April 1998
Zenn straightened his tie, reaching perfectly to the waist of his creaseless black trousers. He picked up his school books and nodded respectfully to his Guardians on the way out. Arriving at the school, he took his place at the back of his Batch line.Every year, twenty-six children would be born and be assigned Guardians. They were named in alphabetical order, making Zenn the youngest. All children in a Batch - thirteen girls, thirteen boys - were absolutely equal, yet Zenn somehow felt that he was different. Especially now, for today he reached his fourteenth year, the last of his Batch to do so. This, he realised, made him unique.
Such thoughts were wrong, for once you started thinking like that, you started to want to change things. Change would bring chaos, and then where would you be? The Rules were there to be obeyed, and this brought peace and harmony to the whole of Colony.
He found his thoughts returning, as they so often did, to Denai. Denai had been - still was, in a way - a boy Zenn had known, a year older. He had thought the way Zenn did, but seemed to know more than he could possibly know. He spoke of an unfamiliar world, and told of a great dome that encased the whole of Colony, keeping them all locked away from what? Something different. Something new. According to Denai, there had once been a time when there were no Masters, and each man ran his own life as he saw fit. Zenn thought that an unlikely story; how would they all know what to do without the guidance of the Masters? And yet Denai spoke as if the Masters were the enemy, as if they had deliberately chosen to isolate Colony from any outside influences.
Even if that were true, what of it? The Masters knew best. If they had seen fit to build a great dome around the edge of this haven of peace and perfection, they must have had a reason. Who was Zenn to question the logic of those older and wiser than he? Yet question he did, in the privacy of his own head, and found himself thinking things that even Denai would never dare say out loud, like: exactly what made the Masters so wise? He couldn't believe he was even thinking such things.
Despite their deeply ingrained inclination to treat all others equally, the rest of Denai's Batch had shunned him, thinking him mad. Even Zenn had to agree that some of his peculiar friend's tales were highly unlikely, and no-one believed he could possibly have acquired such stories from any place but his own head. Thus Zenn was the only one to listen when Denai resolved to run away and bring back proof of his fabled dome.
The next day he was not in school. The day after that, one of the Masters spoke to all the children, saying that Denai was ill and had been taken for Reform, although Zenn did not know what that was. A while later he was returned to them, but the boy Zenn had known had been transformed into a dutiful, mindless drone like all the others.
Maybe that was why, when it came to lunch recess, he found himself raising his hand.
"My Guardians require me to take a message," he told his teacher. The teacher nodded, and he bowed in return.
Amazed at his own audacity, yet feeling a sudden heady sense of freedom, he left the school grounds and started along the perfectly straight road. He passed crossing, turning neither left nor right, but continuing forwards. Deep in thought, he must have travelled for a very long time before he saw an odd glint on the horizon. Zenn quickened his pace, and eventually came upon a truly strange wall.
It curved, stretching up higher than he could possibly hope to see, and was made of an unfamiliar substance. It seemed to him that he ought to be able to see through it, but he could not. As he drew closer, Zenn thought he could see something moving on the other side.
He realised with a start that he was staring at a boy of his own age - but that was impossible, for it was not a member of his own Batch, nor even of those a year below or above him. The boy had fair hair and dark eyes, like everyone in Colony. Zenn took a step back, and found that he could no longer see the other. Suddenly he felt a rough shove and he fell forward. Shocked, he rolled over. No one had ever touched him so painfully before. He saw that his assailant wore the pale uniform of a Master, and that horrified him even more. No Master would ever inflict pain on a pupil; it was against the Rules. There was an odd sensation in Zenn's head, and when he put his hand to it, he saw a red liquid that he realised must be blood. There seemed to be an awful lot of it. Without warning, the world was snatched away from him.
Zenn awoke on a bed that was not his own. Puzzled, he rose and cast about for his uniform, then saw that he was still wearing it. Walking out into a corridor he had never seen before, he saw no sign of his Guardians. Instead he was met by a Master.
"Why am I here?" he asked after the customary bow.
"You were ill. You broke the Rules. Now you are better."
"I broke the Rules?" Zenn gasped, uncomprehending. "But the Rules must never be broken!"
The Master nodded wisely. "Your illness was unfortunate. It has been corrected."
"What... what is this place?"
"This is the place of Reform. Now return to your schooling." Zenn bowed again, bemused, and headed through the corridors in search of an exit. Reform - Zenn did not understand the word, but he felt he had heard it before. He could not recall where or when that had been. In fact, he remembered very little. Perhaps as a part of his cure, a large chunk of his memory seemed to have been removed.
As he left, Zenn noticed that the door was strangely shiny. He had seen - something - made of the same odd material. As he let it swing shut, he thought he glimpsed a pale face. Something snapped inside his head, and memories came flooding back. He remembered Denai; the mysterious boy; the Dome.
"It's real," he breathed. "It's really real!" Denai had been right all along. Knowing he must return to the Dome, Zenn walked at a measured pace until out of sight of the Masters. Then he broke into a run. It was against the Rules to run outside of exercise class, but it gave him a feeling of power. He suddenly saw that he did not have to obey the Rules, did not have to do as he was told. It was a revelation.
He came once more upon the Dome, and saw the other boy running to meet him. All at once he found himself picking up a rock and heaving it at the barrier with all his might. It seemed to travel in slow motion, and he was suddenly terrified. What had possessed him to do such a thing?
There was a sound like the world shattering, and an almighty howl. The very air seemed to be sucking him towards the wall, and Zenn fell to his knees with his hands over his ears. What evil creature had his rash act released?
After an eternity the noise and the sucking stopped, and he stood again. He saw that an enormous section of the shiny material had cracked and fragmented, leaving a gaping hole.
The air was still moving softly, and now it felt different, alive, like no other air in his fourteen years in Colony. It bit at him, raising bumps on his flesh and making his whole body shake. Beyond the hole was darkness, but Zenn steeled himself and stepped through. There was no other boy on the other side, and now he realised that there never had been.
Zenn ran back towards the home of the Masters. When he got there, a great many Masters stood clustered just inside the door, afraid to come out. Their pitiful expressions of fear and rage removed any doubts he might have had about the ones he had once considered wise. He felt like laughing as he threw the door aside and the new, painful air rushed in.
"What have you done, boy?" cried one.
Zenn sneered at him. "I have broken your Rules. I have changed things, and for good or bad they can never be the same again. No more will you tie us down with your petty restrictions; you will face this with the rest of us." With that, he slammed his shoulder into their precious protective door until it shattered.
"You cannot disobey us!" called the Masters after him. He just laughed and turned away. They tried to follow, but he was running, and they were too bound by their own Rules even to chase him.
Finally he reached the school. The children stood in perfect straight lines, but their faces were fearful and puzzled, and the formation was broken by the gap left by Zenn. The boy revelled in the bite of the air and the pain in his head and shoulder. "The Rules are broken!" he cried, and laughed. And Denai laughed too, and ran from his place to join him.
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