A City of Control

I've heard of a time where people experienced freedom. Apparently, up until the twenty-second century, people were free to wear what they want, go where they want, eat what they want, love who they want. But now as I look out the small window of my unit, I see prisoners and most of them aren't even aware that they're prisoners. I was fortunate enough to be born into a family that quietly passed down ideas of rebellion, hoping one day we would be able to revolt. I truly believed that today was that day.

Everyone outside wore the same thing: straight, white pants and an ill-fitting white long sleeve shirt. Some wore white jackets. Nothing had collars or pockets or belt loops. Everyone and everything matched the architecture of our town, as well. Ninety-degree angles, white and grey concrete. Nothing was personal or unique.

I put on my own white outfit and looked at myself in the mirror. My dark hair was cut in one of three hairstyles women were allowed to have, mine being just past my shoulders with simple straight-across bangs. After today, my hair was supposed to change to match those of whatever career I would be assigned. This happened every spring for anyone who had turned eighteen within the past year. But I wasn't about to let my future be decided for me just yet.

I stepped out of my unit and noted the Science Facility. It was the largest building in our city and the most important. Inside of it, two things were constantly going on: the research of drugs that influenced people's behavior, and the politics of our community. The President himself lived there. Although, from what I've heard of centuries past, 'president' is not the right term for him. I've heard that 'dictator' is a better term for him but he's fooled everyone into just calling him the President.

I didn't look at the Science Facility too long as it was the target of today's step toward a revolution. Instead, I just followed the throng of people and walked toward the Auditorium where eighteen year-olds would get their assignments as the entire community watched. I met up with my friends Ginger and Coal. Everyone in our community was named after colors to take away the human identity and as a way to slap us in the face with our own lack of personal expression and color in our society. Ginger, Coal, and I had been planning today for months. We were ready.

"Hey, Jade," Coal greeted me. Ginger smiled.

We walked into the auditorium and sat with all of the other new adults. The President got on stage to begin his speech before the Assignment Ceremony. He stood a decent six foot three in a perfectly tailored dark grey suit. His salt and pepper hair neatly waved and combed and his clean-shaven face gave him the appearance of an authoritative figure. It fit him well. I hardly listened to the speech as I couldn't stop thinking about the day to come, but the gravelly yet charming sound of his voice soothed me. Everyone in the audience was enraptured by his every word. I assumed it was the effect of a new drug.

Before I knew it, it was snack time before the Ceremony began.

Everyone exited the Auditorium to a cafeteria where nuts and water were being handed out. This was our chance to escape.

The doors were only some hundred feet in front of us when I accidentally bumped into somebody. I turned to apologize and as I uttered the words, I noticed it was the President.

"No need to apologize, darling. It was my fault," he assured me in that calm voice. As I turned, smiling, I could've sworn I caught him wink at me out of the corner of my eye. It had to have been my imagination. Romance did not exist in our society. I snapped back to reality.

I didn't look at my friends when I spoke as we neared the doors to the Auditorium. "You guys ready?"

They nodded. We slipped out and the two of them went around one side of the building and I went around the other side. We avoided catching anyone's attention due to the commotion of the assignments about to take place, and met behind the building. After the Facility closed down its public tours a couple decades ago, there was only one way to get in and out of the building if you weren't an authorized employee. Coal lifted the grate to a storm drain, Ginger and I climbed down the ladder, then Coal who replaced the grate. We trudged in silence through the musty drain tunnel toward the Science Facility. We had everything so well-planned that there was no need for talking.

Ginger counted the branches of tunnels until she was positive we reached one that led into the Facility. Coal came out in front of us and climbed up first to remove the grate. We landed in the exact room that we had intended - an old lab that wasn't used for anything more than a storage closet now. We stripped to the same undergarments that everyone was given, fitted white cotton tank tops and matching shorts, and stepped into the full-body lab-cleaners' suits, hiding our hair in the hoods and hiding our faces in large safety goggles.

