Exceptional (2 page)

“Exactly.”

“Don’t you at least think it would be an interesting place to live?”

           “I like where we live now.” Stosh stomped off in the direction of their settlement, leaving Ally standing in the soft underbrush of the tree.
          
           WHEN THE CARAVAN came through a settlement, the Ordinarys were required to sit inside their homes and wait for an Exceptional to come inside and ask for any volunteers.  The process could take a few hours, and no one was permitted to step outside until the caravan had left the settlement.  It wasn’t until that evening that they discovered who had volunteered to leave for the City.  

The caravan had come through Ally and Stosh’s settlement several months ago, so they had more than half a year before it came back.  Ally and her best friend had made a pact that they would volunteer that year, the year of their eighteenth birthdays.  But when the Exceptional came into their home, she could feel Stosh’s eyes boring a hole through the back of her head.  He knew what she was about to do and that alone made her hold her tongue.  Later that night, she found out that her best friend had volunteered, and Ally realized that she had betrayed her.  She had said that she would volunteer, and now her best friend would be going into the City alone.

           Ally caught up with Stosh and they jogged the one-mile distance back to the settlement.   As they drew closer, the familiar scent of roasted meat filled the air, making Ally’s stomach rumble.  She hadn’t eaten lunch today since she had been so focused on finding the caravan.  She hadn’t even been sure that it would be there, but she had heard stories from some of her older friends who claimed they had watched it pass from above.  And the caravans always came through on the first Monday of each month.
           This was also the day that the city allowed the settlements to keep a certain amount of extra meat to cook for a feast.  It was said to be a thank you from the Exceptionals for the settlements allowing some of their own to move to the City.  But some of the elder Ordinaries called it hogwash, a word that Ally always giggled at as a little girl.  They said that Exceptionals didn’t care enough to say thank you to the Ordinarys, and that there was something else going on with the volunteers.  Ally’s neighbor, Mr. Ryde, said that the Ordinarys were no more than cattle to the Exceptionals.  Easy to herd around, butchered when necessary, and easily reproduced.   Stosh thought that he was borderline insane.
           “There you two are!”  Their mother hurried toward them just as they stepped onto the packed dirt road that ran through the settlement.
           “Stosh, you are needed with the wood cutters.  The fire is getting low. Allona, come; let me brush out your hair.”  Their mother looked Ally over.  “You were climbing trees again, weren’t you?”
           Ally’s mother shuffled her off toward their home while Stosh took off in the opposite direction.  Their settlement had once been a private neighborhood of some sort; at least that is what their ancestors had called it.  Many of the houses were in ruins, but others had been maintained and inhabited by the remaining Ordinarys.  The houses were modest and just enough for what they needed.   Each home held two to three families, and in total there were over a hundred homes in their settlement.  There were other settlements dotted along the suburbs of the city, packed in tightly with people.  Some Ordinarys dwelled far out in what they called the Wilderness, but by doing that they gave up the right to have help from the Exceptionals in times of need.
           “Look at this mess,” Ally’s mother said as she grabbed a brush from the drawer. “Let’s see what I can do with this.”
           She worked quickly but gently through the knots in Ally’s hair.
           “Mother.”
           “Yes?”
           “Stosh and I saw a caravan pass today.” Ally made sure to leave out the part about how they had
purposely
found a caravan to watch.
           The brush paused in her hair for a moment and she could see her mother’s expression tighten in the stained mirror.
           “You should have walked away, Allona.”
           “I wasn’t going to volunteer.”         

“I know,” her mother responded.  Somehow Ally didn’t believe that she did.

 
“There.” Her mother patted her shoulder.  Ally’s long, dark hair now hung in soft waves down her back, stopping just at her elbows.  She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.  She had the same moss colored eyes as her brother and the same high cheekbones.  While Stosh was on the thicker side from his time spent chopping trees in the woods, Ally was leaner.  She had tightly packed muscle from her days of climbing trees and running through the woods, but her job as food gatherer didn’t leave her much room for bulking up.
           “Now go wash your hands and change your clothes for the feast.”
           Ally stood and walked down the hall to the room she shared with her mother.  Their house had four bedrooms and they shared it with one other family: a mother, father, and two little girls.   Generally, the sets of parents had their own rooms and then the same sex children each shared a room, but Ally didn’t want to sleep in the same room with the little girls.  Since her father hadn’t been around since Ally was born, her mother had no issue sharing a room with her.
           She changed into a simple pair of black pants and a black long sleeved shirt.  They made their own clothes here in the settlement, with textiles they bought from the city.  Everyone wore similar outfits day by day, except for those who wore special uniforms for their occupations.  It was said that there was once a day when people had whole rooms full of clothes and shoes.  Dresses, pants, and all sorts of things.  Now the only time men and women dressed up was on their wedding day.  Each civilian had three pairs of pants, three pairs of shirts, and three pairs of undergarments to call their own.  Some women would sew extra clothes with left over fabric and make a dress or a billowy skirt, but the desired effect went unnoticed.  It was easier to work and function in pants.
           Stosh returned an hour after he was sent to chop wood, announcing that the feast would begin in a little over an hour.
           “They were almost completely out of wood!  I have no idea what Po would do with out me,” he said with a grin.  

