Crossover Big Bang: Graduation Day 1/2 (PG-13)
Title: Graduation Day
Author(s): chibifukurou
Artist: chibi_lurrel
Crossover: My Chemical Romance/Monica Hughes' Invitation to the Game(re-published as "The Game")
Type: Gen
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 17,500
Characters/Pairings: Frank; Gerard; Mikey; Ray; Grace
Warnings: Dystopian subject matter; Mental Illness
Spoilers: None
Summary:All I wanted was a family of my own. Why did my right to have a wife and kids have to hinge on getting a job?
Author’s Notes: A HUGE thank you goes out to chibi-lurel for not only making me some truly awesome art; but doing an awesome beta job. Not to mention taking on a completely new fandom!
# # #
June 9, 2125: Pencey Academy
# # #
I suppose there are a lot of places where I could start this story. I could start with how America fell into ruins. How the pandemic swept in and almost destroyed us all, leaved us no choice but to rely on more and more robots.
Or I could start with how we when we’re children, we’re taken from our parents and sent to schools where we’re more or less prisoners.
But I think I'm going to start with the day my life changed completely. Graduation Day. The day I had to to grow up. I’d always known that my childhood would come to an end. So this isn't a record of how the world you lived in failed or anything. This is the story of how my life changed once I discovered that the world was so much larger than I had ever dreamed.
My story starts nine months after I turned 18 on a pretty average day in June of 2125.
It started like most days at the school. Boring as hell…The only interesting thing we ever did was try and drag Gerard out of his bed before one of the house-keeper robots dumped him out of it and we all got demerits. Ray was always best at getting him up in a hurry, since he wasn't afraid to dump him out of the bed or splash a cup of cold water on him. But if we wanted him to wake up in any kind of a good mood there was nobody better than Bob. I wasn't allowed to get him up after the one time I tried to dive bomb him and managed to give him a concussion instead.
Which was totally unfair - I’d been trying to help. Ray was attempting to shake Gerard awake with liberal threats of dumped him off of the bed, when Bob swept in. He was the only one of us that was in another Dorm. so it always took him longer to realize when we were having a wake up crisis.
He took one look at the lot of us, in that way he had, before he marched over to the bed and grabbed Gerard up, blankets and all and disappeared into the communal bathroom with him.
I made to follow them, but sometimes being the shortest member of our little group sucked, because Mikey grabbed me in a headlock, boney elbows and all and dragged me off before I could. “Come on Frankie. Just leave them alone. You know Gerard doesn't like it when we watch him take his pills."
“Shit! What does he think I’m going to do, stare at him like he’s a freak?”
"Language, student 224," buzzed the housekeeper droid that had snuck up behind me.
"Sorry, ma'am!" I yelled before running as fast as I could away from her. Stupid mother-hen bots.
Since she didn't buzz at me to stop, I figured they weren't going to do anything to me. It would be kind of pointless gesture anyway, since once we graduated it wasn't like they could do anything to us anyway.
Shit, how weird was that that we weren't going to be here anymore in a few hours? We'd always been together. The four of us: Gerard, Mikey, Me, and Ray. Bob had come later, but he was just as important to all of us. What was it going to be like when we weren't all together anymore?
Any jobs we got were likely to be spread out over the various districts and it would be almost impossible for us to visit with each other. I didn't even what want to think about what would happen if we I got stuck being one of the Unemployed.
I wasn't like Gerard and with his art, or Mikey with his ability to run communications rigs without any sort of prior knowledge. I could make explosive experiments in chemistry class that got me de-merits and detentions, but that wasn't exactly the kind of real life skills they were probably looked for. It seemed about as useful as the animal husbandry classes I had also aced. All I wanted was a family of my own. Why did my right to have a wife and kids have to hinge on getting a job?
My original plan had been to become a farmer, they were allowed to large families to help with the farm-work, but that was a pipe-dream. There weren’t a lot of farms left that raised animals, and even if there were I wouldn’t be able to stand working on them. I loved animals, I didn't love killed animals.
Mikey finally caught up with me in the cafeteria. Stupid bastard had obviously decided to wait until Gerard had finished up his morning rituals, since he was being trailed by a still-groggy Gerard, Ray, and Bob.
"What took you guys so long?" I called.
Ray snorted. "Don't even. We all know that you almost got busted by a rust-bucket and then ran like a little girl."
"I'm not a little girl!"
"Well you’re as short as a little girl," Bob said. Probably just being an ass like usual, like it was all his choice to be some kind of giant.
"There’s no real physical difference between girls and boys anyway. Implying that there is isn't fair to girls."
We all rolled our eyes. Gerard always got so serious about his preconceived notions of gender speeches, and it wasn't like he was actually teaching us anything, since we'd all heard the same rants a thousand times.
"So isn't this protein mush and turnip mash just divine today?" I asked, just to get out of having to listen to the same speech over again.
Mikey snorted at Gerard's annoyed squawk. Gerard only ever drank the Sintho-cafe for breakfast; he always claimed that there were some things that you shouldn't eat in the morning, and turnips were one of them.
"Maybe we should mix some into Gerard's drink," Bob suggested, obviously playing with him. Usually Gerard wouldn't be this easy to rile up and everybody took full advantage. This might be the last breakfast we ever ate together.
Bob at least already knew he wasn't going to be seeing us again for a long time, if ever. He'd already had a job to go to. His family had been techs for as long as any of them cared to remember. As soon as the graduation ceremony was over, he'd be shipped back to the family store. We'd probably never see him again.
I shoved more of the mash into my mouth rather than get involved when Gerard started squawking at Bob for being a Neanderthal. I didn't want to think about what was coming.
At 10 o'clock the light on top of the cafeteria door started blinking red and a low chime issued from the speakers: our sign to leave for the ceremony. Then, just in case we didn't get the memo, the PA system buzzed into action. "All students in their senior year please report to the auditorium. All younger year students are to follow in one half hour."
"Shit!" Ray summed it up for all of us.
"Come on, Gerard. We don't want to be late." Mikey grabbed Gerard's arm and guided him away from the table. This was the second time Gerard had gone through this.
The first time he'd refused to go to the ceremony unless Mikey went with him. He'd refused to be separated. When the robots had eventually found he was hiding out on the grounds. They had done something to him. Nobody ever found up out what. Mikey might have known but he never said. Either way, the end result was that Gerard was held back a year and put on a tightly controlled schedule, which included pills to make sure that he didn't have any more "episodes," as though not wanting to be separated from his brother was a disease and not something that should have been perfectly normal.
Droids sucked. They had never been programmed to understand human emotions and it showed.
We walked into the auditorium together, forming a loose circle around Gerard to make sure he didn't get taken aside by the principal or make a completely pointless run for it. He was practically shaking and wouldn't let go of Mikey's hand, but otherwise he didn't do anything stupid.
We were some of the first students to make it to the auditorium, probably because the cafeteria was only a few doors down from it. It certainly wasn't because any of us were eager for the ceremony. We took a group of seats one row from the back of the section reserved from of the graduated class. Just like always, 100 kids were leaving the school today.
Outside, the electric busses that would take us to our new jobs in the city districts pulled up, along with the buses to take us elsewhere if we were unfortunate enough to become Unemployed. Mikey and Gerard clung to each other while Bob sat as silent sentinel on one side, and I squished in on their other side. Ray sat beside me to act as another buffer between the brothers and the rest of the student body.
It was a tense forty-five minutes before the rest of the student body filled into the auditorium. Every seat was taken, but that wasn't what made the whole place feel claustrophobic. It wasn't like it was anything new - last year was the first time a chair had been empty, since before any of us was students.
There was always the same number in the graduating class. At exactly 11:45 the principal walked up onto the stage. He began his usual speech about how well we had all done our duty to the country by coming to school and completing our education, like we'd ever had a choice,. I didn't pay much attention. This was the 13th time I'd heard the speech.
Instead, I concentrated on grabbing Mikey's hand and held on tight, until we got to the part of the ceremony when we were called up onto stage to receive our final grades and job assignments. "Iero, Frank was a lot further up the list than either Toro, Ray or the Way brothers.
Still, when I walked across that stage and got the envelope that would decree my future I kept my eye on Mikey and Gerard. They were huddled together in obvious misery. How terrified must they be. All of us were close, but I thought that if they were separated both of them would die. I couldn't really see any other outcome.
Once I got back to my seat, I grabbed Mikey's hand again and didn't let go. I hoped like hell he and Gerard weren't going to do something stupid if they got assigned to different jobs, or different districts, but I knew that there was no they way they would allow themselves to be separated. Everybody knew it after Gerard proved he would do whatever it took to stay with Mikey.
