Read The Chaos for Free Online

and reports me missing. I never thought she’d do that, but she does. They find me the next morning, take me down the station, fingerprint me, photograph me, take a DNA swab from my mouth and then chip me, a quick injection in the side of my neck. It’s done before I even know it’s happening.
    ‘What the fuck? Fucking get off me!’ But it’s too late. It’s there inside me now, a tiny microchip that will tell whoever wants to know everything about me.
    ‘You can’t do that! I haven’t done nothing!’
    ‘You’ve been reported missing. You’re under eighteen. Not so easy to run away now. We can always find you.’
    When Nan comes to pick me up, I don’t speak to her. I can’t even look at her. She tries to make the peace in the buson the way home.
    ‘We both lost our tempers, and said things we shouldn’t, but that’s no reason to go off. I was worried about you. I didn’t know where you was. We need to stick together, Adam. We’ve only got each other now …’
    Only got each other. It’s true, but I don’t want her. She’s not my mum. I hardly know her, and what I do know I don’t like.
    ‘Shall I tell you what they did to me?’
    ‘Who?’
    ‘The police. Shall I tell you what they did? They took my DNA, Nan. They chipped me. Just because they picked me up. Because you reported me missing.’
    ‘Did they? I’m sorry, Adam, I didn’t know they’d do that. Still, it won’t matter if you keep your nose clean, will it?’
    ‘It’s what they do to dogs, Nan.’
    ‘They’re doing it to everyone, aren’t they? Working their way through. It would have been your turn eventually, you just got yours early.’
    I press my lips together to stop any more words coming out, and turn my head towards the window. There’s no point talking to her, no point at all. She don’t understand.
    I come back to school because it’s better than being at home with her.
    There’s a racket of scraping chairs as people swap places and get themselves organised. I stand up, ready to move, but nobody’s trying to catch my eye. No one wants to be my partner. On the other side of the room, a girl is standing on her own: it’s her – the girl with the dirty blonde hair. Sarah.
    ‘Okay, you two, find a desk.’
    Sarah looks up at me and it’s like she’s throwing knivesacross the room. The look in her eyes is so hostile, pure hatred, well not pure ‘cause it’s mixed up with what I saw before – fear. Whatever she knows about me, or thinks she knows, it’s something bad. Really bad.
    ‘Not him, Miss,’ she says. ‘Don’t make me sit with him.’ 
    Some of the others turn round, sensing something’s up, or about to be.
    The teacher sighs.
    ‘We haven’t got time for this. Unless anyone else wants to swap, you need to work together. Anyone?’
    They all shake their heads, shuffle their chairs further in.
    ‘Sit down, then.’
    ‘I don’t want to sit with him.’
    ‘You’ll either sit with him or I’m putting you on report.’ That means a phone call home. It means detention. Sarah takes a moment to consider her options, then sits down at an empty desk. She’s got a face like thunder. I pick up my bag, walk over and sit down opposite her. Keep cool, I’m thinking, don’t say anything stupid. Don’t do anything weird. Just act nice and normal.
    ‘Hi,’ I say, ‘I’m Adam.’
    ‘I know who you are,’ she says, talking to the desk, but then her eyes flick up to me briefly, and I catch her number again.
    And, again, it stops me in my tracks. 
    In an instant, the world has disappeared and it’s only me and the moment of her death.
    I can feel it in every nerve ending, every cell, in my mind as well as my body – there’s this overwhelming sense of warmth, a peaceful journey out of this life and into another. I’m there with her, I know I am. My arms are around her, the scent of her hair’s in my nostrils. I’m lying there, just beingthere – with her, for her. Suddenly I don’t know if