“09R, valid, you may go inside,” announced a male voice.
09R would have preferred not to be referred to as “valid”, it had been four days in a row, and he didn't feel valid at all. He could barely stand. He would have liked to discuss this decision with the Rector, but the lower never had access to him. So, as long as 09R was designated “valid”, he had to go to work. This rule had been instituted by the Radet since the end of Omdreining, a way for them to channel the low-treasants and remove any independent thought from them.
09R walked quietly to the first machine in his section. In two hours, he would change to the second machine, then in four hours to the third, and so on until the end of the day.
'Valid' officially has half an hour to eat, but half an hour exists only in their dreams, he joked as he joined his friend 4T5 at the first machine.
4T5, a man in his forties, was neither very handsome nor very ugly, but their friendship had been solid for a long time.
“Nice hair, 9!” exclaimed 4T5. “Did you get permission to go to the hairdresser?”
“No, RX1 did it for me. I'm surprised you noticed.”
A guard intervened when he saw them talking.
“Your day starts in two minutes, no more talking.”
“You said it yourself, Guard, we still have two minutes to talk.”
“5, stop it, you'll end up in the fengsel again.”
“Listen to your comrade, 5, and shut up.”
4T5 said no more and settled down at his machine. Once the Guard had moved away, he resumed:
“Are you scared, 9?”
“Of course, I'm scared, I don't want to end up in the fengsel. You don't even seem to care, you've got the survival instinct of a snail. You should be more careful!”
“I'm not afraid, unlike you, and unlike them,” replied 4T5, pointing to the other low-treasants.
“You should be. You've already finished at the fengsel, do you want to go back?”
“Maybe, who knows?”
“You're crazy.”
4T5 didn't answer and looked into 09R's big gray eyes. 9 was his closest friend – his only friend, in fact. For 4T5, 09R was more than a friend, he was his advisor, the person he'd been with since before Omdreining when they were just kids. Sometimes, when they were sure no one was listening, they liked to reminisce about moments from their distant youth, pleasant memories that they risked losing because of the electroshock sessions organized by the Radet. They knew that recalling pre-Omdreining events was forbidden, but they couldn't do otherwise – their lives had been so good in the past.
“How many days have you been designated 'valid'?” asked 09R in a low voice.
“Six days today,” replied 4T5, also in a whisper. “And you?”
“Four days and I can't take it anymore.”
“I heard that 07T only did two days at the machines and then got sent back to textiles.”
“Where did you hear that?” asked a woman in her fifties not far from them. “If it's true, 07T is no better than a child.”
“RX1 told me, JG2.”
“But who told RX1?” asked 09R.
“Ha! I don't know, I'm not the Rector.”
“Shh… the Guards,” whispered JG2.
The low-treasants resumed their work, the last thing they wanted was to end up in the fengsel. Those who were sent there always came back changed, which was what had happened to 4T5, after his stay in the fengsel he had become a different person. Once 09R was the outspoken one, now it was 4T5 who couldn't keep his mouth shut. But the slightest mistake, and he could be sent back to the fengsel or to a worse place. These places were designed to deprive them of their right to think and their imagination. Everything was timed to the second. Freedom no longer existed.
Omdreining, billed as the greatest revolution in the history of mankind, the Northern Bloc united against the Four. But the Four managed to gain the upper hand, and after an interminable war, the Radet was created. The Radet is the Grand Council. At first, it was just the Four, but after the Omdreining, every country outside the Great North swelled their ranks. 4T5 and 09R were only children when the North Block was isolated from the rest of the world when they were enslaved and controlled. Every part of their lives is controlled, every shred of their intellect monitored, even their first and last names changed. Life in the far north is very different from what it used to be.
4T5 couldn't take it anymore, he'd been designated “valid” for six days, he'd just reached his limit. He had tried to hold out until the end of the day, but he knew full well that the next day he would still be “valid”. He was clearly more resistant than his friend 09R, he could see him in front of him, trembling, ready to collapse in his turn, and yet he had only been “valid” for four days. But 09R had always been like that, physically frail and fragile, but he had no tongue in his pocket and his sarcasm once knew no bounds.
“Hey, you!” cried a voice.
It was the same voice as before, the same Guard who had put them in their place before the day had even started. 4T5 hadn't even realized that he'd stopped working, he'd lost himself in his thoughts, and now he realized that 09R was looking at him in complete panic. His beautiful gray eyes were gripped by a strange panic.
“Get back to work, low-treasants.”
“I can't take it anymore…” he finally breathed out.
“You're here, you're valid, so get back to work before I make you!”
“Send me to textiles, please, just for the end of the day.”
“That's enough! Beg me once more, and you'll wish you'd got back to work sooner.”
“Please, it's been six days…”
“You asked for it!”
The guard grabbed 4T5 by the hair. He was neither taller nor shorter than him, but his muscles were twice those of the low-treasants. He pulled him up and sent him flying to the ground. No one in the factory made a move, no one except 09R dared to watch. Only the other guards looked on mockingly.
The Guard pointed his laser weapon at 4T5, it wouldn't kill him, but it would hurt. 4T5 regretted not getting back into it.
“You'll regret this, my drittsekk.”
“His name is Ellis!” exclaimed 09R before hitting the guard with an iron bar.
09R remembered his first name, just as he clearly remembered his own. He smiled at him; he'd just condemned them both to death, but it didn't matter to him, because today he'd just rediscovered what friendship was and what it was to have a family, no matter how small. And if they were to die, they would be free to think. Their minds were theirs again. Ellis looked at his friend, shocked by what he'd just done, but proud that he'd become that wild being he'd fallen for since childhood! He returned the smile and knew that whatever the consequences of this gesture, they would face them together.
Commenti