"Aren't you going to open it?" Ray whispered into my ear.
"I'll wait until everybody gets their letter."
He shrugged. It wasn’t like I'd have long to wait; the ceremony was always over at exactly 12:30. Mikey and Gerard didn't let go of each other until they had to get up on the stage. When “Way, Gerard” was called they both got up and went to the edge of the stage. Gerard went up first, shaky and way too pale. He had barely stepped off of the stage before Mikey climbed onto it, almost before the Principal could read out “Way, Michael.” Gerard waited in the aisle until Mikey got off the stage. It wasn't how things were normally done, but it wasn't like any of us expected things to be normal when it came to the Ways.
They came back to their seats still clinging to each other. And then we waited as the last half dozen students were called.
It was only after the Principal made his last little speech about doing our best for the betterment of the country and looked forward to our futures that any of us moved to open our envelopes. Around us, the rest of the students were a mix of excited and scared. Some of them had already ripped their envelopes open while others stared at them with obvious distress.
I did my best to ignore them. I already had enough to worry about with my own little group. "On three?"
Gerard nodded but he stared at his envelope like it was going to bite him.
It was Bob who finally gets up the nerve to count, "1...2....3."
Everybody except Gerard tore into their envelope before Bob even managed to finish saying the three. He just kept turning his envelope around in his hand, but I couldn’t worry about that. Mikey would figure out what was going on. I scanned the piece of paper, not really paying much attention to the grades. I was a B average student, and I knew it. They only classes I'd ever gotten good grades in were music and animal husbandry. Besides, my final job assignment was the only thing that really mattered when it came to my future. There at the bottom of the letter was my job assignment, stamped in bright red ink. "Unemployed."
Well shit!
# # #
By 1:00 PM they had us all loaded onto busses. Bob had been put on a different bus, headed for his parents’ business, but he'd hugged each of us before he'd gone. I'd been too numb to do more than hug him back as hard as I could. He probably had a good idea of what my assignment was if the sad look he gave he was anything to go by.
It wasn't like it mattered though. Some things couldn't be changed. Job assignments were one of them. I was only 18 and my life was over. How sad was that? At least Gerard, Mikey and Ray had all been assigned to the same district as was. I might never be able to see them, since I was unemployed, but it would make it easier knowing that they were somewhere close. I was going to be so fucking lonely.
As the bus doors snapped shut and the hydraulics lifted it up with a hiss, I felt my stomach twist. This was going to be the first and last time I was ever going to be allowed onto a public transit vehicle. As soon as I stepped off of it, I was going to be stuck in whatever District I got assigned. I'd basically just given up one prison for another.
"Frankie? Are you okay?" Gerard whispered.
"I'm fine," I forced myself to say. It was an obvious lie, but I didn’t want them to know I didn't get a job. Gerard would probably try to do something dramatic, like with last year's graduation ceremony. I didn't want that, particularly since it seemed like wherever he and Mikey had been assigned it was together. At least that's what I assumed since they'd managed to let go of each other enough that they sat on different benches. Gerard was on the same bench as me, and Mikey shared with Ray.
Desperate for some way to distract him so he wouldn't ask any questions about my job, I blurted out, "My stomach’s just upset from the bus, I think I'll go to sleep.” Then I proceeded to lean my head against the cool window glass and close my eyes like I was going to sleep.
There was no way Gerard was actually going to believe I was asleep. I've been told I snore like crazy, but he would still be too nice to keep talking. The way he sighed didn't help with my feelings of guilt.
Surprisingly, I actually did end up falling asleep. I hadn't thought I would be able to with the way that the bus bounced and rattled as it drove down the badly repaired highway that led to the city. I woke up to loud crashes and screaming from outside.
There was a large group of teenagers and young adults dressed up in bright colors, throwing rocks at each other and the bus: so these were the unemployed.
Gerard, Mikey, and Ray had all pressed themselves up against the glass to watch. I would have rather looked at anything else, but the screaming and loud thumps as bricks and rocks bounced against the buses reinforced glass was hard to ignore.
"Damn useless unemployed. Why do they always have to screw things up?" The bus driver grumbled. It was only then that I realized the four of us were the last ones on the bus. Damn, I must have been practically unconscious if I'd managed to sleep though our busses other 21 occupants getting off.
There was a loud roar. We watched as a large white helicopter flew low enough that the men inside could shoot canisters of gas down into the crowd. The fight broke up quickly after that, as people scattered, stumbling away blindly only to be caught by a group of peace-keepers that had somehow snuck up behind them.
The bus driver lit up a cigarette and called back to us. "You might as well get back in your seats. We're not going to be going anywhere till they finish rounding up the trouble makers." Then, more quietly, he said, "Damn regs, why I can't just dump the kids and be done with it?"
Gerard shot an annoyed look at the back of the guy’s head. Mikey stepped in before he could actually say anything, though, which was good because I wasn't betting on the guy sticking to the regs and letting us stay inside the bus until the gas cleared if Gerard annoyed him.
As soon as the last Peace-keeper truck pulled away, the bus-driver opened the door and ordered us out. Gerard glared at him as we passed, but none of us bothered to say anything. I was just glad that the rest of them had been assigned jobs close enough that I might actually get to see them. There was only one other reason for them to be dropped off with me, and that was them all being unemployed too. That wasn't likely to happen, though, because they were all brilliant.
We stood there and watched until the bus pulled out of sight. I couldn’t help thinking that we could really have used Bob, right them. He was always the one that took care of us, and got us moving. Thankfully for all of us Ray was ready to take over his care-giving duties. "Come on, we'd better get to our check-in station. We don't want to be out here if any of those gang members come back."
"Our check-in station?" I asked. Everything that happened seemed to make it more and more likely that they had been assigned to be unemployed too, but I still wasn't ready to accept it. Mikey and Gerard were brilliant, and Ray was as solid as they came, and a perfectionist to boot. They weren't supposed to be unemployed. Not like me.
"Frankie?" Gerard asked. He shook off the light grip Ray had on his arm. "What's wrong?"
"Tell me you’re not unemployed too. Please?" The last word was almost a whine but I didn't want to accept this. They were supposed to have a chance at a better life once we graduated. Their lives weren't supposed to be as screwed up as mine.
Ray let go of Mikey and came over to wrap an arm around my shoulders. "Come on, we'll talk about it once we get to the check-point."
Gerard nodded. I didn’t feel like saying anything so I just went along with them, letting Ray guide me to where we needed to be.
# # #
June 9, 2125: District 8 Check-in Center
# # #
The lady at the front desk was kind of a bitch. Upon seeing us stumble in, she gave a haughty sniff and looked in the back down at her computer screen, like she could catch unemployment or something.
Thankfully Ray was there, because I was about ready to pop her one. Looking down her nose at Gerard and Mikey when they were so obviously upset was just wrong. Nobody got to look at them like that.
Ray stepped up to the desk. "Ma'am, we were told to check-in here. We're from the Pencey School in District 17.”
The dragon lady seemed to appreciate Ray’s calm demeanor as much as the rest of us did. She dialed the strength of her death glare down a couple notches. "You'll have three nights to stay in the dorms here. By that point you’re expected to have found a place to live. From then on you'll just come here for your monthly rations credits and the scripts for whatever medication you've been assigned.”
"Medication?" Gerard asked.
"Yes, two of you been put on medical rations so all necessary medication will be provided.”
I felt something in my stomach unclench after hearing that. The pills were a god-send for Mikey. He wasn't going to get better but severe bi-polar disorder could be handled with the medication. In Gerard’s case we wouldn’t need the medication for long; but the first set of pills would let us wean him off the medication slowly, which would help to avoid any major side-effects.
Ray stepped in before any of the rest of us could say something stupid. "Thank you, ma'am. Who do we need to discuss living arrangements with?" Ray said.
Gerard came up behind me and grabbed my hand. "I can smell cafeteria food, let's see if we can get some. They have to be open by now, right?"
"Yea, let's go check."
"Mikey? Are you going to be okay?" Gerard called.
Mikey waved him off from his position catty-corner to the desk. I was betting from the way he squinted through his glasses that he could see dragon-lady's screen from there. No way were we going to drag him away now.
"We'll be getting food," I called to Ray and ignored the way the lady glared at me. So what if we were being loud? It wasn't like we were good respectable people now that we'd gotten stuck being unemployed.
The cafeteria was remarkably reassuring. It looked almost identical to the one back at school, right down the red light over the door to announce when it was closed down. They were even serving the same turnip mush and Sintho-cafe as school.
"At least some things never change," Gerard said and sat down with the largest cup of Sintho-cafe he could order.
I snorted at him since my mouth was too full to make any sort of understandable language.
