The Judge

After the end of World War III, over two thirds of the world's population had been depleted. Those who were left began to get sick and die from radiation poisoning and air pollution. Only a small fraction of those who had made it to a shelter or-- by some miracle, kept out of harm's way-- were left in the world. The remnants of the government's resources and personnel were fast at work, trying to find a way to clean the air and make earth safe to live on. In the meantime, humanity was boxed in. Specially lined, filtered homes were created to keep men and women safe together, inside and away from the poisoned air. Large government buildings kept the children, watching over them and training the girls and the boys separately to prepare them for a different life. Some of the girls were kept until the age of eighteen, and then married to men they had never even met.

So it had been, and continued to be, for several generations. Diana, filed under the number 90716, was no different. She found herself with a kind man named Arthur; a different man. The plan had always been to keep man and woman together to replenish the Earth's population, and Diana soon became pregnant. So what would happen if Diana and Arthur decided they couldn't bear to see their child taken away?

What would happen if they found they would rather throw everything away and put their lives at danger just so they could watch their baby grow up?