The Dirt Walkers (The Surface's End Book 2) by David Joel Stevenson

Author:David Joel Stevenson [Stevenson, David Joel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Published: 2016-04-09T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

Yidel walked into the small dingy room, relieving the laborer who was previously guarding the prisoners. He brought three bowls of gloppy Food Substance and sat it in front of each of the men who were chained to grates in the walls. They all quickly grabbed the bowls and devoured the paste, paying no attention to adding more stains to their dirty white undershirts.

They had already been pumped for all the information that they knew, which wasn’t very much. In fact, all three of them talked about how much they wished that they knew more, so that the men and women of the Midlet would trust that they were telling the truth. Unfortunately for Reena and Hokmah, it seemed that these three were simply following orders that were handed to them only moments before arriving outside the sleeping unit.

It was not uncommon for the control officers to know nothing. They said that on a daily basis they would simply be told where to go and what to do, without any context or reason. They had always assumed that if the Leaders or the Regulation Committee felt it necessary to act, then it was justified. Their normal routine was anything from simply flexing their muscles to show their commanding presence to beating a laborer to keep everyone else within earshot in line.

And once again, the order came from Quilen Coomy. His name had not been uttered in the Midlet before the attacks by the alleged terrorists – but after that point, it was the only name from the Upper Levels that anyone cared about.

If the three officers could betray their superiors at all, they would gladly do so in order to sleep in the comfort of their own beds. They weren’t loyal to the leaders for any moral reason; rather, they just assumed it was the only way they could act since the day they were given their assignment posts.

They were admired by the rest of the citizens, as if their bodies were the result of hard work and training. When they were younger, they started undergoing regular surgeries and chemical treatments to keep their physiques trim and muscular. They still gorged themselves on Food Substance and ChemVapor, but the Medical Officers would simply compensate with the procedures that they grew accustomed to. They had no training except on how to incapacitate someone using their Stunner.

Now that they were the ones that had been incapacitated, all of their surgeries and medical procedures proved to be completely useless. Their Stunners were in the hands of the laborers, and they would do anything not to feel their electrical pulse a second time.

Yidel sat nervously in a chair by the closed door, watching the three men eat at a feverish pace.

“You can slow down,” he said, his leg bouncing up and down to a quick rhythm. “I’ll get you more if you’re still hungry after you’re done with this.”

The three disregarded him. Even though no further harm had come to them, they still seemed to be afraid that each meal and moment could be their last.

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