Too Healthy (Draft)

 I was eleven years old. My only crime was being too healthy.
 I remember that day clearly. I was out in the light of the heat lamps, getting dirty and playing an old game called soccer. We played it on an empty, abandoned, dirty lot. It used to be used for planting food, but because the city has been growing so fast, it got too polluted to use. We kids adopted the muddy ground as our play yard. The huge crowds that persisted throught the city left almost no ground unused, but the adults never stepped onto our field while we were playing. They wanted us to have something, even if it was only a few square yards of dirt.
 That day, I was playing harder than normal. I think it may have been because I was mad. My care mother had been degraded in her work position that last night, so our living conditions would be getting even worse.
 For whatever reason, I was dribbling circles around the other kids. Of course, it helped that I'm lucky enough to have two legs about the same length. Many of the kids on that 'field' walked with a waddle, because that was their defect. Don't get me wrong, I've got my own defects. For example, I can't smell or taste at all. Although, based on how my family reacts to our rations, that might be a blessing.
 My biggest defect by far is my right arm. It's shrunk, just barely a joint and a hand. Needless to say, I'm left-handed.
 That evening, I was so intent on winning goal after goal, so glad from feeling that, for once in my life, I was detached from my problems, that I didn't even notice that Seekers were watching our game, standing in the shade with arms crossed.
 Seekers are strange, scary things. No one knows where they come from, but it's clear they weren't made around here. For one thing, as far as anyone can tell, every single one of them can move easily, talk, see, hear, taste, and smell. More than that, their left arm is always the same length as their right arm; same with their legs. And they have so much hair, it would take much, much more than a half hour to count them. They're perfect. It's unnatural. We're pretty sure they're human, since they eat and can be hurt, but not in the normal sense. Rumors float around that they aren't even made in test tubes, but that's ridiculous. How else would they be created?
 One Seeker walked up to me and looked me up and down. I froze from fear, letting the ball roll away. They other kids continued the game, ignoring me. I couldn't hear what he said, because he stood on the side of my body that doesn't have an ear. But I have no doubt that it was horrible, and probably had something to do with meeting his quota for the month.
His hand shot out on an unnaturally straight arm, with crazy clean fingernails. He reached for my neck, wanting to snatch me. His fingers brushed my shirt, the one that everyone told me was the color brown. I only see black and white and grey, so I just take their word for it. As he touched my back, the lessons from my elders, heard since the day I was created, suddenly kicked in. I bolted. I slipped out of his grip, turned, and ran. The thick crowd of slow-moving people that began at the edge of the playing field moved to let me through, a sign that they were silently rooting for me. I got several blocks before the Seeker caught me. That's farther than most people get. Like I said, I've always been a lot faster than most. As I ran, I saw several of the surrounding crowd watching me. They stayed silent for fear that they would be taken as well, but I knew, on the inside, they were cheering. They hoped that the impossible would happen, and that I would get away.
 In this block, on the first five levels, someone gets caught about once every week. It's a part of life, always has been, but no one likes it. The Seekers constantly pace the streets, supposedly searching for someone not following a Rule. We all know the real reason, though. It's so they can put us to use in their shows and games, whatever they are.
 As I ran, these thoughts flew through my head, along with many others. Like, how could I be so stupid? Sure, Seekers rarely patrol this lane, but what does care Father always say? 'Keep one eye on yourself and the other on the Seekers. When they come, run.' Well, I had kept both eyes on myself, I had run too late, and now I would have to pay.
 Before long, I felt a iron-cold grip wrap itself around my bigger arm. My feet kept going, and I crashed to the ground. The Seeker yanked me backwards, and dragged me along the halls for what seemed like forever. I screwed my eyes shut, not wanting to see the people turning their backs on me, moving on and telling themselves that they shouldn't care. I could still hear them, though, pushing and shoving for a little breathing room. Finally, the Seeker brought me to the tubes. The tubes are several metal openings in the wall and floor, each one about a foot away from the other. There are several tube stations around, about one every five blocks. (A block is about seven yards, by the way.) At each station there are five tubes: one for food, one for water, one for waste, and one for medicine. These tubes are always being used by someone, with long lines of people waiting, but when they saw the Seeker coming, with me in hand, they quickly moved aside so we could use the final, most rarely-used tube. The knock-out gas. He put my mouth over the tube, all business. Then he pulled a handle. For a split second, I heard a hissing sound, and then the world went dark.