I was on my second bowl of mash and Gerard was on his third cup of chicory, when Mikey and Ray arrived.
Ray collapsed onto the bench beside me, his back to the table. "Well it looks like we’re going to have to go out and make our own arrangements for housing, they’ll provide a list of possible locations but we haven’t picked by the time our three days are up we’re screwed. We’ll have to figure out a way to get clothes too, apparently it's illegal to go around the city in our school uniforms.”
"Great, just what we needed to make life better, shopping." Not that I really cared. It wasn’t like I’d been shopping since before I went to school, because shopping at the school’s little commissary hardly counted.
"You never know, it might be fun," Mikey said, doing his best to reassure me because he just had to be nice when I was in a pissy mood. "I hear they let you pick bright colors when you’re unemployed. Those gang members were certainly wearing bright enough clothing."
I said I refused to be appeased, like I was some toddler who was going to get distracted just because they were letting us have brightly colored clothing.
"I also picked up our food rations; we're also allowed to eat here whenever we want to." Ray gave a dirty look to my bowl of mash. "Though I'm not sure how often we want to."
"What? It's not that bad.” I made a grab for his mush, which he dodged without much trouble. Sometimes it sucked to have people know me so well. “You're just not a big fan of turnips."
"Amen to that,” Ray agreed. He ducked around the table to sit next to Gerard, so I wouldn’t have a chance to make another grab for his meal. “Anyway, about the ‘scripts, you aren’t required to take them, but if you're caught disturbing the peace and don’t have any medication in your bloodstreams, you'll be considered incapable of taking care of our health needs."
"And?" I asked, because that sounded ominous as fuck.
"And they have the right to send us to an institutionalized health facility until they believe we are properly medicated and won't go off the ‘scripts again."
"Well, shit."
"Yeah,” Mikey agreed.
"I'm fine. I've been better lately. It’s not like I really have a problem," Gerard insisted and poked morosely at his mash.
I shared a look with Ray. He had been better lately, not pulled any crazy stunt and it had been month since he had a day where not even Bob could drag him out of bed, but at the same time he'd been medicated for the last year.
"We'll just have to see," Ray said.
Gerard went back to nursing his sintho-cafe and sulking.
I decided to change the subject before he ended up having an all-out tantrum. That would be just what we needed, to get taken in for caused a ruckus before we even left the check-out building, and I wouldn’t put it past the dragon -lady to call the peace-keepers herself. She seemed like the type who would do something like that just to get us out of her hair.
We spent the night in the dorms. Nobody wanted to brave the city during the night. It was still too strange and dangerous seeming. We were comforted by the familiarity. If I hadn't known what had happened that day I could have easily imagined that we were still in our dorms back at the school.
They were the same dull gray as everything had been at the school, with the same rough wool blankets on the bed and the same scratchy sheets.
It was like my first night at school all those years ago.
I turned over and pulled my blanket over my head, trying to ignore the way that I could hear Gerard whispering to himself as Ray tapped a beat out against his headboard. All the little signs of fear and nerves you learned to recognize after years and years of lived with somebody.
I finally fell asleep to Gerard’s singing, but my nerves didn't let me get much sleep. I kept waking up whenever one of the others moved, or to the sound of boomed music and yells coming from the barred window on the far side of the room.
# # #
June 10, 2125: District 8 Check-in Center
# # #
The next morning Ray dragged us out of bed. It should have been Mikey's turn to wake Gerard up, but it didn't end up mattering. Gerard was awake and sat on his bed, fully dressed by the time I woke up. It was frankly a little freaky and probably meant that he was going to start in on one of his bouts of insomnia, the type that would lead to one of his more serious episodes.
I'd have to talk to Ray about got his script filled soon, Mikey would have brought his spare set of pills with him, but I doubted Gerard would have remembered. He was always looking for an excuse to 'forget' to take them.
"Get dressed, we'll be in the cafeteria." Ray told me. The nervous look he sent Gerard's way made me feel better. Maybe I wouldn't have to talk to him after all.
After they trooped out, I got dressed. It wasn't like I was body shy or anything, I just didn't like changing in front of everybody else. I'd mastered the art of changed my clothes under the blankets year before, but this was easier. I managed to get dressed in only a couple of minutes.
I made it to the cafeteria just in time to walk into an epic Way brothers fight. "You’re taking the pill, Gerard. Don't think I didn't notice that you didn't take your evening dose. There's no reason to horde them if we're going to be able to refill our scripts."
"That's not the point. I don't need them anymore. We're not in school anymore. Who the fuck cares if I cause a ruckus now?"
"Gerard!"
I could just tell Mikey was going to go for his usual logic-based argument, which would have pretty much no affect on Gerard when he was in one of his moods. It wasn’t like Gerard even remembered getting sick the last time he stopped taking his pills without taking the proper precautions.
Thankfully Mikey had me around for times like these. "Well I'm pretty sure that the dragon lady who's watched the front desk was just looked for an excuse to call the Peace Keepers on us. I swear she's out to get me. I mean really, like I have a problem with over-activity?"
"Please, I remember the time you managed to glue Professor Martin's butt to his chair."
"That was a complete accident."
"Sure it was, Frankie. The glue just jumped out of your hand and landed on the Prof's seat."
"It did!" I wailed in my best insulted tone, though I made sure to keep quiet enough not to disturb the lady up front. It wasn't like the robots working the food line were going to care.
"Do you really think she's out to get you?" Gerard asked doubtfully.
I pushed my paranoid delusion shtick to the limit. "Didn't you see the way she was glared at me? I swear she tried to glare holes into my skull!"
"Fine, I'll take the pills, but only until we're not staying here anymore. It's only three more days right?" He was supposed to take the pill with food but by this point all of us knew better than to comment when all he did was drink another cup of sintho-cafe.
"On that note, I think we should spend the day looked for housing. The sooner we get out of here, the less likely Frank will have a chance to cause any trouble." Ray said.
"Me!" I squawked, played along.
"Yes you. Anyway, I talked the lady at the front desk into setting us up with a couple of possibilities. Had to register us as a entertainment group, since they were just planning to cram us into whichever bachelor units they had open in the city, and I was pretty sure that everybody wanted to stay together."
"Definitely." Things were bad enough without contemplating the possibility of navigating the city on my own.
"They let you register us as an entertainment group?" Leave it to Mikey to get bogged down in the logistics.
"We have to get a license to perform on public property but yeah, they were willed to make arrangements. Apparently unemployed performers can supplement their rations by entertaining the working population. Or so the Lady claimed, though she did make it sound like we'd have to be stupid to try it."
"Well it's not like we're actually going to become an entertainment group. If registering as one lets us stay together I'm all for it," Gerard said.
That shut down whatever argument Ray and Mikey had been geared up for. Mikey would do whatever he thought was best for Gerard. It was just the way he was.
After we finished breakfast we headed out to start looked at the housing options. After peeking over Ray's shoulder and catching a¬ glimpse of the complicated twists and turns that made up the paper map, I made sure that Mikey was between us. I didn't want to have to figure out where the heck we were in the city. I'd always been known for my ability to get lost in the school, and it wasn't usually as intentional as I liked to pretend.
The dragon lady was sitting behind the reception desk, just like she was the night before. If I didn't know better I would have thought she was a robot just like the ones that ran the cafeteria.
"Wait!" she called just as we were about to get out the door. Well shit, I tried my best to think of anything we might have done wrong but nothing came to mind. Gerard had taken his pills and I assumed Mikey had taken his, and we hadn't left a mess in the dorm room. Even if we had, it wasn't like we wouldn't be back in a few hours anyway.
She bustled out from behind the desk and grabbed the map out of Ray's hands. He made an aborted grab for it but remembered just in time that he wasn't supposed to cause any trouble. She pulled a red pen out of her sloppy bun and used it to make a bright red X on the map. Then she handed the map, and some sort of plastic pass to Ray. "You only get one of those so don't lose it, and don't trade it for anything. You go directly to the clothes providers and you show them that pass. They'll let you pick out a few sets of clothes. After this, you'll have to use your rations or scrounge for whatever clothes you wear, so you better behave. If they toss you out with only the clothes on your backs, you won't get a second chance.”
"Yes ma'am," Ray said. Besides Bob, he had always been the best at kissing up to the teachers. In this case though, I fully approved. She might be being a bitch about it, but if she hadn't explained I wouldn't have known that we were supposed to get enough clothes to last us through the next few months, or years. At the school whenever one of our uniforms got worn out or we outgrew them, they were replaced. No questions asked.
I'd just assumed it was the same way here. I made sure to smile at her as I passed. I still didn’t like her, but I could kind of see why she'd gotten this job.
