Leo's side story:The Act

    Jevon saved my life.
    My squad refused to listen to me. I'm sure they are dead now.
    We were having trouble with an obstacle where we each had to shoot a target within 5 seconds of each other. Even though we were close to the end of the exam, as the leading team, the other teams were going to catch up to us soon; We had been standing there for twenty minutes. Really the problem was we were so tired, and Roks earlier had cut her leg really deep on a trap.
    A commander walked by, and since we were way overtime we ducked behind a truck to hide. After he passed Ayde said, "I'm through with this. Lets just walk around it."
    Roks and me just gave him our "Be rational, Ayde" look. We had to do this often. "You know what they said. There are traps on the path that are be activated until we can hit those switches at the same time," I reminded him. He was bad not to pay attention at lectures, also.
    Roks jumped up. "I know something we can do though. The last switches like these were so sensitive. We could just walk up to them and hit them at the same time. If we use enough force we can do it with our knives or something."
    "That's cheating, Roks!" I said.
    "Well if we stand around here we'll get shot too! By other squads. So at least we'll have some chance of not getting caught."
    "You don't think they'll notice the big knife slashes?!"
    "There's no way for them to know it was us."
    "I think it's a great idea," Ayde said, throwing his arm around her supportively.
    "I'm not doing it. It's a bad idea."
    "So what, you gonna wussy out?" Roks said, getting defensively close to me now. "Just go ahead and leave then! Do you need reminding you'll be shot for that too?"
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    Of course I felt remorse walking away from them.They were my only friends. I didn't even have my family anymore. We were so connected that last time Ayde got shot in the arm Roks and I ate the most morphine. The nurse said it was a side effect of the monitors in our shoulder blades, which let us feel each others hearts beating.
    I ran backwards and into the woods, sometimes crossing across the deactivated obstacles but keeping mostly off the path. While I was running I had a "life flashing before my eyes" moment. I thought back to my life ever since I turned sixteen and was sent to training. I was glad that I was going to be shot. I felt glad that I never had to watch another person be "eliminated" from the recruits. I felt fear but I felt relief. Because it was the best thing I could do for myself at the time. They would soon check my monitor location and find me. There was no way to get it out without killing myself.
    As I was thinking back to my little sister at home, I saw the bright gleam of a skyscraper in the sun. That set in the real dread now, making me feel really nauseous. I stopped for a moment until it passed, then I look out from behind a tree.
    A man was walking by, not in uniform but I was still unsure. He was built in a way that only physical or military jobs cause. And since he was dressed too well for a construction worker or ironworker, I assumed the last one.
    Just get this over with, I thought. I stepped out and he looked at me wide eyed. I couldn't figure out what to say, just stood there blocking his way. "Look, my squad broke some rules and was about to be shot. I tried to stop them. I know the rules about abandoning, so if you're an officer just go ahead and shoot me. I don't care anymore, I'm out of options."
    I was shaking really hard, and I'm sure it was noticeable. He stared at me very blankly, then slowly turned his head and checked all directions. He spoke very quickly. "There was an explosion at the exam a few days ago. I was just down there a few minutes ago checking for survivors. I found you there, unconscious. I'm taking you back to the school I'm commander of. You have to pretend the explosion made you deaf and mute."
    He began to walk and beckoned for me to follow. "I'll explain more later. We're going to take a car."
    Once the car came he opened the door and pointed me in the door silently, already starting the act.
    The driver turned in his seat to frown at my uniform. "Hey, Jevon. What brings you around?"
  "Got a victim of the explosion. I think he went deaf. His squad left him."
    My squad was too close to the end to give up like that. We were only a mile from the city line. It took us two minutes after that to get to Jeff's school.
    I guess I was really lucky for my job after all. Children who have other jobs, like drivers, doctors, and chemists are taken at birth to live in citizen schools. The only other exception is housewives, like my sister, who get a free ride of extra food rations and laying around having baby's their whole lives, and don't have to leave home until they're 18 and picked by a soldier.
    I had never been to a citizen school or even seen one until Jeff let me into his. The first thing I noticed when I walked in was the buzz of voices so unfamiliar to me. He took me into his office and locked the door. I sat down in a leather chair across from him.
    "What's your name?"
    "Leo."
    "As long as you don't direct any government attention more than you have, you should be fine. Doctors aren't allowed to examine handicapped people at all unless they're told to. I'll bring you some different clothes and things tomorrow."
    He handed me a little composition book and a pen. "You can use this to communicate. You will be enrolled in a sign language class next week, along with the others in your room. Now it's time I introduce you."
    He led me down the noisy hall and unlocked a door. As the door opened a burst of noise came through before it was completely silent.
    "This is Leo. He was a soldier, but there was an explosion a couple days ago and he's deaf now. He'll be staying in this room from now on."
    He gave a little nod at me and then closed the door. The room of 36 people was so quite you could here the lock click back into place.
    A couple little kids that looked like toddlers started to play with blocks first, but everyone else seemed to close in on me. "Hey, Leo!" A girl who looked six or seven said. I accidentally started to look straight at her in reaction to my name, but I remembered halfway there not to.
    Another girl, who looked about my age said to the other, "He's deaf Kaylil, he can't hear you."
    The girl stood up on the loveseat next to me. "Hey!!!" She screamed in my ear. "CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?!"
    I had to close my eyes to keep from wincing them. If I wasn't deaf before that I was after.
    "No he'll never be able to hear you, no matter how much you try." The older girl picked her up and put her back on the floor. "Go play outside, okay?"
    The girl went out to the little courtyard I could see through the windows.
    Everyone lost interest about that time. More than that. Everyone refused to look at me at all. I sat down on the loveseat and went to sleep still sitting up. I woke up later that night when a guy shook me awake and said, "You have to sleep there. It's Talia's night on the couch." He pointed at some blankets on the floor. All the kids were sleeping there, so tight together one's feet was only inches from the others head.
    I guessed that the point was enough for me to know what to do if I was deaf, so I picked up my composition book and slid it under the pillow and laid there.
    In the dark while I was trying to fall back to sleep the day hit me hard. I was surprised to feel tears slide down my face for the first time in years. But with reason.
    The two other heartbeats in my shoulder raced for a few minutes. Then they stopped.