Julie Gets Culled



Julie was three years old when the final rebel states fell to the Global Order, and the world was united at last. She remembered none of the atrocities committed during that time of strife, and her history classes and news programs conveniently omitted that information.

All she knew was humanity had finally achieved world peace, and for nine years life was calm, easy, and prosperous in her region. In fact, in many ways it was a wonderful time to be alive. Medical breakthroughs had completely eradicated disease and illness, and even the aging process had been defeated with genetic engineering. The oldest known human had lived one hundred and seventy-eight years, and showed no signs of stopping. Barring a violent end, people had no reason to believe they'd ever die.

The downside to that was over population. Advancements in the food industry had made feeding the masses easier, and water was being purified at amazing rates, but a lack of housing and clothing made living conditions in some regions nearly unbearable. To combat this, even petty crime often carried a death sentence, and more severe sentences involved wiping out entire bloodlines, so that lengthy life expectancy could be cut terribly short for those struggling to make ends meet. Fortunately for Julie, her family and her region were well off.

When she was twelve years old, that security suddenly changed. Executions for petty crimes were no longer enough to cull the steadily increasing population, so new culling laws were passed. A select group of citizens would be issued culling cards, and they would be responsible for culling five people of their choosing each year. They were permitted to use any execution method they wished, but the executions must be public, with plenty of witnesses so there could be no doubts as to what took place. Interfering with a culling meant a brutal end to you and your entire bloodline, all the way down to second cousins.

There were also laws protecting cullers and their families from other cullers, laws protecting government officials, laws protecting children under the age of sixteen, and laws preventing cullers from using their power for extortion. This meant a culler must complete a background check on anyone they planned to cull, or risk the ultimate punishment. A culler would also be executed should they fail to complete their civic duty of five cullings per year.

The night these laws were passed, Jack stayed over at Julie's house. They were next door neighbors and had been best friends since they could walk. The news sent a chill into both of them, and as they lay in their sleeping bags with the lights out, Jack asked, "Julie, do you ever think about dying?"

"Dude, fuck yes. I think about it a lot when I'm alone."

"Does it scare you?"

"It's pretty much the only thing to fear now, isn't it?"

"It's hard to imagine, everything just coming to an end."

"Forever. I know. Like, you never get to come back. You never get to do anything or think anything or remember anything. Ever." Julie trembled slightly just saying it out loud.

"How did people do it, back when they died after just seventy or eighty years?"

"They believed in an afterlife," Julie answered. "I guess they didn't worry about death, because they believed they'd still live on. Even after they died."

"That sounds stupid. I wonder if they really believed that."

Julie shrugged. "Yeah, I guess it does sound stupid, but if I knew I was gonna die, I'd wanna believe it too."

"I guess."

"I kinda hope that if I die, it's quick. Like super quick, like I don't even wanna know it's happening. You know? Like what could be worse than just sitting there, knowing that you're dying, and there's nothing you can do about it? It really fucks with your head."

"You don't think we'll get culled, do you?"

"Fuck, I hope not. Can you imagine?" Julie looked over at Jack and saw him looking at her with wide, fearful eyes, as if he was imagining that very thing.

"Will you apply for a culling card when you're old enough?" he asked her.

"I don't know, I mean killing someone? That's fucking intense."

"But you'd be protected. You'd be safe."

"Maybe my dad will get a culling card," she said, feeling hopeful at that thought.

"Maybe," Jack said thoughtfully. "I think I might apply."

That put an idea in Julie's head. "Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"If... Will you promise to marry me if you get a culling card?"

Jack appeared to consider it for a moment. "Then we'd be family, right? And you'd be protected."

Julie nodded.

"Okay, yeah, sure," Jack agreed. "But what if I don't get a culling card?"

Julie smiled. "You still wanna get married?"

"Maybe, I don't know."

"We'll see then." Julie began to feel better about the whole situation after that, and besides, she still had almost three years before anybody could cull her, and three years was a long time.



Julie's first experience with the new culling laws came a little over a year later, when she was just over fourteen years old and a freshman in high school. She and Jack had been outside their school, waiting for the first bell to ring and commence the start of their day. The band hall stood between the parking lot and the rest of the school, and they were hanging around that vicinity when Jack spotted the hit squad and pointed them out to Julie.

It was three people; they were clearly not high schoolers and they walked at a brisk pace, but they otherwise appeared to be ordinary people. Adults in plain clothes, who did not appear threatening in any way until they reached Alicia, a pretty junior in denim shorts who was leaning with her back against the wall, talking to a couple of boys. That’s when their purpose became clear, as all three made Glock 19 9mm's appear, and the one in the middle produced a badge that she held up in front of her.

"Alicia Belle?"

Alicia's dark brown eyes widened, as she seemed to notice for the first time the two women and one man who had come to kill her, and she answered cautiously, "Who wants to know?"

The woman in the middle continued as if Alicia’s response was unimportant. "As second cousin of Lou Bodella, you are hereby sentenced to death for his crime of culling interference. Have you any final words?"

The two boys who had been chatting her up mysteriously vanished, leaving Alicia alone and boxed in, an assassin to her left, an assassin to her right, one directly in front, and the band hall at her back. Alicia seemed flabbergasted. “I don’t even know who that is,” she managed, just before all three killers opened fire. Bullets struck her in the belly, bullets peppered her breasts, and bullets ripped through her upper arms and shoulders.

There were too many shots to count, but Alicia remained standing when the gunfire ceased, her thick and powerful legs shockingly resilient. Her killers nodded to each other, put away their weapons and walked off as briskly as they had arrived, leaving Alicia in tattered ruins, her back still against the wall, her pretty face speckled with blood, her brown eyes staring and shell shocked.

