I wake up to a cold draft coming out of the window from the my room in the front of the house. I slowly open my eyes and see from the light in my room that it is another cloudy day out. My room is small. It seems to get smaller every day from my perspective.
Before I was born, there was a great war in which many died and only few survived. Our people are the only survivors left. I am not exactly sure about where our home is. Pa says that it is somewhere near a place once called North Carolina. Pa used to love to tell tales about before the war and how his life was. But now days are different.
I turn fifteen today, and now I will be eligible for the draw. Our town is completely surrounded by woodlands. Dark shadows and growling creatures lurk outside our boundaries. All citizens are forbidden to go beyond the fences that outline the town. It was one of the rules that our leader, Willenburg, had created when our people came here. The draw was also his idea. From the age of fifteen, to twenty all people of the outer city are eligible for the draw. The draw selects ten randomized people between the age of fifteen and twenty and they are forced into the city’s army. You are moved from your family home and live in the Inner City. I have never seen the Inner City before. Some say it is like heaven, but others compare it to hell.
All of the outer city residents are poor, me included.We make a lot of products that the Inner City must use everyday. If the Outer City were to have a rebellion or leave the fences it would be a hunt for the rebels against the Inner City. Deadly consequences happen to anyone willing to go against them, and I pray that I will never know anyone who receives them. Every year the draw is on my birthday and this year I will actually partake in it.
I get up out of my bed and head over to my wardrobe. I look to find the nicest thing that I have. I pick out a light green dress and I lay it down on the bed. I dress quickly, it may be my birthday but I still have chores to do. I throw on a pair of good high socks and put on my good flat shoes.Before I go I glance in the mirror and make sure that I am still presentable. I put up my light brown hair into a ponytail and take a look at myself. My face looks old I am getting skinnier each day, for there is never enough food to go around. I step out of my room and walk into the hallway. I look down and I see that Mama is at our small kitchen table looking out at the sunrise. I walk down the hallway, and I go over to her.
“I hate today,” Mama said.
“I know,” I said.
I rubbed her shoulders and tried to comfort her. I was her only child left to be in the draw now. Both of my brothers were killed last year, only three months after being in the army from the draw. My older brother ,Tommy, was mauled by a group of bears, and my other brother ,Christian, was burned in a forest fire. They both died on the same day, too. Our whole family was shaken.

There is no more laughter, no happiness ever. I barely see Pa around the house anymore and Mama never talks. Both my parents have just lost two children to the draw, now they have to watch their remaining child take part in one too. Half of the town is in the same situation as our family. Almost no one ever comes back from the draw once they go to the Inner City. I have to endure this pain for five years, but I might not last that long. I know that Mama will not get up so I just start my chores without her. I walk outside on the porch and I look at the pretty sunrise over the southern mountains.
The inner city is between those mountains. From what I learned the Inner City is beautiful. Large buildings that glimmer in the sunlight, and everyday is like a vacation. But I would never want to live their. No one in the Inner City could be as nice as the people here. Inner City is spoiled and conceded, while I am genuine and kind. My biggest fear of being selected in a draw is that I will become someone like that. Nasty to everyone I meet, and always being ungrateful. I hope Tommy and Christian were not like that before they died.
I went outside and started to do my chores in the barn. As I put new hay in the stables, I looked out of the window and I could see the stage that was set up for the draw. Soon all of the outer city teens would gather for the draw. I looked over at the clock and saw that I was late for the gathering myself. I walk by the house and I see mother in the same position that I left her. Today was going to be too much pain for one mother.
I took off down the path that led to the town square. The old mud road ruined my shoes and the mud started to climb up my legs as I walked. Finally, I made it to the town square. It wasn't much, just a few grocer buildings and a large lamp post in the middle. There was a large stage set up in front of the Inner City department building. On the large stage there was a wooden box, it was full of every person's name between the age fifteen and twenty. The square was full of people that I knew, friends, classmates, and family members. All were silent though, it was not a time to talk or chatter. I stood at the very end of the crowd, I did not want any attention today. We all wait for about five minutes and then a very tall and educated women comes onto the stage. She has a microphone in her hand. A different Inner City personnel comes every year to read out the names, This one looks cross and stern.
“You all know the drill. When your name is called come up on stage and wait till all names are called,” the women said.
For most of the people here, they had done it all before, but I hadn't. My first draw and I would be all alone. The woman's long fingers reached into the wooden box and pulled out a handful of papers and put them all on the table next to the box. I watched her count out ten pieces of paper and put the rest of the pieces back into the box. Ten names of people that are surrounding me right now. Hopefully I will not be one of them. I grow anxious, and I just want to her to say the names already.
“Michael Peterson,” the woman said.
I see a boy in the crowd go through the people and stand on the platform. I knew him too, he used to help Tommy work on the farm before he died. Now he would be following in Tommy’s footsteps of the draw
“Lillian Forks,” I heard.
This went on for about five more people.The rest were all Outer City strangers. Now there were only two more names to be called. I tighten my hands and I can feel my palms fill up with sweat.
“Ian Mitchell,” she said.
Only one more name to go. I looked around in the crowd and tried to focus on something other than the women on the stage. Suddenly I heard loud pops coming from behind me. I turned around and looked. There at the edge of the town square was a group of men. One of those men was Pa. They all had guns in there hand. One of them shouted something that I could not make out for he was so far away. The men shot their guns and Inner City guards around the town square were suddenly lifeless. In an instant, there was massive chaos. People screaming all around mixed with the sounds of gunshots. I looked over at the stage and saw that the woman was hanging over the stage. She was drenched in blood, and was not moving. More Inner city officers started to pour out of the building. A rapid gun battle started to engulf the city square. I ran away from the building and started to head for home. I could see people being shot and falling down everywhere that I looked. People were crying and shouting in the square as they lay over a dead body. Suddenly, I felt a hand around my waist and pull me backwards. I kicked and screamed and tried to break free of the monster arms. A hand came up and cupped my mouth. I could not move or even breathe. Everything went black.
I felt rough hands shaking me ,and then voice told me to get up. I opened my eyes but all that I could see was blackness. Feeling started to come back into my body and I felt cold metal handcuffs on my hands and a scratchy bag that covered my head. I was pulled up by the rough hands and was lead down a hallway and out into the sun. The sunshine barely shown through the bag that covered my head. I was guided over to some wall, I reached out and my hands felt brick. I was whipped around to face air and the bag was ripped off my head. At first, all I could see was the bright sunshine that blinded me, but then my vision cleared and father was standing in front me. He too had handcuffs on him and was against a wall. He had a lot of blood on his clothes and looked shaken. Hair tussled rips and cuts on his clothes and body. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could blood spat all over his chest, and he went down screaming. They shot him. The inner city officers shot my father. For being a rebel and disrupting the draw. But they shot him right in front of me. I went down to my knees screaming.
Someone put the bag back over my head and they carried me away. I could barely hear my perpetrator to quiet down because my screaming was so loud. Heavy doors were opened and I was thrown down hard marble stairs that seemed to be never ending. Finally I felt a flat surface. I realize that my handcuffs are off, my shaking hands reach up and remove the bag from my head. My eye adjust to the light I lay there at the the bottom of marble stairs crying, broken, screaming and bloody. This is what the inner city does do a loving father who wanted to protect his daughter. This is what the inner city does to love.