The Dawn: Omnibus edition (box set books 1-5)

by Michelle Muckley

  Zack noticed that both of the previous winners had excellent teeth. They smiled from atop a special platform which seemed to house all five previous winners. Each of them was smiling, except for when one of them spoke. When they spoke it was always about the difficulty of their old life in their old tower. Nobody in Delta knew what having a winner felt like. Would it really mean improved conditions for the rest of the tower?

  “I’d improve the clothes,” said Zack. “It gets so cold in here because it’s huge, and nobody has enough to wear. Nothing fancy, I don’t mean for us all to look like Omega.”

  “I’d give everybody scabies treatment,” said Leonard, still scratching. “And there is no point looking at me like that, or moving further away. If I’ve got it, you’ve got it too.”

  Next they showed the room. All white. It was large in comparison to anything in Delta, white, clean walls with not a mark on them, and a whole wall of windows. Zack saw the new sky programme playing. It was a clear night sky, full of stars. They twinkled like sun drenched diamonds refracting light in a million directions. Zack allowed himself a wish, even though he knew they weren’t real. The bed was a large single, wider than his. The mattress looked plump and there was a bag of linen at the end of the bed.

  This is where our winner will sleep, but not before spending time in our state of the art health facility, where he or she will receive a full medical and dental appraisal, all with the full compliments of our great president.

  The cameras cut to President Grayson again. He was sitting with a humble look on his face, his eyes downcast and lips pursed together. The excitement of the crowd intensified in both Omega and Delta towers when he appeared on the screen. Zack was distracted by Leonard's continued irritations with his skin. He had started scratching at his ribs again. Intermittently he would stop, stare at the wrist of his right hand to look at his numbers. Zack could see his lips moving, mouthing them over and over as if in a moment of silent prayer. As Zack looked around the room he could see lots of people checking their wrists as if they didn’t already know their numbers off by heart. He thought of Ronson, in his bar none the wiser about what was happening above ground. If Zack won tonight he would be unlikely to ever see him again, and it made him regret that he hadn't offered him more the last time they were together.

  Ladies and gentlemen, there is no more time for delay. The lottery of the people is coming to you tonight. Tonight one of you becomes the future. You become your neighbour’s future. One of you becomes the winner. Let’s make that happen, right here, right now!

  Zack was near-deafened by applause so loud that nobody could hear their nearest neighbour. Zack was on his feet cheering, throwing off whoops and yeahs in all directions, celebrating with people at his side and behind him who he had never met before. Somebody was rubbing his shoulder. The crowd was energised, smashing into each other like charged atomic particles. Fusion. That's what happened the last time the world ended. A few people began to sit, others remained standing. It took a while for Zack to take his seat on the bench, and next to him Leonard still looked like he was praying. His hands were clasped together, knuckles white, jaw tight and set in place. It seemed like the organisers of the lottery and the citizens of Omega must have expected the commotion because when the din finally passed and people sat in their seats, the programme didn’t appear to have moved on at all.

  Chapter Twelve

  “What do you think, Zack?” Leonard reached over, placed one of his sweaty palms on Zack's hand. “Do you think it really could be one of us?” Zack wasn’t paying attention, even though Leonard was shouting over the noise of the crowd to be heard. His eyes were set firmly on the television set, waiting for the draw to start. Once Daley Cartwell started talking again a hiss whipped around the room, and soon all was quiet. There was a ringing in Zack’s head, loud like the beat of a drum, a fizzing in his ears. He wasn’t used to noise anymore. People stayed quiet now. There was little in the way of conversation or excitement in Delta tower, and when suddenly it was everywhere it created a sensory overload.

  “Shush,” Zack muttered, patting Leonard's hand. “He’s talking.”

