He came home late as usual, after going to the training arena for additional training. "Cy is that you coming in Honey? Can you move the laundry over to the dryer in the basement? That would be a big help, thanks."
As usual Cyrus was expected to do work and was thanked for it, before he had even begun. After quickly performing that task, he hadn't even got all the way up the stairs, when his sister was standing at the top. "Cy, the shelf in my closet is coming off again. Can you help me fix it please, please, pretty please!" His sister said with her hands clapped together begging like it was going to save her life or something.
"Stop being so melodramatic or nobody's ever going to take you seriously. Yeah, I'll come fix your shelf okay?" Cyrus said as he brushed past her. He then proceeded to go and fix her shelf, receiving her adoration.
**
After dinner was done he went up to his room and in his backpack he took out a small electronic device that was a teardrop shape. It was similar in size to a stopwatch but it had a speaker in it with a display screen. The messages that came through it were coded and they only came once. They lasted for 1 minute, requiring you to have a notepad ready to write them down so you could decipher them afterwards. He spoke into it this time, sending a message out instead of receiving one. When you spoke into it, it took your words and converted them to the coded text before it would send out the message. It did so, the next time you entered a government building, it could patch in. It leaches off one of their digital networks, then heads on through the dark web, on to the receiver on the other end. The guy wearing the mask called it a 'mole', a fitting name considering that's what he felt like ever since he decided to carry one. It was an act of betrayal to the military and his government.
"This is Cyrus, I've made up my mind. I'm done listening to this fucking government. I'm done being their puppet. I'm joining your resistance."
Cyrus was sitting on the ground in his room and leaned back against his bed. With the 'mole' device in his hand he leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling. His mind started to wander and he thought back to the trying day he had. Today was the first day at school of his practical training. Where they took the senior students at the beginning of the year outside the city for the first time in their lives. They finally showed you who the enemy was. They took you to the 'Enemy State'. He sat back and recalled the interaction that had changed his mind.
**
"Over here Class, you can see the enemy. Don't let them fool you, while they're out there in those fields toiling away. Having those scowls on their faces. The words left unsaid in those scowls are always directed towards us; they're always thinking of a way to take us down. They despise us for being better than them. They don't want anybody to rule over them. To organize them. The enemy would rather live in chaos, would rather live without order. They need us to help them, they need our protection. They need us to guide them and to govern them. The enemy always wants freedom. How can you have freedom when all you seek is Chaos?" The instructor asked on the bus as they went by one of the fields outside of the city.
"You can't have freedom. The only way that freedom can exist is if you have safety and security. Those things are only provided, obviously, through the government and the Ministry." A student that Cyrus couldn't see near the front of the bus responded to the instructor. Cyrus rolled his eyes and thought
"Are these people serious? How much of the kool aid did she drink?" He was completely sick of everyone just agreeing with the curriculum set out by the government. It was obvious to everyone who entered their final year at the University that the so-called enemy was really just the people that the government was oppressing the most. No one opposed them though, it wasn't exactly an elected government.
After the Great War, even the very idea of change, of people seeking something different, was forbidden by law. After that the various remaining governments of the world had decided to put their faith in science. They had put all the greatest minds in the world together to create a collective artificial intelligence that would come up with the best answer to govern based on all the world's history. The current government was the result of that decision.
The bus had stopped outside of a Community Hall for the farming Plantation that they were on.
"Here you can see the method in which we distribute rations to keep the enemy satiated. It's important to make sure that they're placated, an unruly enemy is one that you'd often have to fight with. And we all know that safety is the top priority for the government. Fighting is the last thing we want, we always want to avoid it. It's much safer for everyone involved, for both the enemy and us, if they're placated at all times."
Cyrus slipped his earphones in, he was completely done with listening to this mindless dribble. He noticed, as they walked by the edge of the Community Hall and further into the plantation, a little girl sitting at the edge of a wall by the Community Hall. She was holding up candles made of wax, offering them to passers by and everyone was ignoring her. He stared at her hollow eyes as the class was led past them onward to the next building.
"She looks so frail, so thin." Cyrus thought to himself, staring over his shoulder as she slowly passed out of view.
The class carried on for the latter part of the day going through the various sections of the plantation. Starting from where they processed the crops into usable products and then to where the crops would be shipped to the cities. While they were inside the building a storm had blown in and rain was coming down hard. They remained in a receiving area just outside of the shipping warehouse. They had shelter overhead and tables outside that the workers weren't even allowed to use. They were simply there for whenever somebody visited from the city, so they could relax while they had to do things exactly like wait out a storm.
The factory workers were forced to serve them food while they were waiting. Cyrus noticed that the sandwiches and vegetables, although very plain, seemed like the right portions for the factory workers and farmers. He kept listening to the book tape on his headphones. He had become quite fond of the different web novels that he enjoyed lately.
After what seems like an eternity the storm finally let up. The entire class started heading back towards where the bus was parked. That's when he froze, as they passed the Community Hall, the little girl from earlier, was still sitting there with her candle in her hand. Now instead of looking frail and hungry she was slumped over, her eyes open and glazed over. She looked like a flower that was forgotten in a garden. Left all by itself, while the others had all been picked. Like all little girls, she still had an innocence. What dreams could she have had? What could the world have offered her if she hadn't been lost this day? The lifeless nature of the body, finally given out during the rainfall, was haunting Cyrus. What he saw at that moment was a girl around the same age as his sister. Instead of being able to bother her older brother for help with her homework or to fix her shelf, she was forgotten. She was tossed out like refuse, as though her life didn't matter simply because she was here on the plantation instead of inside of the city.
**
Cyrus sat up from recalling his reason for betraying the government and added to the message. "Whenever you guys move against the government, count me in."