Become an Agent #18

Title: THE SLEEPERS
Genre: MG Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Word Count: 33,000

Query:

Eleven-year-old Opal never sleeps.

Nobody she knows sleeps. Nobody knows what sleep is, or that it ever existed, thanks to a government pill that keeps citizens awake twenty-four hours a day in an attempt to foster intense productivity.

Opal leads a lonely but content life in her world. With no friends at school, she finds comfort in spending time with her scientist Dad. Opal’s life is disrupted when she begins to experience inexplicable events, like flying through an unfamiliar tunnel one moment and sitting back in her house the next. Before she has a chance to talk to Dad about her distressing ordeal, he is arrested for reasons Opal can’t figure out.

Without her Dad to talk to, she warily turns to older Sidney, a dark boy who has just joined her class after serving time for a grave crime that he refuses to discuss. Using Sidney’s knowledge and cryptic messages that Dad has left behind for her, Opal uncovers her Dad’s plans and why he was arrested: he has created a new pill that allows citizens to sleep. Even scarier, he used his children to test his pill. Feeling betrayed, Opal begins to question his motives and his trustworthiness. Unfortunately someone else has also uncovered Dad’s new pill: an underground society of people who still sleep known as The Dreamers.

The Dreamers want Dad’s research, but when Opal refuses to help they kidnap Sidney. After learning the details of his abominable crime, Opal must make the choice between saving Sidney or protecting her Dad’s secret.

250: 

1

I turned my head back to see what I was escaping from and was shocked to see my own family. My father, his arms stretched out to me, reaching for me, “Opal, wait!”

My younger sister and brother, weeping and sobbing uncontrollably. Every fiber in my body yearned to go to them, but something forced me to keep moving.

A dim tunnel stretched before and behind me, dirt and rock held from collapsing by thick wooden beams. A musty chill covered my arms with goose bumps and filled my heart with dread. Where am I?
Suddenly I was moving so fast that the flickering drops of light in the tunnel became streaks in my peripheral vision. I knew I was not normally this fast; I looked down and it seemed as though my feet weren’t even touching the rocky ground.

I felt hot tears streaking sideways on my face and I moved faster, faster. A bright light at the end of the tunnel grew bigger until I saw that the tunnel opened into sunlight. I unwillingly flew towards it and as I reached the end of the tunnel, my body was thrust into the light.

2

I look down at my text-reader on the floor. That’s weird. It was just in my hand a second ago. How did it get there? Even more puzzling is how I was in the strange tunnel one moment and back in my dwelling the next, with no memory of changing location.


Title: THE SLEEPERS
Genre: MG science fiction
Word Count: 33,000

Query:

Nobody eleven-year-old Opal knows sleeps. In an effort to advance productivity and technology, the Government has created a pill that keeps citizens awake twenty-four hours a day by providing the body with all the benefits of a nightly rest.

The thought of spending every day for the rest of her life following the same exact schedule makes Opal want to scream. She likes being different, and doesn’t care that her favorite purple dress gets her labeled as an outcast among her white and beige classmates; she’d rather spend time with her scientist dad anyway.

Excitement finds Opal when something strange happens. She’s flying through an unfamiliar tunnel one moment and sitting back in her house the next. Before she has a chance to talk to Dad about her distressing ordeal, he is arrested for reasons Opal can’t figure out.

Without Dad to talk to, she warily turns to older Sidney, a dark boy who has just joined her class. Although he served time for a crime that he refuses to discuss, Opal knows she can trust him after he stands up for her. Using Sidney’s knowledge and cryptic messages that Dad gives her, Opal uncovers why Dad was arrested: he has created an illegal pill that allows citizens to sleep. Even scarier, he used his children to test his pill. Unfortunately someone else has also found out about Dad’s new pill: an underground society of people who still sleep, known as The Dreamers.

The Dreamers want Dad’s research, but when Opal refuses to help they kidnap Sidney. After learning the details of his horrible crime, Opal is torn between saving Sidney or protecting her Dad’s secret from getting into the wrong hands.

First 250:

“ALERT! Opal Reeves take your pill. ALERT!”

The loud computerized voice echoes off the curved white walls of the kitchen and snaps me out of my thoughts. If I don’t take my pill in thirty seconds, an alarm will go off at the Government Health Department and police droids will barge through the front door. Or so I’ve been warned.

Mom rushes by me, hardly pausing to chew me out. “Opal, why do you always have to wait until the last second? Please take your pill.”

I roll my eyes and pick up the cartridge of little blue pills off the metal counter, which must satisfy Mom, as she leaves the kitchen. I examine the label, OPAL REEVES. DORM ZERO-5. TO BE TAKEN EVERY 24 HOURS. NO EXCEPTIONS. I sigh. Fine. The pill forces its way down my throat and I feel it every inch of the way, like hands squeezing my insides.

Today’s routine is just like yesterday’s, and the day before that, with nothing to break up the pattern. For eleven years, I’ve known nothing else. Pill at noon, or else. Family Quality Time at 1pm. Solitary Leisure Time at 4. Sundown Meal; School; Personal Fitness; Midday Meal. Repeat.

The thought of doing the same exact thing every day for the rest of my life kind of makes me want to scream. When I tried to talk to Mom about it, she brushed it off, saying I was “just going through a phase.” I wonder if everyone my age goes through this “phase,” though I doubt it. All the kids at school look perfectly happy in their regimented lives. Sometimes it’s hard to tell them apart from the droids.