Armbands (Chapter 1) (Prequel to “I was a Fool”)

‘Dear Mrs. Willington,

We regret to inform you that your daughter Megan Willington age 15 has tested positive. According to the laws of Safety and Requirement article 7b sub-part 4 your daughter is to report to the nearest Transport office for departure by Wednesday the 28th of September.’

I stared at the letter in my hand. I had taken it from the stack of letters on the table. Tears came to my eyes as fear filled me. Positive. No one knew what it meant when people came back positive from the Tests. They were sent away and no one ever saw them again. My mom had seen the letter already, it had been open when I found it. The 28th was tomorrow, there was no escaping it. I looked out my window; maybe I could run, grab some things and run away somewhere so they would never find me. I looked down, I knew that I wouldn’t make it far.

My mother knocked on my door opening it. “Megan? Honey I need to tell you something.” 

She froze when she saw my face and the letter sitting in my hands that were trembling from fear. I looked away from her and started sobbing into my hands. My mom came up to me and pulled the letter from my hands to stop me from wrinkling it. She placed it on my bed and put her arms around me.

“I’m sorry honey.” she said quietly to me.

“M-mom wh-what-why-?” I started crying again.

“Breathe, dear” she said holding me away from her and I struggled to get myself under control. My mom handed me a kleenex from the box she had brought in with her. I wiped my eyes and blew my nose trying to breathe deeply and calm down.

I curled up tighter into my little ball as if I could hide from what was happening.

“M-mom wh-what’s going to happen?” I asked, frightened, tears running down my face.

My mom put her arms around me again scooting closer and I buried my face in her shoulder shaking. I let the warmth from her body seep into me. Will I never feel her warmth again?  I bit back a sob.

“It’ll be alright, Megan” she said running her fingers through my long brown hair. “Everything will be just fine.”

You don’t know that!  I thought bitterly. My fear was starting to turn into anger though I wasn’t sure what I was mad at. What did you blame for your fear if you didn’t even know what you’re afraid of? 

“Wh-what will happen? Mom what even i-is the th-thing they tested for? D-do I have a disease or something?”

“I’m not sure dear, everything about the testing and what happens is classified, but maybe the letter will give us some more information.”

She reached over to the letter, surprisingly calm and we started looking at it. When I had first read the letter I hadn’t gotten far and it had started feeling like my own death sentence; but now I looked at it scrambling for any information that might tell me what was going on and why.

It talked about the drop off process that would happen at the Transport office. Telling me that I was only allowed to bring a small bag full of prized possessions. I wasn’t allowed a phone,or any other clothes than what I would wear tomorrow. It said that my mother was to hand me over to the workers at the Transport office and they would “take care of everything from there”.They reminded us to keep our goodbyes short as they were on a very strict schedule.There was nothing about the tests, nothing about what would happen after I was handed over to the workers, and nothing about where I would be transported to. 

I hated the uncertainty of everything. To make it worse, at the bottom of the letter it said that they would give my mother two hundred dollars to “make up for any inconveniences” that made me feel like I was being bought. My mother read it and exclaimed “the audacity of them! To think of giving me money as if that makes it alright that they’re taking my child!”

It was the only sign that she was upset about everything. My mother always hides her emotions well.

My mother left me alone so she could make phone calls to my extended family that lived farther away in other states. I told her to not have them talk to me. I didn’t want to talk to anyone about it. 

I got up and walked silently over to the door and closed it. I picked up my phone from my dresser and unlocked it, going to facebook. I opened it up and sent a post:

This will be my last post.My Test came back positive and I am to leave tomorrow. I am not allowed to bring my phone,or any other clothes than what I will have on.I’m not sure what will happen,I don’t even know why this is happening.If anyone has any information that they can give me it would be very appreciated.I want to understand. 

I sent the post and then went online to look up anything I could on what would happen after I went to the transport office. Most of what came up was parents ranting about how frightened their children were and how angry they were about having to send them away. I found articles about conspiracy theories related to the Tests and what happened after people left, but they were all far fetched some of it going into things like aliens using mind control and a creepy version of population control. I found one article written by someone who had a brother who tested positive talking about what happened,but it just said the same things that the letter had told me and the author admitted that they had no idea what had happened to their brother after going through the doors in the Transport office. 

I found a video on youtube and clicked on it. It started with a family taking pictures and then had a boy a bit younger than me being led away from them by a man in white. The man led the boy who had brown hair and eyes that were large and frightened to a pair of doors off to the side and they went through to the other side the doors swinging shut blocking them from view.

I turned it off and looked at my facebook. There were lots of comments from people asking questions about how I was and hollow words of encouragement like what my mother had said. No information on what would happen.

I layed back on my bed with a sigh. It seemed like no one knew what happened. All I knew was I would walk through those doors and never be seen again. I wondered if anyone had tried to sneak a camera through the doors. If they had, no one had posted it online.

I stood and looked around at my room. I walked over to my closet and found a fabric drawstring bag that I could put my things in for tomorrow. I went to my dresser and put out the clothes that I would wear, my favorite t-shirt and jeans and a pair of fuzzy socks. I quietly went into the bathroom and took a shower letting the water fall over me and try and wash away my fears as I tried to figure out what to do. 

I walked out of the shower and changed into my pajamas. I listened outside and heard my mother crying into the phone as she told someone of my fate. I sneaked out of the bathroom and into my room. I didn’t want to talk more, I knew that no one had any answers for me. 
I turned out the lights in my room and hid under my blankets forcing away thoughts of what would happen tomorrow and trying to tell myself to just exist. But my mind wouldn’t let me and started spinning out terrifying images. I started to cry and cried myself to sleep. I was out cold by the time my mom came to check on me.