Alice and her mother approached the cement building with just a few minutes to spare. The line at the double doors reached around the corner, she counted 33 people in line. Her mother reached for her jacket, fixing the collar as tears began to stream down her face. Without exposing what was in her hands, she two items in either of Alice’s pockets. Alice gazed at her mother, curious. But she just nodded, and Alice knew not to question it further. She hugged her mother and wiped her tears, unsure if she would be able to hug her mother again.

She got to the back of the line as the doors opened. The guards stood at the entrance. Their masks blocked their faces and their hands held only a scanning gun. As she entered the building, she noticed nothing but an empty room with fifty chairs. Every chair had a name, and every name had a person in line. No one said a word, but everyone knew their place. Of course they did, they’ve been trained for this since the moment they entered the town. No one remembers when they entered, only that it was their duty to stay for the ceremony.

Alice found her name and waited for the ceremony to begin. She wondered why they called it a ceremony, in her eyes there was nothing to celebrate. Conformity? Submission to Authority? She furrowed her eyebrows as the Commander entered and stood at the front of the room. His eyes were black and piercing. He smiled as the last person took their seat, like he was excited to determine the fate of the chosen one.

“Right wrists out. Do not move until your numbers are visible.”

Immediately her right arm extended into the space between her and the row ahead of her. Second to last in the third row. Two and three makes five, she thought to herself, another odd number. Alice always counted, but she never counted odd numbers, until that morning.

She listened as the scanners seared into each person’s arm a series of three numbers. They tell you when you first get here that your numbers are predetermined, and on your Ceremony Day they will burn the veil off of your numbers and you will go home when have shown the Commander your numbers. Every Ceremony has one person with one set of numbers that doesn’t get to go home: 7 3 5. They don’t tell you where you will end up, they only tell you that you don't want to be that one, with those three numbers.

The sound of burning skin slowly worked its way down the isle until it was screaming in her ear that she was next. The guard grabbed her by the arm and yanked her out of her seat, they never said how aggressive the guards would be. Searing the skin off of her wrist, the numbers appeared in dark black ink:

7 3 5

Alice’s breath caught as the realization hit that she was the one. She understood in that moment that she was never going to see her mother again, and she had to make a choice. She could let the guards take her to whatever the fate of the chosen one would be, a fate certain to be the end all, or she could run, and take a chance on the possibility of survival.

She counted the guards standing at the left door, 2, 4, 6, and then the guards at the right door, 1, 3, 5. She looked past the entrance that led her to this fate, and decided the only way out was the right door. Odd numbers it is. She stood as if to approach the commander with her hands in her jacket pockets, remembering her mothers gesture.

On the left, she felt her mothers locket, and on the right, her fathers blade. Alice's mother knew the chances of this being her fate, and she took the chance her father didn't get to. She wouldn’t let a tear fall before she approached the Commander, sprinting towards the door with the odd number of guards, right blade in hand and the closer she got, the guards began to disappear, one by one.

She ran with her eyes closed, afraid of what might happen if she saw where they went, she clutched the locket and the blade and screamed as she pushed past the double-doors. Silence followed, a bright light, and then, nothing.

When she woke, her arms and legs were strapped to a chair, completely incapable of movement. As her eyes adjusted to the light she noticed a screen on the left wall, replaying the trauma of the ceremony on a loop. Suddenly a door opened behind her,

"Congratulations no. 735, you have completed the simulation."