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The people are still told that these homes are temporary That one day they will return to the ht and beautiful again But this is all a lie

The Reestablished on these regulated grounds; these containers have beco has been numbered The people, their homes, their level of importance to The Reestablishe experiime that makes them promises it will never fulfill

This is my life

This sorry world

Most days I feel just as caged as these civilians; and that’s likely why I always co from one prison to another; an existence wherein there is no relief, no refuge Where even er than this

I’ve been training for just over a decade Every day I’ve worked to hone ths I’m five feet, nine inches and 170 pounds of muscle I’ve been built to survive, to maximize endurance and staun in my hand I can fieldstrip, clean, reload, disassemble, and reassemble et through the center from almost any distance I can break a person’s windpipe with only the edge ofbut my knuckles

On the battlefield, I’ht toand cares for less

But this is all very deceiving

Because the truth is, I a but a coward

Fourteen

The sun is setting

Soon I’ll have no choice but to return to base, where I’ll have to sit still and listen to h his open mouth

So I stall for time

I watch from afar as the children run around while their parents herd theh to realize that the Reestablish their everyin whichever factories they were sorted into is closely row up and finally understand that everything they do is recorded, every conversation dissected for whispers of rebellion They don’t know that profiles are created for every citizen, and that every profile is thick with documentation on their friendships, relationships, and work habits; even the ways in which they choose to spend their free ti about everyone

Too much

Sowith real, live people until I see them on the compounds I’ve memorized the names of nearly every person in Sector 45 I like to knoho lives within my jurisdiction, soldiers and civilians alike

That’s how I knew, for exa his wife and children every night

I kneas spending all hishis family I monitored the REST dollars he spent at our supply centers and carefully observed his family on the coe of ten and hadn’t eaten in weeks; I knew that they’d repeatedly been to the compounds’ medic for broken bones and stitches I knew he’d punched his nine-year-old daughter in the mouth and split her lip, fractured her jaw, and broken her two front teeth; and I knew his as pregnant I also knew that he hit her so hard one night she lost the child the following

I knew, because I was there

I’d been stopping by each residence, visiting with the civilians, asking questions about their health and overall living situations I’d wanted to know about their work conditions and whether any members of their family were ill and needed to be quarantined

She was there that day Fletcher’s wife Her nose was broken so badly that both her eyes had swollen shut Her fraht shedown But when I asked about her injuries, she wouldn’t look me in the eye She said she’d fallen down; that because of her fall, she’d lost the pregnancy and ed to break her nose in the process

I nodded Thanked her for her cooperation in answering my questions

And then I called for an assembly

I’m well aware that the e compounds I oversee our inventory closely, and I know that supplies goall the time But I allow these infractions because they do not upset the system A few extra loaves of bread or bars of soap keep my soldiers in better spirits; they work harder if they are healthy, andspouses, children, and relatives So it is a concession I allow

But there are soive

I don’t consider myself a moral man I do not philosophize about life or bother with the laws and principles that govern most people I do not pretend to know the difference between right and wrong But I do live by a certain kind of code And sometimes, I think, you have to learn how to shoot first

Sea his faht it’d be kinder than ripping him to pieces by hand

But my father picked up where Fletcher left off My father had three children and their mother shot dead, all because of the drunken bastard they’d depended on to provide for them He was their father, her husband, and the reason they all died a brutal, untimely death

And so myself alive

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