My father is quickly located by the soldiers. While they’re distracted, I back away, out of line. The boy next to me sees and shifts over slightly, hiding the fact that a person is missing from the line. His movement, risking his Lucky for mine, is incredibly generous. A small sigh of relief escapes my lips. I crouch down and weave my way through the stone-still bodies, all of them watching as my father’s fingerprints are scanned. If I can just make it to the edge of the enclosure before they find me, I can climb the fence and escape. I wait for the band around my wrist to light up, signaling where I am, so that they can kill me. 

It doesn’t. A low hiss of a whisper runs through the otherwise silent crowd. The soldiers hold up his hands, staring at the burns that hide his prints. He was in an accident, years ago, and is still scarred enough to be printless. His data doesn’t transmit to the system. I’m safe.

He’s not. And he knows where I should be. Who knows what he’ll say in his desperation? I don’t trust him. I never have. Why would I trust someone who’s caused my Lucky so many punishments?

“What is your daughter’s place in line?” They ask. My father does not say a word, to my surprise. One soldier’s swear echoes over the silent mass of thousands. The second forces him to his knees. Without his data transmitting to the system, the soldiers will have to manually enter his number in the database to condemn his Lucky and mine. For the sake of convenience, they’ll kill him first and his Lucky second. The swearing soldier pulls out his blaster and levels it at my father’s chest.

I don’t make a move. Creeping out of line like this is the worst infraction I’ve ever committed- in fact, it’s the first. Unlike my father, I have always abided by the law. My mother raised me to. She’d been forced into marrying my father in the hopes that she, the citizen with the least infractions at the time, could tame his rebellious nature. She couldn’t.

The soldier with the blaster aimed at my father growls. “I’ll ask you one more time. Where is your daughter’s place in line?”

That’s when my father pulls something from his pocket and tosses it at the guard. It explodes in midair, spreading a sort of green haze over everything. I sniff it and start to feel drowsy. Around me, the perfect ranks are falling apart, toppling like human dominoes.

I feel an arm around my legs and another looping around my back, and then I’m scooped off the ground. Through the haze, I see someone in a black mask, carrying me away. I think- I think it might be him. I’m too tired to object- I just want to drift off...