Michael is thirty-nine and gay. Like his little niece, Kim, who has a learning disability, he is considered a non-citizen under the draconian Normalcy Laws. Kim’s parents quietly arrange to flee to New Zealand, where the Normalcy Laws haven’t been implemented. As Michael has a good job and has been careful to hide his homosexuality, he doesn’t consider going with them. Instead, he remains behind and goes about his business as normal until one morning when he is confronted by two Black Guards. Hooded, Michael is taken to what he assumes is the Department of Law. Once people are taken there, they never see the light of day again. Elimination is the only punishment in the New World Order. There he is interrogated by The Man, a handsome officer of the Black Guards. In a desperately hopeless situation, is there any hope of surviving elimination? No one ever has in the past, but Michael discovers something about The Man that hints at his situation not being as bleak as it appears. Can he dare to hope there is a way out? Or is he so delusional that his fantasies of freedom have clouded his judgment? Under the oppressive Normalcy Laws, nothing is certain.

Forbidden

“How about New Zealand? They don’t have the same laws down there. And I think I know how we can get there.”


“There’s a cargo ship that docks in San Francisco. It smuggles people out of the country. I don’t know much more than that, but it couldn’t be too difficult to find the guy.”


“Are you sure about that? I mean the ship?”


“Absolutely. There’s a fee. About five thousand a head.”


Even now, there was no way Michael was going to risk betraying his sister and her family.


“I know someone who knows someone who’s made the journey.”


The question left Michael momentarily lost for words. He had just assumed the family would make it across the Pacific without incident.


“Yes,” he replied, though he heard a waver in that single syllable.


“Then that’s where we’ll head. I can cover the fee and any travelling expenses, but we should get our hands on all the credits we can.”


Chapter 19