Mating day

-Year: 2432 Location: FEMALE Ground, New Capital

Everything changed, nothing is even close to what it was thousands of years ago. Humans live in high apartments and wear nothing but white. Well the rich ones, the others live on a lower level; near the ground. They also wear something that was once white but was now a greyish color because it was worn so much. Everyone has a job that’s decided for you and you stick with it. You don’t have a choice if you don’t like it and don’t participate it, you simply go to jail and starve to death. Everything is systematic and planned. Your live is already decided for you before you are even born.

It’s the same for us; the creatures that live on the ground. Basically, we are the lowest of the lowest even though we’re stronger and faster than all the stuck-up dictators upstairs. The only thing different for us? We get to live our lives on the ground and without a job. No warm water, no electricity and no food. We were given one pair of clothing and one pair of shoes for our entire life. Like I said we are the lowest of the lowest.

A long time ago mating was a natural process. But with all those control freaks in the sky there is nothing natural about it now. In fact, they schedule it, every year on the same date. Just so they can watch it and enjoy the show. Now don’t go thinking nasty, they only film the part where we get hunted down by the males and get owned like a damm trophy.

It wouldn’t be so bad if the males could slightly control themselves, too bad they can’t. Three months before the hunt they get imprisoned in a cell where no moonlight can hit them. Three months without shifting, three whole months where they can do nothing but wait. And when they finally get out, the moon is shining, and the inner wolf takes over completely. The only instinct they have is to kill. And so, the females run literally for their live when they get put in the same arena as where the males are running. It’s not a surprise that the females get killed before their mate can find them, sometimes it is even their own mate that kills them, simply because the males can only kill.

There is another thing that doesn’t help our case; All wolves are separated, females live in one area and the males live in another. In the last area live also the mated pairs. Every baby -girl that gets born gets separated from her father, the mother has a choice to go either with her daughter or to stay with her mate. The baby goes to the female area and when she reached the age of 20, she becomes another name to get chosen for the ‘Hunt’.

Today is choosing night, which means that the males are already locked up for two months and 29 days. I can’t imagine not being able to shift for two months and 29 days. Like every year 10 males and 10 females get chosen for the hunt. Well actually it is called ‘Mating Day’, but Alpha calls it the hunt.

Alpha; our leader, the oldest female there is, calls on all the women who are twenty years or older and guide us to the end of our area. Guards are waiting for us by their so-called cars and push us in the back of it. Their weapons don’t go unnoticed. Some women panic while others like me stay calm. We know that if you panic or fight you get punished. The only way you know that is or others told you or you experienced the pain when you didn’t stop panicking or fighting. I learn it the hard way two years back. After a while we stop and get pulled out of the van to be standing before a building that looked a lot like a prison. Mostly because it was a prison. It’s the same building where the males are being kept. A guard with a higher function stands before us and starts to talk about what will happen once, we are inside. I zoom out. I think of all the girls who are standing before me, who may get picked and if they will survive. Maybe they will last, maybe they can run hard enough to escape from a male. Or maybe they don’t, and they will be caught. Hopefully they are lucky enough that their mate only marks them and protect them. But every one of us knows that is rare. Someone gives me a little push and I snap out of my thoughts.

We are guided inside towards a big room with a screen on a wall. That screen will show us who got chosen this year. But on that very same screen they will show us the hunt. We are ordered to take a seat and without any hesitation I take the last chair on the last row. Somehow being in the back makes me feel a little safer, like if they can’t see me, they can’t choose me. But I already know that the names are already chosen, everything is already in motion.

The screen lit up and starts to tell us once again what is going to happen the next 24 hours. It tells us once again that we will sleep here, eat here and stay here for a day. It tells us once again that tonight we will get chosen and that the chosen ones will get 24 hours to mentally prepare for the ‘Mating night’. And it tells us once again that there is no escaping possible. It tells us that we need to take care of the chosen ones and when the 24 hours are up, they will go in and we will stay behind to watch. And when it is finished and completely done, we are guided back to our grounds to tell the others who made it and who didn’t.

After those instructions the screen turns black, experience tells me that within a minute the first name will show. And after a very long and painful minute the name pops up the screen.

DELILAH GREENBERG

And somewhere in the front I hear a desperate scream. She knows that either she makes it and live or she dies brutally in the hands off an unstoppable male.

Another name pops up on the screen and yet another cry is heard from the front. My hands are getting sweaty and I feel the guards looking at me.

The names keep coming on the screen and when everyone waits for the last name to show, I almost can’t take it anymore. Sweat is dripping of my forehead and my heads can’t seem to stay dry. There is a giant lump in my throat and my heart is beating too fast. It takes too long, why is the name not up yet? Maybe the screen is broke, yes maybe that’s it. If the screen is broke, then there will be no last name. Hope flares up in my chest, but when I look at the guards that same hope is gone just as fast as it came. Because the guards don’t look stressed or worried, no they look like they are watching a damm play.

And just as I was about to stand up the screen lit up with the last name.

ALEXIS BACKWELL

All I hear is my heart beating in my chest; thump, thump, thump thump, thump. It’s over, everything is over. The last name was on the screen, now it is all over.

The screen starts to tell us what is expected from us and where we need to go, but I don’t pay any attention. It was over, the choosing night is finally over.

And when everyone starts to move towards a door I stay right where I am. All I can see now is a black screen. A guard pulls me towards the door, and I stumble over my feet. It’s over. He guides me to a room with a beautiful looking bed and close the door behind me. All I do is standing there as reality comes crashing in.

The last name was my name.