  Daley Cartwell announced a celebration dance, and a series of multicoloured children, red, blue, and yellow, entered the stage. The clothes were excessive, sore on the eye. They danced in lines, in circles, perfectly choreographed. Zack could see the excitement once again rippling through the crowd. People’s eyes were wide, primitive and savage-like. They weren’t used to colour anymore, their palette had been subdued. The desire of the crowd was ferocious and somehow terrifying in comparison to the relaxed calm of the Omega crowd as they sat and watched. They were sitting in even rows around the lobby like a fashion show from the old time, people cool and relaxed, and yet simultaneously on edge, afraid to look out of place. They sat cocooned in safety, their luxury of cleanliness and plenty. It was the people who were the prize. A community that didn’t want for anything. The idea of being part of it was thrilling, like a stimulant more empowering than any drug the sublevels could produce. Zack was just starting to wonder where all the children came from when the dancing stopped and Daley Cartwell came into view, wide white smiles as the children filtered from the stage. More applause.

  Two white-gloved and white-clothed workers pushed a spherical beast of a machine with a rotating drum from behind, bent double as if they were worshipping it. They positioned it in the centre of the lobby, and the children who had only moments before been dancing on the stage filled with stars formed two circles of primary colours around the machine. Daley Cartwell announced it as Sisyphus, and the children with their hands clasped together skipped in opposite directions around it which drew delighted smiles and cheers from the crowd. As the cameras panned back they revealed a canopy of green from eight huge trees, rising as tall as the columns of the Parthenon. Occasionally the trees seemed to move as if in a breeze, which Zack knew was impossible and a sign of how intoxicatingly destructive the atmosphere really was. After this was all finished, the memory of it would fester like an open wound, putrefying what was left of his life. He stood up at one point, the sudden movement sending Leonard’s arm flying off to the side. He gasped for breath, panting for air. His sides were so tight it felt like his lungs couldn’t even expand, like new balloons impossible to inflate. Even with all of his effort behind it, breathing was hard. Leonard pulled on his arm, gentle encouragement to sit back down. Zack hadn't noticed them, but the Guardians had already noticed him. There was a ring of them around the perimeter of the Food Hall. Leonard nodded to Zack, and one of the Guardians used his Assister to motion for him to sit.

  “Relax, Zachary.” Leonard returned the hand to Zack's shoulder. “Relax.” It was the name his parents used. It was the name people who loved him spoke of. It was the name Samantha used. It was the name of familiarity. Of the past.

  “OK, OK,” Zack said. He breathed deeply. He stared at his wrist, at the tattoo, at his number.

  “They're about to draw the first ball.” Leonard said.

  In his effort to breathe there were definitely parts of the show that Zack had missed because there was another small stage that had been pushed into place that wasn’t there before. It was topped with the same twinkling lights, and the main lights in the Omega lobby had been dimmed. He couldn't focus on the show anymore. Just hearing the name Zachary had rolled him straight back into a time when he felt, when he cried, loved, danced, and hurt. When he was anything but numb and desperate. In this moment he caught the smell the musky scent of Samantha’s perfume as she slipped her naked leg between his, and her arm across his chest as she slept. In the day she would speak of future plans that seemed like crazy ideas, able to scare him half to death with just the suggestion of a lifetime together. What he would give to listen to all those words that he had once filtered out. Her crumbs in the bed. The hair in the bath. The coffee rings she left on magazines about architecture that he was planning to keep. Now he would treasure anything if it was hers. As he open
ed his eyes he thought he saw her for a moment, smiling, her image faint and hazy in front of him. Within seconds the image had faded but still he reached out for her, his arm stroking the air. But even though he knew it was impossible, she was here with him somehow. There was a smell of musk in the air, and his leg tingled as if she had been resting hers on his. Somewhere she still lived, inside of him. He always thought there was nothing left, but the energy of the night had reignited something. There were still memories in him, feelings, a passion he thought was lost or taken from him as a punishment and yet now here in this night, with Leonard still steadying him, he felt it. He felt a connection he thought had been burned when the bombs rained down and fire had torched his world and his life. She was here. He was here. They still lived, and it had taken the possibility of a future to be able to taste the past. Perhaps he could believe that he could forgive himself for his mistakes, knowing it was the only thing that could really set him free.

