Sadie’s alarm blared from her bedside table, an incessant buzzing that nobody could possibly sleep through. Groaning and keeping her eyes shut, she slammed her hand on top of the clock, silencing it. She turned over in her bed to face the ceiling, wrapping the covers tightly around herself. 

Footsteps sounded from down the hallway, and then there was a knock at the door. “Honey?” 

“Don’t come in!” She yelled back at her mother, turning around again to face the wall. “I’m masturbating!” 

There was a sigh from outside. “You need to be ready by half past, okay? Make sure you’re up and dressed by then. And make sure you brush your teeth, too.” 

“Why? There’s nothing on today.” 

“Don’t do that. We can’t play pretend about this.” 

“My birthday’s next week! You’re early.” 

Another sigh. “Just… Be ready, okay?” 

Her mom’s footsteps receded, and she opened her eyes, staring blankly at the wall. Thin streaks of light painted the plain grey wallpaper, the blinds at the head of her bed unable to keep all of the light out. She rolled over to look at the clock’s bright red digits. 

6:03. 

She threw the covers off her body, flipping onto her front and reaching for the blinds, opening them and almost blinding herself when the harsh glow of the morning sun flooded the room. She slid out of the bed, putting her slippers on and walking to the end of her bed, noticing that the uniform her mom had neatly folded for her last night had fallen off into a messy heap. She picked it up, grimacing at the horrible colour scheme – if you could even call it that. It was almost as grey as her walls, with a stripe of black across the shoulder, emblazoned with a golden identifying number. FH-11413. 

That’s all she meant to them. An ID. A cog in the machine. 

She looked back at the clock. 6:17. They’d be here soon. 

She left her room, barely taking a glance at her parents in the kitchen as she walked to the bathroom to brush her hair and her teeth. When she was done, she opened the door, finding her parents waiting for her outside. 

“What?” 

Her dad gave her mom a quick glance. “When you pass and come back home, we can celebrate your birthday properly, okay?” 

Sadie clenched her jaw. “If I pass and come back home.” 

“Don’t talk like that,” her mom said, brushing the tiniest specks of dust from her shoulders and front. “You’re going to do fine. Okay? You’ve studied so hard for this.” 

“I can’t believe you’re letting them do this,” she muttered. “Why can’t you just hide me? Can’t you lie? You can tell them it’s my twelfth birthday instead.” 

“They’d know,” her dad said quietly. 

“How do you know they’d know?” 

There was a brief silence, and her mom shed a tear. “We tried to lie. With Nelson. They found him anyway.” 

“Oh.” 

“It’s alright, hey, focus on right now.” Her dad pulled her into a hug which she didn’t reciprocate. It was a cold hug, devoid of anything but fear. “You’re going to come back.” 

There was a knock at the front door. All three of them turned to the hallway, and Sadie’s dad let go of the hug. 

“Guess I’d better go.” 

“We love you, honey. No matter what happens, we’ll be here waiting for you to come back!” 

“Yeah,” she acknowledged, walking to the front door and opening it. Outside were two heavily armoured men, both wielding large assault rifles. 

“Citizen FH-11413. Your transport for the Exam is ready,” one of them said. She couldn’t tell which one – his voice was scrambled, robotic, and their faces were covered with opaque visors. She just nodded, walking outside and shutting the door behind her, not bothering to take a final look back at her parents. She got into the car parked in their driveway, strapping herself in with the seatbelt, and they left. 

The trip was thankfully short, considering the lack of things to do in this car. She got out, and was immediately swallowed by the crowd gathering around the place they called the Facility. Everyone around her was as young as she was, and men like the ones who came to take her were corralling them all into the Facility. Nobody was resisting. 

They split them into orderly single-file lines, funnelling into many doorways into the building before them. She looked around at everyone with her. Some wore blank faces, not daring to let the world know what they were feeling. Others were biting their nails, some were crying, tears streaming down their cheeks. A select few were actually happy, much to her surprise, playing simple hand games in line, laughing and teasing others. She wondered how confident those people would need to be to act like that. 

After an hour of waiting, she finally reached the front of the line and was instructed to enter. The interior of the building was just as bleak as the outside; painted a blinding white, with nothing in the room except for a row of booths, a participant in each one. The one directly in front of her was empty, with a sheet of paper and a pen sitting idly on the table in the booth. 

“Please approach the free booth, FH-11413.” The man next to her gestured to the booth and she obliged, standing at the desk and looking down at the paper. 

“Welcome, citizen FH-11413,” a robotic voice said as she reached the booth. “Today marks your thirteenth year of life in our sovereign nation, and you have earned the opportunity to undertake the Exam to confirm your continued residency.” 

“Earned, huh?” Sadie muttered under her breath. The robotic voice continued. 

“Before you is a sheet of paper which contains the Exam. The Exam will commence once the page is flipped, and you will have thirty minutes to answer all questions. The Exam will consist of three sections. The first section requires you to answer a series of problem-solving questions. The second section consists of questions focussing on comprehension of the English language. The third section consists of questions designed to test your knowledge of our nation and its glorious history. 

“In order to pass the Exam, you must answer at least eighty percent of questions in sections one and two correctly, and one hundred percent of the questions in section three correctly. You may begin when ready.” 

Sadie breathed out heavily, pinching the corner of the sheet with her fingers, ready to begin. 

“No, wait! Please, let me try again!” A scream rang out from further down the line of booths. Sadie dropped the paper, peeking her head out to see. Most of the other participants seemed equally curious, a row of heads sticking out from behind the booth walls. 

A boy was being dragged from his booth, kicking and wailing. “Mom! Dad, please help! Please! I don’t wanna go!” 

A cold pit settled in her stomach as the grim reminder of the fate that awaited her if she failed was dragged out of the Facility, and the next participant was pushed to the now-open booth. 

She took a deep breath, turning back to the paper in front of her. Her hands were shaking as she pinched the corner once more. 

She needed to pass. Not for herself, and not for her parents. 

For everyone that ever failed. 

For her brother. 

For everyone who would be dragged away screaming this very day. 

For every thirteen-year-old after her. 

She gripped the pen tighter. Passing this test was just the beginning. 

With one last deep breath, she flipped the page over.