We serpentined down the sterile corridors. This building was a maze, but we had it memorized from the blueprints Coal's parents had passed down to him. After thirty minutes of quiet walking, we finally exited the old west wing into the newer north wing. We had heard that they were currently working on a drug that lowered people's inhibitions and raised their ability to accept any information told by our small government. It was the first step to truly eradicating our freewill and Ginger, Coal, and I were going destroy the lab.

We each had three small bombs that we had to place in hidden corners around the north wing. The cleaning outfits were the perfect disguise as the west wing was just about to start a remodeling. We started to split up, each of us taking the corners we had previously assigned to ourselves, and started placing the bombs in heating vents.

As I unscrewed the grate to place my first bomb in a commonly used lab, a lab assistant noticed me.

"Hey, I thought you guys were just working on the west wing? What are you doing with the heating vents over here?" he asked.

It was the exact question that we had prepared for. "Just making sure the heating system is still working okay," I answered coolly. "We just put one of these bad boys in here," I held up the bomb that looked like nothing more than a small plastic box with a screen and a couple arrow buttons on it, "and it tells us if everything's up to snuff. If it's not, then they'll just redo the heating systems while working on the west wing since it centralizes there."

The man nodded and walked away. Simple as that.

I left the lab to go to a second lab, making eye contact with Ginger as she headed toward the bathrooms for her second stop. I nodded like any coworker would, she nodded back, and again we split.

The second bomb didn't attract anyone, and I was glad of it. The third one, however, would be the hardest. I needed to get it in the main entrance where the north wing connected to the east wing, where the President lived. The entrance hall was further from the labs past employee break rooms and sanitizing chambers. I counted the halls as I got closer.

I was halfway to it when the alarm sounded. The main lights went off with only the generator-powered backup lights illumination the halls. The loud wailing frightened me, and I did the one thing that Ginger, Coal, and I promised we wouldn't do: hide. There were some shipment crates of mysterious chemicals in a dark corner and I crouched behind them before anyone saw me. The problem with hiding was that we were going to detonate the bombs, no matter how few were planted. If we hid, we went down with the building and there were already so few people who knew as much as we did and we couldn't afford to risk anyone dying.

Before I realized my mistake and was able to make a natural escape, people came bustling down the hall. The alarm made it difficult to focus on what people were saying, but I finally figured out the reason for the alarm when I saw Ginger and Coal being dragged toward the entrance. Ginger screamed and Coal tried to fight them off.

I was so scared of what might happen to them that I just froze. I couldn't tell how much time had passed before I noticed that everyone was gone and the halls were quiet aside from the piercing wail of the alarm. I figured that this was the best opportunity to finish our plan and plant the last bomb. I collected myself, stood, and headed briskly toward the entrance.

I made it without passing another soul and crouched at my next target. I had just gotten the grate off when a shadow fell over me.

I turned, and looked up at the man who stood over me. It was the President.

"I've already dismantled yours and your friends' bombs. Ginger and Coal are being taken to the Correction Facility now. Stand and remove your hood and goggles. I'd like to know who I'm dealing with." His voice was even and unbothered - almost soothing.

I obeyed, standing and exposing my identity. We had a plan for getting caught, but we never had a plan for getting caught by the actual President himself, as we assumed he'd be at the Assignment Ceremony all day and wouldn't deal with something as high-risk as this in person anyway. I had to come up with a plan fast.

"Ah, if it isn't my clumsy darling from the Ceremony. Jade, isn't it?" This time, I knew for a fact that he winked at me after speaking, but I had no idea how he knew my name.

He seemed perfectly pleased to see me, as if I hadn't been planting a bomb in his beloved research labs not one minute ago. I decided my best option was to improvise a defense plan that Ginger and I had joked about a while back but never actually thought we would do: play innocent.

I let a blank smile spread across my face. "Mr. President, I'm so sorry, I have no idea what I was thinking -"

He raised a hand to stop me. "Again, darling, no need to apologize." He smiled wide, brandishing his beautiful straight, white teeth causing something in me to melt a little bit.

