The Oath of Life

Chapter 3

When the man woke up, he was in a plain, white room, lying on a cot. There was nothing else in the room but a metal door.

Where am I? he thought. He walked over to the door and saw that there was no handle. He pushed it, but it wouldn't move.

He was trapped, and there was nothing he could do. He would have to wait until someone came for him.

He waited for about an hour. Finally, the door slid open, and a large man with a glass of water entered. He set the glass on the floor and took a gun and a piece of heavy cloth out of his backpack.

He sat and stared at the guard for a long time. It appeared that he was about to die. But instead of shooting, the guard gestured to the water.

The man without a name drank. He hadn't realized how thirsty he had been.

"Normally, we poison the water before we give it to our prisoners," said the guard. "The prisoner, suspecting nothing, is brought before the First Circle, where he suddenly falls down and does a slow, painful death. You are a rare exception-the Chancellor wants to see you first."

"Why am I an exception?" he asked. "And how do I know you didn't poison the water?"

"You don't," said the guard. "You have to take my word. As for your first question...well, I don't know. The Chancellor's decisions are secretive."

"Who is the Chancellor? What happened to the First Circle?"

"The Chancellor is the head of the First Circle."

The man was confused. He didn't see anything particularly interesting about himself. But he nodded to the guard and asked him to continue.

"I will escort you blindfolded," said the guard, wrapping the cloth around his head and over his eyes. "You aren't allowed to know where you are. When you are before the First Circle, I will remove the blindfold.

"If you take off the blindfold, I will kill you. If you fight back, I will kill you. If you attempt to escape, I will kill you. The Chancellor is the most powerful person in the world, and, as such, we guard him well. You have no hope unless he gives you hope."

The man took a deep breath. "Go ahead."

The guard wrapped the blindfold around his head and led him through a series of hallways.

The man was now so dizzy he thought he might throw up. He had completely lost his sense of direction. He distracted himself by wondering what he had done to earn the favor of the Chancellor. Was it some kind of test?

Finally, a door opened and the man was led through. The guard removed the blindfold to let him see a round table with thirteen people sitting around it. They all had very stern, thin faces. They wore suits like the one worn by the Second Circle member who presided over Colony 48. Most were male, but some were female. They were all seemingly in their fifties or early sixties. One man sat at the head of the table. His chair was larger than the rest. He had a large forehead, short grey hair, a hooked nose, and a cruel, hardened expression. His eyes were dark, and something about looking into his eyes terrified him, as if they would swallow you whole. The man realized all at once that he was the Chancellor.

"Good afternoon," said the Chancellor, in a voice that told you he wished everyone to have the worst afternoon of their life.

"I'm not afraid of you," said the man, hardening his face. His hands were trembling, so he made fists.

"Yes, you are," said the Chancellor. He stared at the man with his dark, intense eyes. He looked away.

"Do you know what you have done?" the Chancellor demanded. "You have brought about destruction such as we have never seen. It is believed that a small group of others saw what you had done and made things worse. They set fires and mistyped the codes on purpose. They created so much havoc that we are now closing down Colony 48 permanently."

"I don't care."

"Do you know what you have begun?" he continued. "You are the founder of the Resistance. Every great conqueror, from Stalin to Robespierre to Kim Jong-Un, had a Resistance. The Resistance, in many cases, was their undoing. You have created mine. They have taken over what used to be Colony 48! They have found your old room in Building 2112, discovered your precious book, and are now mass-printing it. That could be it for me!"

"Well, good then," said the man. "I haven't given a fig for you since I read that book, and I hope I shall live to see you be put in your place. I know I won't, however. You'll kill me like you've killed everyone else, and like you're going to kill off Colony 48. I just want you to know: you'll die too. Narcissistic as you are, powerful as you are, eccentric and creepy and ruthless as you are, you won't escape God's axe in the end."

"You believe in God," he chuckled. "How cute. Yes, I know that I will die. I just want to have as much fun as possible first. I don't think God exists. And I don't care. I worship myself. And I never have enough power to satisfy myself, but what else am I supposed to do? I think I'll call you John," he added, rather offhandedly.

"Why John?" asked John. "Why not the stupid serial number you gave me?"

"Because now, your mind is no longer my property," said the Chancellor. "I number my property only. I don't own your mind anymore; that means in my book that you've elevated yourself from "slave" to "free man." But you, free as you are, are still ordinary and pose no threat to me on your own. So I'll call you John, because that used to be the unofficial name for the ordinary people."

"Why don't you just kill me?" asked John. "Like Patrick Henry said, 'Give me liberty or give me death.'"

"How cute," the Chancellor said again. "You quote Patrick Henry. No, I am the First Circle. These people are only flatterers and deceivers, and they all plan to kill me. They never will. The idea is that once I'm dead, either one of them will take over or all of them will get a little power. John, the world as you know it exists for my amusement. And now, it amuses me to set you free."

Something stirred deep within John. Freedom? He was free! At the mention of free life, suddenly he didn't so much want to die after all.

"If you're smart, anyway," he said, "you'll naturally make something out of these."

He handed John a sheet of paper with two sets of numbers and a picture of the Earth with lines running across it.

"Good luck getting to America," said the Chancellor. "The guard will lead you to a Transporter shortly. Council dismissed."

And with that, the Chancellor and his twelve puppet consorts left the room.