A story written by me.
--

     "Echo..."
     "Echo..?"
     "Can you hear me..?"
     The voices float around my head, bouncing and banging against my brain. Disturbing my gentle thoughts and daydreams. I squeeze my eyes open just a crack, and blink back at the blinding light that greets me.

     "Echo..."

     I try opening my eyes again, and this time manage to keep them open.

     This isn't my Xanderian apartment.

     This is a hospital.

     No... It's not.

     I slowly sit up, my blonde hair sticking to the back of the dentist-like chair.

     Where am I?

     The room has grey walls, and a grey ceiling. Very boring. I try to stand up, but a jolt runs through my body, forcing me to sit back down. I stifle a cry as my head throbs. I look down, and see the holographic chains linked to my legs and arms.

     What exactly are they doing there?

     It's only then I realize that I'm not alone. A man in with a visor covering his eyes and a grey checked suit was standing there.

     "Echo?" He asked. I found myself nodding.

     "That's me." I replied. He pulled out his identification card.

     "My name is Robert Yates, member of the Xander army. I'm here to talk to you about your sentencing."

     Sentencing...

     For what?

     Then I remember. Dawson. Our last chance at stopping the Department.

~.~

     "Are you sure about this, Dawson?" I asked shakily. Dawson nodded, his shaggy brown hair bobbing as he showed his opinion.

     "We need to stop this from happening. We can't let thousands of innocent people die, for nothing but the petty wishes of the Department." His green eyes burned into mine. "You of all people should understand that we have to do this, if not for all those other people, then for Olivia." I swallowed, and spoke softer than a whisper,

     "Let's do this."

~.~

     The Department of the Civilians. Or, the Department for short. Of the civilians? What a joke. The Department is certainly not concerned about the people of Xander.

~.~

     We snuck down the long hall, me using a stolen calibration card as a map. Dawson had managed to get one from a temporarily escaped Reboot. They caught the man  later that day. Dawson said he never talked to the man but I know that was where he got this crazy idea.

     What we needed to do was find the reboot room in order to stop this once and for all. We got lost along the way. We somehow ended up at the library. When Dawson exasperatedly asked how we had managed that, I told him their had been a glitch in the map. I knew very well that was not the case, but I wouldn't have told him: I had been reading the map upside down.

     After maybe fifteen more minutes of walking down familiar hallways, the calibration card beeped.

     "Seven meters ahead. On the right of this device, target found. Reboot room located." The robotic female voice informed us.

     As we approached the door, the voice spoke again.

     "Door is locked. Do you wish to commence laser sequence?"

     Laser sequence. Man, that sounded cool. I looked at Dawson. He nodded.

     "Yes." I commanded it. A bit of metal spun out of the front, and started buzzing. A green plasma ball appeared at the front.

     "Now cutting door."

~•~
     Looking back on it, it wasn't the brightest of plans. In reality, what hope did two teens have against an entire civilization of people. But then again, it was never really about bringing them down for good.

~.~

     The room was filled with thousands of green pods, none of them yet rebooted. As I looked around at all of the terrified faces, young and old, I felt sick to my stomach. All these people, killed off for the fact that they had flaws and unique features.

     We know why some people are here. People with red hair are given until the age of twenty to see if they grow out of it. If they don't, they're rebooted.

     If people have freckles, they're rebooted.

     If people are good at singing, they're rebooted.

     If people have feet bigger than average, they're rebooted.

     If on your third grade test, you say you want to be a teacher, you're rebooted.

     If you're like Olivia, you're rebooted.

~.~

     Maybe people will see us as a beacon of hope. Maybe a couple of foolish teens. I don't know. All that matters is that we couldn't just sit and do nothing.

~.~

     The room is massive, so big I can hardly see the back. And the roof is taller than I've ever seen in a building, almost as tall as the sky. My eyes swarm with green as I see capsules everywhere I look. I don't even know where to start looking for the button that will save all these people. Dawson turns to me, bewildered and overwhelmed.

     "Where should we look first?" He asks me.

     "I don't even know."
~•~

     What people don't understand is that these people are just doing normal things. Well, I suppose myself and Dawson might be some of the only civilians that know, but still. According to the history books I found, a lot of the traits we now consider to be "abnormal" were the traits of the major leaders of the first rebellion. Somehow the fact that a woman who spoke out had red hair doesn't seem like a good case for it to be considered an abnormality.

~.~

     Searching took us hours, just walking, and looking. I was surprised no guards or armies were alerted. I was scared, tired, yet determined to continue my quest. All around me, it was hard to ignore the terrified faces and mouths open in a silent scream.

     "I'll help you." I quietly promised.
~•~

     They didn't even know I had that book, and if they did I would have probably been rebooted sooner than this. If I'd have turned it in or left it where it was, I wouldn't be facing this predicament. But for some reason, something kept me from turning it over, and something compelled me to read every page and soak up every word.

~.~
     There it was, directly in front of me. The button that would end this all. Save thousands of lives.   My hand slowly reaches forward to touch it, but my mind stops me.

