Crossing the Boundary (Book 1 of The Silver Chronicles)

They had been lied to. Their entire lives, they had been lied to. From their first day in school, the genetically designed inhabitants who lived Under the Hill in the City had been brainwashed into believing whatever they were told.

Not only could they not step even a millimetre closer than six metres from the Boundary that separated them from Over the Hill, but they knew they were the only civilization left, both surviving and thriving in the face of hardship.

What they didn’t know was that they had been designed at City Infant not by their parents, but by those determined to perfect the designing of wonderfully compliant, completely obedient beings.

Occasionally, though, there was a glitch in the system, and the infertile designed ‘Unders’ found themselves pregnant with a ‘natural’ birth. Usually, a natural had at least one natural parent, born without the tell-tale birthmark between their eyebrows, which had to be either drawn or tattooed on secretly for protection.

Of course, these naturals weren’t compliant, nor were they obedient. And this made them dangerous.