right after we were born our identities we’re taken away from us. we live in this district where no one has a name. we have numbers. They brainwash our choices. Hi. I am #3. we have restrictions on our diet, looks, what we wear and even our future path. There are some other kids who would love to riot as much as I would. To stand up against to government to live our lifes the way we want to.
After school we do have access to two different parks, which are supervised with guards and cameras. bit much if you ask me.
I met some guys, i think seven dudes in total. They’re really cool, and we hang out after school. I heard number #16 talk about wanting to leave and go for the city. While number #71 was a bit scared to admit he was willing to leave.
It was a Saturday morning and I would meet them again. #11 was already waiting for me.
“Is the rest not coming..?” I looked up at number #11 hesitantly. He shrugged and pointed at a grey building where we see the other guys walking towards us. We were all wearing hoodies with the hood up, in case someone was watching us.
I sat down on an old swing as the guys kind of gathered around me.
“So, you guys are still in? What do we need?” number #33 said while laughing nervously.
“Maybe..we should give ourselves names...?” #98 said
“Hey! you know that’s not allowed, you know what happened to the last guy who tried that” Everyone nodded and agreed. “But still, If we wanna riot we might aswell do it the right away” I said. “but #3 what if we get in trouble?” #71 said nervously
“Thats the whole point isn’t it?” #8 said with a devilish smirk.
#8 threw his hand around my shoulder and smiled. “i’ll be Seungmin from now on..I read that name in book”
I chuckle and shake my head. “I don’t even know names. This whole district, this creation, glitch, whatever it may be.. it’s not healthy, being not able to identify as someone, i am not..me” Number #32 said and crouched down and pulled out a piece of paper. “Well, lucky for you.. i collected some names overnight” He had a funny accent. I took the paper and scanned it. “Okay well what name did you take 32?” “Felix” “I see, ah i’ll just think about it bit longer”
Was this all a good plan? going against the government like this? Will we survive? The guys enthousiastically starting picking names.
“Ah i will take Minho, looks like the most normal name!!” #16 said.
Number 71 took Jeongin. 33 took Changbin, 98 took Hyunjin and 11 took Jisung. “Hey 3, Chan and Max are over, which one?” “Chan seems fine” I felt slightly irritated we had to pick names so soon, but the sooner the better. We gotta get out of this place.
“So when are we leaving?” Changbin asked me.
I gave him a confused look. “You think i’m a leader? that I can do it the way our president does?”
“You already we’re doing it”
He smiled. I got up upon my feet and It started to rain. “We leave at dawn, pack essentials only, packaged food, a re-usable waterbottle, and a clean shirt, but first lets cut our tracking microchips out of out arms.” I pulled a small pocket knife. I helped everyone out and eventually we burned them. We parted ways over the next fifteen minutes. So It would not look suspicious. It was eight o’ clock. The towns curfew to go inside. If you we’re seen at 8:15 you were taken to the judge and he would ask you why you were out after curfew hours. If you had no anwser. You would not see the light of the new day. It was a mess. It’s time to leave this town.
“Goodbye District 9” I say to myself while im packing my backs in my room. My parents, they never cared nor were ever home. They wouldn’t notice if I was gone. The other guys had a similair house hold. Minho’s parents on the other hand had passed away when he was young, age eleven or something. He basically had to raise himself. Due all downfalls he made it. He is fine. He is a good kid. Felix was the easiest kid. He was born kinda rich. His parents had a good job for the government, but he was basically brought up by different nanny’s throughout his childhood. Now he’s sixteen. His parents are always working. He could do whatever he wanted. That was all about to change. It was about survival now.
I sat down for a minute, overthinking my decisions. But this was it. Time to go. We would meet at 9:00 PM. After our curfew. It was a risk move. We would dress in all black plus a mask to cover half our faces. I made a mac & cheese for myself, and worked that in and packed the rest in a lunchbox. For if any of us got hungry.
“Only essentials Chan, keep your head straight.” So that would be basic hygienics, food to survive, and a bit of money.
The clock said 8:50PM time to go. I put on my mask and black gloves, I could not risk being seen. We would meet behind Seungmin’s house. It was the closest to the gate. Seungmin made a hole the night before and covered it up so it wouldn’t be noticed. “Are you ready guys?” I whispered. Jeongin grabbed my hand and I smiled. “You’ll be fine little guy”
We all crawled through the hole one by one. Once we all got through I looked back.
“This is it guys. We did it. Goodbye District 9!”