Chapter Text
Rek glanced at the clock on the corner of the news board. He had fifteen minutes until his floor would have to go inside for their work hours. He sighed, it wasn’t that he hated his work, but proofreading the weekly reports wasn’t the most interesting thing in the world, especially when they were the same, week after week. And there was barely a sentence for the other neighborhoods. Sometimes he was lucky, and there weren’t many grammatical errors so he finished it pretty quickly and had a bit of time left over to code. He had taken a quick look at it before meal collection and every other word was misspelled.
Finally it was his turn to collect food. He handed the food vendor his I.D. and the vendor scanned it. He handed back the I.D. along with three bowls full of rice and beans, all with plastic wrap pulled over the top.
“Building Two, Section One, Wing Three, Floor Four your meal collection is over.” Rek looked at the long line of people still waiting in line, groaning because they were going to have to wait until 2134’s next meal collection before they got any food. He wished that he could give some of his food to them, he got three bowls after all, but Arriba was very open about lacing the food with DNA reading explosives. If anyone else ate his food, their intestines might not end up in one piece.
He hiked up the three sets of stairs to his floor, humming gently to himself. He debated saving one of the bowls of food for the next day, in case he wasn’t able to make it to the front of the line in time. He decided against it, editing was going to take a lot of energy, and besides, he had worked for three meals, he should be allowed to eat three meals.
When he finally got to his row, he balanced the bowls on his left arm while he let his door scan his handprint. There was a while where he set the bowls down on the floor. One day his door wasn’t properly scanning, and one of his floormates took the chance to steal one. They were so hungry that they ignored all of Arriba’s warnings and ate it. Rek had never been so scared as he was when the other boy fell to the ground. There were moments since then that were worse, but Rek tried not to think about them.
When his door opened he placed the bowls on his bed, before climbing up the ladder and into his “luxurious bedroom”, quoting one of the Arriba news people. He didn’t know why they were trying to hype Abajo up, it wasn’t like they could live anywhere else. Well, they could, but that was linked to the bad memories that Rek tried not to think about, which was why he was going to stop thinking about them.
He put his earbuds in his ears. He just needed to get his work over with and then he wouldn’t have to deal with it for another four days. He could just sit back and code and play on Parts and Pieces. Plus, in theory, it would mean that he could get three bowls of beans a day.
He read through the first two paragraphs without any distractions, but then his laptop gave him the notification that he had gotten an email. He checked to see who it was from. ArriTheFrog. He knew that he should just ignore them, at least until he was done with work, he didn’t have enough time to play one of their games—they usually took at least an hour to beat—but it also couldn’t hurt to check what they sent him, right?
He clicked on the notification before it could disappear.
It took him to Arri’s contact on Parts and Pieces.
ArriTheFrog
Ur a journalist, right?
That was all it said. Arri’s usual emails weren’t necessarily long, but they tended to be at least two sentences long and started with “Hi” or “How are you?”. Still, Rek didn’t mind responding.
WanderingQuokka207
No. I proofread the weekly report though.
He got back to reading through the report, but now his mind was on other things. He should have just continued on with his editing. Another notification popped up on the bottom of his screen. There was no way that he was going to get anything done for the rest of the day, now that he was thinking about Parts and Pieces.
ArriTheFrog
Sorry I didn’t respond immediately, my family was all over the place. Anyways, I found a news article that you might like.
Rek didn’t fully process the second sentence of the message. His eyes hovered over the word family. It wasn’t that he didn’t have a family, he knew who his parents were, but no one in Abajo actually cared after they were eight or nine. But Parts and Pieces was only accessible by people in Abajo. Arri was probably just in a different building, or even just a different section. Someplace where the customs were different.
WanderingQuokka207
That’s cool. What is it called?
Arri sent him a link. It took him to a website that he had never seen before: The Daily Arriba . A suspicion of what it was nagged at the back of his mind but he pushed it away. There was no way that Arri would have access to an Arriba news site. The denial lasted for about five seconds, before he opened up the first article. It was about Arriba politics, about the laws on Termination in Arriba.
He closed the page at a speed that probably set a world record. He didn’t need to learn anymore about Termination. There were other things that he had to think about, like how Arri got the link to that website or, if he was feeling productive, finishing his work.
WanderingQuokka207
Where did you find that?
ArriTheFrog
Did you like it?
That didn’t answer his question, but he didn’t point that out.
WanderingQuokka207
Yeah
Beautiful lies. He didn’t want to hurt their feelings by telling them about how it brought back
bad memories.
