The Oath of Life

Chapter 2

The book was hard to follow, because the man recognized very few words. There were some words, such as George or Patrick, that were invariably used to refer to a person. The man deduced that they were identities, like his serial number. But these identities seemed more...personal.

The next words he noticed were words such as angry or happy. He couldn't quite tell what they meant at first. But when he looked at the context he saw that they described a person's state of mind.

Anger seemed to be either a crowded, overwhelmed feeling about something that had happened and that you couldn't do anything about, or it was a burning feeling caused by someone who had done you harm.

Happiness usually meant that something good had happened to you. It could also mean a general sense of peace, such as that which was always present in the colony. But there seemed to be something else about their happiness.

Once he had figured all this out, he saw the general story. There were two countries, and one country ruled over the other country. The first country got in a war with another country and couldn't pay by themselves for the weapons. So they took money away from the citizens of the country they ruled.

Apparently, in those days, most people did own things. It also seemed that they could do what they liked, say what they liked, and think what they liked. And the first country, England, wanted to take that away from them.

The second country became angry at this. They called themselves the Thirteen Colonies and united themselves against England-at the time, the most powerful nation in the world.

In the middle of the war, they announced that they wanted to be independent of England. They cited "certain unalienable rights" and founded a new government with the sole purpose of protecting those rights.

Unbelievably, the colonies won the war.  The ruler of England finally acknowledged them as an independent country.

The man without a name looked up from the book. He looked different now. The whole room suddenly looked stupid and empty.

The next day, he received a summons. The Second Circle had requested an audience with him. This was the usual routine after a criminal incident. Most often, the subject would come and subsequently disappear. If they disobeyed the summons, guards would capture them.

The man did not obey the summons. He went to work and made up a cockamamie excuse for suddenly leaving. It was apparently convincing, as he was shown to his usual desk.

He had a special duty today; he was to run the machines. This was a difficult job. One had to type the exactly right sequence into a computer. This computer controlled the building's Transmitters, air conditioning, and the majority of other computers. In addition, an error in the part of the sequence relating to the waste compactor could destroy the whole machine.

He sat in the computer room, typing the beginning of the sequence. He then realized that he had the perfect opportunity to throw off the workings of the colony! He typed in completely random characters, knowing that it would probably ruin the entire Waste Depository. Finally, he pressed the button labeled FINISH CODE. He ran out before anything could happen.

The next day, he went to work as usual. He tried to act as if nothing had happened. But there was no use, as it was clear that something had. Half the building was on fire. A team of guards was trying to put it out, but the fire grew every second. From the pile of waste around the building, he deduced that the compactor had also been destroyed.

The pile grew quickly. Today was Delivery Day, when Waste Depository workers collected the garbage from every building in the colony, and took it to the Depository to be destroyed. Having no other place to put it, they dumped the waste around the building.

The Transmitter Building, the headquarters for all Transmitter Readings, was also in chaos. It appeared that the some of the Transmitters had malfunctioned, sending out thousands of Readings every second. The printers and computers were overloaded, and many had crashed. This had also been due to the computer crash in the Waste Depository.

Buildings 103, 1984, and 2055 were flooded. The plumbing malfunctions in the Waste Depository had affected the plumbing in several parts of the colony.

The man laughed. He knew it would not be much longer before he was captured by the First Circle. But he had struck a victory against them. Colony 48 was in crisis.

He slept happily that night. For the first time, he realized how numb he had been. He could now feel happy or angry. He did not see how those around him could fail to detect this.

The next day, a bulletin went out warning the people of the colony to go barefoot. The plumbing had only gotten worse, and now the whole colony was ankle-deep in water.

That day, things were worse than ever. The Waste Depository had not burned down, but by this point it was more of a heap than a building. The top two floors had caved in, and the rest of the building was a maze of rubble. One would not dare to go inside.

The Reading Building, meanwhile, was still in turmoil. The Readings were still coming in incredibly quickly.

As for the rest of the colony, the other stations were on lockdown. A blackout had occurred, and no electronics worked except those with batteries.

The man observed the scene in triumph. He had, even in his small way, hurt the First Circle. Even though there were hundreds of other colonies that were still "business as usual," but this still felt like an incredible accomplishment.

He reflected that he could now feel. This was new to him. He had refused to let the First Circle tell him what he could and couldn't think; now, he was deciding that they couldn't tell him not to feel. Right then, he felt content.

Now he had a new feeling. He wanted to be free from the First Circle, free from oppression! The only way to do this was to get to a place that they did not control. This was unlikely; it was uncertain whether such a place existed. And if it did, how was he to get there?

Now he felt a sense of despair and hopelessness. Each new emotion was like a different color; the happiness like the spacious color of the sky, the desire to be free like the hot, fierce color of blood, and the depression like the color of overcast storm clouds.

He was now the only person on the street.

Suddenly, two large men in dull uniforms came sloshing through the waterlogged road, armed with tranquilizer guns. They grabbed the man and shot him in the arm.

Everything went black for a moment.

Then the soldiers picked the man up and dragged him through the knee-high water.