The Intellect

Chapter 7

I yawn and cover my mouth with my hand, stretching back in my rolling chair. Since it's the very beginning of the first quarter of the year, Advanced Training hasn't started yet and I've been assigned to work in the Surveillance Center in the interim. Surveillance is one of the easiest Intellect jobs in the Civilization. The Center has a hundred or so computers and at each one of them, an Intellect sifts through the live camera feeds from inside and outside the Civilization Center. We monitor every floor and branch of the Civ Center as well as the outside perimeter of the Civilization, marked by a high electrified metal fence. Lower tiered Intellects also surveil the Workers' barracks, the greenhouses, and outbuildings on a separate branch of the surveillance floor.

"Don't fall asleep, Ren, you might miss something," Orrick says from beside me.

He sprawls in his chair with one hand behind his head, eyes half lidded. I roll my eyes; even if I were to see something interesting, I would just report it to a Justice. My screen changes to a video of the perimeter, and all I see is snow, tundra for miles. I don't understand why we have to surveil the perimeter when there are Guard Justices already stationed all along the towering fence. No one, at least in my lifetime, has ever approached the perimeter from the outside. For all we know, we're  the only people left alive in the entire world.

But Jayse's escape tells me that there may be something or someone out there. We might not be alone in this cold dark world. He wouldn't have ran away from the Civilization with nowhere to go; he'd die within a few days thanks to the cold. He had to have been running to somewhere. Still, if there's somebody out there, they've never bothered us before, so the time and manpower spent on surveillance seems unnecessary.

The screen switches to the fifteenth floor of the Civ Center, one of the residency floors indicated by a description in the corner of the feed. The camera shows the hallway, but luckily there aren't cameras in our individual rooms. I smirk as a guy and a girl try to sneak out of one of the rooms, the guy wearing nothing but boxers and insular. I'm tempted to report them just to watch the guards rush in and break up their rendezvous, but I don't want to lose any points for bad work. The screen changes to the match branch of the recreation floor, and I see a man and a woman rolling heavy balls down a lane and knocking over white blocks.

"So now that work isn't as busy," I say, referencing the lull between the end of the previous year and the start of first quarter, "are you finally going to take Elz here?"

I gesture at the match branch, and Orrick scowls at me. The match branch is where young Intellects and Justices can spend time with their potential match doing all sorts of things: playing games, painting or drawing, eating, or whatever else they want to do or can afford with their points. All matches, of course, must be approved by the Civilization, but there's nothing to stop two young Intellects from petitioning for a match if Orrick would just make a move already.

"C'mon, Or," I tease, "You could show her that simulation game you made. It's a real hit."

Orrick's scowl deepens. "It's not that easy. It's Elz."

I roll my eyes. "Elz, literally the nicest person in the Civilization."

"Yeah, she is," Orrick says, leaning forward to rest his elbows and his knees and looking at me intently. "What if I screw it up? What if I hurt her? I don't know what the shell I'm doing, Ren."

I cross my arms. "So you're just going to stand by and do nothing?"

"Isn't that what you've been doing since Jayse left?" Orrick glares at me. "You said you'd fight back or infiltrate the Civilization or whatever, but you've done nothing."

Ouch. I let out of a puff of air and turn to stare at the changing computer screen, ignoring him. I want to protest and tell him he's wrong, but I can't. For all my grand aspirations, I've been sedentary since Jayse left. His departure set me free, but all I've done is wander aimlessly.