ArriTheFrog
I figured that you might find it interesting.
Arri was different today. They were more serious. Rek tried to ignore it, but it wasn’t the only thing nagging at his mind.
WanderingQuokka207
Are you from Arriba?
They didn’t respond. Rek tapped his fingers against his mattress. What if that was the wrong thing to say? What if Arri never messaged him again?
Rek clicked on the link to The Daily Arriba . He didn’t like to think about Termination, but he didn’t have to look at articles about it. He could look at articles on other stuff. He didn’t know what other stuff, as he basically knew nothing about Arriba, but he would find something.
Arri sent him another link. He clicked on it.
Rekrap Two
Birthday: November 8th, 2309
Neighborhood: Abajo
Occupation: Proofreader for the Weekly Report(Abajo)
Terminated Relationships: Branzy Craft (expand)
Rek continued to read the page. It was his complete life story. How did Arriba have access to this information, and how did Arri know who he was?
WanderingQuokka207
What is this?
ArriTheFrog
It’s your profile, everyone has one. Everyone in Arriba has access to this website, I knew that you didn’t and figured that you might want to see it.
WanderingQuokka207
How do you know my name?
ArriTheFrog
I can see non-Arriba email addresses, just another piece of the hierarchy.
I’ve looked through your report, I’m sorry about Branzy.
Rek closed his computer, that was a lot of information to process all at once. Everybody in Arriba could, in theory, know everything about him. Arri did know everything about him. He didn’t even know their real name, Arri probably was short for Arriba.
WanderingQuokka207
What is your name?
ArriTheFrog
Jumper Who
Rek did a quick search on the website. Jumper’s profile needed a government approved email to view. Why did they get so much privacy while anyone could figure out what Rek had eaten for breakfast? It was beans and rice, people in Abajo didn’t even get to eat anything other than beans and rice.
He shut his laptop and lay down on his bed. He didn’t have any motivation to finish his work. Life was unfair.
The lights in his bed started flashing red. “If you don’t finish your work, you won’t get three bowls of food.”
“Shut up.” Rek groaned, trying to turn it off, but the light switch didn’t do anything. “Can’t you see I’m having life changing revelations right now?” The strobe light effect paid no attention to Rek’s complaints. Rek buried his face in his pillow, an award for never turning in his work late, there was no way he could survive without a pillow, so he finally sat up and flipped open his computer. He skimmed through most of the article, before finally starting to edit.
It was a relief when everything was finally done. He sighed, he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know what to do. Normally he would add onto his latest projects on Part and Pieces, but he wasn’t in the mood for that. The only thing that he felt at least fifty percent interested in was messaging Jumper, mainly because he had one big question.
WanderingQuokka207
Why do you care so much?
ArriTheFrog
?
WanderingQuokka207
You have a perfect life, why do you care so much about me knowing the truth?
ArriTheFrog
You aren’t the only one who has lost a friend to termination.
WanderingQuokka207
I’m sorry
ArriTheFrog
I don’t have the energy to talk right now. Bye.
Rek felt bad for Jumper. They weren’t wrong when they said that Rek had lost a friend to termination. Branzy had been taken from him, and Rek almost hadn’t talked for the few months following it. Even now, four years after it had happened, Rek wasn’t the same. He would never be the same. He would always know too much about Termination. He regretted spending hours researching it back when Branzy was first terminated, but back then it had seemed like the right decision
Without thinking he opened up the link to his profile and searched up Branzy’s.
You need a government approved email to access this site.
Curse Arriba for making life harder.
Rek went back to his profile. He had seen something about Branzy’s Termination. He doubted that it would give him any more information than he already knew, but there was still a tiny chance that it would.
Why was he so excited about this? It was just going to cause him more pain. He couldn’t stop himself and soon he was looking over a singular sentence again and again. There was more, but, would you believe it, you needed a government approved email to access it.
On February 2nd, 2325, Branzy Craft was terminated for trying to visit his boyfriend in Malo.
Rek knew that date too well, he had spent the entire day trying to talk Branzy out of sneaking off to Malo. Branzy had assured him many times that it was going to be okay, it wasn’t. He only saw Branzy one more time.
Arriba had made everyone in 2134 watch Branzy be driven away to Malo. The rest of Abajo had to watch as well, but it was broadcasted to their beds.
Jumper messaged him.
ArriTheFrog
I am going to get you out of there.
Rek hoped with all of his heart that it was true.