Alicia took a step forward, looking around for help, and Julie resisted an urge to run to her. The girl was clearly beyond help, and she was condemned. Attempting to save her might be seen as a criminal act, and Julie liked living, so she watched as Alicia took another step, her brunette pony tail bobbing cutely, her blood spilling from dozens of holes, and nobody moved.

“I flulphsss” Alicia said, blood spraying from her soft lips, her sweet brown eyes accusing every one of her spectators, and she finally fell to the ground. Julie expected that to be the end of it, but the spectacle continued for some time. Alicia tried to crawl for a bit, but she was mostly unsuccessful, then she flipped onto her back and let loose some truly harrowing sobs, lifting her head to look around every so often. She held on for an astonishing amount of time before finally lying still, her eyes hauntingly vacant.

When it was over Julie leaned over and vomited, as did a few others who had witnessed this massacre. It was alarming to think about how unexpected and how undeserved this poor girl's death had been. A man she had never met, Lou Bodella, Julie remembered, had apparently tried to interfere with state sanctioned murder, and because of that Alicia paid with her life. Before they left the yard and began what would be a very grim day at school, Julie used her phone to snap a couple photos of Alicia's corpse.

As soon as she got home she looked up all her relatives online, men and women she had also never met, some she had never heard of, and she emailed them. She sent them pictures of herself, and she sent them Alicia's picture, along with a brief synopsis of what had happened at school that morning. She pleaded with them to consider her promising young life should they ever be a witness to a culling, and to not do anything that could lead her to the same end as Alicia.

It took up most of her afternoon, and at night as she lie in her bed, Alicia was all she could think about. She kept returning to the photos she had snapped on her phone, and staring at them. Alicia's dead eyes. Beautiful brown eyes that had been so kind and sharp and alert were now just empty and lifeless. It was oddly captivating, and while it filled her belly with dread, there was something else there as well. As midnight neared and sleep didn't come she snuck out her bedroom window and crept next door.

After a few taps on Jack's window, she saw that he was having just as much success as she was at finding sleep. He lifted the window and Julie climbed inside.

"Can't sleep?" he asked her.

"Fuck no. I'm still creeped out. I emailed everybody in my family. I thought it would help me relax, but fuck. She didn't even know him, Jack. Can you believe it? Can you imagine?"

"I know, it's a mind fuck. That was smart though, Julie, emailing your family. I should have thought of that."

Julie grinned at him. "What are you trying to say, you're supposed to be the smart one?"

"No. I mean... it's a good idea. I'm going to..."

"Shut up, you idiot," Julie giggled. "I'm fucking with you."

"Yeah, well you're right. You're the smart one. I'm going to look up my family tomorrow and get in touch with anyone I don't know. Make sure they know whose lives they'll be fucking with if they interfere in a culling."

Julie nodded. "You know what's strange though? I keep looking at her photo. Her dead eyes. It's creepy, but... It makes me feel..." She was hesitant to say it out loud.

Jack looked at her intently, and she thought he could read her thoughts. Perhaps it was obvious what she wanted to say - she had been told she had a very expressive face. Either way, he finished her sentence for her, "like you want to fuck?"

Julie felt a slew of words die in her throat, and she nodded again.

"I've heard death can be a powerful aphrodisiac," Jack added.

"Does it make you horny too?" she asked him, her blue eyes wide and inquisitive.

"No," he answered, and she felt her heart drop for a second, but then he continued, "but you do."

Julie sprung forward and kissed him. It was their first kiss, the first time either of them had kissed anyone romantically, but there were no reservations in that kiss. Nothing held back. Julie felt so much passion flowing through her, she couldn't stop. She pushed Jack onto his bed, and as they sucked each other's faces, they began clawing at one another's clothes. Very soon they were naked, lying together, and Julie took Jack's throbbing penis and slid it inside of herself.

There was no worry of pregnancy. All teen girls who were well to do received a shot after their first period, which provided a genetic altercation that halted ovulation and greatly increased the blood supply, making teen pregnancy a poor person's problem, and as an added bonus it made death from traumatic injury much less likely. There were some who had regenerative abilities so great they were nigh impossible to kill, such as the hit squads that delivered the type of justice Alicia suffered, but such genetic enhancements were illegal for the general public. The best someone like Julie could hope for was genetic birth control and an extra quart or two of blood.

She groaned loudly as Jack pushed through her hymen, and she bled on him, surprised at the amount of pain she felt. After what couldn't have been much more than a few agonizing thrusts, each eliciting a soft, pained cry from her, it was over much too soon, Jack grunting as he climaxed, and Julie feeling sadly disappointed. Jack rolled over and sighed, an expression of euphoria on his face, and Julie lay on her side and studied him. She supposed it would be unkind to let on how unsatisfied she was, so she smiled and played with his hair.

"Holy shit, that was incredible," he told her.

"Thanks," Julie cooed.

"You didn't like it?"

"It was nice. I think it's just harder for girls to enjoy our first time, you know?" She hugged him, savoring the feel of his naked flesh against hers, and they lay in relative silence for a short time.

"Why do you think they don't just kill all the poor people?" Jack asked. "You know, instead of these culling laws. It's the poor people that are taking up too much space."

"The rich need the poor," Julie answered somberly. "Without them, they couldn't distract the middle class from the imbalance of wealth. The poor keep the middle class content."

"That's some bleak shit."

"It's life. It works, I guess, and it's better than no life at all. You're not thinking of starting a revolution, are you?" Julie winked and giggled.