At this point, everything seemed to be going in my favor as he wasn't having me arrested right away, but I couldn't tell if I was truly playing the part of innocent, or if he was.

I decided that continuing to play innocent was the best way to get through it (even though there was hardly anything innocent about planting bombs), and blushed as I stared down at the floor.

"Why don't you step out of that silly outfit and come with me. I want to show you something."

I trusted something about the glint in his eyes and did as I was told, stripping back down to the undergarments that were as good as being naked in our strange, conservative community. It was one thing to be so exposed in that room with Ginger and Coal because they were as undressed as I was and we knew no one else would see us, but now I felt the true physical vulnerability I had with the President. He was still fully dressed in his suit and anybody could be around any corner, ready to laugh at my nakedness.

We were about to start moving when he raised a finger.

"Ah, I almost forgot." He protruded a small glass vial with a clear liquid in it. He released the cork and handed it to me. "Drink this. And fair warning, it's not going to taste good." He smiled another winning grin.

I drank, and sure enough it tasted like cleaning fluids. He took the vial from my hands and tossed it in a nearby waste disposal chute, and we started to move again. I didn't ask any questions.

The President guided me with a hand on the small of my back into the east wing and we didn't run into anyone. Although the east wing was unnecessary to any of our rebellious plans, I had still studied it and memorized it as my parents had told me stories before they Moved On. As I previously mentioned, the entire Science Facility building had been closed to the public my entire life, but not too long before it had been open to a few different kinds of tours. The first floor of the east wing had always been the part I had dreamed about the most to see. It was the museum that my parents often walked around in as a sort of date. Now, as I walked around it with the President, I could see it in all of its abandoned glory. There were no employees at the desks or anyone to convince us to go into one exhibit room or another. It was just an empty, hardly lit series of pictures with descriptive plaques and some interactive geographical aerials of different kinds of climates.

My parents said that when the Current President, the one who now rested his hand on the small of my back as if we were old lovers (if there were such a thing in our society), took office, he decided to close off anything that could connect his pupils with the outside world.

He now led me into an auditorium-style room and sat me next to him in the middle of all the empty seats. "This exhibit is my favorite," he whispered in my ear as if he were trying not to disturb anyone else. I didn't say anything as a display turned on before us.

Below on the stage, automated robot-people slid out and put on a play. Everything was glitchy and a bit janky as it most likely hadn't been used in years. The play depicted a time before electricity when women had to wear large dresses and men had to go to war. It was supposed to convince its audience that times used to be worse, and it started to convince me. Suddenly, sitting here with a powerful man's gaze upon me, I felt the most free I had ever been.

I pretended to watch the play as I thought about how I no longer cared who was playing who - all I cared about was playing more.

As I thought about it, the play ended, and everything turned off, but the low auditorium lights didn't brighten like they should have. The President's hand fell on my bare knee. "Did you like it?" he asked.

All I could muster was a nod as every fiber in my body thought about that hand on my knee. He must have noticed me stiffen or glance at it as he started to pull it away.

"I'm sorry, I forget that someone as young as you has never had anyone touch you like this." His voice continued to melt any inhibitions I might have had only this morning to a scenario like this.

"It's okay," I said, taking his hand and placing it on my lower thigh. "I like it."

He chuckled and brushed some hair behind my ear, making my skin tingle and my cheeks blush. In that moment, I couldn't tell what came over me. For some reason I leaned in and tried, in the most polite way, to inhale his scent.

"You smell amazing."

He laughed. "Thank you."

I shook my head and pulled away a little. "I'm sorry, that was incredibly disrespectful, wasn't it?"

"Yes," he said, considering something. "But since it's you, Jade, I'll let it slide."

As he said the last word, his hand followed suit and gently rubbed my thigh. All I could think about was the sensation of his rough hand on my smooth skin. It made me want more.

