Chapter 7

Note: Colin's perspective, not Camille's

Chapter 7
         Colin
      "You're shift's over, Colin," Justin states with pity in his low voice. I must seem so pathetic to him. I can't even stay awake on my shift. I don;t know how to adjust like he did. He tells me that his first month here was just like mine. I don't believe it. I lift myself out of my seat and pull together my things. Just before I open the heavy steel door, he says, "Colin, you know that if you can't do your job, they have to let you go." A heavy feeling aches in my chest. I can't get fired. If I get fired, I'll be a Forsaken. Jobs aren't an easy thing to find, and I don't even have the qualifications for most of the jobs in the city. I can't be a Forsaken. I can't live in poverty as an outcast of society. I nod my head and pull open the door. The artificial light from inside the Security Control Room spills a blue shaft of light on the ground outside. It is pitch black. I can see faint light in the city, but the Forsaken community is completely dark. They don't have electricity. Everyday, I drive through the Forsaken land and seeing the way of life there-lack of food and water, crime, and rejection of society-is it motivates me to keep fighting. I don't want to be like them. I find my rusty pick-up truck in the darkness and ignite the engine. I'd better figure out a way to stay awake during my shift, or I'm out. My headlights show the path into the city. The road shifts beneath me and my truck shakes violently with the bumps and potholes. I hate taking this road, but there is no other route. I don't see why they can't pave one simple road for all the guards and Security Control Room employees. I do know that they repaired the city from the center to the outside, but the quality decreases as you get further away from the center. I don;t understand why. Maybe they didn't see any point in repairing a wasteland that only the Forsaken will live in.I don;t think it's fair that the Forsaken are left completely on their own. I don't see why they are shunned by society. How is it their fault that they don't fit in? Some of them are criminals, yes. But others just couldn't get a job. The thing with our society is that they we would much rather throw something away than try to fix it.

Author's Note

I haven't been editing very much, just trying to get it finished before I get too busy. Excuse any errors or mistakes.

Reviews

[Mark Marcus]

Hello Gracie,

This is the only chapter of your work I have read, so far. I find this piece quite compelling as it very precisely echoes the fears of so many of us living in the real world, today.

As a reader, I would appreciate a little more detail about Colin’s immediate environment as he lives in a place I have never been.

Well done.

Mark