But the Population Policeman who caught him promised Luke that he would eventually find out who had turned him in.
Was that why he wasn't dead yet?
"Awful kind of them," mumbled Luke.
The room had one door, a grey aluminum door which reminded Luke of the drab style of Baron offices. The door had a small slit of a window, and peaking through it Luke could see a hallway, bright harsh white in the same way his room was. The hall way could've only been fifteen feet long, before it met another grey door.
The room Luke could see through that grey door was black.
Luke wondered if this door might be the way he had come in. He reached out and slowly turned the knob.
The loose feeling in the knob let Luke know that the door was open. Luke pulled the door and stepped into the hallway, then let the door close behind him.
Click.
The door locked behind him.
"Setup," Luke said. He was talking to his dad now, as if he were back listening to his dad try to explain chess. 'This would be a setup, Luke. You have to watch for these things.'
Nonetheless, what was Luke supposed to do? Stay here until he starved? He'd probably die anyway, what did it matter if he died their way instead of his. He walked forward to the next door. The knob under his hands felt cool
and inpersonal.
Luke began to turn the knob. Then he stopped.
Jen hadn't died their way. Jen had died her own way, standing for the cause, making her voice heard.
Luke began to wonder why he hadn't just gone to the rally and gotten death over with. This was pointless. Knowing the man who turned him in wouldn't help the cause at all, especially since Luke would be dead before he could
warn anyone.
Luke sighed. For what was not the first time, though probably the last, he wished he had gone to the rally.
The door opened effortlessly when he pushed, and he let it close behind him. It locked, but he expected that.
The room was too dark to see anything. Before Luke could move, though, a voice boomed from some hidden speaker.
"We finally meet, Lee Grant. This is General Sherwood speaking."
"Shut up and kill me," Luke mumbled. Apparently the General heard.
"All in good time, exnay, all in good time. Before that however, a toast, to the new world."
Luke vaguely wondered what Sherwood was talking about. Or did it even matter?
"Imagine, Luke, a perfect world. No food shortage, nothing near overpopulation, and as many children as are wanted. It's what you've been fighting for. Too bad you won't see it."
"You see, Luke, the government has constructed a sort of Biodome. A large building in which people, or, Barons, will be able to carry out their livesbetter than ever, but without a single worry of food shortages. Every Baron family can come, even the ones who foolishly broke the population law. Yes, even the Talbots. And as for the rest of the world-"
The general chuckled, much like an old man would at a story of childhood. This chuckle, however, held a menace the Luke couldn't guess at.
"Well, we won't be needing them. After all, this will fix the population, at the price of some lives. In a mere four days the earth will be attacked by nuclear missiles from satellites already positioned in space. Anyone outside the dome will either be killed instantly, or die eventually from the radiation poisoning. Yet, we'll have solved it - your rebels and Jen's rally will, in a sense, win. No more population laws. That's all that matters."
With that, a gas began emitting throughout the room. Luke's mind drifted, and he began to wonder if there was an afterlife. If so, would he see Jen?
Luke must have wondered aloud, for the General spoke to him once again.
"Yes, Luke, you'll get to see Jen. First, however, look upon the face of the one who turned you in. After all, we only needed to catch you, so we'd be done with this foolish population business and be able to clean up this world. Enjoy your last four days."
The General was silent, and the lights in the room turned on, suddenly glaringly bright.
"Ah!" yelled a body sprawled on the floor. "The lights!"
It was Jen.
Luke snapped out of the drowsy state the gas had put him in. He ran over to her, and her eyes with the shadow of his hand.
"Jen?"
Jen blinked and looked up at Luke. Her eyes were wide, but her pupils were almost wider. She had clearly been in the dark for a long time, and thelight had stung her unused eyes.
"Luke... you're here."
Then she broke down crying and fell back to the floor. "I'm sorry, Luke, I'm so sorry."
Luke understood then. It was Jen. Jen had turned him in.
"But Jen, why... I - I thought you were dead?"
"That's what they told everyone," Jen said without moving, "And I should've been. Everyone else was killed. We ran, Luke. We ran when the population police showed up. All of us - even me. It came down to the end, and we ran, scared, ready to hide and never come back out. Everyone was killed. Everyone but me. They wanted to keep me. They knew I had names."
Jen looked up at Luke, tears in her eyes. Luke took a step back. This wasn't the Jen he had known. Where was the confidence? Jen was revered as a hero amongst shadow children. She had run?
"I wouldn't give them names. None. But, four years. Four entire years! And, the whole time, they talked about their plan. They said I had inspired them. They would get rid of the population problem. At the cost of billions of lives."
"So you gave in? You gave them my name? I was so close, Jen, so close to having another rally!"
"Luke, please. It wouldn't have mattered. I'm sorry, but it's over now." Jen curled into the corner.
"I'm so sorry."
-----------------
Luke woke up. He could hear footsteps up the stairs. His door creaked open.
"Luke? You could've told me your stairs were so narrow. I nearly killed myself on the way up."
It had all been a dream. Jen was still alive. She was here. It was April, and she was here to pick him up for the rally.
"Jen, thank god you came. I'll get my stuff."
Luke grabbed a cardboard box that was stuffed into the attic and ripped off a side. With a marker he wrote, as neatly as he could:
'Give me Liberty, or Give me Death!'
Luke then grabbed a one of the books about shadow children that Jen had gave him. With the marker, he wrote on the inside cover 'I'm sorry. I've gone to live.'
He motioned with his head, and he and Jen walked down the stairs.
Luke left the book, and the first half of his life, on the kitchen table.
Jen led him outside, and into the car. The drove a ways. Luke and Jen got to meet Carlos, for the first time. He carried a piece of plywood around a string: 'I'm taking a stroll. So shoot me.'
Luke looked back down the road they had come on. Somewhere back there, miles back, was his entire life in two houses. In front of them was a possibility of freedom, a possibility of life. And, of course, the possibility of death.
Luke could hardly wait.
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