The Selection - Chapter 2 (Patreon)

Unlucky by Chance

Alice sat as patiently as she could while Angelina ran through every name of those around her. One by one every student got up from the row they were sitting in and walked up to the podium to choose their selection.

In the past, jobs may have been selected for certain individuals, but it wasn’t long before that was deemed unfair for those who didn’t get such treatment. Thus it was eventually deemed the only fair way to do things was to give everyone equal chance to receive any job in the whole community.

Teacher! Construction Worker! Gardener! Interior Designer!

Every job that Alice heard called out made her more or less nervous for what her own job might bring. She had a few jobs in her head that she would prefer over others, but with so many potential options hoping for one single specific job was simply unrealistic. She was resolved to simply find out what her job was, and then work hard to become the best whatever it is, that there ever was.

Every person who was called up went directly to the podium, announced their Selection, and was then escorted off the stage to be led directly to their new life immediately. Alice, at her parents’ suggestion, had dressed perfectly for the event, and was very lightly tapping her high heeled boot against the floor beneath her.

Finally, after almost 2 hours of patiently waiting, her name was called. With a deep breath, she lifted herself up and out of her chair and walked to the stage. The room felt like it was perfectly silent, but maybe that was just the blood rushing through her ears given her nervous self a momentarily muffled sound of the world around her.

She made it to the podium and locked eyes with Angelina Aubernacky who offered her a small smile of encouragement. Alice looked down into the glass container, which was housing what appeared to be thousands of slips of paper. Not every paper in the container would get chosen that day, but it meant the amount of options that each participant could select was in the hundreds.

Holding her breath without even realizing it, Alice bent down just slightly to reach inside of the container, pulling out a single slip of paper. She went over to the large burning torch, right next to the microphone, took one last deep breath, and opened the slip of paper.

When she saw what was written there... she felt like she was going to faint. She tried to even take a breath or make a sound, but her mouth was too dry. She knew she would have to say the Selection aloud, to the thousand or more people in the room, but everything in her wanted to run away and hide.

She’d gotten the absolute worst Selection possible... the job was called ‘Child’.

Alice wanted to scream, or run, or cry. Or certainly some combination of those things. Only three different people got selected for the ‘Child’ job every year. Hundreds of people who could have gotten what she’d received, yet here she was - a beautiful young woman, top of her class... doomed to her joke of a future.

“Go on dear. Speak.” Angelina Aubernacky said behind her, giving the girl a very slight nudge to break her out of whatever trance she’d fallen into.

Fighting the dozens of emotions swirling through her head, Alice cleared her throat and leaned forward into the microphone, “C-C-Child.” She stuttered out, before putting her hand over the torch and dropping her selection into it.

As gasps, muttering, and even a few giggles sprang out across the crowd Alice watched as her slip of paper fell down into the burning torch and instantly burned into nothing, symbolically sealing her fate.

As the comments around the crowd started to increase in volume, Alice was frozen in place until she felt a few hands take her and escort her from the stage.

She was pulled in many different directions, and wasn’t even sure how long she was walking until she found herself in a small silver room with what appeared to be an operating table. Alice didn’t know everything there was to know about the Child job, but she knew it was one of the few that required an operation before their real work could begin.

A few Doctors stood to the side, a few of them looked sympathetic while one of them seemed to be smirking at her.

“P...please.” Alice said. “I don’t belong here. This can’t be my fate. Please don’t...” She knew what she was saying was pointless, but she didn’t want to believe the horrible hand that fate had dealt her. Her desire to please the community clashed with her instinct of self-preservation.

As hands grabbed Alice by the shoulders she struggled and made a futile effort to pull away from them... A mask was slowly placed over her mouth and the faster Alice continued to breathe... the fuzzier and fuzzier her vision became...
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This story was written by Zander Chesney

You can find more of his content here :

https://zanderchesneyoriginals.tumblr.com/