Prologue: Is There Room For One More Son, One More Son

I do not like alarm clocks; I tend to wake up fifteen minutes before the alarm. I spend the time staring at the ceiling, thinking about things which have already been decided in my life: the Sa'arm invasion, my mother being picked up by the Confederacy, life in an Earth First county, and residing in a youth hostel.

I was over the age limit (fourteen) that the Confederacy set for being allowed to hitch a ride with my mother when she got caught on the right side of an interdiction field. My mother's looks coupled with high parenting and sex scores made her a sure thing to be selected as a concubine. She had to choose between getting my six-year-old sister to safety or keeping our family together. Missing them is the hardest part of those fifteen minutes before the alarm goes off.

The government gives a nice check to the families of people left behind after a pickup. With the federal government's stipend, I could have continued living in our apartment until I graduated high school, but the Earth First politicians in the county had different ideas. The county required anyone under the age of eighteen who was 'abandoned' by their family after a pickup to live in a youth hostel; they completely ignored Federal law which gave us our majority at fourteen. Earth First politicians like to point at the consequences of Confederacy policy, like 'children' being left to fend for themselves. Apparently, stuffing a rundown hostel with teenagers offered too many media opportunities to be passed up. Any time an Earth First media outlet needed to fill a few minutes of air time they could do a human interest piece about how the Confederacy screwed us over.

Earth First politicians were close to passing a state law which would put our money in a trust until we turned eighteen. I had already spent a good part of the money. The thought I had of the look on the Earth First "inquisitor's" face when I told him or her that I spent the money on hookers and pot amused me for the last five minutes before the alarm.

Having gotten out of bed, I wrapped a towel around my waist; hostel life did have one silver lining--communal baths. Since Earth Firsters trend towards religious fanaticism I wondered how they missed the rampant opportunities the baths lent to the corruption of minors.

Chelsea and Jackie were there when I entered the shower room. Chelsea was short and curvy. Jackie was her best friend and appeared to be using her tongue to trace Chelsea's curvy thighs to their point of origin.

"Hey there. Wanna join in?" Chelsea said as I walked across the shower tiles. She was leaning against the shower wall and thrusting her chest towards me. I admired her breasts for a few seconds before shaking my head.

"Got school," I told her. Jackie must have hit a good spot. Chelsea grabbed her friend's head and hooked a leg over Jackie's shoulder.

"Are you ... sure?" Chelsea gasped. Jackie shifted around. She spread her thighs wide and raised her ass, waving it invitingly in my direction.

"Yeah," I whispered. It would have been rude not take a few seconds to watch though.

I stepped under the shower head and grimaced as the cold water struck me. The hot water heaters could not keep up with the morning demand. It helped my resolve about not getting caught up in Chelsea and Jackie's show.

"Hey, dude," Michael said, taking the shower spot next to mine. He eyed the girls longingly. They were sixty-nining in the middle of the shower floor. Michael liked the girls; the girls liked every guy not named Michael. It was a girl thing: the more attention Michael showered on them, the more the girls ignored him. Michael stroked his hard dick. I could see the anger in his eyes when he looked at me. Michael was angry at the girls, but a hard dick does not have pride.

"Feel free," I told him. Michael leaned back on the wall to jack off. The girls were playing a losing game with him, but they did not know it. If it kept on much longer, he would move on to others.

"I'll see you later," I said to my shower mates before drying off and heading back to my room.

A minute later, Jackie pushed open my door. She eyed my body as I finished drying off. I dropped the towel and stood facing her. My dick rose from the pressure of her eyes.

"You don't play with us anymore, Jason." She sat on the bed, putting one foot on it and exposing her pussy.

"Michael wants you ... much more seriously than I ever will," I told her. "He's my friend."

"Michael is vanilla," she replied with a shrug.

"You could do worse than vanilla."

"Those Earth First assholes control the whole county and are getting more powerful," she said. "We're going to die here, Jason. I don't want the last taste in my mouth to be vanilla."

"I'm more vanilla than Michael," I said.

She smiled and tilted her head to the side. "No, darling! You're the weekly special: we never know what we're going to get."

I stared at her for a few seconds. Shrugging, I grabbed my pants and put them on. She sighed before strutting out. I pulled a shirt over my head, finished dressing, and headed out.

The kids were gathered around the TV in the common area. A couple of them waved at me to stop and watch with them.

"The Earth First Killer struck again," Michael told me. He was still in a towel.

"Who'd he get this time?" I asked. In the last few months, 'Earth First Killer' acquired a different connotation in our county. It used to mean an Earth Firster taking a lead pipe to a sponsor-level CAP (Capacity, Aptitude, and Potential) test scorer. After someone decided to take the fight to Earth First, it changed the meaning. He appeared to have no moral qualms about using Earth First's tactics against them.

"Jesus!" Chelsea whispered from the couch. She had not bothered with a towel.

"He got a fuckload of them," Michael told me. "High ups in the county Earth First organizations too!"

"What happened?" I asked.

"They were having a meeting about him," Michael said. "He locked them in and burned the church to the ground. Jesus! Senator Win was supposed to attend the meeting but canceled at the last moment. It would have been awesome if that motherfucker roasted alive!"

I whistled.

"The Earth First Killer is fucking crazy!" Jackie said, putting her hand on my shoulder. I ignored it. Michael looked at it jealously. She shook her head. "He's an animal, guys!"

"They want us all to die. Even if we score a six-point-five or higher on the CAP test and can volunteer for Confederacy service, there is still only a small chance we'll get picked up. These assholes want to take that chance and flush it!" Michael told her in a hard voice. "What are we ... what is the Earth First Killer supposed to do?"

Jackie would not meet his eyes.

We watched the news in silence. Over twenty leaders of the Earth First movement from many different towns in the county had been caught in the blaze as well as twice the number of Earth First muscle.

"This could change everything," Michael whispered. The room was so quiet that everyone heard him. A few kids nodded slowly.

I smiled and coughed to get their attention. I looked from Jackie to Chelsea before speaking. "I have it on good authority that Michael has a couple of tickets to ride."

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