~10 months later~

Jelm ran all the way back to Zakt's place, with two brown and grey patch bags, one in each hand. "Zakt! Zakt!" he banged on the door, awkwardly as the bag swung in hands.  Zakt answered smiling wide. He looked down at the sacks at knew what they were instantly.

Both obviously stuffed with the clothing they'd be forced to wear for another entire week. Jelm handed Zakt one bag. "You ready for this?" he asked. Zakt came out and just looked back into the shack. He slowly closed the door and just stood looking down, his hand still on the handle. "Zakt?" Jelm frowned a little unsure.

He turned to Jelm smiling, that same dashing smile he'd always had. "Let's go." He said at once.

Zakt stood, as one of the first in line for the exam. There were young, old and the plain stupid, all waiting for a chance to be told they could go up. Up to a place that they weren't even sure was that much better than it was down here. Up to where they hoped there would be wind, hoped to see the sky, hoped to see the sun. Hoping they wouldn't have to wear a gas-mask just to breathe properly. Up to a place, where they knew they could never come back from, even if they didn't like it. They knew that there was no turning back once they did this. Even still, knowing something exists and only ever being told about it, would never compare to seeing and experiencing the real thing. 

The people most just called the "Scientists" wore big black shielded gas masks. You couldn't see anyone's face. They're full length white body suits were fit to form and they had large bulky screens on their wrists that they could use to communicate with each other. Even the sound of their voices was played through there. You could see some of their hair behind their heads, so you knew they were humans. But no one ever knew if they were seeing the same scientists or different ones every time.  You could tell male from female - sometimes the skin of their necks would reveal lighter or darker skin. The hair seemed to always be the same shade of black however. 

The Scientists were not allowed to let anyone examined to be healthy to stay down here, unless they had an , no one was exempt. Once you got a clean bill of health, you had one hour to get clothes and come back, or they came after you. If you didn't want to leave you simply didn't take the test. It was the same story people heard every time. They wait to make your clothes until you get there to reduce waste.  One was allowed to take clothes up because they won't provide clothing until after you were up there for a week; something about a holding period.  Zakt was certain it was a way for everyone up there to know you were from the Slums when you arrived.  There must be something to look out for so anyone around know what you were.

Jelm stood not far behind. He had to be sure Zakt passed before he took it. Otherwise it was all for nothing, and they could forget the plan. Zakt promised he'd let both him and Remis go up and forget everything about the Slums if he couldn't make it up. He'd stay with Zenny, until she decided to leave as well. Jelm wasn't sure it was such a good idea to lie to Zenny like this. He'd already said most of his goodbye's to her, but Zakt . . . He'd made himself pretty clear about how HE would handle things with her. Jelm could already feel himself sympathizing with her. He curled his fingers in his stringy hair. He'd allowed his hair to grow about another inch though it still barely touched his shoulders. He looked past the few people to Zakt. His wavy hair was nice and long now. Now that he thought on it, Zakt rarely cut his hair. He couldn't see before so he couldn't do it himself, and definitely couldn't trust anyone else to do it because he couldn't see what it would look like. Perhaps now he was so comfortable with it that he just didn't want to get rid of it. Jelm thought for a brief moment that he wanted to let his hair grow out like that. Then realized he didn't really like to take of the hair already on his head. Longer hair meant more work.

Soon Jelm watched as Zakt left the large room smiling giving a thumbs-up to Jelm as he passed by. He had done it. They weren't even sure it was going to work. It was all go from here. "See you in an hour." Zakt whispered softly.

Now it was Jelm's turn.

"Okay Mr. Jelmic . . . It's Adavai?." The Scientist said looking through a mechanical database. "Wow, impressive genes. You don't have the same last name as either of your parents? You are the second one today. A guy I checked out earlier seemed a bit shaken up. Seemed convinced that his last name was the same as his dad's. I just had to say his name to him, then it was like he realized the name inside his head wasn't the same as the one he'd been using."

Jelm thought over it for a minute. Where did this feeling come from, this feeling he had that, he was certain the man was talking about Zakt. "Barlow never fit him anyhow." He said thinking aloud.

"I don't remember saying, but don't tell anyone I told you who – never mind it. You, my lucky boy have passed the physical exam, and since you already went through the psych-test, now, you have to and answer some compulsory survey questions. It helps us to know what kind of people come up each year." The man said pointing Jelm in the right direction amidst the chaos. "Good luck Up Top." He said smiling.

