Page 3 of Caging Fire
The world had changed long before I was born. Some attributed the designation mutations to evolution, but even now, whispers among conspiracy theorists suggested Arca was truly to blame. Possible chemical warfare on the public, military testing gone wrong. There was a theory for every scenario.
Arca had its hand in every pie before the world changed. They owned most household brands, held many military defense contracts, controlled almost all the corporations across the country, and managed the political agenda behind closed curtains. Their swift seizure of power surprised no one as the world plunged into absolute chaos. Privacy became a small price to pay for safety.
The only omegas who could hide their designations were born outside of hospitals, and they rarely survived the complicated childbirths. My dad risked everything to conceal me. Based on my mother’s complications, he suspected I was an omega. Acting quickly, he pricked another baby in the NICU and sent the duplicate blood for designation testing.
On paper, I was, and to everyone else appeared to be, a beta.
No one knew my secret.
As we neared the checkpoint, I fiddled with the identification card hanging from the lanyard around my neck. It was a lightweight plastic card, but it felt as heavy as a chain, causing my anxiety to climb. The front showed my picture: a small smile, big blue eyes, and a large black barcode underneath.
Rowan Isabel Miles, Beta, 26, Female, Un-mated.
My middle name was a parting gift from my mother. Her name had been Isabel, and it was the only connection I ever had to her. It was the only piece of her I carried with me, considering I had never even gotten to meet her.
My dad used to tell me I was the spitting image of my mother, with the same blue eyes and striking hair. Of course, I had seen her in a few photographs, but she always looked different from one picture to the next. I’m not sure I would even recognize her if she were to one day materialize in front of me. We were just strangers who shared the same name, and while I mourned the loss of a mother, my father made up for her absence in every way he could.
I stared anxiously out the window as we neared the checkpoint. Dust swirled around the car, but I could just make out Billy standing at the barricade, waiting to scan our IDs. His familiar face calmed my nerves considerably as I passed my ID to Malcolm in the front seat.
Outside, Billy tapped his knuckle on the window, and Malcolm slowly rolled it down using the hand crank. This old van was such a shit box. Nothing was automatic, not even the locks. The heat from outside collided with the car’s AC, fogging the windows and even Lily’s glasses.
“Hey Billy, how’s it going?” Malcolm coughed mid-sentence as the dust from outside entered through the open window, invading his lungs.
“Heyyy, Malcolm! Alex, Lily, Harper, Rowan,” he nodded to each of us as he listed our names, lingering on me longer than the rest.
I didn’t see it behind me, but I could almost feel the frown that undoubtedly crossed Harper’s face when he did this. Her infatuation with Billy was unhealthy. He was all she talked about: his hair, his uniform, all the cute beta babies they were going to make. She absolutely hated it when his glances lingered on me, when he found an opportunity to touch my arm while scanning my ID card, and especially when he asked what I was doing after our gig.
I did my best to brush off his advances while remaining cordial. I certainly did not return his affections, which I had assured Harper of time and time again. However, I found it helpful to be friendly with the man, because Billy was stationed at the checkpoint we crossed every weekend to reach Falcon City.
Billy didn’t ask us many questions, as he knew who we were from patronizing Rosie’s Bar. For the past three years, our band, Cherry Voltage, had frequently played live music there on Friday and Saturday nights. Billy was a fan of our music, and we sometimes hung around the bar with his friends and him after a gig.
“I didn’t know you guys were playing tonight! My buddy and I were just talking about heading to Rosie’s when our shifts were over,” he said, eyes lighting up as he glanced back at me.
He continued the casual conversation while scanning each of our IDs and returning them to Malcolm through the driver’s window. I watched him from the backseat, trying to understand what Harper found so attractive about the man. He had plain, shaggy brown hair, simple features, a straight nose, thin lips, and deep-set brown eyes. They were kind eyes, but they did nothing to capture my attention.
Betas never did.
Despite my suppressants eliminating my sex drive, I was biologically hard-wired to be attracted to alphas. However, I avoided them like the plague, considering all of them were Arca Military and would happily report an omega deserter. The only ones who weren’t actively enlisted were old and retired, like my dad had been, or mobster criminals dodging enlistment.
Maybe I was doomed to perpetual loneliness.
A sudden screeching noise sounded from the scanner, a loud alarm that sent panic racing through me. The noise snapped me out of my thoughts, and I quickly tried to gather information. Whose ID had set it off?
Shit! It was mine.
Billy had tried to scanmyID. How could this be happening? My ID was real, unlike those pathetic forged ones that were only good from a distance. I got it legally at the DMV, for Christ’s sake!
I was going to be sick.
He fumbled with the scanner, and when it made more strange noises, he banged it against his hand a few times.
“It does this sometimes; hang on a second,” Billy said as he continued smashing it against his palm.
Why the heck did it have to malfunction while scanning my ID?
My palms felt hot, and I tried to keep my composure, but I was sure my pale skin was several shades redder than before, revealing my anxiety. Billy glanced up, saw my obvious discomfort, and attempted to calm my nerves.
“Relax, Rowan, it’s fine. It’s just this stupid machine. It malfunctions about once a day. I just need to get my supervisor to fix it. Be right back.”
