Chapter 10

The park was nothing special. There was a slide, a seesaw and a roundabout for kids as well as a few benches around the edge. Donna and Steph always sat on a particular bench because it was hidden from the road by a large rhododendron bush which meant that Steph could puff away to her heart's content without any risk of her parents passing by on the road and learning of her underage habit, which wouldn't be underage for much longer. Occasionally Will would join them, but generally they treated the bench as a place for girls' chat.

Donna was there first and she sat passively watching some birds peck around at the morsels of food that had been dropped along the path, while the voices of contented children mingled in the air. 'How little do they know,' she thought, for they had no idea that within the next decade or two they too would have their minds invaded by government technology.

Stephanie arrived and after the customary 'Hi Don' she lit up a cigarette, watching the smoke trail away into the dark green leaves of the bush. After flicking some ash on the ground, she began, 'I've been doing a bit of research online. We are not the only ones who have experienced strange sensations from these chips in our heads. There's a Facebook group called “Youth Against Micropchipping” and it's got over a hundred thousand members.'

'You know I'm not good with maths,' interjected Donna, 'That means nothing to me.'

'It's twice the population of this town,' countered Steph, 'It may not seem a lot but this is going to get massive. Me and Will have joined it and I think you should look at it too.'

'Will and I,' countered Donna, for what she lacked in maths skills she made up for in grammar.

'Yeah, yeah,' said Steph, 'You're missing the point. The group is planning a countrywide protest.'

Donna looked intrigued. She'd never been on a protest before but at least she didn't feel so alone knowing that there were large numbers of others who not only thought the scheme was wrong but were willing to do something about it. 'Passive disobedience, I think it's called,' interjected Donna.

'Never mind the fancy words, Don, I'm telling you this is gonna be big and we need to be part of it. Do you want that blasted thing twitching away in the back of your head for the rest of your life?'

'What are the details then?' asked Donna, keen to get down to the nitty-gritty of the whole thing.

'In every county members of the group will be travelling to the seat of power. For us it's County Hall in Chatford – half an hour on the train.'

'So when is it? If it's when we've got exams I can't go. I'd get too much flack from my parents.'

'It's going to be on a Saturday, dummy,' said Steph, stubbing out her cigarette underfoot, which she tended to do more to emphasise a point than for any other reason, 'How would all those students be able to protest on a school day?'

Donna swigged from a bottle of fizzy orange drink.

'So are you in?' pressed Steph.

Donna nearly choked on the drink and lowered the bottle, wiping the sloppage from her chin, 'Damn right I'm in!'

The two girls put their fists together and smiled.