     Is this really what I'm going to do?

     I could lose it all. My family, my job. I could end up like these people. And then no one would remember me, and I would have nobody to mourn for my loss. But...

     Then there was Olivia. My Olivia. And I couldn't just pretend she didn't happen. She was here, and she wasn't gone yet, because I remembered her. I could do something to bring her back. I take a deep breath before pushing down the button. Of course, almost instantly, an alarm sounds.

     "System breached. System breached. Alert, alert..."

     Well of course they would have some security. Stupid.
~•~
     We hid as far away from the entrance as possible. Dawson had gone to scout for an escape, but I knew he wouldn't find one. Some of the people around me were trying to hold in their cries, and some were beyond the point of caring if they were heard. One man who looked to be in his mid fourties, clearly thinking we were already caught stormed up to me.

     "What have you done?" He shouted. "You've taken us out of the pods, and now they'll probably hurt the people we care about. What was your plan? Two teenagers against the world, huh? Well this isn't some cliche teen romance sweetie. This is life and death. And for my family back home, probably death. What were you thinking?" To say I felt stupid was an understatement. What were we thinking? There was no way we could have pulled off and-

     Someone grabs my leg. I look down and give a shriek of joy.

     There stands my four year old, curly haired sister.

     Olivia.
~•~

     She was my rock, and my everything.

~.~
     The guards finally found us. My Dawson was nowhere in sight. The armies started rounding up the people, some compliant and some fighting to the last moment. Olivia started to shake.

     "Hey, hey. It's okay kiddo. It'll-"

     "Don't make me go back Echo." She cut m off, pleading. "It was so lonely, and I didn't want you to forget me." I looked sadly at her.

     "There's no way I would ever forget you." I said, pulling her into a hug and whispering into her blonde hair. "I love you so much."

     Olivia pulled away and looked at me with a serious face.

     "You would have." She said. "They would have made you." I pulled her into an even tighter hug as I asked her a question.

     "What do you want me to do?" I asked her. I wished I hadn't. With such determination that I was sure that there was no way that it could have come from a four year old, she said the one thing I never wanted to hear.

     "Kill me."

~•~
     Where was Dawson? Was he safe? I wasn't going to ask about him in case he had escaped. I didn't want to compromise him. Yates began to speak again.

     "Because you have broken the law, and set the Department back on weeks of work, your sentence is rebootment. You will be disposed of as soon as possible, and y-" I cut him off.

     "You're sick." I spat. "All you departments and armies are sick." Yates flipped up his visor and looked at me with blue eyes full of pity.

     "No, Miss Tames." He said, reaching forward and tapping my forehead. "It appears you are." I angrily swatted his hand away.

     "I'm sorry, what?" I asked. "You think I'm sick? Sir, don't you think this is sick? Taking people who are no different than you and me, and destroying their memory for no reason other than something about them bothers you? What if it was your family? What if you knew you would never be able to remember them every again. That everything that was them would be erased for good?" Yates grabbed my arm harshly.

     "You know that's how it is, Echo. There is no room for people who are different. They just create a lack of jobs and fill spaces in prisons." He looked at me again with those pity filled eyes. Once again, I smacked his arm away. Softly, with intensity that I think surprised Yates, I spoke.

     "We both know that that isn't what it's really about."

     The pity in Yates' eyes vanished and was replaced by harsh anger.

     "You know we can't let you go. You've already caused enough damage as it is." Yates turned around and grabbed something from the metal cabinet. " I don't understand. You had never been brought up as a possible reboot candidate. You just threw your life away." He said. I opened my mouth to speak, but I felt a pinch in my arm. By the time it registered in my brain what it was, it was already too late. The freezing cold started at my toes. Some thing forced me to stand up. I knew there was no way I could get out of this now. Yates loaded me onto a cart, and I couldn't struggle. It was already staring to take effect. I knew they would wheel me down to the room where I would be rebooted. The freezing feeling slowly seeped up my body.

     As the green pod encased me, I remembered Olivia. The way she smiled whenever she heard music. The way she laughed at the birds flying past our window. The way she would say hello to strangers and sing in the marketplace. How she screamed when they took her away, when they deemed all her happiness 'imperfect'. I remembered my shaking hand as I pressed a gun against her temple. Her limp body tossed carelessly on the ground by the armies.

     I was glad we had done it. We had no idea what we were getting into, but I was glad. Someone needed to start a fire in the people, and I guess it was us who decided to go first.

     Yes, she's dead. But that was probably better. We made sure they never got the chance to reboot her. And as my mind stays aware in the endless infinite nothingness I will always be in, I can remember all the things we did together, even if she won't remember me.

     I was glad we had done it. We had no idea what we were getting into, but I was glad. Someone needed to start a fire in the people, and I guess it was us who decided to go first.

     I just hope that someone will hear about what Dawson and I did. And that someone will see it as a beacon of light instead of two teenage troublemakers where they don't belong.

     I hope someone can create a better plan, learning from where we failed, and bring the injustices of the Department to light.

     Because the world deserves to know.