# # #
Ray proved to be better at following the map then I expected. We only took two wrong turns on our way to pick up clothes. After all of the fuss the lady at the check-in station had made about us going to get clothes first, I'd been expected to get stopped by peace-keepers, or maybe some concerned citizens, but the city was creepily silent. Sometimes I felt like I could feel eyes on my back, but I never saw anybody. Not even other unemployed.
The others were nervous too. We ran into each other more than once, since we walked barely a step apart and everyone looked anywhere but at what was in front of us. I definitely wasn't the only one who looked at the abandoned store fronts and houses warily.
Ray practically fell into the clothing assignment building when we got there. I expected somebody to make a snide remark, but the only ones in the building were house-keeping robots.
"Show your pass." The robot nearest to us buzzed.
Ray held out the pass that we'd been given. She scanned in before depositing it in a disposal bin beneath the counter. "You may pick your clothes now." No comment on the limits of what we were allowed to pick or anything. We all just stared at her in shock. This wasn't anything like going to the school's bots for a fitting. How the hell were we supposed to know what we were supposed to wear?
Mikey was the one to voice the question though. "Which clothes are we allowed to choose from?"
"All clothes are here for your use."
Well that was less than helpful. "I guess we just pick, they'll probably tell us if we do something we shouldn't." The housekeeper bots at home had always told us when we broke the rules.
We headed over to the racks of clothes, keeping an eye on the rust-buckets just in case they suddenly changed their minds, but they didn't move. Not even when we really got into it and dug through the various bins looked for clothes to fit us. There were so many colors; it was hard to decide what to pick. We were all used to wearing blue blazers, khaki pants, and striped ties day in and day out.
By the end we’d made a huge mess, but I had to admit Ray had been right. It was kind of fun to have so many different choices.
# # #
We stopped back at the dorms to drop off our new clothes, before headed out to investigate the housed situation.
Somehow, walking in the city felt even creepier when we were in our new clothes then when we’d been in uniform. Maybe it was because we were more obvious. With our bright clothes we might as well have worn signs that announced: “New Unemployed; Please Attack!!!” Then again, I may have just been being paranoid. After all the only experience I had with unemployed, present company excluded, was the gang from yesterday.
Still, unnecessary paranoid or not, I wasn’t about to be separated from the others. Just to make sure that we didn't get separated I kept one hand around Mikey's belt and the other in on the hood of Gerard's jacket. Ray I could trust not to get distracted and wander off on me. He at least knew to check behind him every few minutes.
At least he should know to do that. He'd had enough experience trying to wrangle me and the Way brothers on school trips. I really missed Bob. If he'd been with us I knew he'd have been able to keep track of Gerard while I kept an eye on Mikey.
"Are we there yet?" I whined trying to break up the nervous tension that just kept building. Why did I keep feeling eyes on the back of my neck? It made me freaking insane.
"I think so. The house should be a couple blocks from here."
"That's really reassuring, Ray."
He turned to glare at me, walking backwards with a skill I envied. "If you want to be in charge of the map, Frankie..." He trailed off.
"Don't you dare, Ray. I still remember that school trip when we were supposed to be gathering flora for the Earth Science teacher and managed to circle the park twice,” Mikey spoke up.
"Hey we got the plants we needed didn't we!" I said.
"We also ended up in detention for a solid week because we were so late got back that they almost called the Peace-keepers on us," Gerard chimed in.
That was unfortunately true, which meant I couldn’t really defend myself. "Still, I don't know if Ray should be directing."
"It's him or Mikey, Frank."
"Fine."
Mikey didn't even have the grace to act like my silence surprised him. With Mikey we'd get there, but probably not until after he'd explored every alley way and shop on the way, just to drive me crazy.
"You all are so mean to me."
"Sure we are Frankie. Like you don't give back as good as you get." Ray turned back to his map and left me with no choice to grumble under my breath, since I wasn't going to get any sympathy from the others.
"Stupid Ray and his stupid map."
I was so busy grumbling to myself that I didn't notice when Mikey and Gerard stopped, and ran smack into their backs, almost knocking them off their feet.
"Really Frank? Are you trying to give Gerard another concussion?" Ray asked.
"It was an accident," I snapped, annoyed that he'd bring that up again. I obviously hadn't meant to give Gerard a concussion. It wasn't like I'd asked to be born clumsy.
"It's not like it really matters. Once you've sorted out yourself out, we'll need to head on to the next building."
"What!" We'd just gotten here - why in the world would we be moving on so soon? Then I got my first good look at the building we'd stopped in front of. The roof was caved in, and the porch was sagging. Only a couple windows had glass left, and most of those windows didn't have any sort of grate to keep someone else from busting through. "Well shit. That's not going to work."
"No kidding. If they're all this bad it's no wonder that these places have been abandoned."
"Yeah," Mikey breathed out, but he still stared at the building with something like confusion.
Who knew why? Except for the brightly colored graffiti on the side of the building it was the same gray, cinderblock construction building that was made of the same dull gray building materials as pretty much every other building in the area, a mixture of sand and cement. It was cheap and there was an almost endless supply of the stuff.
“We should get out of here,” he whispered and we were all too nervous to argue.
The second and third buildings we saw were equally run down. But we hit the jackpot on the forth. It was further from of the city center than any of the other buildings, but it was an old, slightly run down two-story house. It was much more of a home than I had been expecting to find.
“It’s kind of creepy though, isn’t it?” Mikey asked, poking at the afghan that was still hung over the back of the house’s dusty sofa. “Like the person who lived here just up and walked away on day and nobody ever came back.”
“I’d say that’s a pretty good description,” Ray called from the kitchen. “The cupboard is still full of protein powder and I think the turnips sprouted.”
After a few more thumps, he continued, “At least somebody cleared out the refrigerator. That would have been nasty.”
“Guys, you have to come see this!” Gerard called from the basement. Mikey headed for the door that led to the bottom floor immediately, while I waited for Ray. Not because I was scared or anything. It was just that I might have to defend Ray from spiders or something.
Thankfully, while dark and dusty, the stairwell was spider-free. Even before we reached the bottom I could already guess what had drawn Gerard’s attention. There were paintings everywhere. Bright and bold, like something you’d have seen in the early 21st century back before the light was sucked out of everything.
We found Gerard and Mikey standing in front of a large desk filled with paints and brushes and all kinds of painted supplies. “Can we pick this house?” Gerard asked, his voice soft and reverent. “It’s amazing.”
Mikey clasped his hand before turned his pleaded gaze on Ray and me. Ray folded first. “Well we should have a quick look at the roof, but I don’t see why we can’t stay here. I doubt we’ll find anything better in the next two days.”
“That’s good,” Gerard said, already digging through the paints.
“I’ll stay here with him if you two want to head back to the check-in station and see about got everything arranged.”
I didn’t like the idea of leaving them alone at all, but this was the most involved I’d seen Gerard since they’d put him on the pills. It made me nervous. It was good that he was doing better, but it wouldn’t last.
“Fine, but you two have to lock the door after us.”
Mikey rolled his eyes, looked suitably annoyed even though I could practically feel him let out a sigh of relief. “We’re not kids Frank. I’m pretty sure we know not to talk to strangers.”
“Well if you’re sure.” I replied in my best ‘dorm mother’ voice.
It still made Mikey laugh and even Gerard managed a smile.
# # #
It was even quieter and creepier on our way back through the city. With just the two of us, there wasn’t safety in numbers. Ray and I walked shoulder to shoulder did our best to keep an eye on all of the surrounded buildings anyway.
We didn’t dare talk until we were safely inside our temporary dorm room, filling out residency paperwork. Even then we didn’t say much. We didn’t need anybody overhearing this conversation.
Ray carefully signed his name and citizen’s number to yet another sheet of the contract. “You know he’s going to get worse right? Your remember what happened the last time he went off the pills cold turkey.”
There was pretty much no way that I was ever going to forget. We’d both been thinking about it since that morning. We’d all covered for him the first time he’d quit taking the pills, sure that he’d get better. None of us had considered the side-effects of withdrawal. He’d gotten better almost immediately that time too. Then within a week he’d barely been able to make it through class before he fell asleep. Not waking up again until we dragged him out of bed the next morning. We’d had to admit what was going on after we left him alone and all went to dinner one night, only to come back and find him passed out in a puddle of puke after he tried to take all his pills at once. “Hopefully between the three of us we’ll find a way to manage. Besides if we can convince him to go off the pills slowly he’ll be fine.”
“You know that’s not going to happen. He doesn’t really remember what happened last time. He’s not going to listen to us.” He turned to another page of the contract, still not looking at me.
“I know, but it’s not like there’s anything we can do besides hope.”