"No. Fuck no. But I do think we better clean up a little," Jack said, motioning to the blood and semen sticking to their thighs and the sheets, and Julie agreed. Jack brought a couple of wet wash rags and a clean set of sheets, and they wiped themselves off and made the bed, both of them still in their birthday suits.

With another passionate kiss and a grope of Julie's firm, round ass, they parted, Julie slipping on her shorts and nighty and hopping out the window, and Jack returning to his freshly made bed.

Back in her own room Julie still struggled to sleep, so she held her phone in one hand, pulled up the photos of Alicia, stared into those dead, glassy eyes, and slipped her other hand between her legs. Very soon she had an orgasm of her own, and soon after that she dozed off.

In the coming weeks and months Julie made frequent late night callings through her neighbor's window, and the sex got better. The key to improvement was communication, and Jack and Julie were great at that. Jack told Julie what he liked, Julie told Jack what she liked, and they asked questions and answered honestly.

For example, after a frank discussion one night, Jack agreed to let Julie project an image of Alicia's corpse on the TV, and the sex was fantastic. Julie also discovered that she enjoyed being choked, and she had Jack rough her up a little sometimes, with slapping and spanking and twisting of her nipples, and she loved it when he pulled her hair. She needn't worry about him ever taking things too far; he was always kind and respectful of her, and they had a safe word - coffee.




Well over a year passed before Julie's next encounter with the culling laws. It was a Saturday, and Jack's sixteenth birthday. She had bought him the latest VR game that he'd been ranting and raving about for the previous six months. It had finally released only two weeks earlier, and she had dropped plenty of hints she was going to buy it for him so he wouldn't go out and buy it himself. It was a crime saga, and the protagonist was a detective - perfect fodder for civic-minded Jack.

Julie wore a green dress and a green ribbon in her hair, looking extra cute, and went next door at nine in the morning. Jack’s dad greeted her and let her in with a welcoming smile. The foyer branched off into a hallway leading to the bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen, and Jack was in the latter, sitting on a stool at an island. "Julie," he exclaimed when he saw her, dropping his fork on a plate of unfinished eggs and sausage and rushing over to give her a hug. "What's this?" he asked, taking her gift and ripping at the wrapping paper.

"Happy birthday, motherfucker," Julie said coolly. Jack's reaction when he finished unwrapping his gift was as she expected - thrilled but not at all surprised.

"Thanks, Julie, you know I'm gonna love it."

"Yeah, don't mention it."

"So... I got some big news," Jack told her.

"I know, you're sixteen."

"No, dork, I mean this," Jack opened his wallet and pulled out a chip that produced a hologram declaring Jack a registered and official culler.

"Dude, no way. Shut the fuck up." Julie's jaw dropped. It was fantastic news. Her father had refused to apply for a culling card, saying it went against his principles, and her mother was so meek she couldn't hurt a mouse, so Julie had been very concerned about her life expectancy, especially since she would turn sixteen two months later. This was the answer.

"Yup, it's legit."

"That's incredible. How'd you do it?"

"I started the application process almost six months ago. I had to take a firearms test, an IQ test, a personality test, I had to see a few analysts and psychologists, but they said I passed them all. I'm a certified killer."

Julie laughed at that, “That doesn’t exactly inspire faith in our government,” but then she quickly sobered up and led Jack to his bedroom. "You know this means we'll have to be more careful. No more public displays of affection. I read that the girlfriend of a culler has a mortality rate of like almost fifty percent. If you kill someone and they want to get back at you, the only way they can do it is through me, since we're not family."

"Yeah, well, you turn sixteen in two months, and you remember our pact?"

"Yes!" Julie said, a little more excitedly than she had intended. "Oh God, I was hoping you hadn't forgot that. Yes, I remember, and yes, I'll marry you."

"Easy," Jack said laughing, "I haven't even proposed yet."

"Propose then, asshole," Julie cried.

"Alright, alright fine, let's get married."

"Can we do it on my sixteenth birthday?" By law they weren't allowed to get married until they were both sixteen, but Julie didn't want to wait one day longer than she had to. She wanted that security.

"Sure, you got it."

"But we can't tell anyone. It has to be a secret. I don't want to be killed walking down the aisle or some shit, you know?"

"You're kind of bossy, you know that? We're not even married yet and you're bossing me around." Jack smiled.

"Fuck you," Julie hit him in the shoulder and laughed.

"Just tell me one thing, Julie," and she could tell by the look on his face he was serious now. "Do you love me?"

There was only the slightest hesitation, as Julie wondered if she did love him. They were best friends, they got along famously, she enjoyed no one else's company more than his, he was great in the sack, but did she love him? In the end she decided the distinction was unimportant. She cared very deeply for him, she liked him about as much as anyone could like another person, and if the marriage grew stale there was always the option of divorce - it was an expensive and arduous process to prevent sham marriages, but it was an option, and she would remain safe, as even ex-wives and ex-husbands were protected under the culling laws. "I do," she answered.

Jack's expression brightened, and his reply was warm and kindly, "I love you too."

They spent the day goofing off and taking turns on Jack's new VR game, which he was thoroughly pleased with, and in the evening Julie let Jack tittie fuck her and cum on her face. Her breasts were high and perky, and not the gently sloping melons that were more conducive to such activities, but Jack still seemed to enjoy it. Afterwards, as they lay in bed, Julie asked him, "Have you started on your list?"

"What list?"

"Your culling list, silly. You have to kill five people this year, surely you've thought about it if you applied six months ago."

"I mean I've thought about it, but I don't have a list."

"Don't you think you need one? I mean you're not gonna just randomly kill five people. Who's gonna be your first?"

