the tower

Finally. The Tower. A few hundred more feet, and I would be there.

I had traveled hundreds-- no, thousands-- of miles for this moment. The end, whichever way it went, drew near, and the sharp taste of my own blood in my mouth made me hungry for success. My prize for this would be a simple one: today, I would earn my name.

The day I had learned about names was the day that I had decided to participate in this siege. My whole life, I had been just a unit name and a call number, my only distinguishing feature being the color of the clothing I wore that signified my unit. I was Godwin-1013, the thirteenth child of the tenth generation born within the Godwin unit, and I was just a number. Eventually, I would produce more numbers for the good of the nation, but in the meantime, I had been producing goods for the state that I didn’t understand. They were entirely unfamiliar to me, but I was told that they were farming tools, and I was all too willing to believe it when I had been a less combative type of person. Submissive. Nothing more than a number.

The others were taking their positions around the building. From the outside, it looked like any other unit complex, where any other unit lived, but we had discovered that on the inside, it was something that I didn’t even have the words to describe. Anthony, who had previously been Hawthorne-1010 and my betrothed, had told me that the words people would have used to describe it in another time would have been opulent, rich, lavish, and even gauche. He said that they enjoyed an activity within the complex that was called “opera.” I wondered if I would be able to get someone to demonstrate opera for me before we killed them.

That was our task today. We were going to kill the government for what they had done to us. Anthony had introduced me to a lot of the things that the government, who he referred to as the bourgeois, had that we didn’t, such as chocolate, fashion, coffee, and names. When the rest of my friends had learned of names, they had chosen some from a book that they had found. I, however, had decided that I would earn mine. I would earn it from one of my kills today.

I’d asked for the Tower, which was the central security hub for the city. I wasn’t entirely sure how it operated, but I imagined that there must be people up there monitoring all of us. That, and cameras, and screens, but there did still have to be people watching the cameras and screens. My task was to subdue anyone in the Tower, but to get there, I needed to scale it. I had gloves and shoes designed for the purpose of vertical climbing, though, so it would be easy.

I swung myself over the windowsill and into the Tower, only to find it completely empty. There weren’t even screens up here! No cameras! So what was the point of the place? Frustrated, I decided to search for anything that was useful before I would head downstairs to join my friends. Friends, I thought, remembering that I hadn’t even known what friends were six months earlier. There was a lot more that I was going to have to learn that I had absolutely no frame of reference for. As I searched through the books in the Tower to see if there was anything that would be of use for us, the door burst open.

Two people nearly fell in, and slammed the door behind them. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t have time to see me before I trained my gun on them and shot the man through the head. He crumpled to the floor, and the woman shrieked, reaching for her shoulder, but I shot her through the shoulder before she could signal for security.

“Too bad for you that I worked in the facility that built these,” I said, waving the gun. “You taught me how to work it.”

She glared, holding her bleeding shoulder and looking down for a moment at her chip, lying on the floor and drowned in blood. “And who are you, anyway?” she spat. “Why would you shoot my husband?”

I stared as I took in her face, and it finally dawned on me who I had just executed. “Oh, fuck,” I breathed, and she cringed. “President Roth.”

“That’s right,” she said, smugness all over her cruel but beautiful face. “They’ll find you, and you’ll pay for this. Shoot me if you want to, but you’ll be leaving my children with no parents.”

“And what about me, huh?” I demanded, walking to her and shoving the muzzle of the gun right between her eyes. “What about how I grew up? I didn’t have parents.”

“Yes, you did.”

“I had subunit leaders, you bitch. That’s not the same. They didn’t care about me, or love me. They just made sure that I stayed alive so that I could be your drone and make you more.” I pressed the muzzle in harder. “So your children got more than I ever did. I don’t see why I should care now.”

She flashed a sadistic grin. “Doesn’t it make you a bad person?”

“Oh, shut up. They’re all older than I am. They’ll actually probably be better off without you, don’t you think? Inheritance, and all that.”

“If you and your goons don’t kill them first.”

“We’re thinking about it,” I said. “We still have to find out exactly how involved they are in this. Except for Julia.”

“What, did you already take her?”

“Oh, not at all. She joined us willingly,” I explained. “She’s one of our best. How do you think we found out as much as we did?”

The president’s wife went as white as the body of her husband. “Julia... betrayed us?”