# # #
Part 2
Author(s): chibifukurou
Artist: chibi_lurrel
Crossover: My Chemical Romance/Monica Hughes' Invitation to the Game(re-published as "The Game")
Type: Gen
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 17,500
Characters/Pairings: Frank; Gerard; Mikey; Ray; Grace
Warnings: Dystopian subject matter; Mental Illness
Spoilers: None
Summary:All I wanted was a family of my own. Why did my right to have a wife and kids have to hinge on getting a job?
Author’s Notes: A HUGE thank you goes out to chibi-lurel for not only making me some truly awesome art; but doing an awesome beta job. Not to mention taking on a completely new fandom!
# # #
June 9, 2125: Pencey Academy
# # #
I suppose there are a lot of places where I could start this story. I could start with how America fell into ruins. How the pandemic swept in and almost destroyed us all, leaved us no choice but to rely on more and more robots.
Or I could start with how we when we’re children, we’re taken from our parents and sent to schools where we’re more or less prisoners.
But I think I'm going to start with the day my life changed completely. Graduation Day. The day I had to to grow up. I’d always known that my childhood would come to an end. So this isn't a record of how the world you lived in failed or anything. This is the story of how my life changed once I discovered that the world was so much larger than I had ever dreamed.
My story starts nine months after I turned 18 on a pretty average day in June of 2125.
It started like most days at the school. Boring as hell…The only interesting thing we ever did was try and drag Gerard out of his bed before one of the house-keeper robots dumped him out of it and we all got demerits. Ray was always best at getting him up in a hurry, since he wasn't afraid to dump him out of the bed or splash a cup of cold water on him. But if we wanted him to wake up in any kind of a good mood there was nobody better than Bob. I wasn't allowed to get him up after the one time I tried to dive bomb him and managed to give him a concussion instead.
Which was totally unfair - I’d been trying to help. Ray was attempting to shake Gerard awake with liberal threats of dumped him off of the bed, when Bob swept in. He was the only one of us that was in another Dorm. so it always took him longer to realize when we were having a wake up crisis.
He took one look at the lot of us, in that way he had, before he marched over to the bed and grabbed Gerard up, blankets and all and disappeared into the communal bathroom with him.
I made to follow them, but sometimes being the shortest member of our little group sucked, because Mikey grabbed me in a headlock, boney elbows and all and dragged me off before I could. “Come on Frankie. Just leave them alone. You know Gerard doesn't like it when we watch him take his pills."
“Shit! What does he think I’m going to do, stare at him like he’s a freak?”
"Language, student 224," buzzed the housekeeper droid that had snuck up behind me.
"Sorry, ma'am!" I yelled before running as fast as I could away from her. Stupid mother-hen bots.
Since she didn't buzz at me to stop, I figured they weren't going to do anything to me. It would be kind of pointless gesture anyway, since once we graduated it wasn't like they could do anything to us anyway.
Shit, how weird was that that we weren't going to be here anymore in a few hours? We'd always been together. The four of us: Gerard, Mikey, Me, and Ray. Bob had come later, but he was just as important to all of us. What was it going to be like when we weren't all together anymore?
Any jobs we got were likely to be spread out over the various districts and it would be almost impossible for us to visit with each other. I didn't even what want to think about what would happen if we I got stuck being one of the Unemployed.
I wasn't like Gerard and with his art, or Mikey with his ability to run communications rigs without any sort of prior knowledge. I could make explosive experiments in chemistry class that got me de-merits and detentions, but that wasn't exactly the kind of real life skills they were probably looked for. It seemed about as useful as the animal husbandry classes I had also aced. All I wanted was a family of my own. Why did my right to have a wife and kids have to hinge on getting a job?
My original plan had been to become a farmer, they were allowed to large families to help with the farm-work, but that was a pipe-dream. There weren’t a lot of farms left that raised animals, and even if there were I wouldn’t be able to stand working on them. I loved animals, I didn't love killed animals.
Mikey finally caught up with me in the cafeteria. Stupid bastard had obviously decided to wait until Gerard had finished up his morning rituals, since he was being trailed by a still-groggy Gerard, Ray, and Bob.
"What took you guys so long?" I called.
Ray snorted. "Don't even. We all know that you almost got busted by a rust-bucket and then ran like a little girl."
"I'm not a little girl!"
"Well you’re as short as a little girl," Bob said. Probably just being an ass like usual, like it was all his choice to be some kind of giant.
"There’s no real physical difference between girls and boys anyway. Implying that there is isn't fair to girls."
We all rolled our eyes. Gerard always got so serious about his preconceived notions of gender speeches, and it wasn't like he was actually teaching us anything, since we'd all heard the same rants a thousand times.
"So isn't this protein mush and turnip mash just divine today?" I asked, just to get out of having to listen to the same speech over again.
Mikey snorted at Gerard's annoyed squawk. Gerard only ever drank the Sintho-cafe for breakfast; he always claimed that there were some things that you shouldn't eat in the morning, and turnips were one of them.
"Maybe we should mix some into Gerard's drink," Bob suggested, obviously playing with him. Usually Gerard wouldn't be this easy to rile up and everybody took full advantage. This might be the last breakfast we ever ate together.
Bob at least already knew he wasn't going to be seeing us again for a long time, if ever. He'd already had a job to go to. His family had been techs for as long as any of them cared to remember. As soon as the graduation ceremony was over, he'd be shipped back to the family store. We'd probably never see him again.
I shoved more of the mash into my mouth rather than get involved when Gerard started squawking at Bob for being a Neanderthal. I didn't want to think about what was coming.
At 10 o'clock the light on top of the cafeteria door started blinking red and a low chime issued from the speakers: our sign to leave for the ceremony. Then, just in case we didn't get the memo, the PA system buzzed into action. "All students in their senior year please report to the auditorium. All younger year students are to follow in one half hour."
"Shit!" Ray summed it up for all of us.
"Come on, Gerard. We don't want to be late." Mikey grabbed Gerard's arm and guided him away from the table. This was the second time Gerard had gone through this.
The first time he'd refused to go to the ceremony unless Mikey went with him. He'd refused to be separated. When the robots had eventually found he was hiding out on the grounds. They had done something to him. Nobody ever found up out what. Mikey might have known but he never said. Either way, the end result was that Gerard was held back a year and put on a tightly controlled schedule, which included pills to make sure that he didn't have any more "episodes," as though not wanting to be separated from his brother was a disease and not something that should have been perfectly normal.
Droids sucked. They had never been programmed to understand human emotions and it showed.
We walked into the auditorium together, forming a loose circle around Gerard to make sure he didn't get taken aside by the principal or make a completely pointless run for it. He was practically shaking and wouldn't let go of Mikey's hand, but otherwise he didn't do anything stupid.
We were some of the first students to make it to the auditorium, probably because the cafeteria was only a few doors down from it. It certainly wasn't because any of us were eager for the ceremony. We took a group of seats one row from the back of the section reserved from of the graduated class. Just like always, 100 kids were leaving the school today.
Outside, the electric busses that would take us to our new jobs in the city districts pulled up, along with the buses to take us elsewhere if we were unfortunate enough to become Unemployed. Mikey and Gerard clung to each other while Bob sat as silent sentinel on one side, and I squished in on their other side. Ray sat beside me to act as another buffer between the brothers and the rest of the student body.
It was a tense forty-five minutes before the rest of the student body filled into the auditorium. Every seat was taken, but that wasn't what made the whole place feel claustrophobic. It wasn't like it was anything new - last year was the first time a chair had been empty, since before any of us was students.
There was always the same number in the graduating class. At exactly 11:45 the principal walked up onto the stage. He began his usual speech about how well we had all done our duty to the country by coming to school and completing our education, like we'd ever had a choice,. I didn't pay much attention. This was the 13th time I'd heard the speech.
Instead, I concentrated on grabbing Mikey's hand and held on tight, until we got to the part of the ceremony when we were called up onto stage to receive our final grades and job assignments. "Iero, Frank was a lot further up the list than either Toro, Ray or the Way brothers.
Still, when I walked across that stage and got the envelope that would decree my future I kept my eye on Mikey and Gerard. They were huddled together in obvious misery. How terrified must they be. All of us were close, but I thought that if they were separated both of them would die. I couldn't really see any other outcome.
Once I got back to my seat, I grabbed Mikey's hand again and didn't let go. I hoped like hell he and Gerard weren't going to do something stupid if they got assigned to different jobs, or different districts, but I knew that there was no they way they would allow themselves to be separated. Everybody knew it after Gerard proved he would do whatever it took to stay with Mikey.
"Aren't you going to open it?" Ray whispered into my ear.