"Any suggestions?" Jack looked to be at a loss.

"Holy shit, Jack, you're the culler, not me." But she did have a suggestion. She had been thinking about it all day, she just wasn't sure if she wanted to say it out loud. If she told Jack who to kill, and Jack killed that person, wouldn't that make Julie just as culpable? Could she handle that on her conscience? She wasn’t a killer, which was why she hadn’t applied for a culling card of her own.

She finally decided that five people had to die, whether she said something or not, so she might as well have her input. "Okay, how about Sarah?" A chill went down her spine as she said it, but she reminded herself that if she said nothing her inaction would just as surely condemn someone else, so did it really matter?

"Sarah?"

"Yeah, Sarah Rivers. She likes you, Jack. She's borderline obsessed. She doesn't like me though. Might even say she hates me."

"Sarah Rivers," Jack said thoughtfully. "You think she might try to hurt you?"

Julie thought Sarah was a sweet girl, truthfully, and Julie had told a small lie. Sarah wasn't obsessed with Jack, she was in love with him. Sarah might even be able to make Jack happier than Julie could, and if Jack realized that and hooked up with her, well then Julie wouldn't only lose out on being the wife of a culler, Sarah might then be having the same conversation with Jack about Julie that Julie was having about Sarah right now.

"I mean she's sixteen. If she gets a culling card, I think she'll try to kill me. Or get someone else to do it. Even if we get married on my birthday, there's still a window of opportunity there." And there it was, Julie's greatest fear put to voice. "I don't wanna die, Jack, and you gotta start somewhere, right?"

"Maybe. Let me think about it."

"Sure, it's up to you of course, but if you don't have someone else in mind already."



As it turned out, Jack didn't need to think about it too long. The following Monday as the two teens walked to school, he showed Julie his .44 magnum revolver and said, "Third period. Today."

“So you decided?”

“Yeah, fuck it. Sarah’s as good a mark as anyone. It’s like you said, I have to start somewhere. I just need to pop my cherry and stick my dick in there.”

“You’re gonna stick your dick in her?” Julie gave Jack the side eye and scrunched up her nose.

“No, it’s a figure of speech,” Jack said awkwardly.

Julie giggled then. “I know fuckstick, but it’s kinda morbid, doncha think? Making an analogy between fucking a girl and killing her.”

“You’re one to talk, putting up that image of Alicia when we fuck.”

Julie looked around nervously, then shushed Jack. “Dude, keep that shit on the DL.”

“Relax, nobody heard me.”

“I hope not,” Julie was less concerned with people knowing about her fascination with the dead than she was with people knowing she and Jack were fucking. Sarah was a cute and popular girl, and Jack would surely make enemies by killing her, which would put a target on Julie’s back. Especially if word got out she and Jack were romantically involved. “So, you’re gonna do it during class?”

Jack nodded.

“Are you nervous?” Julie asked.

“Yeah. It’s weird, there’s no risk, you know, but I’m going to kill someone. It’s...”

“Fucking intense,” Julie finished for him.

“Right.”

“Well, let me know before you do it. I wanna prepare myself.”

It felt like an eternity before third period arrived, and a weird knot of excitement was building in Julie’s stomach. Someone was going to die, and she was going to watch. When it happened to Alicia it was nauseating, but Julie hadn’t been expecting it then, so she hoped this time would be different, and the anticipation was killing her.

She spotted Sarah in the hallways before class, laughing with her friends and completely carefree, and felt a pang of guilt. The girl really didn’t deserve to die, but then again none of them did. It was just something that had to happen.

As they began third period history and took their seats, Julie’s eyes were glued to Sarah. She and Jack sat near the back of the classroom, so Sarah was ahead and to their left, and for fifteen minutes Mr. Hammond lectured and Julie heard none of it. She kept watching Sarah, a pretty young girl in the prime of her life who was completely oblivious to her coming doom. She tried to imagine what Sarah was thinking about, and how those thoughts would change when the first bullet struck her.

When she finally tore her eyes away long enough to look at Jack, she saw the torment the poor guy was going through. She couldn't read him the way he could read her, but his pain couldn't be more obvious, and she didn't envy him. A culling card sounded like a great idea on the surface, but now that he had one, he had to use it. There was no turning back.

She looked into his sea green eyes, and was taken aback by how handsome he was becoming. In her mind he was often still little Jacky, chasing her through the backyard with a water hose and a bucket of balloons, but he was almost a man, and he was about to make the most difficult decision of his life.

All Julie could do was offer her friend some small token of comfort, so she reached across the aisle and let him take her hand, and she gave him a look that said it would be okay, that she would support him no matter what, but he was going to have to kill someone sooner or later and it wasn't going to get any easier than it was now. The fact that she could convey all this without uttering a word was a testament to their lifelong friendship, and the message was received. Jack smiled sadly, and she knew he was going to do it.

He released her hand, removed the .44 from his backpack and his culling card from his wallet, and he stood up. "This is a culling!" he announced, holding up the hologram produced by his card, and he began walking deliberately towards Sarah. There were shrieks and shouts, but Julie tuned them out. She had her phone out and she was recording, her attention focused entirely on Sarah.

Sarah had turned around, and when she saw Jack approaching she got out of her chair and backed away, her hands held out in a pathetic attempt at defense. "Jack?"

"I'm sorry, Sarah," Jack told her, raising the gun.

"Jack, wait!"

Jack didn't wait. He fired his pistol, and the first shot made contact with Sarah just beneath her sternum. The magnum was deafening in the enclosed classroom, and nobody heard Sarah grunt as the bullet penetrated her. She had been seated in the row farthest to the left, and Julie saw her blood and guts spatter against the wall behind her. Although the shot was dead center, it apparently did not sever the girl's spine, because she remained on her feet.