Jelm just smiled back, a tad insincere – though he thought the man was an okay guy.

"Alright Zennèr, you can go. . . Saulim you can go as well. The three siblings, Apollo and Apotho and Aporra can leave. Next group. Ah, and now sit down here Mr. Vinnce, and you here," said a Scientist motioning Jelm forward to a seat in the row next to the one named Vinnce. "Okay, now Rueben, well sit down already Jelmic – I don't think Mr. Vinnce will bite you. Where was I? Right Rueben next to Mr. Jelmic, Maliph? Well don't be shy – we don't have all day. Now yes go ahead and sit here Ms. Torrid . . . Is there a female shortage in N.S.A?" the man asked looking around.

"N.S.A?" asked the one named Rueben.

"Nadir-Standard Accommodations. It's the new government term for T.U.S.C.," the man explained.

"What's T.U.S.C?" asked Torrid looking uneasy.

"Well, it's the old term for what you call The Slums. You see it was the original term used when it was first established as a medical settlement."

"Right, because The Slums was a place to send people under quarantine from unidentified diseases at first." Jelm rectified.

"That's right Mr. Jelmic, good show of history, you know most "Slummers" as you call yourselves don't know that much. . . Well any who – the government, established because there was no way to help sick people or people with disabilities with no current medical knowledge, that all sick people just go live down here. The level of malfunction goes down in the quadrant numbers. Q1 has been established as the "dead-zone" and any baby born there is immediately removed and checked for disease. Q2 is – well you guys know this. . . The term N.S.A. was established about five years ago. Because now people come up from the slums, mostly from Q3 and Q4, but it didn't seem right to keep thinking of it as a quarantine zone. Especially since Q4 is now where we send criminals and such." The man babbled and quibbled as he handed out thin metal screens with questions on them. None of them knew what he meant when he mentioned the criminals. However, no one wanted to know what he'd meant by that last comment. Jelm was sure, he understood. Zakt had already mentioned something about it before.

"I can't read" spoke Vinnce nervously.

"Oh, then hand me that and you'll answer verbally.  Go with Melony over there, and she will put you separate rooms. You speak the answer to the machine and it will write down the answer."

"I can't read either" Malish relented, lifting up his screen.

"Umm, me neither." Torrid confessed.

"How about you two?" the man sighed looking to Rueben and Jelm.

"I can read." Jelm assured taking the black writing tool for the screen from the man.

"I'm good to go." Rueben smiled confidently. 

Jelm turned to look at them now, the people he sat with. He wondered if it even mattered that he take down their faces. However, something compelled him to do it in any case. The one closest to him on the left, was Vince. He was hesitant to sit next to him, because they actually knew each other.

 Vinnce, was well known for a vendetta against Jelm and Remis, and anyone who anything to do with Lade. His older brother Taeren had lost, because of Lade's school, his chances of ever going up. Thanks to a training accident. Vince, like his brother, had steel-grey eyes that seemed to contain brightness and darkness all at once. His hair was short and blonde and his lips made a thin short line across his face. His chin was strong and seemed to jut-out in defiance to gravity itself and his demeanor while not particularly mean, was cold. Like old goats and rams, which, in the slums were defiant in nature but too sad, too caged to act out. So instead they showed no interest in much of anything, and would rather be left to themselves. 

The closest person on his right was Reuben, the only other in his group that could read. He had black hair cropped short at his ears. It had a sort of curl to it, which made it curl under or fly up at the ends. His eyes shone out from their deep recess, a bright shade of grey. His lips formed a thin line that seemed that to smile even without the movement of muscle. He was filled out a bit with muscle. Not to the almost comical extreme as Jelm appeared at times, but a form of robustness that was a little more than common on the hard working males from the slums. His skin, like most others, the sordid pale that seemed to be the epitome of "lacking color". He had small chin, and frazzled beard that made it hard to distinguish the other characters of his face, or his age for that matter. Which made him like most characters found down there in the dark. 

Jelm smiled once again. For some reason or another, none of the trio – Jelm, Remis and Zakt, had acquired any facial hair, or body hair at all for that matter. 

As they finished up and everyone began filing into the elevator. Jelm and Zakt though separated by a small crowd of others, found themselves looking back. 

The rest would have to keep things moving without them. If Zakt was wrong, if anything was wrong, the others would find out too late. They would never see this place again. The people they may miss, would never hear from them either.