The Feud Gene

In the year 2050 a scientist discovered a mutation gene. This gene was found in 1/50th of newborn children. The gene was discovered in their DNA. As these children grew, they discovered unspeakable power. Some could control fire, others water, earth, and wind.
Thirty years after this discovery, the scientist Sigmon Feud died. After his death, the government wrote an act. All newborns had to be tested for the Feud gene. If a newborn’s test return positive, it will be put under the custody of the government.


     We woke up to the bell that signal the time to get up. I sat up and rubbed my eyes and slowly got down from my bunk. I walked over to my closet and opened my closet door to new and clean clothes. Although they were new, they looked exactly as everyone else’s clothes. Gray shirt, gray pants, gray socks, and gray shoes. We were not allowed to have any jewelry or let our hair grow to a certain length.
     After getting dressed, my roommates and I lined up at the door. Once we all lined up, the doors slide open and we were escorted to the cafeteria. Once at the cafeteria we got online for our morning meal. The cafeteria was a huge room with ten long tables. In this cafeteria, only the children between the ages of eight to twelve ate in it. Our guardians did not want to overcrowd us.
Once we all sat down with our food and water, we waited for the Mr. Hunter. Mr. Hunter was in charge of all of us and controlled everyone, including the guards and teachers who worked in the faculty. Some people might have said that Mr. Hunter was our adopted father. He always called us, “his children,”
“My children, let’s fold our hands and pray,” we did what he told us to do and folder our hands, “may God bless our food and for this day. Amen. Children please stand for our national anthem,” and we all got up at the same time and saluted our national flag and sang our national anthem. After that we sat down and stared at Mr. Hunter.
“You may now eat,” and we all picked up our utensils and started eating our morning meal. Our meal times were one of the few times we got to talk and fool around with our fellow “siblings”.
“Hey who threw a fire ball into my oatmeal?”
“Not I!”
“Heads up!” yelled a group of boys sitting down the row from me. A guard had to walk up to them to settle them down. The boys were young, about nine or ten years old.
“They should learn to grow up,” I said.
“Their still young. They do not need to grow up so fast,” my sister said.
“I wish they were no so loud,”
“I could put some ice in their oatmeal. That would ruin their day,” said one of my other sisters. Her name was Annie and all of us had to watch her because she always did what she thought. Which often got her in trouble during our training sessions.
“Five minutes!” yelled a guard. When our five minutes was up, we passed our plates down to the end of the table to be washed in the kitchen. We all got up in orderly fashion and were escorted to our training sessions.
     Mr. Pointer was my “clan’s” teacher. My clan consisted of eight members. Four boys and four girls. We entered a white empty room that had four mats to sit on. We each took our shoes off and sat down on our respective mats.
“Good morning children,” said Mr. Pointer and we all replied back.
“Let’s begin with a thirty minute meditation,” and we all closed our eyes and breathed in and out. Meditation helped me cleared my mind of anything that distracted me the day before or even dreams I had the night before.
“Okay children, let’s start. We’ll be heading to the simulation room. Remember to help each other as a team. Understand?” and we all replied that we understood.
Once at the simulation room we all enter and were prepared to face our challenge. Our challenge was to invade an enemy’s camp and take out a tower that held questionable weapons.
We all gathered at our campsite to come up with a plan. While we were coming up with a plan, we got a surprise attacked.
“Watch each other’s back!” yelled one of my brothers. I saw one man pointing a gun at me and I quickly gathered fire in my hand and threw it at him. He burned instantly. Eventually the enemies retreated.
“Now what?” asked Mary.
“Invade,” said Dan.
“Don’t forget we our powerful. I agree with Dan, we have to invade. They know where we are. Let’s destroy that tower,” said Samuel. We all agreed with him since he was the oldest member of our clan. Besides being the oldest, he was also the smartest.
     We charged the tower and used all of our unique powers to attack the enemies and then Samuel and I burned the tower to the ground while the others took out the sharp shooters. None of us got hit. As the tower started to burn and fall, the simulation ended.
“Good job children, except that charging straight into enemy territory was a bit, dangerous,” said Mr. Pointer.
“You told us to act as a team, so we did.” said Annie. Mr. Pointer gave us a troublesome look and shook his head.
