Chapter 1
There is one place in our city, we are told to never go, Outside the gate. I am at the community center where I am every Friday at 3 o’clock, where the Final Level students go to volunteer for a total of 7 tasks for the upcoming week. We are to do one task a day. At the school I go to there are 15 levels, the kids go to school from the ages of 3 to 18. The top 5 levels start at 6 in the morning and get out at 2, so we have enough time to get to the bus. Our city is split into 8 groups, Elite-They govern our city, they value power, loyalty, and respect. Dawn- they’re our farmers, they value kindness, happiness, and art. Eclipse- they’re our teachers, doctors, and a few other careers, they value intelligence, learning, and technology, they believe that they can only have “smart people” jobs because they’re the smartest. Midnight- they’re our soldiers, they value Bravery, they’re cruel. Moon- they’re our Matchmakers, they value Love. Dream- they’re our Helpers, they value selflessness, though 50 percent of their population are robots. Sun- they’re our Judges, they value honesty, they stick to the facts. Then there’s us, We’re called Twilight- we’re the Miners, 4 of the groups call us the Broken because 90% of our people don’t make it until their 84, Dream, Dawn, and Moon call us the diamonds in the rough, we gravitate more toward them. We never know what’s outside our city. I’ve heard stories and rumors about what’s outside, but of course those are just stories and no one’s ever seen the outside world or at least made it back to tell anyone about it. Tomorrow I take my test and find where I need to train so I can make my decision on where to live. I am the oldest and of course my twin will take the test with me, she’s younger. We lost our father and the replacement that the government ordered Moon to give my mother. She’s happily married now to a husband who treats all of us as his own even though only four of us are.