"I'll wait until everybody gets their letter."
He shrugged. It wasn’t like I'd have long to wait; the ceremony was always over at exactly 12:30. Mikey and Gerard didn't let go of each other until they had to get up on the stage. When “Way, Gerard” was called they both got up and went to the edge of the stage. Gerard went up first, shaky and way too pale. He had barely stepped off of the stage before Mikey climbed onto it, almost before the Principal could read out “Way, Michael.” Gerard waited in the aisle until Mikey got off the stage. It wasn't how things were normally done, but it wasn't like any of us expected things to be normal when it came to the Ways.
They came back to their seats still clinging to each other. And then we waited as the last half dozen students were called.
It was only after the Principal made his last little speech about doing our best for the betterment of the country and looked forward to our futures that any of us moved to open our envelopes. Around us, the rest of the students were a mix of excited and scared. Some of them had already ripped their envelopes open while others stared at them with obvious distress.
I did my best to ignore them. I already had enough to worry about with my own little group. "On three?"
Gerard nodded but he stared at his envelope like it was going to bite him.
It was Bob who finally gets up the nerve to count, "1...2....3."
Everybody except Gerard tore into their envelope before Bob even managed to finish saying the three. He just kept turning his envelope around in his hand, but I couldn’t worry about that. Mikey would figure out what was going on. I scanned the piece of paper, not really paying much attention to the grades. I was a B average student, and I knew it. They only classes I'd ever gotten good grades in were music and animal husbandry. Besides, my final job assignment was the only thing that really mattered when it came to my future. There at the bottom of the letter was my job assignment, stamped in bright red ink. "Unemployed."
Well shit!
# # #
By 1:00 PM they had us all loaded onto busses. Bob had been put on a different bus, headed for his parents’ business, but he'd hugged each of us before he'd gone. I'd been too numb to do more than hug him back as hard as I could. He probably had a good idea of what my assignment was if the sad look he gave he was anything to go by.
It wasn't like it mattered though. Some things couldn't be changed. Job assignments were one of them. I was only 18 and my life was over. How sad was that? At least Gerard, Mikey and Ray had all been assigned to the same district as was. I might never be able to see them, since I was unemployed, but it would make it easier knowing that they were somewhere close. I was going to be so fucking lonely.
As the bus doors snapped shut and the hydraulics lifted it up with a hiss, I felt my stomach twist. This was going to be the first and last time I was ever going to be allowed onto a public transit vehicle. As soon as I stepped off of it, I was going to be stuck in whatever District I got assigned. I'd basically just given up one prison for another.
"Frankie? Are you okay?" Gerard whispered.
"I'm fine," I forced myself to say. It was an obvious lie, but I didn’t want them to know I didn't get a job. Gerard would probably try to do something dramatic, like with last year's graduation ceremony. I didn't want that, particularly since it seemed like wherever he and Mikey had been assigned it was together. At least that's what I assumed since they'd managed to let go of each other enough that they sat on different benches. Gerard was on the same bench as me, and Mikey shared with Ray.
Desperate for some way to distract him so he wouldn't ask any questions about my job, I blurted out, "My stomach’s just upset from the bus, I think I'll go to sleep.” Then I proceeded to lean my head against the cool window glass and close my eyes like I was going to sleep.
There was no way Gerard was actually going to believe I was asleep. I've been told I snore like crazy, but he would still be too nice to keep talking. The way he sighed didn't help with my feelings of guilt.
Surprisingly, I actually did end up falling asleep. I hadn't thought I would be able to with the way that the bus bounced and rattled as it drove down the badly repaired highway that led to the city. I woke up to loud crashes and screaming from outside.
There was a large group of teenagers and young adults dressed up in bright colors, throwing rocks at each other and the bus: so these were the unemployed.
Gerard, Mikey, and Ray had all pressed themselves up against the glass to watch. I would have rather looked at anything else, but the screaming and loud thumps as bricks and rocks bounced against the buses reinforced glass was hard to ignore.
"Damn useless unemployed. Why do they always have to screw things up?" The bus driver grumbled. It was only then that I realized the four of us were the last ones on the bus. Damn, I must have been practically unconscious if I'd managed to sleep though our busses other 21 occupants getting off.
There was a loud roar. We watched as a large white helicopter flew low enough that the men inside could shoot canisters of gas down into the crowd. The fight broke up quickly after that, as people scattered, stumbling away blindly only to be caught by a group of peace-keepers that had somehow snuck up behind them.
The bus driver lit up a cigarette and called back to us. "You might as well get back in your seats. We're not going to be going anywhere till they finish rounding up the trouble makers." Then, more quietly, he said, "Damn regs, why I can't just dump the kids and be done with it?"
Gerard shot an annoyed look at the back of the guy’s head. Mikey stepped in before he could actually say anything, though, which was good because I wasn't betting on the guy sticking to the regs and letting us stay inside the bus until the gas cleared if Gerard annoyed him.
As soon as the last Peace-keeper truck pulled away, the bus-driver opened the door and ordered us out. Gerard glared at him as we passed, but none of us bothered to say anything. I was just glad that the rest of them had been assigned jobs close enough that I might actually get to see them. There was only one other reason for them to be dropped off with me, and that was them all being unemployed too. That wasn't likely to happen, though, because they were all brilliant.
We stood there and watched until the bus pulled out of sight. I couldn’t help thinking that we could really have used Bob, right them. He was always the one that took care of us, and got us moving. Thankfully for all of us Ray was ready to take over his care-giving duties. "Come on, we'd better get to our check-in station. We don't want to be out here if any of those gang members come back."
"Our check-in station?" I asked. Everything that happened seemed to make it more and more likely that they had been assigned to be unemployed too, but I still wasn't ready to accept it. Mikey and Gerard were brilliant, and Ray was as solid as they came, and a perfectionist to boot. They weren't supposed to be unemployed. Not like me.
"Frankie?" Gerard asked. He shook off the light grip Ray had on his arm. "What's wrong?"
"Tell me you’re not unemployed too. Please?" The last word was almost a whine but I didn't want to accept this. They were supposed to have a chance at a better life once we graduated. Their lives weren't supposed to be as screwed up as mine.
Ray let go of Mikey and came over to wrap an arm around my shoulders. "Come on, we'll talk about it once we get to the check-point."
Gerard nodded. I didn’t feel like saying anything so I just went along with them, letting Ray guide me to where we needed to be.
# # #
June 9, 2125: District 8 Check-in Center
# # #
The lady at the front desk was kind of a bitch. Upon seeing us stumble in, she gave a haughty sniff and looked in the back down at her computer screen, like she could catch unemployment or something.
Thankfully Ray was there, because I was about ready to pop her one. Looking down her nose at Gerard and Mikey when they were so obviously upset was just wrong. Nobody got to look at them like that.
Ray stepped up to the desk. "Ma'am, we were told to check-in here. We're from the Pencey School in District 17.”
The dragon lady seemed to appreciate Ray’s calm demeanor as much as the rest of us did. She dialed the strength of her death glare down a couple notches. "You'll have three nights to stay in the dorms here. By that point you’re expected to have found a place to live. From then on you'll just come here for your monthly rations credits and the scripts for whatever medication you've been assigned.”
"Medication?" Gerard asked.
"Yes, two of you been put on medical rations so all necessary medication will be provided.”
I felt something in my stomach unclench after hearing that. The pills were a god-send for Mikey. He wasn't going to get better but severe bi-polar disorder could be handled with the medication. In Gerard’s case we wouldn’t need the medication for long; but the first set of pills would let us wean him off the medication slowly, which would help to avoid any major side-effects.
Ray stepped in before any of the rest of us could say something stupid. "Thank you, ma'am. Who do we need to discuss living arrangements with?" Ray said.
Gerard came up behind me and grabbed my hand. "I can smell cafeteria food, let's see if we can get some. They have to be open by now, right?"
"Yea, let's go check."
"Mikey? Are you going to be okay?" Gerard called.
Mikey waved him off from his position catty-corner to the desk. I was betting from the way he squinted through his glasses that he could see dragon-lady's screen from there. No way were we going to drag him away now.
"We'll be getting food," I called to Ray and ignored the way the lady glared at me. So what if we were being loud? It wasn't like we were good respectable people now that we'd gotten stuck being unemployed.
The cafeteria was remarkably reassuring. It looked almost identical to the one back at school, right down the red light over the door to announce when it was closed down. They were even serving the same turnip mush and Sintho-cafe as school.
"At least some things never change," Gerard said and sat down with the largest cup of Sintho-cafe he could order.
I snorted at him since my mouth was too full to make any sort of understandable language.
