Mind of Gray

              Chapter One : Part One

              He found himself standing next to his friend Dominick. Dominick was a large, strong man almost of bulging proportions; this had always made Marcus feel far inferior to him. As the Octos Supervisor went silently over roll call, staring down each one of them, he turned his head to the right and grabbed Dominick’s attention.

            “Did you hear about the victory in North Carolina yesterday? I heard that the Southerner's lines are growing weaker every day.” He said. Dominick grinned, turning his head towards Marcus.

            “You act as though you’re an Enforcement Agent. Always keeping track of who’s winning what and when, does it really matter? The Southerners can’t hold out forever, they’ll crumble eventually.” Marcus became annoyed and glanced over at the base of the U formation, which was a long endless line of uniformed men in fully black combat ready suits. Seeing the Enforcement Agency during formation was as if you were staring into the darkest abyss.

            “Me, acting like an Agent? Just last week you called me chicken shit for falling down when I got hit over the head by one. Now I’m like them?”

            “No, you think the same. But your too much of a woman to actually be like them,” he laughed.

            “I’ll fight you right now Dominick, and we’ll see who the woman is,” Marcus said, waving a fist in the air jokingly. Just at that moment he noticed that the Supervisor was standing right next to both of them in formation, staring at the fist. Marcus broke out in a nervous sweat and stared forward dropping his hand, attempting to avoid any conflict with the Supervisor.

            “Do we have an issue here MO34?” the supervisor said.

            “No sir, not at all sir.” Marcus spat out instantly.

            “What about you, DO68?”

            “No sir, not at all sir.” Dominick said much more calmly.

            “Reveille begins in exactly two and a half minutes. Keep both of your mouths closed and listen to what the Commissioner has to say, I will not have you embarrassing me or your other Brother and Sister Octos.” The supervisor walked away retaking his position at the head of the Octos group.

            Marcus hated the supervisor, always thought of him as self-righteous. He, however, hated even more that he had to respect and listen to him, especially when the orders were clearly wrong. The Octos Supervisor was over every person inside of October group, including Marcus and Dominick. He looked over to his left at the September group, another sea of olive green uniforms only instead of having a black O patch on their upper right sleeve; they were graced with an S. The Septems Supervisor stood still, motionless like a statue. He had finished his roll call long before the Octos Supervisor had, fewer men to count. Marcus was born an Octos and would die an Octos, though he would never be blessed with the luxuries of a Septem he didn’t have to worry about the sludge and poverty filled lives of a Novem and Decem. As far as he was concerned, which he wasn’t, everything was fine the way it was.

            Trumpets sounded, old trumpets. Once most likely beautiful and majestic in nature now was reduced to a strong rustic scratching noise. Marcus cringed at the obstruction, he always did. At the head of the once great hall the Commissioner slowly walked out, down the many steps. He walked with confidence, head held high, shoulders rolled back, and chest out; he believed himself to be on top of the world. He wore a dark, depressing, navy blue uniform with a large LE sewn into his upper right sleeve. That LE meant and represented everything that a man must work for in his life, The Echelon. The Echelon was broken into two divisions, Lower and Upper. The Lower handling locale sectors and Upper headed the state government. The Commissioner was Lower Echelon.

            He positioned himself in front of an old podium at the center point of the formation. Standing to the right of the podium was the Vice-Commissioner, and to the left was the Sector Enforcement Commanding Officer. He began to speak.

            “Brothers and Sisters, Loyalists of all, the Echelon embraces you,” he said proudly.

            “Brothers and Sisters, Loyalists of all, the Echelon embraces you,” the formation repeated sending a loud boom throughout the entire courtyard leaving an echo that would trail for miles. Marcus moved his lips with everyone else but never made a sound. The Commissioner continued to speak, or rant, for several hours as the fields of men quivered in the hot sun not budging a single centimeter. Marcus dazed away from the courtyard and the Commissioner, as he had a habit of doing. The Commissioner talked of many things, mostly trivial; from the various ration shortenings and extensions, to the budgets and military victories or failures, of the social and economic purposes of our social caste, as well as the importance of hard work. Nothing new or exciting would ever come out of his mouth; Marcus knew this and used it as a prime opportunity to practice sleeping while standing.

            He felt relaxed and calm, standing there completely oblivious to the world and people surrounding him. He began to drift into what felt like nothingness, a void of no color, of complete peacefulness. Marcus opened his eyes and found himself in an endless field of grass, five years old and happy. He glanced around and saw nothing but green for miles on end, with an occasional tree sprouting up scarcely, the sky was a beautiful vibrant blue with not but one cloud in the whole sky. He began to walk forward when he saw a young gorgeous woman sitting under a lone tree at a picnic. He ran over to her,

            “Momma, I found more apples for lunch,” he said

            “Good just place them in the basket Marcus, we’ll save them for when father gets here.”

            He placed the apples carefully into the picnic basket and sat down beside his mother, in an ignorant bliss he smiled at her.

            “Brothers and Sisters, Loyalists of all, the Echelon embraces you,” he said.

            “What was that Marcus?” his mother said confused.

            “Brothers and Sisters, Loyalists of all, the Echelon embraces you,” he said again

             Marcus opened his eyes only to find himself, not in a field of grass with his mother, but still standing together with hundreds of men, women, and children watching the Commissioner walk confidently back towards the great hall. He took a quick glance around and noticed the supervisor staring straight at him.