Consensus: Part 1 - Citizen

009

The sun had risen enough that the canopyscrapers at the Center were no longer silhouettes. The blurry circle of light, only visible because of the polarizing effect of the Canopy, was paler than the sun in Rena's visions. Was that because delusions were optimistic by their nature? Did her brain want so badly to see a yellow sun, hanging in a blue sky, that it had created the image with more vibrant colors? If so, how did it know what colors to use? Or what the sky would look like without clouds? The sun without the obscurity? Did it just guess?

Or is the explanation simpler than that? Maybe I've seen the sky from somewhere other than—

"Good morning," said a man, jogging along the paved path where Rena was warming up.

"Good morning," she replied, watching him recede into the distance.

The path encircled Commons Three, the public greenspace nearest to Rena's house. It was the appropriate place to exercise. On this morning, it looked as though Officer Dougherty must have reminded every citizen in the area of that fact. From where Rena stood, hundreds of people were visible. Strolling across the grass. Sitting beside the pond. Having conversations beneath the overhanging foliage of trees that had been strategically placed to enhance the aesthetic value of the commons.

Rena shifted her weight and began swinging her other leg, warming up her muscles to prepare for a run.

"Beautiful morning, isn't it?" asked a woman, jogging by at a slow pace.

"Yes, it is," Rena replied.

No sooner had the words left her mouth than she had forgotten how many times she had swung her right leg. She had been counting before the interruption, to make sure she wasn't favoring one side of her body.

Oh well. It feels loose enough.

Rena let a few more citizens go by before stepping on the path and setting out at a moderate pace. The sound of her footsteps on the pavement was rhythmic and quickly lulled her into a reflective mood.

Alright. What was I thinking about before?

She had a vague feeling it had to do with the Barrens. There was something mesmerizing about that place. Marshall and Clarine would never understand her attraction to it. No one would. The only thing other citizens noticed was the ugliness of it. The uselessness of it. But that was what Rena liked. It was the complete opposite of Esh, where everything had been designed for a purpose. Every surface and structure bore the marks of human intervention. But the Barrens were wild. Untouched. And Rena couldn't help but find that appealing.

"Good morning," said the slow-jogging woman as Rena passed her.

"Morning," she replied.

It struck her how the citizens' politeness increased with proximity to the Center, like everything else in Esh. Farther inside, people's lives revolved around how their behavior affected others. Toward the outside, they preyed upon one another. There was no reason to feel sorry for what she'd done to those men in the Barrens. Though Dr. Mallory would have argued the point, Rena thought they'd received what they deserved. If they chose to live on the outskirts of society and survive by taking what they hadn't earned, then it could just as easily be taken away from them as well. It was a dangerous life they chose. And it was arrogant for them to think they were the only dangerous people out there.

Suddenly, Rena could hear Clarine's pleas. What's going to come out of you next time? What happens if you do something that can't be fixed?

If danger followed the same pattern as everything else in Esh, where did Rena fit along that spectrum? She was apparently more dangerous than those thieves, and they had been at the far edge of society. Living along the Outskirts. Prowling the Barrens. Did that mean she deserved to be even farther from the Center than those criminals? There was only one group of people who fit that description.