“I know I did, but you must remember that there will be times that when you fight there will be humans fighting alone side you,”
“Humans just slow me down,” Annie replied back. Mr. Pointer must had been wondering how he raised Annie. Actually Mr. Pointer raised all of us.
     Like every child in this faculty, we were taken shortly after our birth because we had the Feud gene. As infants and toddlers we grew up surrounded by hundreds of children who were our age. Once we started to walk, our powers started to form. Our nannies took note of which power we had and watch it develop. As a toddler, our powers were not that strong and were told not to use them under any circumstances. If we did, we got whipped.
     By the time we were four years old, we were put in our respected clans. Each clan was given one teacher for life. My seven brothers and sisters and I were assigned to Mr. Pointer who was thirty at the time. He taught us about our Feud gene, reading, writing, math, science, and how to control our powers. As we got older, the more we learned to control our power and of course our powers became stronger as we age. But our powers will stop growing around the time we hit puberty.
Now at twelve almost entering our thirteenth year, it will be time for us to enter the real world. None of us had ever been outside the faculty. There are windows, but through the windows we can only look up towards the sky.
     We heard the bell ring, meaning it was time for our midday meal. Mr. Pointer lined us up an we waited to be escorted to the cafeteria. During midday meal, we repeated saying our prayers and the younger children were wild. They were all hype up and it was the only time that the guards had difficulties getting them to settle down.
“What do you think it is like? Outside?” I asked.
“Does it matter? It’s not like we’ll be able to enjoy it,” said Annie.
“You got to look at the world with a more positive view Annie,” said Mary.
“Why? In the end were only going to be used. We’re tools. We’ve been trained to do certain tasks,”
“That’s true, but there will be time that we will be able to enjoy the outside world,” said Sarah.
“I think the outside world smells nice and has honey everywhere!” exclaimed Mary.
“I want to see the nature. Real trees and grass,” I said.
“I wonder what the people look like. Do they all look like Mr. Pointer and Mr. Hunter?” wondered Sarah.
“I don’t care,” said Annie.
“Five minutes!” yelled an escort. After our midday meal, my brothers and sisters and I headed for our evening lesson.
     Mr. Pointer took us to the workout room that was filled with different types of weapons. There were no guns, but old medieval weapons such as swords, bow, sickle, bo staff, nun-chucks, chains, and more.
“You will compete in one-to-one combat. No killing and no powers. Use your powers and you will be grounded,” said Mr. Pointer. Mr. Pointer picked each of us one at a time to view our combat skills. I was the last one to go and was paired with Dan.
I like to fight with an axe and Dan chose a sword which was no surprise. He always picked the same weapon although I usually tried out different ones. We both ran at each other and I did not care if he was a boy, he was one of those slackers. Unlike him, during my free time I spent it in the gym working out with other members. Dan was not able to move as fast as I could and I was able to trip him. He fell but rolled over. He kicked my leg and I fell but quickly got up. I ran at him with the axe and swung, but he duck. He kick me in the chest and I fell on my back and he brought his sword down, but I blocked with the axe. I kicked him and I dropped the axe to punch and kick him. Mr. Pointer blew his whistle and got me off of Dan.
“Enough! That’s enough!” yelled Mr. Pointer. I had a noose bleed and Dan had a bloody lip.
“Keep going,” said Mr. Pointer. We continued our fight, although in the end Dan lost to me. Mr. Pointer congratulated me but looked down at Dan. He grabbed Dan by the collar and made him get up. He left Dan in to fight Annie. I felt bad for Dan then because Annie loved one-to-one combat. Out of all eight of us, Annie was the worst one to fight against. She can go all out.

     That night the guards entered our room in the middle of the night. We all got up and got dressed as they told us. We lined up and followed them down many hallways. We went to a wing of the building that I was not familiar with. Although I was nervous, I was not allowed to show it.
     We entered a room where our brothers were already gathered and Mr. Pointer was standing in front of them. We lined up next to our brothers. Then behind Mr. Pointer I saw a panel of men and women in uniforms.
“This is the final test,” Mr. Pointer told us. Our training was finally over.
“These people behind me are our country’s best generals. They wish to see your skills. You will come forward one at a time to show them. You have a chose of what you want to show. However, they want to see your power. Samuel, stay here. Everyone else sit on the bench,” and then under his breath Mr. Pointer said, “Do not fail me,”
     Everyone went up to show their skills and talents. When it became my turn, I decided to show off my combat skills. I entered a simulation where I was given a sword and fought against a man twice my size. I used my combat skills along with my power of fire. I discovered that the simulation was more difficult then I thought. But eventually I succeed and killed my enemy. The simulation died down and the panel wrote notes down on their papers.
