The Department

By Sara M.

Megan, seventeen years old and a strong personality. She is too strong to submit to the rules set by the Department that, for past one hundred years, since the big war of 2019, has maintained a forced peace. Ten Detachments, each one specialized in a certain activity, with a set of laws that leave no room for personal choices or even to feelings that could undermine this false sense of serenity. Megan doesn’t want to accept it, she wants to be able to choose even if it jeopardizes her future, and she makes her decision. Friendship, love, betrayal and passion become entwined in this novel about freedom and the exhausting struggle to regain it. Having a choice, a real choice, makes us all better. Following in the footsteps of bestsellers such as “Divergent” and “The Hunger Games”, this novel will transport you into a world where nothing is as it looks and where the future of the characters is entirely in their hands.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sara M., whose complete name is Sara Monica, was born in 1981. She's an employee in a foreign office, her passion for reading and her unbridled fantasy lead her to write her first novel in 2014, then published in 2015. She likes books, loud music, cinema and pets. She spends her free time with her family and friends.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sara M.
• Release date: Feb 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9788826016580

Book preview

Sara M.

The Department

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Sara M.

THE DEPARTMENT

Translation from Italian by Barbara & Tina Bilingual Translators

To fantasy, one of the few

weapons (besides love)

able to create

and not destroy.

PROLOGUE

1

Here I am just a week before my eighteenth birthday, ready to make the most important Choice of my life, one that will determine my future in Society.

I’m standing in front of all the inhabitants of my Detachment, and in front of me are the ten containers that identify each Detachment of the Department, all transparent and numbered from one to ten.

Inside the clear-plastic container number seven are the three spheres that have names engraved on them, the names of my friends who have already made their Choice. I look at Sara, she then gazes at me with a smile, tinged with sadness. She has already chosen, she chose the family and our roots.

In my hand I hold on tightly to the ball with my name on it. It’s a little bigger than a ping - pong ball, the cold metal seems to creep up to my nerves, sending a sudden chill down my spine.

Ten containers, ten lives, and my eyes continue to move towards containers number seven, then to number nine and again to the people standing in front of me, Sara, Ian, my mother, my father and my brother. Everyone is waiting for me to decide. Everyone is convinced that my ball will fall into container number seven, exactly where my reasoning is... but my heart is elsewhere.

REASON AND EMOTION

2

It's eight o'clock and my brother and I are leaving the house, saying goodbye to mom and dad who are tidying up the kitchen after breakfast, the scent of the vanilla cake that my mother had prepared for us still fills the air.

Like us, all the other little children and boys and girls our age are leaving the house at that time, ready to be transported to school. Sara, as usual, is calling her sister Kris, who is four years younger than us and is always running late.

All our activity schedules are set by the Department, and tardiness is recorded in our personal files, which only the Department officials have access to. If you are late five times, you are suspended from school or from the other activities that we’re allowed to do, then for the next three days we are obliged to attend extra classes that explain the history of the Department and how it started, from the Great War a century ago to present day. In 2019, in fact, a terrible war destroyed what was then our planet, leading our society to be as we know it today.

Once we all step out of our homes, luckily no one is late today, almost simultaneously a flash crosses our paths and a moment later we are at the entrance of the school. Classes start at eight thirty, so we have time to have a word with each other as we move towards our classrooms.

Everyone follows the lessons according to the Detachment they belong to, and today I have product processing, biotechnology and earth sciences.

Bye Kris says Sara as she waves goodbye to her sister, I turn and I wave at her too. Kris has already reached her classroom.

Sara and I continue towards our biotechnology lesson classroom.

We walk and greet our friends along the way, while Sara constantly distracts me making jokes about most of the people we meet. We can tell exactly which Detachment all the boys or girls come from, not only thanks to the color of the uniforms they wear, but also by how each person reflects the Detachments they belong to: the excessive make-up on the girls of Detachment 5, the hair color in Detachment 8, the stuck up attitude of the officers’ children in Detachment 9.

As we turn the corner that leads to our classroom, I suddenly bump into something and my books fall and scatter on the ground.

As I reach out for the last book remaining on the floor, I brush against another hand that was faster than mine in grabbing the book.

I get up and a guy in front of me hands me the book and says Watch where you're going next time little girl.

My mouth opens to reply, but no words come out and it turns into what appears to be a sigh.

I follow that boy with my eyes until I hear a voice, it’s Sara:

Hey Girl... move or we'll be late.

Halfway down the hall we meet Ian. He is much taller than me, even though we are the same age, and has short blond hair, that he always wears uncombed and with a bit of hair gel, and ice-blue eyes. I, on the other hand, have long dark hair, dark eyes and am his exact opposite, or as Sara says, his complementary half.

Hello girls, are you ready for another interminable lecture with Professor Nesh? He says mockingly, but unfortunately we both know there's not much to laugh about. Although we are well aware of the importance of our course of study, Professor Nesh doesn’t make it easy for us to love it. Fortunately, my personal teacher is my mother, she loves everything about the earth, from its fruits to everything that we can gain from them. I think it is exactly this attitude on life that she has that makes her appreciate my father’s qualities. He comes from generations of bakers, and together they continue the family business.

