I lifted my head off my pillow and sniffed the air around me. All I could smell were the dead bodies laying outside my window waiting to be buried before they turned. I didn't enjoy my job, burying the dead, but it was my duty to my town. I couldn't let all of the bodies turn and wipe everyone out. I did what I had to do for humans and for my town.
I got up and put my robe on. I looked out my open window and saw the farmers already at their plots, ready to start the day. I also saw people dragging the dead out of their houses and putting them on the already large pile. I would have a lot of work that day.
"Hazel!" someone yelled from below. I looked down and saw Alexander waiting for me to come out. "We need to start working if we want to finish on time today," he said.
I went back into my room, got dress in my work clothes of denim overalls, knee high rubber boots, canvas gloves, and straw hat. I hurried down the stairs, dumped a but of food into my cat's dish, and ran outside. I pulled my shovel off the hook outside my door and ran out to Alexander.
We exchanged a friendly hug and started digging the trenched at the edge of the fence. We had to be careful not to dig where we had already buried people, but we also had to be careful not to dig where we had tunnels under the forest. If we collapsed the tunnels, our town was sure to die within hours. The tunnels were our only connection to beyond the forest.
Once our trenches were fifteen feet by five feet and six inches, we started loading the bodies into the trenches. Some of the bodies already smelled of the bodies that were left to turn, back before the caretakers were trained. These we placed at the bottom of the trench so there was no way they would ever get out if they had actually already turned.
After a long, tedious day of work, Alexander and I went to my cottage, where we always went after work. In about a month, I was to move in with him, finally declaring us matched. The matching process was long, but usually worth it.
What the Council Members do is they take into consideration all the twenty year olds in the town, and match them according to these guidelines.
-If they were friends as kids (yes)
-If they are related (no)
-If their families are friends (yes)
-If their older siblings are matched to each other (no)
-If they love each other (yes)
-If they hate each other (no)
Alexander and I were friends as kids, we love each other, and our families are friends. I felt very lucky to be matched with Alexander, but I couldn't really have been matched with anyone else. Most other people my age are either my cousins, or hate me.
"What did you think of work today?" Alexander asked me from across my kitchen table, steam from tea making him look a bit ghost-like.
"I just wish people would find a cure to this epidemic," I said. "A week is long enough with all the doctors in our town."
"I agree, but at least we are getting payed more," he said. Alexander was always one to look on the bright side of things, even if it means we have to think of being payed more because people are dying as the bright side.
We chatted a while longer, and when it was time for all visitors to leave the houses they were in, Alexander surprised me. "What if I stayed here tonight, Hazel?" he asked as the five minute bell rang.
"What do you mean...? Like... sleep here? Not leave like the rules say?" If you asked anyone, they would say I studied the rule book religiously. That was one reason almost anyone who wasn't related to me hated me.
"Yeah. Let's forget about the rules for tonight. I love you, you love me, and there is only one month left until we are officially matched."
"Well... I don't have any guest beds," I said, trying to think of excuses for him to leave and follow the rules as much as I loved him.
"Hazel, you don't understand. Let's throw the rulebook to the wind. I'm sleeping here in your house. Upstairs in your bed. Next to you." Alexander didn't usually act like this, but when he did, I couldn't do anything but follow along with his ridiculous plan.
We went upstairs, changed into our pajamas, and fell asleep in my bed looking into each others eyes as if they contained the secret to life, the universe, and everything.
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