I was on my second bowl of mash and Gerard was on his third cup of chicory, when Mikey and Ray arrived.
Ray collapsed onto the bench beside me, his back to the table. "Well it looks like we’re going to have to go out and make our own arrangements for housing, they’ll provide a list of possible locations but we haven’t picked by the time our three days are up we’re screwed. We’ll have to figure out a way to get clothes too, apparently it's illegal to go around the city in our school uniforms.”
"Great, just what we needed to make life better, shopping." Not that I really cared. It wasn’t like I’d been shopping since before I went to school, because shopping at the school’s little commissary hardly counted.
"You never know, it might be fun," Mikey said, doing his best to reassure me because he just had to be nice when I was in a pissy mood. "I hear they let you pick bright colors when you’re unemployed. Those gang members were certainly wearing bright enough clothing."
I said I refused to be appeased, like I was some toddler who was going to get distracted just because they were letting us have brightly colored clothing.
"I also picked up our food rations; we're also allowed to eat here whenever we want to." Ray gave a dirty look to my bowl of mash. "Though I'm not sure how often we want to."
"What? It's not that bad.” I made a grab for his mush, which he dodged without much trouble. Sometimes it sucked to have people know me so well. “You're just not a big fan of turnips."
"Amen to that,” Ray agreed. He ducked around the table to sit next to Gerard, so I wouldn’t have a chance to make another grab for his meal. “Anyway, about the ‘scripts, you aren’t required to take them, but if you're caught disturbing the peace and don’t have any medication in your bloodstreams, you'll be considered incapable of taking care of our health needs."
"And?" I asked, because that sounded ominous as fuck.
"And they have the right to send us to an institutionalized health facility until they believe we are properly medicated and won't go off the ‘scripts again."
"Well, shit."
"Yeah,” Mikey agreed.
"I'm fine. I've been better lately. It’s not like I really have a problem," Gerard insisted and poked morosely at his mash.
I shared a look with Ray. He had been better lately, not pulled any crazy stunt and it had been month since he had a day where not even Bob could drag him out of bed, but at the same time he'd been medicated for the last year.
"We'll just have to see," Ray said.
Gerard went back to nursing his sintho-cafe and sulking.
I decided to change the subject before he ended up having an all-out tantrum. That would be just what we needed, to get taken in for caused a ruckus before we even left the check-out building, and I wouldn’t put it past the dragon -lady to call the peace-keepers herself. She seemed like the type who would do something like that just to get us out of her hair.
We spent the night in the dorms. Nobody wanted to brave the city during the night. It was still too strange and dangerous seeming. We were comforted by the familiarity. If I hadn't known what had happened that day I could have easily imagined that we were still in our dorms back at the school.
They were the same dull gray as everything had been at the school, with the same rough wool blankets on the bed and the same scratchy sheets.
It was like my first night at school all those years ago.
I turned over and pulled my blanket over my head, trying to ignore the way that I could hear Gerard whispering to himself as Ray tapped a beat out against his headboard. All the little signs of fear and nerves you learned to recognize after years and years of lived with somebody.
I finally fell asleep to Gerard’s singing, but my nerves didn't let me get much sleep. I kept waking up whenever one of the others moved, or to the sound of boomed music and yells coming from the barred window on the far side of the room.
# # #
June 10, 2125: District 8 Check-in Center
# # #
The next morning Ray dragged us out of bed. It should have been Mikey's turn to wake Gerard up, but it didn't end up mattering. Gerard was awake and sat on his bed, fully dressed by the time I woke up. It was frankly a little freaky and probably meant that he was going to start in on one of his bouts of insomnia, the type that would lead to one of his more serious episodes.
I'd have to talk to Ray about got his script filled soon, Mikey would have brought his spare set of pills with him, but I doubted Gerard would have remembered. He was always looking for an excuse to 'forget' to take them.
"Get dressed, we'll be in the cafeteria." Ray told me. The nervous look he sent Gerard's way made me feel better. Maybe I wouldn't have to talk to him after all.
After they trooped out, I got dressed. It wasn't like I was body shy or anything, I just didn't like changing in front of everybody else. I'd mastered the art of changed my clothes under the blankets year before, but this was easier. I managed to get dressed in only a couple of minutes.
I made it to the cafeteria just in time to walk into an epic Way brothers fight. "You’re taking the pill, Gerard. Don't think I didn't notice that you didn't take your evening dose. There's no reason to horde them if we're going to be able to refill our scripts."
"That's not the point. I don't need them anymore. We're not in school anymore. Who the fuck cares if I cause a ruckus now?"
"Gerard!"
I could just tell Mikey was going to go for his usual logic-based argument, which would have pretty much no affect on Gerard when he was in one of his moods. It wasn’t like Gerard even remembered getting sick the last time he stopped taking his pills without taking the proper precautions.
Thankfully Mikey had me around for times like these. "Well I'm pretty sure that the dragon lady who's watched the front desk was just looked for an excuse to call the Peace Keepers on us. I swear she's out to get me. I mean really, like I have a problem with over-activity?"
"Please, I remember the time you managed to glue Professor Martin's butt to his chair."
"That was a complete accident."
"Sure it was, Frankie. The glue just jumped out of your hand and landed on the Prof's seat."
"It did!" I wailed in my best insulted tone, though I made sure to keep quiet enough not to disturb the lady up front. It wasn't like the robots working the food line were going to care.
"Do you really think she's out to get you?" Gerard asked doubtfully.
I pushed my paranoid delusion shtick to the limit. "Didn't you see the way she was glared at me? I swear she tried to glare holes into my skull!"
"Fine, I'll take the pills, but only until we're not staying here anymore. It's only three more days right?" He was supposed to take the pill with food but by this point all of us knew better than to comment when all he did was drink another cup of sintho-cafe.
"On that note, I think we should spend the day looked for housing. The sooner we get out of here, the less likely Frank will have a chance to cause any trouble." Ray said.
"Me!" I squawked, played along.
"Yes you. Anyway, I talked the lady at the front desk into setting us up with a couple of possibilities. Had to register us as a entertainment group, since they were just planning to cram us into whichever bachelor units they had open in the city, and I was pretty sure that everybody wanted to stay together."
"Definitely." Things were bad enough without contemplating the possibility of navigating the city on my own.
"They let you register us as an entertainment group?" Leave it to Mikey to get bogged down in the logistics.
"We have to get a license to perform on public property but yeah, they were willed to make arrangements. Apparently unemployed performers can supplement their rations by entertaining the working population. Or so the Lady claimed, though she did make it sound like we'd have to be stupid to try it."
"Well it's not like we're actually going to become an entertainment group. If registering as one lets us stay together I'm all for it," Gerard said.
That shut down whatever argument Ray and Mikey had been geared up for. Mikey would do whatever he thought was best for Gerard. It was just the way he was.
After we finished breakfast we headed out to start looked at the housing options. After peeking over Ray's shoulder and catching a¬ glimpse of the complicated twists and turns that made up the paper map, I made sure that Mikey was between us. I didn't want to have to figure out where the heck we were in the city. I'd always been known for my ability to get lost in the school, and it wasn't usually as intentional as I liked to pretend.
The dragon lady was sitting behind the reception desk, just like she was the night before. If I didn't know better I would have thought she was a robot just like the ones that ran the cafeteria.
"Wait!" she called just as we were about to get out the door. Well shit, I tried my best to think of anything we might have done wrong but nothing came to mind. Gerard had taken his pills and I assumed Mikey had taken his, and we hadn't left a mess in the dorm room. Even if we had, it wasn't like we wouldn't be back in a few hours anyway.
She bustled out from behind the desk and grabbed the map out of Ray's hands. He made an aborted grab for it but remembered just in time that he wasn't supposed to cause any trouble. She pulled a red pen out of her sloppy bun and used it to make a bright red X on the map. Then she handed the map, and some sort of plastic pass to Ray. "You only get one of those so don't lose it, and don't trade it for anything. You go directly to the clothes providers and you show them that pass. They'll let you pick out a few sets of clothes. After this, you'll have to use your rations or scrounge for whatever clothes you wear, so you better behave. If they toss you out with only the clothes on your backs, you won't get a second chance.”
"Yes ma'am," Ray said. Besides Bob, he had always been the best at kissing up to the teachers. In this case though, I fully approved. She might be being a bitch about it, but if she hadn't explained I wouldn't have known that we were supposed to get enough clothes to last us through the next few months, or years. At the school whenever one of our uniforms got worn out or we outgrew them, they were replaced. No questions asked.
I'd just assumed it was the same way here. I made sure to smile at her as I passed. I still didn’t like her, but I could kind of see why she'd gotten this job.