I looked at him, nervous. He touched my chin with his other hand and gently brought my face toward his, his blue eyes cast down at my lips until we were so close I had to close my eyes. Our lips touched in a sweet peck, and we both hesitated a moment.

His hand moved further up the inside of my thigh and he brought his lips to mine again, this time with more commitment. With one of his hands in my hair and the other on my leg and our mouths melting together, I fell into him entirely. I had no idea where this desire was coming from or what it meant, all I knew is that I wanted more, so I kept kissing him back.

My neck was starting to hurt from craning at that angle, so I sat up on my knees on the seat, facing the President. The hand he had on my thigh made its way around to the back of my thigh now, rubbing in areas I never thought I wanted touched by anyone. A hot, tingling sensation started to grow from between my legs and I had no idea how to satisfy it. All I could think to do was to lift one of my legs and put my knee between the President's legs so that I straddled one of them. As I rubbed up and down his leg, I could feel both his hands now exploring my backside. They started at the top of my thighs, right where my shorts stopped. They slid easily under the hem of my shorts and his fingers slowly crawled up underneath them, until he was completely grabbing my butt - squeezing it and grazing it in ways that only sent more tingling throughout my body.

With all of that going on, just his leg between mine wasn't enough. I repositioned so that both of my legs were on either side of his hips and I straddled some unknown bulge in his pants. I tried to bounce and rub and feel everything that this new sensation could bring me. It was so good that it must be a dream.

All the while our mouths stayed glued. He kept sticking his tongue in my mouth as if he owned it, and when I tried to do the same with my tongue, he'd suck it, keeping it as a prisoner in his mouth.

His hands started to moved toward the crack between my cheeks and slowly got lower and lower. I didn't know what it meant, but I knew I wanted more.

I had barely enough breath and thought to ask, "What was it that you had me drink before? In that vial? What am I feeling?"

I assumed it was a new drug that made me feel something unnatural, but when he explained I learned it was quite the opposite.

Between kisses, he answered. "It was a detox. It cleaned you of every drug in your system, including the one you've been taking since puberty that removed any sexual thoughts from your mind and body. These are your natural sexual feelings."

"Sex," I moaned. "My parents told me about it."

He pulled his mouth away, kissing my neck and down to the neckline of my tank top. I was very aware of his hands as he asked, whispering it into my chest, "Do you like that?"

"Yes." It was barely a breath.

"Do you know what you want, darling?" I could hear a smile in his voice.

"More," I confessed.

He gently stood me up before him and followed suit himself, his hand returning to that small place on my back as he guided me out of the room. I didn't understand what we were going to do, but I figured out where we were going when he led me up a hidden staircase and I remembered from the blueprints and my parents' stories that the President had always lived on the upper levels of the east wing. The girl who had poured over the prints making plans of rebellion and hanging on my parents' every word seemed like somebody else. She had one purpose and that was to revolt - but now I had only one purpose, and that was more.

The President led me up three flights of stairs to the fourth floor, the highest level, and into a large bedroom. It was well-lit with natural light coming from big windows that (I knew from looking at the building and trying to see what was inside my whole life) had a glare on the outside, so we could see out, but nobody could see in. But the windows didn't look out over the community. Instead, they looked outward as the Science Facility building was on the edge of our city walls. I looked out, seeing a valley of heavy forests and a meandering river far below us. There was no sign of civilization anywhere and it was breathtaking.

Hands wrapped around me as I remembered the President standing behind me. His body was close - so close that the bulge in his pants I had been rubbing against earlier pressed hard into my butt. His hands came up and cupped my breasts in them and his face rested next to mine, his cheek to my temple.

"Isn't it beautiful?"

I nodded and and sighed.

In the same, romantic tone, he made what sounded like a request, but something deep inside me knew it was a demand. "How about, from now on, you do everything I say and you can wake up to this every morning?"

Although there was a tiny nagging in me, it was so small and outnumbered by all of the atoms in my body that wanted to do everything he said, whether I got to see this view again, or not.