  We have a zero! A zero is the first number!

  The balls tumbled around in the drum, each one skirting across the hole, missing its purpose. The next slotted into place and the crowd held their breath.

  A zero! Another zero! We are still waiting folks!

  That ruled out Eta Tower, And Theta Tower. This was the normal start. Next ball was another zero. Had to be. The balls continued round and round and the children danced in circles. Daley Cartwell cheered and the crowds sat with their hands together. All eyes were fixed on the drum, the coloured balls leaping over one another as if they didn’t want the responsibility of being next. Another fell into the hole. Another zero?

  We have an eight. An eight! The first number of the winner is an eight!

  Every resident of Delta leapt to its feet, rising as a single unit. Even Leonard. It could be a citizen of Delta. There were six numbers in total, and the first two were always zeros. The next was always a two or three, except for the first draw when it was a five and somebody from Gamma won. But now it was an eight. Some had started crying just knowing they were this close. It looked as if it being close could be enough for them. Or maybe the thought of leaving was too much. To lose a second life for something else unknown, just like before, well, maybe that was worse than staying here. At least here you knew what you had got. Zack tried to focus on the screen even though everybody, Leonard included, was still up on their feet cheering. He sat, tried to breath. Somebody knocked him from behind, winding him. Somebody else was shouting for everybody to calm down. It could have been a Guardian. People were shouting all around and like the balls of the machine only snippets of information made it through to his ears. The rest was just noise filtering rampantly through the crowd, carried on a wave of excitement. Daley Cartwell was already announcing the fourth ball.

  The crowd settled down but not in the same lifeless way that it was normally subdued. There was a stir of trepidation, people wanting to be calm and listen but unable. Zack was no different. He stood, he sat. He held his hands together and then rested them on the table. None of the Guardians moved. It was as if they wouldn't dare. What were the numbers? Leonard was sitting talking to himself, his head in his hand. He was crying. Zack focused on his shoulders shaking, and the tear as it fell from Leonard’s face and struck the metal table.

  “I’m out. I’m out. It’s over, Zachary.” Zack looked towards the television screen over a sea of sad faces. Some were holding their heads, others pulling at their hair. Some were crying and others, stronger types, the ones who would try to pick people up again when it was all over, were already trying to calm their neighbours. This was the only time when Zack had ever believed there was some element of community amongst the Delta residents. People just like Leonard were realising their chance was over, their excitement replaced by fear that they had no hope of a brighter tomorrow. Whatever tomorrow was. It would still be today. It would be yesterday, and the day before. An endless Groundhog Day where there was no choice left, and they just had to get on with it.

  As another person sat down there were only three people left on their feet. One of them was Zack. Zero. Zero. Eight. Six. Five. Five balls out. Zack glanced down at his tattoo even though there was no need. They were his numbers. He was one number away. He clutched his wrist, his left thumb covering the length of the tattoo, only the triangle for Delta visible.

  And the last number is.......wait for it, Delta Tower. We know it's one of you. What do we have?

  The camera panned to the children, then the crowds, then the president's seat, and then back to Daley Cartwell.

  Number two! We have a winner. Delta Tower, who is your winner? Is he there with you now?

  As the final ball fell into the hole, with the orgasmic announcement of the last number, the woman and the man near the front of the Food Hall fell to their knees. Zack’s thumb pressed down harder on the tattoo, stifling it, smothering it. He covered the triangle, squashed it out, before closing his eyes. There was silence for the briefest of moments, before a bullet strikes, the look in the eye of a lamb before slaughter, the moment before impact when there is no turning back. The noise began to filter back in, the muffled sounds destroyed as Leonard shouted at him, his hands gripping Zack’s upper arms. He was shaking him.