The day continues, and once the lessons are finished, we have the opportunity to attend extra courses based on our predispositions and own interests, but not this afternoon. In fact, we have been called to the gym, where we expect to meet with our Department Chief.

Well guys, the Department has decided that starting next week, and for the next two months, you will have to attend a mandatory course. For your group it’s a boxing course. Finally, I think… finally a course that I love and an activity I already do, but this time it’s Official!

A thought crosses my mind: will Professor Hunter be our instructor? He is a man in his fifties, certainly no longer agile and quick, if he ever was that, who always leaves behind him a smell of alcohol; the bottle has probably replaced the wife he never had.

I keep my eyes closed, hoping not to find him when I reopen them.

These are Scott and Zac.

I open my eyes, relieved to hear these two new names, and then I see him.

Tall, dark, muscular with an amber complexion, and so breathtakingly handsome, just as gorgeous as he was when I saw him this morning.

He is wearing a blue uniform, which means he comes from Detachment 9, the Detachment of Officers and their families.

He is looking at us, scrutinizing all my companions one by one, while probably trying to figure out who, among us, can actually succeed in a match. I certainly don’t stand out, I’m tiny but quite muscular, thanks to the years spent helping my dad in the bakery, until my brother became old enough to help him with all the heavy loads.

Our eyes meet for the second time and my heart starts beating faster.

It would be nice to know what he is thinking right now as he is looking at me, and I wonder if he remembers us running into each other this morning, but before I can finish the thought, his eyes have already moved on.

Is there anyone among you who has already attended a fight course? Scott's voice brings me back to reality, as I suddenly awaken from a beautiful dream.

I need a volunteer, he says. At that moment, Sara, who’s standing beside me, gives me a nudge and whispers, Go ahead, you’re attending the course, I think he already knows and I immediately realize it too because as I look up, I see that Scott’s eyes are on me.

I can’t help but raise my hand.

Well, we have a volunteer, come here.

I look at Sara and then to Ian who’s on the other side of the room, then I go near Scott.

Stand here on the mat, while I explain a few things to your teammates. Then, he continues, So, the first fundamental rule in fighting is to never lower your guard and at that very moment I see from the corner of my eye that he turns on himself and kicks me in the kidneys with his leg.

I respond by squatting and blocking his leg with my arm.

Well, good job, it's exactly the kind of reaction I would have never expected from an inhabitant of Detachment 7, let alone a female. I can sense from his voice that he’s annoyed.

Okay, let's proceed. You will understand the second rule with my next demonstration. He turns to me and with a low voice that only I and perhaps Zac who is just a few steps from us can hear, and says Let's see if you're just as ready now.

He begins his demonstration as if I’m his punching bag, punching and kicking, but I manage to dodge him until he violently strikes my left cheekbone. My vision becomes blurred, and the next minute I’m on the ground, stunned by the blow.

The second rule is to never let your guard down on your face. Well, for now we’ve finished, I'll see you next Thursday for our first real lesson. Scott turns away and leaves the gym.

I see the door close behind him as I try to get up, but my head is spinning, and I just keep sitting there on the mat on which Scott beat me.

You don’t look so good little girl.

I turn around and see those deep dark eyes and I can’t even remember where I am.

Hold on to me, I’ll take you to the infirmary says Zac. I slide my arm around his neck and get up slowly, as his hand reaches for my side to support me.

3

It think you need a few stitches, the nurse says your cheekbone and eyebrow are the areas that bleed the most and the healing process is slower

I nod while I look around me, I must have lost consciousness because I don’t remember how I got here. I find myself in a tiny room that’s smaller than my bedroom, and in a corner, sitting on a chair, I see Zac. So it wasn’t a dream, it all really happened!

As the nurse leaves the room she says: Mr. Smith, can you stay with the girl a moment?

Sure, I'll wait till you come back. Zac answers, then he gets up and comes towards me. Feel better now?

Yes, thanks, I say sheepishly, thank you for taking me here, you didn’t have to.

I know, but I didn’t like how Scott behaved and I wanted to make sure you were okay. I’ll wait outside till the nurse comes back. Take care of yourself. See you soon little girl. He turns and walks towards the exit.

Why? The words come out of my mouth.

He turns to me and says: Why what?

Why did he behave like that? What is it? Your way to feel more superior to us?

Lately he enjoys doing these sort of things for fun, he has become meaner, more duteous to the directives of the Department that expects us to behave in a certain way towards those who are below us! But we aren’t all like him.

That’s a relief... Do you think he’ll do it again?

I'm afraid he will.

I mean, do you think he’ll pick on me again and use me for his demonstration to humiliate me and have fun, as you say?

I'm afraid he won’t stop, and at the end of the course there’ll be a final test consisting in a fight among you all, in which I’m sure he’ll want to participate and he can choose an opponent.

And he’ll choose me I finish his sentence. He nods: You could beat him, you know? I’ve seen how fast your reflexes are and the way you move. He saw me? He was watching me the entire time…

Bye.

"Wait, maybe