With a slight grunt Miki woke up on a Tuesday. Soft rays of sunlight fell into her bedroom through the window, but even the warmth of the natural light couldn’t help her feel better. It had been years since she had one nice dream and everyone seemed to suffer from the same nightmares. Always that same darkness, that chilling ever consuming darkness. It gave her chills just thinking about it.

Outside she could hear the church bells ring, the first sign of the beginning workday. Miki had to make her way to the middle of the town, right at the point where the wall was made to separate the boys from the girls. The Government made it, since they thought love was distracting people from doing their job. Love also meant power and power was something they wanted to keep under control.

Quickly Miki dressed herself and got ready for the workday. Every movement she made she had made every single day before. She almost didn’t feel human anymore. She didn’t even know what it meant to be a person. Everything she did was so automated, just like almost everything was in town.

Miki made her way down the street, her heels making it hard to maneuver over the pebbles, but she was used to it. Every woman was used to it. Some women greeted each other, but most of them had bittered over time. The lack of sunlight and the right to express themselves had taken its toll. That was just what the Government wanted.

The Government was an enormous city somewhere hidden in between the big cities. No one had ever seen it, for no one was allowed to leave their own city. At the age of five everyone had to take off a test. The one’s with the highest score got a chance to work in the Government, the rest got jobs like Miki had. They had to work to keep everything going. For the government, but also for themselves. Half of every cities exports went to the government and the other half they had to share with everyone in their city. Times were hard, but it was like it always had been.

The only thing the cities got from the Government were five year olds that had been assigned to a job and a city. Only to never see their own parents again. Not that the parents minded, they thought was merely for pleasure. When they got pregnant they’d go to the doctor and get an appointment to get the baby removed. The baby would then be placed in a glass cocoon and be taken care of by the big machine called ‘Mother’. No one precisely knew what happened in the facility, but the kids came out of it at the age of five, their memories of the place erased and seated for the test. That happened every year.

“Miki!”

Miki looked up, only to look into the eyes of her best friend Kym. Kym was dressed in her daily attire, even though she liked to switch it up with certain accessories. It seemed that today she had chosen the color purple to dominate her choice in clothing.

“Will it become a new trend?” Miki asked, looking at her friend.

Kym chuckled. “Maybe it will, maybe it won’t.”

“Anything better than the usual attire we get,” Miki commented and Kym nodded, agreeing with her. Kym worked in the clothes sector, just like Miki. She designed different types of clothes, both for the girls as for the boys. However, she needed models for boys and, instead of going there, the boys came to her. Somehow, the Government trusted the guys more with these kinds of stuff. The girls never got to go to the other side of the city.

The city was separated in different sectors. The clothes sector, where Kym and Miki worked, was the closest to the center and to the wall. Other sectors, like food, cleaning, etc were situated around it.

Kym and Miki parted ways and Miki walked to the building she needed to be as did Kym.

~*~

On the other side of town, Hongbin was already working hard. Safety was one of the many things that Government stood for and, because of this, weapons were a necessity. Just like with every other city, their city’s exports went to the Government. It was a fifty/fifty deal. The Government received fifty and the other fifty they had to distribute amongst themselves. Everything, except for the things the boys made. Everything that they made went to the Government immediately and everything was double checked to make sure no one carried a weapon when they shouldn’t. Even if they did, the Peacemakers in town would mercilessly execute them. No questions asked.

Just like everyone else, Hongbin was very focused on his work. There was no chatter to be heard, only the clanking of metal onto metal. As Hongbin laid yet another weapon onto the conveyer belt a friend of his, Ken, came over. He looked to be very pleased with something, having a screwdriver in one hand and his hair styled as if he had an accident involving electricity.

“Hongbin!” Ken smiled brightly.

Hongbin frowned. “How can you be so… happy?”

“I just had an amazing discovery!” Ken continued on, basically ignoring Hongbin’s question. “But I can’t tell you just yet. It has to remain a secret, okay?”

“O-Okay?” Hongbin uttered as his friend kept looking at him with expectant eyes. He had no idea how to keep it a secret if he didn’t even know what it was in the first place. It was probably Ken being scatter-brained again.

“Good!” Ken smiled brightly. “Bring Leo and Ravi along, they have to see this as well.”

“I don’t think Leo...”

“Drag him along then,” Ken put it simply. “He just has to see this.”

Again, Ken was stressing the ‘has’. It made Hongbin curious to know what exactly he had discovered. He was way too happy about it, so it had to be something grand. Hongbin merely grunted in response, feeling too tired to even give him a proper answer. Ken, however, took it as any other response and smiled brightly before running off to… God knows where. Hongbin rolled his eyes and continued on with his work, feeling the eyes of his superior prying into his back.