Do I Have A Choice?

The realisation of how controlled we actually all are, came when I was fifteen, although it started obviously much earlier when I was born. My earliest memory was of numbers appearing on my wrist, but mum pressed a number and they went away. I must have been about five years old, and when I asked mum about it all she said was,

“It just means you are ready for school, that’s all.”

My family consist of myself Alexis, my mum, my dad and my younger brother Brett and we all lived in a large, gated community on the outskirts of Brisbane, Australia. We never really ventured outside our community as there was everything from schools, shops, university and all of our family and friends. It was our life and it appeared simple. Or so it may seem.

I loved our town, but something in me always felt like something was off. It almost seemed controlled somehow like everything happened for a reason. I found out the truth on the day I turned fifteen. I was woken up at 12am, so midnight with my arm buzzing and the numbers one and two glowing on my right wrist. Of course I freaked out and ran to my parent’s room and swung open the door.

“What is happening to me?” I screamed, fully aware I would probably wake my brother up.

My mum bleary eyed looked at my wrist and turned to wake my dad up.

“Honey we probably should have told you a long time ago, but here goes. Every five years on your birthday at 12am, you have to make a choice between two life changing options which is why you see a one and two.”

“But what does it mean?” I interrupted, “What choices?”

“Our community is a social experiment and the reason that it is gated is so we cannot let the rest of the country know. When you were born, a microchip tracking device was set with your date of birth and inserted almost immediately after I had you.” She said slowly. “We all have them, even us” she turned her wrist to me to show me the faint scar.

“As for the choices, the first one is when you were five, do you remember me pressing a button?” she asked.

“Yes I remember, but what was the choices?” I stuttered, not really believing what I was hearing.

“It was for starting school, so options were if you wanted to go the private school or public school. We pressed the public school as it was cheaper.” My mum replied.

This was the first time I had heard either of my parents mention money as we never had cash or a bank card, nothing. “But how does that work, who pays?” I asked.

“Everything in this community is done digitally through the microchip. It acts automatically when you want to spend you just wave your wrist and it deducts.” She explained, while waving her wrist in a sideward motion.

“But how do we get paid, who pays us?” glad I was finally able to ask the questions that I had never thought to ask.

“We work of course, at certain stages you have the choice to work, but everyone gets paid the same. From age one until the end you get one thousand dollars per your age, so this morning you would have gotten fifteen thousand dollars put into your account.” She announced, but before she could continue, I leapt up.

“Oh my god seriously? I have money in my account” I yelled excitedly looking at my wrist.

“Yes honey, but you need to be careful ok,” my mum warned. “Money makes people do crazy things.”

I stopped listening as I was in awe of my wrist, I had money, and I could do anything I wanted.

“Alexis?” I heard my mum say. “Alexis?” she asked again.

“Yes?” I replied still in awe and shock.

“You need to be careful. That money is used for everything, schooling, buying a house, bills. Everything.”… “Once it’s gone, it’s gone.” My mum looked on edge at that last comment.

I sat quietly on the bed, as my parents exchanged looks, when I thought of something.

“So what is the choice I need to make now?” remembering the one and two still showed on my wrist.

“Right, well there is the small question mark button in the middle of the two numbers,” she said pointing to the middle of my wrist. “Press it and an information bar will pop up.”

I press the button, hesitant and worried what choices I had to make.

OPTION ONE – LEAVE SCHOOL AND START FIRST JOB or OPTION TWO – STAY IN SCHOOL appeared. You have twenty-four hours to decide. I looked at my parents with a questioning look.

“It is your choice, like all choices, there are consequences and you can’t change your choice” they responded as if they knew what I was going to ask. Of course they knew, they had been given the same options when they were my age.

“What happens at the twenty-four hour mark if I haven’t clicked a choice?” I asked.

“It chooses for you. Trust me, with what control we have, you will want to control your choice.” My mum replied in a stern and serious tone.

I felt scared, what if I made the wrong decision? What if my parent’s didn’t like my decision? What if.. What if. I felt panic rising. I needed air. I raced out of my parent’s room, down the hallway and out the backdoor.

“Is this how my life will be every five years,” I said quietly “Why do we only have two choices per time, what does all this mean?”

I felt faint, the world started spinning and then things went black ….

To be continued …