Read Online The Dawn: The Bombs Fall (A Dystopian Science Fiction Series) by Michelle Muckley - Free Book Online

was
ahead, already sitting at one of the tables. Zack walked over, acknowledging a
few familiar faces as he did.
    “There is no point in this lottery
anyway. I’m not saying that it’s not a nice idea,” Zack said as he sat down
next to Leonard. “But tell me. How does the Omega Lottery help?” The adverts
were streaming in over the hum of the crowd. The television was louder today,
no doubt turned up to account for the extra excitement. This one was
advertising better-quality antibiotics. Zack took a mouthful of tasteless
porridge. “When it's over we’ll all feel like shit again because we all lost
another chance. I've told you before, nobody ever wins from Delta.”
    “But just think of the person who
does win,” Leonard mused, his eyes glazing over as he stared ahead, lost in a
dream. The call of hunger lured him back, and he picked up his spoon and
shovelled the porridge into his mouth. “Imagine a different life. Haven’t you
seen the lobby of Omega? They still have the trees. They play a new sky program
over there now, projected onto the windows. You see daylight all day long. Until you choose to turn it off. It's as if there is life beyond the walls.”
    “It’s not real daylight,” Zack
replied, more cynically than intended. He could imagine it all right. He had
seen the adverts, and he knew what it looked like. Compared to where he lived
now, it looked like heaven. It hurt to think of it. It made reality worse. More
real.
    “I know it’s not real daylight,”
Leonard said, undisturbed, his spirit unimpeded. “But it’s a start. Imagine not
having to look at that all day long.” Leonard motioned his spoon towards the
window and Zack’s eyes followed his hand. The grey clouds hung as low as ever,
the buildings sat desolate, destroyed, and empty of life. Most of them had been
razed from the soil. Only the distant towers of Gamma, Theta, and Zeta were
visible from here. Zeta had to be over two miles away. Their nearest neighbour.
From the Food Hall on level twenty five they couldn't see Omega at all.
    “You don’t need their sky program,”
Zack said. “God himself is shining down on you, isn’t he?” Leonard's face
contorted from confusion. “Lights that only you can see coming through the
clouds, remember? Sunlight just for you like some sort of message from above. You
must be the next disciple. Maybe you're The One. I should start calling you
Neo.” Zack gave him a nudge in the arm, but his joke seemed as tasteless to
Leonard as the food.
    “Who is Neo?” Leonard asked.
    “Never mind,” Zack laughed.
    “I know what you think.” Leonard
pulled his tray in closer to him, stirred his lump of porridge. “But you’re
wrong. It’s happening. I can feel it and I can see that the world is waking up.”
He poked his spoon at the unleavened bread. It cracked into tiny pieces. “Can’t
even make bread, stupid son of a.....”
    “Hey, OK,” Zack said as he rested his
hand on Leonard's shoulder. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t make fun.” Leonard looked
up at Zack and pushed his plastic food tray away. Zack reached across and
pulled it back towards him. “Come on. Don’t leave your food.” Leonard jabbed at
the shrapnel-like pieces of bread and scooped them into the compartment with
the porridge.
    “You have to let people have their
dreams in this place, Zachary.” He spooned a tasteless lump into his mouth,
turning his nose up as he swallowed it down, as if he still hadn't learned to
stomach the taste. They wouldn't eat again until after the triple bell, the one
that signalled that work was finished for the shift. “It’s necessary.”
    The silence remained as sure as the
heavy clouds themselves, which they both stared at to avoid the awkwardness. Leonard
stirred at his unleavened bread, eating small sections at a time because it
bothered his poorly-fitting false teeth. His gums, like everything, had shrunk,
rendering his teeth too mobile to eat something so crispy. Zack handed him a