Free The Roar by Clayton Emma Page B

fists. They turned and walked out of the office without saying a word, and Mika rose and followed, clutching the container of sorting beads, his heart feeling like a punchbag that was about to get a good pummelling.
    He followed them out of the school gates feeling as dark as the clouds overhead. The walkway was dreary and deserted because everyone was at work or school and the wind blew gusts of drizzle in his face. His parents were still wearing their work uniforms, and Mika suddenly realized how much trouble they would be in for having to leave early. He watched their backs as they walked ahead of him, aware that he was in the eye of a storm and worse was yet to come. He listened to the roar of trains and hover cars on the traffic trunk into Oxford Central, the whine of the rich people’s pods on the air roads above the clouds and the hollow clang of metal on metal in the Fab Food Factory and felt a wave of despair.
    How, he thought, had the world become so horrible?
    He looked around and all he could see were rain clouds, floodwater and concrete created by human beings. Even the plague had been a human invention; the animals had caught it from a mouse who’d escaped from a research laboratory, yet everyone blamed the animals. And because of the plague, humans had poisoned all the trees and plants so the animals didn’t have anywhere to live or food to eat. Everything beautiful in the world had been killed. How had they ended up living like this ? He yearned for what he had never seen. He ached for the grass he had never felt beneath his feet and the flowers he had never smelled. And he was angry that the world he had been born into was ruined. How could people have let this happen? It didn’t make sense. His world didn’t make sense and he didn’t make sense. He felt as if he was staggering around with his arms outstretched and a blindfold on, trying to solve an impossible puzzle. But how could he, a twelve-year-old boy, find outanything? He wasn’t even allowed to make the decision not to drink some stupid vitamins. And everyone laughed at me, he thought. They think I’m a freak. Even Kobi drank it.
    They entered their fold-down apartment in silence. It was gloomy and cold, but Mika’s parents didn’t put the light on, they stopped by the sofa and turned to face him.
    ‘Well?’ Asha said, her face dark.
    ‘I couldn’t help it,’ Mika muttered, feeling more afraid now than he was of Mr Grey.
    ‘What do you mean you “couldn’t help it”?’ David asked, coldly. ‘You couldn’t help what?’
    ‘Not wanting to drink the Fit Mix,’ Mika muttered, shifting uncomfortably.
    ‘So you decided to chuck it in the Headmaster’s face?’ Asha said. ‘What a brilliant idea! Why didn’t you kick him in the shins while you were at it!’
    ‘What are you trying to do, Mika?’ David said, rubbing his thinning hair with exasperation. ‘Make us homeless? We can’t afford to pay a hundred-credit fine! We haven’t even finished paying your hospital bill yet!’
    ‘I know, I’m sorry,’ Mika said, earnestly. ‘But Mr Grey was trying to force me to drink that stuff.’
    ‘It was a party for odd’s sake !’ David shouted, unleashing his temper and beginning to frogmarch around the sofa. ‘Do you think they were trying to poison you?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ Mika said quietly. ‘I got this bad feeling.’
    ‘Oh Mika,’ Asha said, feeling a surge of desperate sadness because he seemed so lost. ‘Why would they poison you? You are the first children born for thirty years! They are trying to help you grow strong! The Fit Mix is extra vitamins and nutrients because all you eat is Fab food!’
    Mika watched his father lean with both hands on the back of the sofa and for a moment he looked broken and Mika thought he was going to cry.
    ‘Do you know what Fab food is?’ Asha continued.
    Mika shook his head.
    ‘Mould!’ she said, her eyes shining with tears. ‘White fungus grown on walls in the Fab Food