The City appointed one man from each settlement to step into a leadership role, rotating someone new in every ten years.  Po had been chosen to run their settlement four years ago, and had proven to be a wise and efficient leader.  Their main output for the City was wood, so he made sure that production ran smoothly and set-up the times for the City to receive their shipments.  There were talks that Stosh would be his successor one day, since Po had no sons of his own.  That was another reason Ally believed Stosh would never willingly go to the City.

“Want to go for a run through the woods?” she asked as he plopped down next to her on the sofa.
           “Didn’t we just do that?” he asked.
           “Yes,” she smiled.
           “What are you up to?”
           “I was thinking.” Ally picked at a frayed seam on the sofa.  “Maybe today we could jump the boundary.  We’re going to be eighteen tomorrow and almost
everyone
has jumped it before eighteen.”
           “No way.” Stosh looked disgusted that she had even mentioned it.  He was such a rule follower.  “Not on caravan day.  More Exceptionals will be patrolling the woods.”
           “Oh come on.  Tomorrow you can brag to your friends about how you stepped over the boundary.  It is almost a right of passage!”
           Ally couldn’t help but be enthusiastic.  She had always wanted to take that fateful leap over the boundary line but had wanted Stosh to be the one to go with her.  Of course there were risks involved.  If she were caught by an Exceptional, she would be in big trouble.  But no one was ever caught, and even if the Guards were near by, they didn’t have time to mess around with silly Ordinary games.
           “I’m going whether you go or not,” she said, standing and walking toward the door.
           “Fine,” Stosh said.  

Ally could tell by his body language that he was really annoyed with her.  He would probably seethe about it until they got home, and then in the morning would recall how he hadn’t had such an interesting night in awhile.

           “That’s the brother I know and love.” She looped her arm through his, leading him out of the house and into the woods.

The walk to the boundary was about twenty minutes, which gave them just enough time to do the jump and then run back to the settlement for the feast.  Their mother was helping the other women prepare for the feast, so she hadn’t even been home when they left the house.  She probably wouldn’t even realize they had gone as long as they weren’t overly late for the meal; and as long as Ally managed to keep her newly brushed hair unknotted.  They took the familiar path through woods and walked a good portion of the trip in silence.

           “Were you planning on doing this with Willow?”  Stosh spoke up when they were finally nearing the boundary line.
           Ally froze in her tracks, focusing her gaze on the tree in front of her.  Since it was summer the sun would not set for another hour or two, but it had already started it’s decent and was washing the woods in a beautiful orange glow.
           “Why would you ask that?” Her voice was more of a breath.
           After a few moments of silence Stosh spoke again. “Sorry.”
           She pointed to a large tree marked with a purple
X
.  Someone from the settlement had marked it long ago and every year someone would paint over it again, making sure weather or other hazards didn’t wash it away.  This meant that they would step off the path and head down the slope toward the boundary line, which would less than a hundred yards away.
           “Are you sure you want to do this?” Ally peered back at Stosh, trying to forget his previous question.  “You can back out at any moment.”
           Stosh rolled his eyes.  “I’m not the downer you always make me out to be.  We are here now, let’s get this over with so that we aren’t late to the feast.”
           He brushed past her and stepped around the marked tree, moving carefully as the ground sloped down.  The boundary line was actually a small creek, small enough that with a running leap you could jump from one side to the other.   Hence the term
jumping the boundary line
.  As far as they could tell, the creek ran around the whole perimeter of the city limits.   In order to reach the crowded suburbs and bustling city there was still a good mile or so to walk.
           “I can see it,” Stosh whispered to her.  There was always an unspoken rule of being quiet around the boundary line.
           Ally had been so focused on watching her step that she bumped right into Stosh when he stopped in his tracks.
           “St…” She stopped speaking mid-word when he raised a hand to silence her.
           She peered around his body and saw what made him stop.  Three boys stood on the other side of the creek, forming a semi-circle and talking in hushed voices.
           “Dang,” Ally whispered.  Even though plenty of Ordinarys had jumped the boundary before, it was always considered insulting if someone arrived and did it right before you did, and then were still there to take jabs at you about it.
           The boys were dressed in a muted gray color, which meant they were not from her settlement.  Ally had heard other settlements received different color textiles to make their clothes, but she had no idea which one they might be from.   At this distance, she couldn’t tell what markings were on their wrists.  They appeared to be her and Stosh’s age, and well built.  They could easily pass as woodcutters.  One of the boys turned slightly toward the creek and Ally could tell he was grinning.  He took one step back and then ran forward three strides before leaping over the creek.  She cocked her head in confusion.  You were only supposed to leap across the boundary, and then step back across.  It symbolized the excitement of taking the risk and the shame of crossing back because you knew you didn’t belong on the Exceptional side.
           The boy stuck his landing and for added effect he dropped to one knee and placed one hand on the ground in front of him, and stretched the other out behind him.  At that moment he raised his head, suddenly noticing Stosh and Ally.  She would have realized it sooner had she
really
paid attention to the boy that had jumped through the air.  The buzzed head.  The precision of his jump.  The grace with which he landed.  And the violet eyes…
           “Exceptionals.”  Stosh whispered.