"Jack," Sarah said, blood spattering from her lips, just before Jack shot her again. This time she was struck in the center of her right breast - a large and rounded melon that was much better suited to tittie fucking than Julie's perky little tits. Jack quickly shot her again, leaving little time for a reaction. The third shot struck the inside curve of her right breast, near her breastbone, and Julie felt certain that took out the girl's heart. It was fitting, she supposed, that Jack broke Sarah's heart both literally and figuratively.

It was the last shot Jack fired, and they all watched as Sarah slid down the wall until her butt touched the floor. The class was silent; the only sounds were the ringing in their ears from the gunshots and Sarah quietly gurgling on her blood. Sarah held herself upright with her arms pressed against the wall, but Julie could tell she wouldn't be long for this world. Unlike Alicia, whose killers had seemingly intentionally left her heart in tact, Sarah's ticker was wrecked, but before her eyes lost focus she looked up at Jack and told him, "I love you."

When Sarah was still and her blue-gray eyes vacant, Julie stopped recording and leaned over to puke.

That night the sex was the best it had ever been. Julie had considered playing the video while they fucked, but discretion won out and she decided not to. Both she and Jack were on edge, and Jack seemed in need of a little escapism. She sucked his dick and let him tittie fuck her, and afterwards she rode him as he choked her and beat her, and in her mind's eye she kept seeing Sarah's sweet young face and dying gray eyes, and she heard her final words over and over. I love you

She let Jack choke her longer and harder than usual, until she began to see spots, and when at last she came her orgasm exploded with a rage that was almost unnerving. She thrashed and screamed loud enough that Jack's parents were sure to hear, but she didn't care. Her man had killed for her, and although the death of Sarah ended up being even more traumatizing than Alicia's, it was also strangely romantic.

Afterwards, as they lay in bed exhausted, Jack asked, "Julie, do you think she really loved me?"

Julie looked at him and saw the heaviness weighing on his heart, and in an effort to put him at ease she repeated her earlier lie, "She was obsessed with you. It's different."




Julie's third and final encounter with the culling laws came on her sixteenth birthday. It was a day she had long dreaded, but now it came with a certain sense of promise. It was her wedding day after all, and once married she'd no longer have anything to fear. Her family members had all replied to her emails, assuring her they would never endanger her life by interfering in a culling, and with the introduction of the culling laws there were no longer any other crimes that called for the elimination of an entire bloodline.

Her spirits were high, and life was as good as it had ever been. She had parents who loved her, a kind and caring best friend who doubled as an adept sexual partner and soon to be husband, she was in excellent physical and mental health, she was young and witty and beautiful, and aside from the off chance that she'd be culled in the next eleven hours, there was no reason to think any of that would change.

She picked out blue skirt that highlighted her eyes and a plain white tee that teased the flesh around her navel, and slipped on a pair of clean white tennis shoes. It was an ordinary outfit, to disguise the fact that she had a wedding to attend. There wouldn't be a big ceremony or bridesmaids or groomsmen or any other family or friends there. She and Jack were just going straight to the courthouse after school to finalize the paperwork. They could have a ceremony another time, if they felt the need.

She applied a layer of clear lip gloss to her perfect lips, but she wore no makeup because she really didn't need it. She met Jack on the sidewalk and they began their morning commute to school.

"Happy birthday, beautiful," Jack said sweetly.

Julie beamed at him. "Thanks! So what'd you get me?"

"You'll see later," he answered coyly. "You know, I'm not sure you thought this through. Having our wedding the same day as your birthday, you're going to be missing out on gifts."

"Bullshit, you still gotta buy me a birthday gift and an anniversary gift, there's not gonna be any two-for-ones going on, motherfucker."

"You think so, huh? We'll see, bitch."

Julie laughed and slung her arm around Jack. "I love you," she told him, and for the first time, she thought she really meant it.

"I love you too."

During lunch they snuck off to the janitor's closet, stripped off their clothes and had quick and wild sex. She bounced topless on his dick, her modest breasts jiggling beautifully, and Jack smacked her in the ass, punched her in the stomach, and wrapped a cord around her neck and pulled. For the briefest of moments she realized he could legally kill her and it added that extra element of danger, but then she remembered cullings must be carried out in public.

She came before he did, and when she was done she got on her knees and sucked him off. She let him spatter her face with his semen, since it was what he liked to do, and she even slurped a bit of it off his dick, despite the fact she thought it tasted disgusting. The whole thing took less than ten minutes, and they both had time to eat their lunch before heading to fifth period trigonometry, a class they shared.

As Miss Moore began her lecture, Julie sat giddily, unable to stop smiling at Jack. Only three periods remained before school was out, and then they would be married, which meant she was less than four hours from securing her future.

Twenty minutes into class when Miss Moore called on her to solve for sine, she floated up to the board, ready to conquer any challenge thrown at her. She had almost completed the equation when she heard the boom from behind her, and her blood sprayed the dry erase board, covering part of her work.

Confused, she began wiping her blood away so she could finish the problem when another boom sounded, and more of her blood splashed onto the math problem. Someone doesn't want me to finish this equation, she thought, and she looked down at the pair of exit wounds in her belly. She sighed and turned around to face the class, then simply remarked "Oh."

Jack had his magnum out, and a tendril of smoke billowed from the barrel. In his other hand he held up his culling card. As Julie looked at him he shot her again, and she felt a terrible pressure in her abdomen as a third bullet tore through her guts.

