Chapter 1
Just like every morning for as long as she
could remember, Audrey woke up with the sound of chirping birds in her ears. The
20 years old woman got lazily out of bed and looked at the world through her
window. Trees in their first flowering of spring met her eyes and she saw the
birds moving around each, trying to woo their partners probably. She smiled as
she saw a few peoples walking in the street. Their town – their country wasn’t
huge nor densely populated, but ever since she’d been a child, she had seen
more and more peoples being born here, and it made her so happy.
“Audrey, you’ll be late for school!” yelled her
dad from the kitchen down there.
“I’m coming dad!” she replied, rushing to get
clothed and then went to eat.
She was met by her whole family down there.
Both of her parents were in their late forty and it started to show. Her dad
had graying hair and even her mother started to show signs of age; but they
were still healthy and strong, of course. As for her siblings, the twins seemed
relatively calm today. At fourteen each, the two girls had really started to
try and become different, eating different stuff, doing opposite activities,
etc.
Helena was a shut-in, eating very little
and thus her body was lither and perhaps a tad smaller now. Sofia, to the contrary, was outgoing,
sportive – perhaps even too much – and she loved to eat food which would settle
on her curves. Aubrey was proud of her C-cup breasts but her little sister
already boasted a D-cup and seemed very intent on going ever higher on the
alphabetical order. She was eating enough for two this morning while her twin
took in just enough to endure through the morning – but nobody said anything,
it was perfectly normal here.
“Ready for today? They’ll be giving out the
answers to your applications, right?”
“Yes” replied Audrey, feeling nervous suddenly.
“Marie and Anna said they were ready to pack things up as soon as they’ll get
the approval from the authorities.”
“They seem mighty sure they’ll get that”
chuckled her father. “Maybe they’ll be disappointed and they’ll have to stay
here.”
“I don’t know… usually, they grant those
applications, right?”
“Yeah, but there is quotas. If too many of us
leave this place…” said her mother, her voice trailing.
“Why would anyone want to leave?” asked the
twins in unison, before looking at each other and giggling. “I mean… we’re safe
here, great even!” continued Sofia.
“That’s true, but there is a whole world out
there” said Audrey, almost longingly.
She hadn’t asked to leave this place; she hadn’t
the courage, if she was being honest. To be thrown into a wide, unknown world
of giants and all seemed just too much for her. She had always been terrified
of those stories about those enormous peoples, the MAJORS. This place, one of
the many reservations for minors made over the decades was her world and she
felt safe here. Even if she wanted to look from the walls so to speak. That’s
why she had applied for the border guard’s course at the university.
“And what a world!” huffed Helena, who looked
up from her small bowl so everyone would see her scowl. “Horny giants all
around, bashing each other and stuff. We’re better here!”
“You’re just jealous because they all have tits
bigger than your head” laughed her twin.
“They have tits bigger than your torso, whaley”
replied Helena, which turned Sofia an incredible shade of red as the two
teenagers started to argue.
Audrey ate her pancake without a word. Her best
friends wanted to go there, in that world of titans, but she herself had no
interest in that. She wanted to meet one of those MAJORS, perhaps even those
legendary CYCLOS or whatever they were called… but she didn’t want to leave the
reservation proper. 90% of the minors who did never came back. Either it was
because they had found a mate out there, they died or they got pregnant with a
MAJORS and the policy was to preserve, as much as possible, their gene-pool
from MAJOR’s influence.
Since the reservations had been set up, more
than 150 years ago, at the dawn of the CYCLO age of the Matthewsons and the
like, this policy had allowed minors to move away from extinction. They were
far less numerous than MAJORS, of course, but at least they weren’t threatened
by oblivion because a dude over two meters and a half tall wanted to have sex
with three of their kind in the same night, or something like that. It was a
good thing, Audrey knew this. And still, she felt somewhat stifled, as if she
was in a pretty cage.
“You did apply for the border guard, right
honey?” asked her mother as she gently dropped a glass of orange juice next to
her older daughter.
“Yeah… And I think I managed to do good at the
exams but…”
“You aced them kiddo” said her father, pointing
at her with his spoon. “No false modesty here, the border guard would be dumb
not to recognize that you’re the best of your year!”
Audrey fidgeted. She had never been at ease
with compliment, even from her family. She knew her athletic build had allowed
her to do good during the exams, and she new how to wield her hypodermic rifle
and guns according to standards… but she couldn’t help but be worried. Shooting
a dart at a picture of an angry MAJOR to make him fall asleep was one thing,
doing so to a real one, in her mind, was something else altogether.
“Don’t worry sweetie. You’re young, even for a
minor. You’ll have all the time in the world to decide what to do with your
life if you aren’t selected to the border” said her mother gently as she kissed
her forehead.
