The fluorescent lights in the bathroom flashed as they do right before they go dead, but the boy who was leaning against the sink staring at himself in the mirror didn't seem to be bothered by the flickering.

He sighed and pulled one hand through his dirty blonde hair but when he did, he saw the white bracelet around his left wrist. When he looked from the bracelet in the mirror to his green eyes he saw that he looked tired and pale, but he figured that was just the white pale light playing a trick on him

Tomorrow was his 18th birthday. But the white light from the bracelet just made his coming birthday an anxious event. It was often a death penalty to turn 18 and have a white bracelet, it only changed color if you find your fated partner. And if you were one of the unlucky people you where the youngest of the couple and then you both die when you turn 18.

But there was still hope that he was the older one of the two, then he would have some time to be able to find his soulmate before she turned 18 and they would be able to live happily ever after. He shrugged his anxiety of when someone knocked on the door and as he turned to meet his mother with tired eyes.

She had the same dark blond hair like him, but her eyes were a bright blue on the border to gray. Those almost gray eyes seemed to be tired too as she glanced at his bracelet and then meet his gaze.

“Elias, there is still a chance too...” She began with a whisper but was interrupted by Elias. “Yes, I know”

Even though he knew his mother meant well he could not hold her worried gaze and turned to the mirror again. All this was reminding them about what happened to Elias big sister 11 years ago. She was the youngest and it was over so fast nobody could even blink.

“The seminar is tomorrow at 11:00, and you will be there and get the chance to see the world before finding your fated wife and get tons of little children.” She reassured him from her place at the door.

Ever since the beginning of May he had had nightmares every night about his birthday, that he would be found dead tomorrow in his bed just like his sister. The lack of sleep made him feel so tired and on closer inspection, he had dark bags under his eyes.

Of Course, the world and the system took steps to make sure the bug did not kill too many and there were 1% of the people that did not survive the bug. In the richer zones at least where they had the money to travel to the many social gatherings out in the world designed to get people to meet.

But when your parents have to work 16 hours shift to make sure they had food and heat Elias did not have the budget to travel around the world at the age of 16, so he had to take the system trip. An all-inclusive trip designed and paid for the system, everyone at the age of 18 is eligible.

But even though Elias look forward to the trip he was worried about two things, first was the matter of being alive and the second was that he didn't know if his parents would be able to afford heat when he and his wages left the household. If you asked many people in the slums you found that they didn't see any differences in the world before and after the system, some even said you were worse off after the system.

Sure, corruption was at a low minimum and everyone had work but the rich were still greedy and did not care for the slums.

Elias shook his head to clear his thoughts. What was the meaning of him looking for a soulmate when they both were doomed to live in the slums and work long hours and then die from a disease or work accident.

With clenched fists, white-knuckled he started at that tired young boy in the mirror and let out another loud sigh and left the bathroom.

The bathroom door clicked silently when he closed it and the corridor outside of the bathroom was dark except a small flickering light and Elias sighed again.

They had two lights and both of them would die soon so they were trying to save as much they could from them, fluorescent lights were not cheap to replace.

But as Elias moved down the corridor the light went out and was replaced by a more orange tone flicker that came from a candle. When he came closer to the doorway he heard whispers and stopped to try to hear what his parent said. But he could not make sense from the whispers but he heard from the tones that his mother was sad about something.

He could only guess what she was sad about and did not want to hear anymore what they talked about so he devised a plan to sneak past the kitchen door and reach his small room.

He decided to sneak past fast and hope that his preoccupied parents did not notice him.

As Elias snuck past the door he heard his father murmuring comforting words to his mother that where sobbing and it hurt him more than he thought it would. Off course they would be sad, how could they not be? But the feeling of not being able to do anything about it hurt more than his mother's actual tears.

When he reached the door to his room he quickly opened it as it made the door squeak less than opening it slow. And in a heartbeat, he was in his small room with the door closed.

The room was so small that you had three steps from the door to the bed that looked a bit cramped in, not really fitting the room.

On the wall next to the door sat his discom on the docking station and glowed with a faint green light. The discom was an awesome piece of technology that one could use to control anything and where often integrated with the home itself.

But Elias discom was the old generation, really old generation. And with it, he could only turn on and off the lights, surf the net and take the occasional com call from people he knew.

When he swept his hand over the discom it’s panel began to shine to show that it was fully charged and ready to be used.

He took it out of the docking station and laid down in the bed and started to ponder on what he should do to make the time go on. When he remembered that he hadn't bought a ticket for the rail yet, why buy a ticket beforehand when you are likely to die. But if he would survive it's good to know what time the speed rail leaves for CC Stockholm.

The rail would take an hour and a half and he let out a sigh when he saw the price of one ticket. And to his despair, he realized that he would have to wait an hour in CC Stockholm before the seminar started. To top it off he also notices that that rail should be the same rail that the rich kids took from the fancy residential area to the school in CC Stockholm each morning.

The northern slums were at the northern edge of the Swedish zone, and the reason for that where something about the pollution going north with the cold north winds sweeping the barren lands left from the great wars. And that meant that Elias had to go from the slums through the other areas with the rails, and they always looked down on people from the slums. Even though it was impossible to get off the rail when you were on it if you didn't have clearance to get off in that area.

One of the benefits of having the bracelets as identification when you board the rail if your slum you are only allowed to be in the slums or the CC’s.

And another benefit is that if you are from the slums there are only a few seats to book and there was none left. Elias let out a sigh and turned the bright screen off and put his arm over his eyes.

“Typically my luck, I’ll have to stand for an hour and a half and listen to the spoiled brats when they go to school.

He peeked past his arms to the ceiling where the constellations were drawn by his big sister when he was a little kid. With a smile, he remembered how angry his parents had been that she used her school lunch money to buy that luminescent color.

After being told off for hours by their parents she had just grind at Elias and whispered that being hungry was worth the luxury of giving her little adorable brother a great gift that would make him remember her for always.

Elias felt that it became harder to breathe and that his throat felt horrible dry, like if his own body decided to end things by strangling before the system bug would. He could only stare up at the small specks of paint and try to stay alive.

After some time he thought that it might be the bug and quickly checked the clock on the discom. He was sure that this was the bug killing him but he saw that the clock was only 22:58, so he had an hour left to live, at least.

He gained control over his body after a while and let his arm fall down beside him and turned to the side and the docking station caught his eyes. Elias slowly got up from the bed and took two steps and put the discom at its place and swept his hand over the screen and the light went off. Before getting into bed again he undressed and looked the room over one more time before crawling down under the blanket. With one last look at the constellation, he closed his eyes and waited for the final verdict, would he wake up tomorrow or would we join his sister?