"Miss Moore, I think I need to be excused to Nurse Carr's office." Julie winced. "My tummy hurts."

Miss Moore sat speechless, almost as stunned at this turn of events as Julie, and Julie started towards the door at the back of the class. After only a couple of shuffling steps Jack shot her a fourth time, again targeting her midsection. Julie stumbled as bits of flesh and guts flew out her back, and she caught a desk as she fell. She and the desk toppled, and the boy who had occupied it, she thought his name was Doug, stood up a split second earlier and stepped back.

“Sorry,” Julie told him with a nervous laugh, and she picked herself up and continued towards the back of the class. Her path took her straight to Jack’s desk, and she stopped to tell him, "Coffee," then she giggled at him and mussed his hair. Jack responded by pressing the barrel of his gun against the bare flesh of her belly and squeezing the trigger. Julie grunted softly and sighed, “Oh, Jack,” before moving on.

It was beginning to sink in, everything crashing down around her, by the time she reached the door. She would not be getting married, she would not live beyond her sixteenth birthday, she wouldn’t even see the end of the school day. There was no escaping it, nowhere to go, but Julie at least wanted to feel the sun on her face one more time. As she reached for the door handle Jack shot her again.

The exit wound opened in her upper abdomen this time, and Julie tasted blood in the back of her throat. She glanced over her shoulder and scowled, rolled her eyes, and fumbled the door open. When she stepped into the hallway she saw that the gunshots had attracted a small crowd, and a murmur went through them.

“Julie!” a boy, she thought he was a freshman, started towards her.

Julie was clutching her belly with both hands, but she held up a bloody palm to halt the kid. “It’s okay,” she told him. Nothing about this was okay, but she didn't want anybody else losing their lives on her account. “I’m being culled. I just need to go get some air before I die.” Blood was beginning to spill over her lower lip and dribble down her chin now.

“Oh,” the boy answered. “That sucks.”

“Yeah, it does,” Julie agreed, thinking that was a massive understatement.

“Aren’t you scared?”

“Yeah, I’m scared.” Another massive understatement.

“I don’t want you to die.”

“Me neither.”

“You’re the hottest chick I’ve ever seen.”

“Thanks,” and with that Julie concluded this bizarre conversation and continued on her way. Luckily Miss Moore’s classroom was just outside the administration's office, which was only twenty feet from the main entrance. Julie crossed that threshold without much difficulty and stepped outside.

It was nice to feel the warmth of the sun on her skin, and she wondered how many times she had taken that feeling for granted. As she started down the main steps she began to feel light-headed, and she sat down. So this is where I die.






As Jack watched Julie practically skip to the board to work on a math problem, he knew this was it. He had to do it now. He hated it, but this was the responsibility he had taken on. Sarah hadn’t deserved to be culled, but Julie most certainly did.

He watched her firm round buttocks move beneath her skirt, and it was almost painful. She was beyond any doubt the most beautiful girl he’d ever know, and she was fucking him. She might go on fucking him for another ten years, or maybe twenty, but she’d eventually tire of it and move on to find some other man to use and manipulate, and then she’d ruin that man's life too, and on and on it would go.

It wasn’t even her fault really, she was easy to love, but she couldn’t love anybody other than herself. Jack loved her, but he couldn’t marry her, and if he was being honest as a culler, he knew he had to kill her. Julie had been the one to suggest he make a list, and soon after that she had ended up not only on that list, but at the top of it.

With a heavy heart he took out his culling card and his .44 magnum, and he took aim. Julie was working diligently, oblivious to the danger behind her, and Jack targeted center mass as they taught him in firearms training. The sites hovered over Julie’s lower back, where her loose white tee was lifted just enough to show off her creamy skin, with a tiny bit of baby fat bulging over the hem of her skirt. The magnum exploded and spit lead.

Julie squawked and inexplicably began to wipe her blood off the board, and Jack shot her again. When she turned around he saw the pair of exit wounds, one on each side of her navel, about three inches apart from each other. Her shirt hadn’t fully settled after she had raised her arms to write on the board, so a couple inches of her midriff were bare, and both wounds were plainly visible.

“Oh,” Julie remarked nonchalantly, but her stunning blue eyes and the expression on her mesmerizing face belied her unconcerned tone. Jack could see she was terrified. He promptly shot her a third time, and the bullet left a hole slightly up and towards Julie’s center in relation to the exit wound left of her navel. “Miss Moore, I think I need to be excused to Nurse Carr’s office. My tummy hurts.”

It was an adorably cute thing to say, and it might have been funny if the situation wasn’t so grim. Blood was streaming from her gut and she was clutching uselessly at herself, trying to stem the flow. Her blue skirt was turning maroon, and Jack saw trickles running down Julie’s bare shins and dripping onto her clean white shoes. She started walking and Jack let her take a couple steps before plugging her again.

The bullet tore into the right side of her belly, a little to the right of the exit wound on that side, and Julie lost her footing. She tried to avoid falling by grabbing onto Doug’s desk, but Doug stood up and backed away, letting both Julie and his desk go crashing to the floor. Julie laughed goofily and actually apologized, then she picked herself up and staggered over to Jack.

He kept his expression cold and distant, not wanting her to talk him out of what he had already begun, but she just said, "Coffee," and then giggled cutely and tussled his hair a little. He nestled the barrel of his pistol under the bottom of her shirt, which was still a couple inches above her cute little coin slot belly button, and angled it just enough so the shot wouldn’t hit her spine before pulling the trigger.