  “You’re in! You’re in, Zachary!” He was crying tears of joy mixed with tears of loss and sadness. He let go and threw his arms around him, his short stature causing his hairs to tickle at Zack’s slack jaw. “You’re in!” he said again. “You won!”

  Zack’s knees buckled and he collapsed onto the bench, pulling the weight of Leonard with him. People nearby, red-faced and disappointed, smiled and congratulated him, satisfied that it was at least one of them. It was the selfless kind of happiness that a parent might feel for a child’s success at the expense of their own. They consoled themselves in the hope that the chosen one might share their dreams and help make their life better. Perhaps Delta would be remembered, unforgotten in the future of the Republic of New Omega.

  Delta Tower, we have the name of your winner.

  “It’s Zack,” somebody shouted.

  “We already know it!” shouted another.

  Zachary Christian, your moment has arrived! The future of your tower begins with you, right here on this night! It’s time to get to the lobby. We are coming for you!

  The crowd in Omega Tower was clapping, their applause still controlled and the smiles on their faces measured and planned. The children were forming two lines, those at the front carrying the Omega flag, the green background and blue central diamond, topped by the yellow sun with eight rays to represent each tower. The crowd in Delta Tower was crazed. He heard somebody shouting, “It’s Zack, it’s Zack.” The voice was running away, filtering the news down into the lower levels. He started thinking about Leonard who was still crying, rubbing Zack's arms from his position at the side. Nothing but pride on his face.

  Get ready, Zachary. Tonight you sleep here with us. Omega Tower welcomes you!

  Somebody pulled him to his feet. It could have been Leonard. He was walking, moving, being pulled. There were Guardians forming lines keeping the crowds away. One of them pulled at Leonard but Zack clung onto him. No Guardian would strike him now. Not before the cameras arrived in Delta. Nobody wanted a winner with a bloody face. Somebody guided him into the lift and he became squashed by bodies before somebody..........

  Samantha was sitting on the dining table. She was wearing only her underwear and a shirt of Zack’s, blue stripes and oversized. She was balancing her feet on the bench seat and smiling over her cup of coffee. She was looking in Zack’s direction whilst he buttered the toast, her almond shaped eyes almost no wider than the slits of oysters. She looked at him with such cheek on her face, like they were both in on a joke. In this moment the world was their own. His hand stretched out and took the coffee cup from her before he took a sip. He pushed her backwards and she began to unbutton the shirt.

  .......... shouted that the lift had been over-filled and that it wasn’t moving. There were t
oo many people and the Guardians were pulling people out. Zack saw an Assister rise up and strike somebody's shoulder. Somebody was shouting that he didn’t want to get out and that he wasn’t the last in and that he was my friend and he wanted to..............

  Zack’s mother positioned the hat on his head, just to the side as he had insisted. She helped him drape the blue and red scarf around his shoulders so it hung properly over the black gown. His father watched. He was smiling and saying how proud he was. He was saying what a wonderful engineer he would make and that today was the first day of his future. His mum kissed him and his dad made a joke about the lipstick before rubbing his cheek with his thumb. Samantha was nearby with her parents. She was looking over her shoulder smiling too.

  ..........and the doors opened and Leonard was pulling on his arm saying that they didn’t have long. It was time to grab the things he wanted. He was asking where the bag was. They were on level thirty and somebody was shouting that they had the winner, like the celebration of a successful hunt. Leonard was shouting at somebody that there wasn’t time to do something like that, and that the idea was insane. There was no way they were doing a lap of every floor. The man looked angry and shoved Leonard, but then..........

  Zack was standing outside his office block. His reflection was staring back at him in the mirrored glass. He was saying that he was sorry but it had to be this way. That he wasn’t ready. It wasn’t her fault, but he wasn’t ready for it. What was she supposed to do, she was asking. He was saying he would help her. He was saying that he would go with her and be there for her, and that afterwards they would still be together. He just wasn’t ready for the responsibility. She was crying, and he was making his excuses. He told her he would speak to her later. She told him she loved him. He repeated that he would speak to her later.