“You may return to your bench,” Mr. Pointer told me and I went back to sit among my siblings and looked at Dan, the last one to show his power.
“Dan!” said Mr. Pointer and Dan got up nervously.
“I will like to also show my combat skills,” he said. At the bench we all giggled trying to hide it from the panel. Mr. Pointer gave us an angry look.
“Are you sure Dan?” asked Mr. Pointer. Even he knew that this was Dan’s weak point.
“I want to prove myself,” replied Dan. Mr. Pointer looked nervous and unsure but granted Dan’s request.
     I did not get a good look at Dan’s simulation. The only ones who could see clearly was the panel. I could hear Dan fighting against his fake opponent. I could not tell if he was fighting with his sword or a different weapon. Mr. Pointer was watching too but he often turned his head away. He looked worried and pale. I never saw him like that. My siblings had the same worried look on their faces, just by seeing Mr. Pointer look so uneasy. Then we heard a terrible cry!
     We all knew that the cry came from Dan. We were all shock but we sat still on the bench. The simulation died down, but the panel blocked my view. I saw Mr. Pointer rush towards something. Then Samuel got up and we all got up with him.
“Dan!” yelled Samuel and he rushed over. We followed Samuel’s lead.
“Dan!” he yelled. When we made it to where Mr. Pointer was, we saw a horrible sight.
     Mr. Pointer was crying over Dan’s body. Dan had a knife in his stomach. There was so much blood. Dan’s eyes were looking up but I could tell that he had no life in him. Mr. Pointer held Dan in his arms and closed his eyes. Mr. Pointer was crying and cradle little Dan. I looked at the panel that only wrote in their notes. I was able to catch a glimpse of what they wrote.
Useless.
The panel got up from their seats and headed for the door.
“Wait!” yelled Mr. Pointer. The panel stopped to look at him.
“Do you not care! Why do you not get a doctor or a nurse?”
“It is already dead,” said a woman.
“Put someone should take HIM out. At least in a body bag,”
“Then you go get someone,” said a man.
“YOU ARE MONSTERS!”
“Mr. Pointer! If you keep acting like this we will make you leave this faculty! You are showing your emotions in front of these…experiments!” yelled an older man looking at us with disgust.
“They are NOT experiments! They are children!” The panel already left with Mr. Pointer sobbing over Dan’s death.
“My son, my son,” he kept saying. Then a guard came in and had to separate Mr. Pointer from Dan. Mr. Pointer tried to fight back but the guards were too strong. Then he gave up.
“Children! Children! My children!” he yelled at us. More guards came in to stop him and tried to separate us from him. We all caught a glimpse of him before he left the room.
“I love you,” Then he was gone forever.

“How do you feel?” a man in a uniform asked me.
“Fine,” I replied.
“You saw Mr. Pointer cry, right?”
“Yes,”
“How did that make you feel?”
“I was confused. He said he loved us,”
“How did you feel?”
“Confused. I have heard the word before,”
“Where?”
“Books. Fairytales. True love,”
“Yes,”
“But I never understood the word. Can you tell me?”
“Listen, my dear child. Everything that you heard from Mr. Pointer, forget it. He’s gone. He will never come back,”
“He said he loved us. He loved me,”
“It’s not true,”
“I do not understand,”
“It was an illusion. When something shocking happens, such as a death, we do not know how to react. He was acting based on an illusion. He thought he understood but he did not. Do you understand?”
“It was fake?”
“Yes,”
“He does not love me?”
“No. How do you feel?”
“Fine, I do not feel anything.”
“Good. You passed your test. You leave tomorrow morning for your mission,” he said and left me in my room. I crawled into bed and thought about what the man had said. That it was all a lie and an illusion because Mr. Pointer was confused and in shock. The Mr. Pointer I knew would never show his emotion. I knew the real Mr. Pointer. The Mr. Pointer I saw crying and saying he loved us was a lie. That was a fake Mr. Pointer. If the real Mr. Pointer was here, he would say what he always said to us.
“Focus on the mission. Forget everything else,”