“No, Julia saved us.” I showed her a photo of Julia and I together, smiling. “You should be proud. Julia did more good in just a few months than you did in your entire, miserable life. Now,” I said, placing my finger on the trigger, “one more question. What is your name?”

“Roth-820,” she said, her affect flat.

“No. What do the bourgeois call you? What did your husband call you?”

She sighed. “Alison,” she admitted.

“Alison,” I repeated, savoring it. “It has a nice ring to it. Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For letting me earn it,” I said, and shot her dead.

“Godwin!” came a call up the stairs, just as I fell to my knees, trembling. I felt a pair of arms wrap around me, and then another after that. “Godwin, come on,” said the person who had called out. Anthony. “At least let me carry you. We gotta get out of here before the place blows.”

He was right, of course. I didn’t want to die so soon after I’d earned my reward. I looked down at my bounty, amazed that I was able to carry out the execution of the president and the first lady. Alison Roth had a sparkling pendant hanging from her neck, a silver heart (a locket, I thought it was called) on a delicate chain. I reached down and took it from her, opening it to find a photo of Julia inside, and then wiped it off on my clothes, securing it around my own neck. Mine, now. Her name, her token, her daughter. Mine. Now that she was gone, I could finally tell Julia I loved her.

I remembered the day I had realized how I felt about Julia. It was strictly forbidden for two women to be together in our society, and I had felt sick when I’d figured out what was happening. Anthony had been there for me, and had explained that it was okay. Even though we had been engaged, Anthony had been gracious, telling me that he wasn’t offended as our engagement had been arranged anyway, like everyone’s. He said that everyone deserved a chance at love, and that he was happy I’d found mine. I only hoped that she felt the same.

When I looked up, I saw that it wasn’t just Anthony who had come after me. Julia was there too, and she’d seen me find her photo and hang it from my neck. Her expression, though, was tender, and she looked... touched, as though she was glad that I’d done what I’d done.

“Alison,” she said, quietly, and I was filled with relief that she’d accepted that I was taking her mother’s name. “Let’s go.”

I let her take my hand and guide me back down the stairs and out of the front door of the opera hall. We were sure as we could be that everyone inside was already dead, but we wanted to make absolutely sure that the job was done, and that we sent our message to the rest of the nation. We were free.

The building went up in the most spectacular explosion I’d ever seen before, and I watched in fascination as I huddled with Anthony and Julia under the overhang of another building, our masks securely in place to protect our lungs. What was left of the interior of the opera house was now revealed to the public, and I heard gasps and shouts of indignation from onlookers in the streets. They were discovering what I had discovered only six months ago, and I recognized their anger as resembling my own.

The dust was settling, and Julia removed her mask and opened the amplifier on her personal device, readying herself to speak in front of the crowd. We had chosen her as she would be a familiar, comforting face to the people, and we believed that her presence would help them transition to their new, open lives. “Here goes nothing,” she muttered, and stared at the growing crowd.

“We’re with you,” I said, squeezing her hand, still in mine. “We’re looking out for you.”

She fell silent for a moment, and then pocketed her device. As I wondered what she was up to, she gave me the shock of my life by yanking down my mask and kissing me.

So far, I had only read about kisses in the fiction novels that we’d smuggled out of the president’s personal library, and the authors’ descriptions couldn’t possibly live up to the true feeling. I supposed that perhaps it hadn’t meant as much back in that time, but for me, a person who had only learned how to care for other people recently, it was entirely life-changing. To know that she felt for me as I did for her was almost more freeing than taking down our captors had been, and I threw my arms around her neck and let her draw me closer.

When she broke the kiss, she touched her forehead to mine and sighed. “Wait for me,” she said. “Don’t leave until I come back.”

“As long as it takes,” I promised. “Now get up there.”

She smiled and let me go, racing toward what remained of the steps of the building. At the top, she pulled out her device again and held it to her throat. “Good evening, everyone!” her voice rang out over the city’s speaker system. “This is Julia Roth speaking. My parents, along with the rest of our leaders, are dead.” She paused to let the screams roll through the crowd. “YOU ARE FREE!” she shouted. “No more servitude! No more distance! Come together and find people to love!” Julia looked to me, publicly triumphant and joyful for the very first time. “Come to us if you need assistance during this time,” she said, and read off the address of our headquarters. “We will help in any way that we can, but leave here knowing that your life now belongs to you. Make it count.” Throwing her fist in the air, she gave them one more line--

“Rejoice, my friends, for life has only just begun.”