Julie grunted prettily, then sighed and simply said, “Oh, Jack.” He watched her with a certain admiration as she walked away - it was clear that she had not seen any of this coming, but she was maintaining her composure far better than could be reasonably expected - and again he found himself staring at her marvelous buttocks as her glutes did their work, every contour easily visible against the soft fabric of her now blood-soaked skirt.

She reached the door and nobody else had so much as gotten out of their seat, including Jack. He gave her one final parting shot, expending all the shells in his revolver, and Julie cast him a dirty look before leaving the classroom. Once she was gone, all eyes turned to Jack, and he just shrugged and said, "Well shit, she's one tough bitch." He chuckled, and there was some nervous laughter from the class. "Miss Moore, you can continue, I'm sure there's enough witnesses out there. I just need to follow her and make sure she dies."

Jack slipped on his backpack and headed for the door. When he reached the hallway, Julie was already pushing through the main entrance and stepping outside. There was a small crowd stagnating outside Miss Moore's classroom, and Jack asked, "Do any of you want to witness Julie's final moments?"

"Why are you wasting her?" a kid asked him. "She's so hot."

"I thought you two were friends," another girl said. Jack recognized her as Teri.

"You wouldn't understand," Jack muttered, "but I need at least a couple witnesses."

"I'll go," the first kid said, "It's the last chance time I'm ever gonna get to see her."

A couple more guys elbowed each other and one of them said, "Yeah, we'll go too."

And so the three boys followed Jack outside, where Julie sat bleeding to death. "Julie?" Jack said as he approached.

Julie looked up at him and smirked, "Culled on my sixteenth birthday. I wonder how often that happens."

"And by your best friend," Jack said as he sat down next to her.

"By my fiancé," Julie corrected him. "You know if you didn't want to marry me, all you had to do was say so."

"I did want to marry you, at least at one point," Jack admitted. "But you never loved me. It wouldn't have worked."

"Is that why you did this?"

"You're a taker, Julie. You used me to kill Sarah because you didn't want to lose me, but you didn't really want me. You just wanted my protection."

Julie smiled, punched him in the shoulder and rolled her gorgeous eyes. "You dummy. I do love you. Or at least I did, before you blew my guts all over Miss Moore's class."

Jack was taken aback. He could tell when Julie was lying, and she wasn't lying now. "The first time I asked if you loved me, you said yes, but I knew it was bullshit. I pretended it wasn’t, but I knew. I had hoped you would love me when I killed Sarah, but you didn't. When did that change?"

"I dunno, today maybe?" Jack remembered Julie telling him that she loved him that morning, and it had seemed somehow different, but he had chalked it up to wedding day giddiness. "You know, if you keep killing every girl that falls in love with you, you're gonna be pretty lonely. Just some free advice."

"That's part of it too. You lied about Sarah. She did love me, and she wasn't a threat to you."

"You got me there," Julie conceded. "It was a rotten thing to do." She chuckled sadly. "It's ironic, isn't it? I suggested you kill Sarah and marry me because I didn't want to be culled, but it's exactly those things that got me culled."

"Life's a trip sometimes."

"Yeah, I wish my trip lasted a little longer though." He looked into those charming blue eyes of hers, saw her blinking back tears and chewing her bloody lower lip, and a flood of memories fluttered through his mind. Julie chasing him around her backyard, playing tag. Julie jumping off the roof of their house and landing in a pile of pillows and blankets they had built on the ground. Julie spending hours at a time playing Blood Dragons with him, his favorite two-player video game. Julie's smile. Julie's laugh.

He gently brushed a lock of soft, chocolate-brown hair away from her face and caressed her cheek. "I'm going to miss you, Julie."

"You bet your ass you are," she told him. "So... I was wondering... why'd you shoot me in the belly?"

Jack shrugged. "Center mass."

"Center mass my ass. Sarah gets three bullets in the chest but I get gut shot six times?"

"I was closer when I fired on Sarah."

"Dude, I was standing next to you, saying coffee, and you put the fucking gun against my tummy and fired."

"Yeah, well, you already had four bullet holes in your gut by then, I figured I should be consistent."

Julie squawked with laughter, blood spewing from her soft lips. "Don't make me laugh, asshole. It hurts too much."

"Well, why do you think I shot you in the gut then?"

"I think I turned you into a sadist," she said with a sly smile. "All that time in the sack, you liked treating me rough."

"I don't know, I never really thought about it. Maybe." He suddenly realized he had a raging boner, so perhaps Julie was right. Had he been following his civic duty, or was he subconsciously just following his cock?

"Yeah, you like watching me suffer, you fucking dog. You remember when I said that if I had to die, I hoped it would be quick?"

"Oh shit, you did say that!" Jack had completely forgotten about that conversation.

"Yup. I said dying slow would be like the worst thing imaginable. And here you are, killing me slowly."

"Is it as bad as you thought?"

"It's worse. So much worse."

Jack began fumbling in his backpack for his box of shells. "You want me to finish it?"

"No!" Julie said, reaching out and grabbing his arm. "Fuck no, please."

"Why not?"

"What I never considered was - if you go to the doctor and the doctor says you have six months left to live, what do you do? Do you just kill yourself and be done with it?"

Jack thought about it. "I guess it might depend on how much pain I'm in."

"Yeah, well, not me, and I'm in a fuck ton of pain, let me tell you. For me, I would just try to enjoy every second I could, because the only thing worse than dying a slow and painful death... is nothing. And that's what death is. It's nothing."

“That’s an interesting point of view.”

Julie smiled and swiped some blood from her mouth, “So how long do you think I have?”

“I’m not sure.” Jack looked at the puddle of blood around Julie, the trail of blood leading back to the school, the stream of blood running down the steps in front of them, the blood on Julie’s clothes and dribbling down her chin. “Ten minutes maybe?”