* * *
“Audrey Kerbrat!” called a voice and she jumped
out of the chair she had been sitting and walked briskly toward the door.
It had been over an hour since she had come
here, to the University. Almost all her friends had come and gone already.
Marie and Anna had been elated, they’d both got to see the outside world – Anna
was moving to Paris, barely four hundreds kilometers away the next week ; and
two weeks later, Marie would go to Melbourne, at the other side of the world.
Audrey had been super happy for them, but also a little sad – she hadn’t any
other real friend here and she didn’t want to leave that little region in the
center of France
were local minors were sheltered…
“Thank you for being here Audrey” said one of
her professor, a wry old man with a large smile and a larger mustache. “No need
to be nervous I assure you.”
Professor Zitter always had the knack to calm
down his students, and even today it worked. He looked at her with an amused
glint in his eyes and it was enough for the young minor to feel her worries
start to dissipate. On his left and right were two other peoples, whom she
didn’t recognize. One seemed to wear an official pin, indicating his
affiliation to the “government” of the enclave. The other was a black minor
with curves which would have made Sofia
sick with envy.
“Those are Martin Dubourg and Sephania
Matthewson” explained her professor.
“Oh.”
She recognized the names, at the very least.
Dubourg was the official liaison with the outside world, even if he rarely
appeared in public inside the reservation proper. As for Sephania, her name and
her proud bearing indicated that she was probably of the real deal Matthewson
family. Audrey felt her nervousness return with a vengeance when she realized
who would be delivering the verdict on her application. It was absolutely
unheard off for such important peoples to be here!
“Don’t worry, all his fine” said the Matthewson
gal, her voice powerful, confident but gentle. “In fact, it is your stellar
results which have attracted my and Mr. Dubourg’s attention.”
“Indeed. You aced all your exams, physical and
theoretical” said the forty something man with a slight smile. “Which has left
with a conundrum we hope you’ll be able to solve.”
“Really? I, if I can be of help!” she replied
too hastily, which made the three older minors smile.
“You see” started Pr. Zitter, “we have had a
lot of applications for border guard this year. And in fact counting you, we
are short one place and it’d break our heart to dash the hopes of one you young
peoples who have succeeded.”
“Therefore, we have decided to offer you a
unique opportunity. Would you agree to be applied to the Outer Border guards?”
Audrey blinked. The Outer Border was real?
Everybody spoke of it in hushed tones, as if it was a conspiracy or something
like that. Border guards patrolled the 10km deep area surrounding the habitations
of the minors, but it was suspected that a further 20 km area existed. And it
was said that minors weren’t the only ones patrolling in that area. Nobody was
ever allowed to go wander there, of course, so there was no proof of it, but
Audrey was now offered a opportunity to discover the truth of it!
“I’m in!” she blurted, before turning red with
embarrassment.
“Wonderful. You’ll have to move in the Outer
border area tomorrow then. We’ll explain the details to your family, but we’ll
require of you to choose your partner for this mission. At first it’ll be a six
months long tour, to see if you can adapt. Here are three profiles we have
selected. They are young - a tad older
than you however - but highly capable and have been grilled to be sure they’d be
able to work properly with a trainee like you” explained Dubourg as he produced
three files for her to peruse.
“We need your answer in an hour” stated
Sephania with an encouraging smile.
* * *
That hour was far too short for Audrey’s taste.
She barely had the time to really get a glance at the three women she had been
told to choose from. But she had made her choice. Their resume seemed great,
the very little she had been given at least and they were beautiful. But the
third one had had something which had caught her eyes. Perhaps it was her read
hair, kept in a short, masculine way, perhaps it was her very muscular and yet
perfectly feminine body… or a combination of all of that.
In any case, she was what she loved in women.
She had never admitted it, but Audrey was attracted as much by boys than girl –
perhaps even more girls than boys, if she was being honest with herself. She
did her best to hide it, because there was a certain pressure for minors to
give birth to new generations. And that Megan girl seemed just too beautiful
for her to pass up the opportunity to work with for six months.
“An excellent choice – perhaps a bit bold, but
we were the ones who put Megan in that trio” chuckled Matthewson, grinning at
the other two. “She’ll be extremely happy to meet you tomorrow. I hope you’ll
be ready, it’ll be a great change in your life, I’m sure you’ll love it
however. Megan is one of our best elements.”
“Uh… why was it bold of me?” dared to ask
Audrey as she exited, whispering it to her professor.
“Oh… If you haven’t noticed way, far from me to
spoil your surprise tomorrow; all I can say is that Megan will surprise you”
replied the old man. “Just, remember that if you ever feel insecure for
whatever reason, you can call your parents or someone in there and we’ll act
swiftly, okay?”
“Okay” she replied, a little cowed, but also
elated – the next day would be memorable!