Language Paper 1 Question 5

Humans aren't allowed on the Outside.

Only the numbered ones are permitted to leave the family house (and only then on the eve before their thirteenth birthday), and when they leave, they don't come back. We only know what we have been said by our government. They only ever say one thing. The Outside is bad.

My name is Kaelie 07284, and I turn thirteen tomorrow. My last name was taken from me at birth, and I was given a number. I am a numbered one, and in three hours, fourth three minutes, and thirty one seconds, I will be taken into the Outside. I will not return.

My mother sits with me: her hands in mine, clutching on so tightly that I know when she releases her grip on me, there will be half-moon-shaped dents in my flesh. She is trying to stay calm for me, but the flickering light next to her face gives her a ghoulish appearance, turning her tear tracks into streams of blood on her face. We do not speak; there is nothing to say.

Every so often, a scream pierced the silence. The screams hold the agonies of a thousand men, but no one stirs. Shrieks of pain are a common sound on the Outside, and we have grown desensitised to them. This is why we aren't allowed to leave. We are being protected. From what? We do not know.

Instinctively, as another painful scream rings out across the Outside, I reach up to touch my braid. I stare at the clock and realise with a shudder that ripples through my entire body that I only have a few minutes until I am to see what no one in my family ever has - the entire world that has been hidden from us since before I can remember. My mother holds on tighter, and her body begins to tremble with barely contained sobs. A sound like grinding metal drags closer and closer. Thirty seconds to go. I stand up and brush myself down with unsteady hands.

Ten seconds.

The grinding is so loud it makes the very ground shake beneath our feet. It's as if Mother Earth herself knows what is to come - and she is afraid. I am too.

Four seconds.

My mother's face crumples as she struggles to remain upright and pulls me into her arms.

A single resounding bang on the roof. Then silence. It's time.

It happens lightening fast. a hidden hatch is ripped from the roof, revealing a blood-red sky. A figure dressed in black drops through. As he stabs a needle of glowing liquid into my arm, one thought sticks in my head.

I know where the screams are coming from.