the vanilla, white couch and faced me.
“Carthia, you’ve done so much for everyone done here in operation 208, your mother, even your brother would be proud of you, you’re not afraid to fight, you have a heart of gold” tears flooded her eyes .
I hugged Klaudia. I could smell her.  The cotton smell of her gray sweater.  “Klaudia, I don’t know how I can ever thank you for such a beautiful thing” I pulled back from the hug looking her in the face. “Don’t be crazy Carthia, you deserve this, and it’s yours I don’t need to receive anything back to know it means something to you” she smiled with a soft grin that made her dimples look deeper than ever before.  She took a hard breathe.
“Carthia I can’t let you go to the city hall with your hair like this” she looked at my hair the way people look at homeless people: with pity. It’s funny at the thought of it because I didn’t bother to ever do anything to my hair; it was just a ball of knots and curls that laid on my head.  She sat up and grabbed the pocket brush out of her desk drawer. She pulled my hair back, brushing it into her palm and pulling it up into a ponytail. My curls looked softer.
“There you go, you wouldn’t want to get killed because you didn’t do your hair” she chuckled. I turned to look at her with no emotion. I was scared; I didn’t want to get chosen today, nor any other liberation day. “What’s wrong my love?” she cupped my face with her palms. A felt a tear roll down my cheek.
“I’m scared klaudia, I just don’t understand why they have to kill people, just to see what a progress we’ve done” Goosebumps strike against my skin, my heart began to beat a little faster.
“darling. It’s the rich. What do you expect? Their only pleasure is pain and money. Don’t let all them fool you, but most importantly don’t make a fool out of yourself. They may have plenty of money to fill up where the sun doesn’t shine, but there’s only one thing they don’t have what most people down here have, strength.”
Strength, I never really thought I had it in me. I mean I was never afraid to let down a fight for my own protection but it was just something in me that made me protect myself, or my mother or even Haydes was no boy in my life, he was my boyfriend. We had been together since where 12 years old. It was a young age and around that time it’s always that saying ‘relationships aren’t meaningful through that time of age’. But we were still together, we weren’t clingy or over dramatic with each other, we just let love do its thing, like letting a bird fly with its own soar wings, but right now I don’t even know where he’s at.
“Klaudia, I have to go find Haydes. I want to actually have some freedom with him before we have to go to the city hall” I stood up from where we were sitting. “Don’t take long together, you know what they’ll do to you guys if you guys get caught skipping liberation day” her hazel eyes got deeper than before while they were starring deep into mine. “Yeah, I know” I hugged her again for the last time. She exhaled right when the hug was cut off by one of the workers, Jonah.  “Sorry, um Carthia, Haydes said he wants to meet you in the blueberry woods. Klaudia laughed. “Of course” I ran out the office, running pass everyone in the market, the light was bright, I was surprised the sun would be out on such an evil day.

CHAPTER TWO

The woods were quiet. The trees brushed against each other through the wind. Green was the only thing that covered this whole place. The beauty from this place was that everything was natural. I never really been a big fan of cities like operation 205, I was proud to be a 208. Also cause I liked being alone, I didn’t have anything to loose from it anyways.
I walked, hearing the leaves crunch as I the bottom of my boots walked over each orange, and green leaves. Hunting was probably a good thing to do right now. I slipped my hand into my bag, tightly grabbing my gun out of my bag. Dead silence filled the air, besides the horns blowing in the air reminding people that we had to go to the city hall for the ‘celebration’. I pressed my back against a tree. The ruff, wooden chunks scratching all over my back. I tried to keep quiet to focus on the noises around me, hoping I can hear an animal, any animal.