 I woke slowly. I think my eyes were open for a long time before I finally realized where I was. I was in a cell.
 I pushed myself up with my left arm and looked around in dismay. Once I got over the fact that I was in captivity, I quickly saw that two sides of my long, rectangular room were solid, plain cement. Another one had a tube station, (despite the situation, I felt a little thrill at having a station all to myself). The last one was glass, or something like it, looking out on a white hallway. Well, at least it looked white to me. It may have been any light color. On the other side was a blank, uninteresting wall.
 Slowly, I stood up to take better inventory of myself and the size of my room. As far as I could tell, I wasn't additionally injured. I wore what looked like a dark grey jumpsuit, (based on stories I've heard about these places, it was the color of blood,) and it had a number on it. I recognized it at once- 7843-9b. It was my identification number, the closest I've ever had to a name.
 The room was just tall enough that I could stand at my full four feet. Another inch lower and I would've had to slouch. I began to pace, and found that the room was two steps by four steps, with the shorter sides being the window and the tubes. I looked closer at the tubes and saw that there were no buttons to activate them. When food and water came, it would be on it's own schedule.
 Finally, there was nothing left to do, so I sat down again. I began to wait.
 A few minutes later, food ran out of one of the pipes. I scooped it up off the floor where it fell and carefully sucked it up. The mush was a little thicker than the food we got at home. I idly wondered if it tasted better or worse.
 Just when I was done with the food, I heard voices. I scrambled to the back of my small room, away from the glass. I was scared. Even so, I turned my one ear so that I could hear.
 It was two voices, belonging to girls. I tilted my head in curiosity. I didn't know there were female Seekers.
 As they came closer down the light-colored hall, I made out their conversation.
 "...Dollars says I can make one go suicidal before you can."
 "Make it fifty."
 "You're on!"
 They passed in front of my window, and I got a brief look at them. It's hard to tell with Seekers, but I think they were just a bit older than me. They didn't even glance in my direction, just looked right at each other, making large hand movements as they walked. They were just as perfect and strange as all the Seekers I had seen before, with even more hair that usual. It reached past their shoulders! They wore the same basic design of jumpsuit that I had, only on the front of theirs there were letters instead of numbers. They walked too fast for me to see if they made real words. Their conversation continued as they walked away.
 "Speaking of suicidal, did you watch that one tutorial?"
 "The one that went viral where the master trainer made one

 of 'em kill itself in five minutes? Yeah! Wasn't it awesome? My favorite part was when he used pictures from it's childhood..."
 They must have turned a corner, because they suddenly became too quiet for me to hear.
 As I sat there with my back against the wall, my fear of Seekers began to grow. They were tossing suicide around like it was no big deal! I imagined one of them saying to the other,
 "So, I killed like, five people yesterday. Pass the drinking water?"
I wondered what they had forced to death, and felt a pit in my stomach when I realized.
 People like me. It was their favorite game to kill people just like me.

