AED-#210-31570 sat in his bed and stared at the wall, it was not grey, he had made sure of that. He had not left his hab in three days, and the amount of changes he had made to the colour, as well as the defacement he had done to a multiple of the outside walls when found out; would drop his already plummeting merit to below the acceptable threshold.

He had rebelled, and it would cost him, but only in time. He still had time, it was finished, he had made something wholly original for himself. It didn’t matter if it was expunged by cleaners or that barely anyone had seen it, he was starting to run out of patience, and paint.

He couldn’t depart to the outside, he told himself, it was too dangerous, too foreign, there were too many risks. Already he imagined a centurion tearing open the door, bursts of concentrated fire popping his head like an overripe grape. So he sat there and waited for anything to happen, anything at all. Nothing did.

Finally, he stood up, he had waited for days on end for something, anything to happen, he knew that if left unattended the nutri-paste would begin to rot. He didn’t know how long it would take, he barely even knew what it was made of, but he didn’t want to have odor complaints from separate citizens.

Scrutiny of any kind would not be ideal. But to order something to clean the ‘paste’ pasted onto his walls would take merit, merit he was currently missing.

He checked the time, it was well past the day shift for his factory, and most others had already started as well. He scrolled through the available job listings, looking for anything nearby. His fingers hovered over a particular option, and he intrinsically knew he had found it.

The moment before his finger hit the pad, he heard a knock on the door, every

single hair on the ends of his arm stood up, his sense heightened, his breath grew shallow. He grabbed one of the containers and crept towards the door, he flinched as another series of knock rattled against the metallic door.

“Citizen AED-#210-31570 we know you’re inside, open the door and follow regulations, and we can promise you that no one will bear unnecessary harm.”

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He didn’t believe them, he didn’t want to end up like those hanging bodies he saw every day, returning to serve as a sign of fear, eyes as devoid of colour or life like he was earlier. It seemed like hell.

“Come in! The door isn’t locked.”

He raised the canister as the door widened, drawing from their shadows that there were two of them.

The moment the first one stepped into the door, AED-#210-31570 swung with all his might, the cylinder smashing into the first unprepared exposed face, they never expected fighters, just people resigned to their fate. It collided with him with such force that his teeth flew, his body jerking backwards, head tilted at an angle. For a second, there was a memory of another person, another individual dead at his hands, but it lasted naught but an instant.

AED-#210-31570 rushed up to the second one and tackled him to the ground, his cylinder continuing its bloody rampage on government faces. He heard a crunch and a nose caving in before the man shoved him off, retreating backwards, his mouth being held by the hand. AED-#210-31570 took one look at this scene and ran away as far and fast as possible.

It was likely there were others that were arriving this minute, he had to leave. He sprinted down the hallway, pushing past others as he went, arms pumping, drawing strange looks as a man without a mask carrying a blood soaked thermos

in his hand. One of them had the presence of mind to trip him, and he fell down, hard. That didn’t stop him though, as he got right back up as fast as he had fallen and listened to the message repeated all his life. Carry on, past the pain, the anguish, the hate, to keep moving forward.

His adrenaline seemed to give him boundless energy, and he kept running, down sets of stairs, through corridors and hallways, his lungs burned with exhaustion, but he kept running. He spotted an exit, on his left, leading to a walkway he hadn't gone through before; and turned towards it. He ran the distance, his body heaving with effort, contemplating stopping before the buzzing hum of a patrol craft that was now following him made him redouble his efforts.

He leapt into a more cramped space, a twisting maze of enclosed stairwells and grey corridors connecting to different habs. AED-#210-31570 ran further and

further down, the directions twisting and turning as he became completely lost. Seeing a bench nearby he stopped to take a breath, his body heaving forwards and expelling the remnants of the paste that had been consumed for his first meal.

Eyes focused on the floor, body rocking back and forth, his panting grew ever louder. After a small portion of time had passed, and the rocking stilled, and his breathing became quiet once more, he made way to stand up.

Looking around, he noticed a complete absence of people, no noise was heard the lights flickering. The room he was in split off in four different directions, not that it mattered given that he had nowhere to go. The crashing weight of reality hit him as he stood there, but he resolved, he took one step forward, it didn’t matter what direction he was heading as long as he moved forward.