I closed my eyes relaxing my head upon the tree. The trees brushed, the wind blew, the leaves crunched as they hit one another from the pressure of the wind. The sun hit my face, the golden rays blinding me from what I was trying to get. Finally, the crunches of leaves got stronger as they moved with the motion. I held my breath, my body was still against the tree, and I didn’t want any movement to scare away what was there. The sound of the steps were getting louder and stronger, the sound was right behind me, whatever the thing was, it was behind me. The gun was held tightly in my palm. My blood flowed through my veins like a river, every beat of my heart was getting stronger, I wanted to wait for just a second before I actually do something to this animal. I turned fast, sweeping my hands to point outwards from my chest as I held the gun at the thing, but it was no thing, it was Haydes.
“Damn it Haydes, I thought you would actually be dinner”
He was wearing a neatly tucked in, navy blue shirt. His brown boots matched his ombre, brown curls. His arrow laid behind his back. I walked over to him.
“My bad” he smiled and chuckled a little bit.
“Someone was excited to shoot something, all that preparation for nothing” he laughed. “Shut up” I hit his shoulder, hugging him. He smelled nice, cologne that didn’t smell familiar; the smell of pine would probably match it. I looked up to face him. You can tell he shaved his chin; his skin was like a baby’s.
He finally kissed me. Plumped, soft lips atop of mine.
“Someone looks nice today” I backed up looking at him up and down.
“Oh come on, this is nothing new” he turned in a circle, showing his physic. I laughed at his goofiness. “Ready for liberation day?” he took the arrow off his shoulder putting on the ground, beside his feet. He looked back up at me. “Ready as ever, not like they choose anybody around our age anyways” my attitude came out harsh, sounded more calm, more me in my mind. Haydes eyes laid right on my right there. His stare got intense. He walked towards me and grabbed my hand. “Hey, you don’t have to be worry you know, just remember whatever happens today, it happens for good”
“I know, but it doesn’t really seem that way when people are losing their lives for a ridiculous reason, no lives should be taken away because whether you are poor or rich, educated or uneducated. A life is worth more than money, but yet there are people out there who would lose their life just for money, I realize the more you give, the more they take.” Maybe no one will ever understand how I feel about it, but if I have to stand alone with this, then be so.
“What I was trying to say, was that you’re going to be okay” his eyes laid only on me. 
“I know, but maybe there’s always an alternative to “it’s going to be okay” what if it’s not ok? Then what” I turned to walk away. Suddenly I felt something grab my wrist. Haydes turned me to face him.
“Carthia, let’s just forget about this topic, I don’t want you to be mad on a day like this. It’s going to be ok, and if not then all I can say is that it won’t be ok, things are never ok, if they were we wouldn’t be living In a world like this” he hugged me. His embrace was the only thing I need right now. He protected me and I protected him. There was no place I wanted to be in besides is arms.
We heard a ruffling noise coming from behind, we turned to look, a deer. A light brown creature, sniffing, finding food probably.  The innocent animal walking around. Haydes and I gave each other a look and decided to go for it. We ran separately to a tree. We ran fast but we kept silent, not wanting to scare away the deer. He took the spirit off his back, grabbing an arrow out of the basket that’s attached to the spirit. I held the gun atop my chest pointing it forward.  We looked back at the3 deer, the little creature walked slowly, still motionless in front of us.  I turned to look at Haydes; he turned to look back at me as he noticed my eyes on him. He pulled the arrow back, preparing to launch it to the deer. He mouthed at me. “1...2...3...” we turned quickly at the deer, chasing it. The deer ran quickly. It ran forward, each leg bending, making it go faster. I saw the innocent creature. How scary would it be to run away from someone who’s trying to kill you? Imagine the fear that’s its feeling at this moment. I couldn’t do it.
I stopped running. Catching every breathe coming out of me. I couldn’t hurt the deer. My legs were shaking a little. Didn’t want to hurt something that I knew would hurt me. I’ve hunted before, and I don’t know why right now, I’m so afraid to kill something. I don’t know what’s wrong with me right now.  I looked at Haydes, he still went. Finally he stopped, looking around, trying to find me. He turned back staring at me. He’s breathing was hard. He walked back to me. I put no emotion on my face. All I wanted to do was not hurt the deer.
“What happened? Why did you stop running?” his face was puzzled.