# # #
Ray proved to be better at following the map then I expected. We only took two wrong turns on our way to pick up clothes. After all of the fuss the lady at the check-in station had made about us going to get clothes first, I'd been expected to get stopped by peace-keepers, or maybe some concerned citizens, but the city was creepily silent. Sometimes I felt like I could feel eyes on my back, but I never saw anybody. Not even other unemployed.
The others were nervous too. We ran into each other more than once, since we walked barely a step apart and everyone looked anywhere but at what was in front of us. I definitely wasn't the only one who looked at the abandoned store fronts and houses warily.
Ray practically fell into the clothing assignment building when we got there. I expected somebody to make a snide remark, but the only ones in the building were house-keeping robots.
"Show your pass." The robot nearest to us buzzed.
Ray held out the pass that we'd been given. She scanned in before depositing it in a disposal bin beneath the counter. "You may pick your clothes now." No comment on the limits of what we were allowed to pick or anything. We all just stared at her in shock. This wasn't anything like going to the school's bots for a fitting. How the hell were we supposed to know what we were supposed to wear?
Mikey was the one to voice the question though. "Which clothes are we allowed to choose from?"
"All clothes are here for your use."
Well that was less than helpful. "I guess we just pick, they'll probably tell us if we do something we shouldn't." The housekeeper bots at home had always told us when we broke the rules.
We headed over to the racks of clothes, keeping an eye on the rust-buckets just in case they suddenly changed their minds, but they didn't move. Not even when we really got into it and dug through the various bins looked for clothes to fit us. There were so many colors; it was hard to decide what to pick. We were all used to wearing blue blazers, khaki pants, and striped ties day in and day out.
By the end we’d made a huge mess, but I had to admit Ray had been right. It was kind of fun to have so many different choices.
# # #
We stopped back at the dorms to drop off our new clothes, before headed out to investigate the housed situation.
Somehow, walking in the city felt even creepier when we were in our new clothes then when we’d been in uniform. Maybe it was because we were more obvious. With our bright clothes we might as well have worn signs that announced: “New Unemployed; Please Attack!!!” Then again, I may have just been being paranoid. After all the only experience I had with unemployed, present company excluded, was the gang from yesterday.
Still, unnecessary paranoid or not, I wasn’t about to be separated from the others. Just to make sure that we didn't get separated I kept one hand around Mikey's belt and the other in on the hood of Gerard's jacket. Ray I could trust not to get distracted and wander off on me. He at least knew to check behind him every few minutes.
At least he should know to do that. He'd had enough experience trying to wrangle me and the Way brothers on school trips. I really missed Bob. If he'd been with us I knew he'd have been able to keep track of Gerard while I kept an eye on Mikey.
"Are we there yet?" I whined trying to break up the nervous tension that just kept building. Why did I keep feeling eyes on the back of my neck? It made me freaking insane.
"I think so. The house should be a couple blocks from here."
"That's really reassuring, Ray."
He turned to glare at me, walking backwards with a skill I envied. "If you want to be in charge of the map, Frankie..." He trailed off.
"Don't you dare, Ray. I still remember that school trip when we were supposed to be gathering flora for the Earth Science teacher and managed to circle the park twice,” Mikey spoke up.
"Hey we got the plants we needed didn't we!" I said.
"We also ended up in detention for a solid week because we were so late got back that they almost called the Peace-keepers on us," Gerard chimed in.
That was unfortunately true, which meant I couldn’t really defend myself. "Still, I don't know if Ray should be directing."
"It's him or Mikey, Frank."
"Fine."
Mikey didn't even have the grace to act like my silence surprised him. With Mikey we'd get there, but probably not until after he'd explored every alley way and shop on the way, just to drive me crazy.
"You all are so mean to me."
"Sure we are Frankie. Like you don't give back as good as you get." Ray turned back to his map and left me with no choice to grumble under my breath, since I wasn't going to get any sympathy from the others.
"Stupid Ray and his stupid map."
I was so busy grumbling to myself that I didn't notice when Mikey and Gerard stopped, and ran smack into their backs, almost knocking them off their feet.
"Really Frank? Are you trying to give Gerard another concussion?" Ray asked.
"It was an accident," I snapped, annoyed that he'd bring that up again. I obviously hadn't meant to give Gerard a concussion. It wasn't like I'd asked to be born clumsy.
"It's not like it really matters. Once you've sorted out yourself out, we'll need to head on to the next building."
"What!" We'd just gotten here - why in the world would we be moving on so soon? Then I got my first good look at the building we'd stopped in front of. The roof was caved in, and the porch was sagging. Only a couple windows had glass left, and most of those windows didn't have any sort of grate to keep someone else from busting through. "Well shit. That's not going to work."
"No kidding. If they're all this bad it's no wonder that these places have been abandoned."
"Yeah," Mikey breathed out, but he still stared at the building with something like confusion.
Who knew why? Except for the brightly colored graffiti on the side of the building it was the same gray, cinderblock construction building that was made of the same dull gray building materials as pretty much every other building in the area, a mixture of sand and cement. It was cheap and there was an almost endless supply of the stuff.
“We should get out of here,” he whispered and we were all too nervous to argue.
The second and third buildings we saw were equally run down. But we hit the jackpot on the forth. It was further from of the city center than any of the other buildings, but it was an old, slightly run down two-story house. It was much more of a home than I had been expecting to find.
“It’s kind of creepy though, isn’t it?” Mikey asked, poking at the afghan that was still hung over the back of the house’s dusty sofa. “Like the person who lived here just up and walked away on day and nobody ever came back.”
“I’d say that’s a pretty good description,” Ray called from the kitchen. “The cupboard is still full of protein powder and I think the turnips sprouted.”
After a few more thumps, he continued, “At least somebody cleared out the refrigerator. That would have been nasty.”
“Guys, you have to come see this!” Gerard called from the basement. Mikey headed for the door that led to the bottom floor immediately, while I waited for Ray. Not because I was scared or anything. It was just that I might have to defend Ray from spiders or something.
Thankfully, while dark and dusty, the stairwell was spider-free. Even before we reached the bottom I could already guess what had drawn Gerard’s attention. There were paintings everywhere. Bright and bold, like something you’d have seen in the early 21st century back before the light was sucked out of everything.
We found Gerard and Mikey standing in front of a large desk filled with paints and brushes and all kinds of painted supplies. “Can we pick this house?” Gerard asked, his voice soft and reverent. “It’s amazing.”
Mikey clasped his hand before turned his pleaded gaze on Ray and me. Ray folded first. “Well we should have a quick look at the roof, but I don’t see why we can’t stay here. I doubt we’ll find anything better in the next two days.”
“That’s good,” Gerard said, already digging through the paints.
“I’ll stay here with him if you two want to head back to the check-in station and see about got everything arranged.”
I didn’t like the idea of leaving them alone at all, but this was the most involved I’d seen Gerard since they’d put him on the pills. It made me nervous. It was good that he was doing better, but it wouldn’t last.
“Fine, but you two have to lock the door after us.”
Mikey rolled his eyes, looked suitably annoyed even though I could practically feel him let out a sigh of relief. “We’re not kids Frank. I’m pretty sure we know not to talk to strangers.”
“Well if you’re sure.” I replied in my best ‘dorm mother’ voice.
It still made Mikey laugh and even Gerard managed a smile.
# # #
It was even quieter and creepier on our way back through the city. With just the two of us, there wasn’t safety in numbers. Ray and I walked shoulder to shoulder did our best to keep an eye on all of the surrounded buildings anyway.
We didn’t dare talk until we were safely inside our temporary dorm room, filling out residency paperwork. Even then we didn’t say much. We didn’t need anybody overhearing this conversation.
Ray carefully signed his name and citizen’s number to yet another sheet of the contract. “You know he’s going to get worse right? Your remember what happened the last time he went off the pills cold turkey.”
There was pretty much no way that I was ever going to forget. We’d both been thinking about it since that morning. We’d all covered for him the first time he’d quit taking the pills, sure that he’d get better. None of us had considered the side-effects of withdrawal. He’d gotten better almost immediately that time too. Then within a week he’d barely been able to make it through class before he fell asleep. Not waking up again until we dragged him out of bed the next morning. We’d had to admit what was going on after we left him alone and all went to dinner one night, only to come back and find him passed out in a puddle of puke after he tried to take all his pills at once. “Hopefully between the three of us we’ll find a way to manage. Besides if we can convince him to go off the pills slowly he’ll be fine.”
“You know that’s not going to happen. He doesn’t really remember what happened last time. He’s not going to listen to us.” He turned to another page of the contract, still not looking at me.
“I know, but it’s not like there’s anything we can do besides hope.”
# # #
Part 2