Julie frowned. “Alicia almost lasted that long, didn’t she? Don’t sell me short, Jack, I’m planning to make it another thirty minutes. Shit, maybe an hour.”

“I think Alicia only lasted a few minutes, and she wasn’t shot with a .44 mag. This thing’s a fucking hand cannon.”

Julie spat blood and stuck out her lower lip in a pout. “Way to kill the mood. So if I’ve only got ten minutes left, what are we gonna do with that time? You got any cool games in that bag of yours?”

“Nothing fun, school issued stuff. Educational stuff,” he said.

“Figures. Well. I guess we could look at the sky. I never paid attention to how beautiful it is. So many beautiful things in the world, you know? We don’t even notice them until it’s too late.”

Jack thought it was a poignant observation, but looking at Julie he realized it was never more true than when it came to the girl herself. How many times had he looked at her and thought she was hot, or cute, or sexy, without fully recognizing her beauty? “Nothing’s more beautiful than you.”

Julie smiled at him, and he felt his heart breaking. “Oh, Jacky, why’d you have to kill me?”

Jack didn't have an answer for that. It had seemed to make sense not so long ago, but now it felt all wrong. Why had he killed his best friend, a girl he loved and who had actually loved him in return? This was so fucking bad. Instead of responding to that impossible question Jack simply stared at Julie, who was looking wistfully up at the sky, and he basked in her hypnotic beauty.

After a minute or two Julie winced, clutched tightly at her stomach, and an alarming amount of blood gushed from her mouth. She looked at Jack, two big tears rolling slowly down her cheeks, her lower lip quivering, and she told him, “I don’t think I’m gonna make it to that half hour mark.”

“I don’t think you will. No."

"I'm losing my fucking mind here. Talk to me, tell me a story or something. Tell me a fucking joke."

“You said not to make you laugh.”

“You asshole, I also said I didn’t wanna be shot to death, but that didn’t stop you, did it?” Jack frowned. “Come on, Jack, don’t be a wiener, I don’t wanna laugh, I just wanna smile. Make me forget I’m dying for just a second, yeah?”

“I’m sorry, Julie, I can’t think of any good jokes.”

“Tell me a shitty joke then.”

Jack thought for a moment, then said, “Okay, fine, in memoriam of your sexy belly, how about this: where do you go to learn to belly dance?”

“I dunno, where?” Julie asked.

“The navel academy.” Julie actually did smile at that, and Jack continued, with a bit more confidence now. “What did the policewoman say to her belly button?”

“I hope you don’t get pierced today?” Julie guessed, glancing at her own bullet-riddled belly for extra effect.

“Good guess, but nope. You’re under a vest.”

Julie snorted. "Fuck, that's bad."

"You think that's bad, your momma's so fat, she has an echo in her belly button."

Julie crowed with laughter, albeit briefly, before covering her mouth to stop an onslaught of blood. After a moue of pain her smile returned, "Okay, enough jokes. I think I just ruptured something. Tell me a story." Blood was coursing steadily from her lips now, and her chin was completely coated.

"Julie, I'm so sorry. I can't believe I did this to you."

"Me too, Jack, but please. I'm trying really hard not to think about dying, so... tell me a fucking story."

"Well, when I was four years old, I was outside in my front yard playing with my Global Commando action figures when this chubby little girl saw me from across the street and came over to ask me what I was doing. I told her I was fighting off these rebel terrorists, and she sat down next to me and joined in."

"Chubby? You fucking asshole, I wasn't chubby. I was big boned."

"Julie, come on, you were a fucking chunkster."

"I was maybe a little tubby."

"Was?"

"Jack, don't be an asshole. I'm dying."

Jack smiled, "I'm kidding, I'm kidding, you know I think you're the most beautiful girl ever."

"But not back then. Back then you thought I was tubby. But I guess you didn't care, because we did spend that entire afternoon playing together."

“Yeah, we took out those terrorist bastards, and then you chased me around pretending to shoot me.”

Julie smiled sadly. “Well the tables have turned now. If I’d known how that relationship would turn out..." Julie coughed and gurgled, then whimpered meekly before continuing, "I’d have stayed the fuck on my side of the street.”

“I’m glad you didn’t,” Jack told her, thinking it was romantic, and immediately realizing it was insensitive. He wasn’t the one dying.

“Fuck you,” Julie said wheezily. “You’re such a dick.” Her voice was cracking.

“I’m sorry, Julie, I didn’t mean...”

“Fuck off with that shit.” Blood was spurting from her lips like a fountain. “I’m fucking dying, Jack. I’m fucking dying. You being sorry doesn't help. Oh fuck, I’m so fucking scared.”

“You know, it was only about a hundred years ago when our ancestors believed there was a God, and that after you died you got to live forever in paradise. Some people still believe it.”

“Oh, I wish I could believe that shit. I really do.”

“Maybe it’s true.”

Julie gave Jack a look that said, Come on, Jack, you’ve known me my whole life, you know I’m not falling for that.

"I guess you're right," Jack conceded. "We know it's not."

"Jack," Julie said with a sense of desperation, her blue eyes suddenly wide. "Jack... Jack, I don't... this is it!" Those were her final words, and with that she laid back on the stairs, her perfect mouth yawning in terror, and he watched the life go out of her spectacularly beautiful eyes.

"Can we see her tits?" one of the boys who was witnessing asked. When Jack looked at him in anger he appealed, "What, she's not going to care."

"She was my fiancé," Jack replied, stricken with grief.

"Why'd you kill her then?"

"I don't know."