“I don’t know” I shrugged my shoulders up. I looked at my feet. Something felt different; I had never felt this way ever before. “I don’t know. I-I got tired” I hyped my voice, not wanting him to notice that I was afraid to do it. He bended down lays his hands on his knees. The wind blew hard. Everything was calm and quiet until out of nowhere, we heard ruffling and laughter. Loud voices of men speaking. I stood, running behind a tree, while Haydes followed behind. His breathe blowing behind my ear. From far away we saw the soldiers, the worshipers of the governor. Their guns attached to their hip. There were two of them. One had a white uniform; the other had a navy uniform.  The only possible thing I was thinking of was ‘please don’t capture us’ hoping they could hear each prayer and swear that is being said in my mind. They walked closer and closer. My body became cold, each heartbeat becoming harder by each pump. Thankfully, they turned around at the noise coming from behind. The soldier called out. “Have you found anyone?” he ran towards them. He was young.
“No there’s no one out here, and I don’t think they would like to be found anyways, Thomson would have a cruel punishment.” He chuckled a bit. I felt shivers run up my spine.  Haydes grabbed my hand, we ran fast. I knew where he was leading me. We ran to the creek. I didn’t want to turn. I didn’t want to see that they were right behind us.
My ponytail fail, letting my curls fall on my back.  Twigs, branches, and leaves flew everywhere. I let go of hayed hand while running, running fat ahead of him. A branch had been right in front of me, but it was too late to control myself.  I fell over the tree branch, scrapping my knee onto the ground. My face came first to the ground. Dirt crumbles on my face, leaves in my hand.. Dirt covered my knees. My knees began turning purple, visible through my pale skin. That sharp-pain stinging on my leg shook me awake.  Haydes kneeled right over me.
“God, Carthia, are you okay?” he grabbed my knee gently, dabbing the blood off my knee with a towel he kept in his pocket. He grabbed my hand, lifting me up.
“Yeah, I’m fine” I took a step. Everything felt fine except the stinging on my knees. I looked up to Haydes. “Was it funny? You know when I fell?” I laughed with a slight smile.
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t” he began to laugh, still helping me with my balance. Our laughter began to slowly disappear as we stared deep into each other’s eyes.
“God, what would I do if you weren’t in my life?” he took a deep breathe, not breaking the eye contact.  I didn’t think of anything to say. I wouldn’t even know the answer if I had been the one to ask him. Our moment was interrupted with the sound of guns trigger clicking in front of us.
“Hold it right there” it was one of the soldiers, pointing his gun.
My heart began to race. We had been caught. Haydes and I put our hands above our heads. “Stupid kids, trying to skip liberation day, huh?” he walked over to us fiercely. “That’s not what we were doing” Haydes gave an annoyed look to the man, more fear than annoyed.  “Shut the hell up, tell that to the governor” he pushed Haydes to the ground. Haydes groaned as he collapsed to the ground. The soldier tied Haydes’s hands behind his back, gripping it with a rope.  The man then aggressively grabbed my hands, tying my hands with a rope, the same type of rope used on Haydes. My wrists began to hurt.  My body was shivering.  The man pushed us, forcing us to walk. Felt like we were being walked down an aisle to hell. Everything felt so unreal, or at least that’s how I wish it was. I didn’t want any of this to happen. I looked at Haydes.
I can tell he was afraid. His jaw had looked stiff and tight. He had dirt on his face from when the soldier pushed him onto the ground. He starred at me, he gave a slight smiling, mouthing “it’s going to be okay”
We walked back into the city. It was like a ghost land. Everyone is already at the city hall. We walked pass the market that I worked at. There were soldiers every ten feet away from another soldier. They looked at us. I felt embarrassed at what would happen when they take us in front of the city hall. In front of Governor Thomson, my mother, everyone who I knew.  We could hear the crowd of people in the city hall. As we arrived, there were a crowd of 205”s at the entrance, I suppose they were since they were in their fur coats and metallic clothing. Now was the time for what will happen to Haydes and I.