Conform

by Ariel Sullivan

My job was to destroy, piece by piece, the remnants of the world ancient humans had laid waste to in the Last War.

The Illum that ran the city provided the Minor Defects, myself included, with everything we needed. What was left to think about?

Their conflicting beliefs and ideologies created an irreparable divide that had resulted in near extinction.

Hal had said beneath, not Low Town. It didn’t measure up to what I had been told about the Major Defects who wore blue.

Each offspring had a MIND—Monitoring Intelligence Nanochip Device—inserted into the left wrist at birth, providing the Illum’s systems with constant updates on our health, down to our genetic makeup.

My left eye was crystal blue as if made of ice chips, and my right eye a deep, rich brown, almost depthless.

“There is not a word I know for what I feel for her. She is”—Gregory swallowed, shaking his head as he stared at the stars—“everything, everywhere. The stars, the earth, the very air. She is everything. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for her.”