I think I spent about two days in that small room. I learned that the food came out about twice a day, and I began to expect it. The water tube beeped before the water came out, so I had a chance to get my mouth under it before the water flowed out and seeped into the hard floor. How thoughtful.
 Seekers passed my window several times a day. They were usually kids, around my age. I saw girls and boys. Usually they didn't even look my way, and were talking about things that were either unimportant or I didn't understand. But there were a few exceptions.
 The first unusual visit came on the second day. A lone boy walked down the hall. He walked slowly- I could tell from his footsteps- and when he came to my window, he stopped and faced me square on. I couldn't decide whether to look him in the eye or stare at my feet. My gaze finally came to a rest on his neck, which I think was a pretty good compromise. He had short hair and was tall and thin. He looked me up and down, a little like someone sizing up their opponent, only where such a person would have a look of respect, he only had dislike.
 He began to talk, as if to himself.
 "Yes, it looks strong enough. I'll see if it works. Stand."
 This last word was directed at me, as an order. I didn't want to stand. I wanted to say there, in my corner, where I had been for so long. Where I felt safe. But I suddenly knew there was no option. With every fiber of my body wanting to sit, I stood. I blinked in confusion. He nodded, liking what he saw.
 "Turn."
 My feet shuffled around, turning me, without any signal from my brain. It was like they were possessed and  working on their own.
 He continued to nod, then simply turned and walked away. As soon as he stopped looking at me, I stopped turning. Carefully, I took a step forward. Yes, I was back in control of my legs. But I was still pretty freaked out.
 On the third day, just when I began to think I would be there for a long, long, long time, a woman in a tight skirt wearing high-heels came to my door. She carried a thin rectangle of plastic. She waved it around in the air over my door, and the window slid into the wall. I slowly stood up. Was she letting me go?
 Nothing could be farther from the truth. She turned and started walking down the hall.
 "Follow me," She said coolly  Just like my encounter with the thin boy, I found myself unable to disobey  She walked away without looking back, and I was right on her heels.
 I took the time to take a look at the hall that had been out of my view. It looked like my cell wasn't the only one around. We passed lots of rooms, all identical to mine, as far as I could tell. They were so close together, I wondered how I hadn't heard anything through a wall so thin.
 Most of them were unoccupied  but some had people in them. The one right next to mine had a little girl, no older than three. My heart went out to her. She must be terrified.
 After seeing two more sad-looking people, I turned my head away. The other side of the hall was all blank, not a detail to be seen, so I turned forward and studied my captor.
 She had long straight hair, down all the way past her waist. Her high heels put her several heads above me. Did I mention? All the Seekers are really tall, too.
 Sound up ahead told me we were entering a bigger room. I leaned to look through the crook of her arm, and gasped when I saw it.
 I'd never seen anything like it. It was a huge space. I looked up and didn't see a roof. It disappeared behind a huge network of rope and wire and chain. 
 Huge bleachers circled the walls, and they looked fully capable of fitting more people than a block and ten levels contained. Thousands of people. In the center of the bleachers was a circle-shaped mat that looked about four blocks long.
 Still following the woman, I walked out onto the soft, squishy surface. It held my weight and bounced me back up. I decided that I liked this room. 
 Right now, there were only six people in this huge room: me, the woman I had followed, a young, nervous-looking man polishing his camera, (he was on the other side, I doubted he could hear us,) and a tall man in a dark suit, who looked very official and carried himself like a king. Behind him were the other two people. They weren't seekers, which surprised me. One was a tiny girl, so small it must have been her defect. She was standing firm on her own two feet, and that alone was proof she was stronger than most girls her size. Her wide eyes shifted about, taking in every detail. Every limb looked thin but intact. She was practically bald. Despite this, her huge, intelligent eyes made her pretty, in a way.
 The sixth and final occupant of the room was the polar opposite of the little girl. He towered like a mountain over the rest of us. His muscles were like rocks, and his stance was wide. The only defect that I could see was a lack of a left arm. One leg may have been a little shorter than the other, but I couldn't tell. In contrast to the girls smart eyes, his stared ahead like two beads set in stone.
 I turned my attention to the man in the suit and the woman I had followed. They were having a heated talk.
 When I tuned in, the man was talking.
 "This could be the opportunity of a lifetime for you! Think about it: a newly captured Scum, coming out of the blue, goes in a head-to-head against one of the greatest Scum fighters of all time."
 Here, he gestured to the two 'Scum' behind him. I noted that he called normal people Scum and wondered if that was a common term.
 He continued. "I, before the game, will order my Scum to throw the fight, but make it look good. They are perfectly capable of this. You'll be rich! You'll be famous! All I ask..."
 His voice became too low for me to hear, even just a few feet away. I let my eyes wander the room, and then saw something that made my stomach turn.
 In the center of the squishy mat, there was a dark stain. I thought nothing of it at first, but then, as my eyes continued to wander the room, it hit me.
 It was blood.
 The woman began speaking again.
 "You make a tempting deal. But how can I know the judges won't tell it's a thrown fight?"
 The man smiled madly.
 "You trust me, don't you?"
 She was silent for a long moment, staring into his eyes. Then she took a deep, shuddering breath, then whispered, "Yes. It's a deal."
 The man grinned. "Perfect. So, see you and your Scum at the death fights tomorrow?"
 She nodded mutely. She turned abruptly and nodded at me. She didn't look me in the eye, or even look at me at all. She just said, 'follow me,' and started walking. 





 "Seventyseven, you can't be serious about this," Eightythree said, in one last attempt to make me call off my experiment.
 "Of course I'm serious. I've been serious for months now. You think a measly drop of twenty stories is going to stop me?"
 I laughed, but Eightythree knows me too well.
 Eightythree and I grew up together. He has one eye, and no lips, but his body is very strong. At first, I only befriended him for his muscles, which I needed for my many plans. And I believe he only wanted something to do. But lately, we've become friends, laughing and talking about more than my experiments.
 This was the first idea in a long time that Eightythree hadn't been enthusiastic to carry out. He thought it was too dangerous for a little girl like me.
 "You don't have to do this. No one even knows you've been preparing. Just come down."
 I didn't respond. Instead, I walked across the roof until I reached the air vent. I reached into the pocket I'd sewn on the front of my shirt and pulled out a key card, snapped in half, that I'd found in a garbage pile. A Seeker must have discarded it after he broke it. It was amazingly wasteful of them, but I wasn't complaining; the edge of the key card made a near-perfect screw driver.
 I lifted the cover off the vent, and sighed with relief when I saw that my invention was still there.
 I called to Eightythree to come help me lift it out. It was awkward to get it out, even in three pieces.
 I laid out each piece on the cement roof before lashing them together. There were two wings and a harness. The wings were made from double layered sheets. Months ago, I'd reported that my sheets had been stolen, and they'd replaced them four months later. Eightythree did the same. Then we'd had four sheets. We'd decided to use three for the glider and sleep under one together.
 The many ropes, which lashed together the wings and made the harness, came from