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

They were woken the following morning by the sunlight filtering in through the thin fabric of the cheap blue curtains at the window.


Michael was lying on his side wondering if something hadn’t fallen on his head during the night, while Bevan lay behind him, rhythmically grinding his morning erection against the firm flesh of Michael’s buttocks.


“You can’t be serious,” Michael mumbled.


He heard Bevan chuckle. “I guess not,” he said.


Michael heard the soft whoosh of the covers being thrown off and watched as Bevan padded energetically to the bathroom.


“How can you be so…alive?” asked Michael, whose eyes were still half-closed.


After Bevan had showered, Michael dragged himself out of bed and into the bathroom, where he showered, brushed the furry feeling from his teeth, and deodorized.


“It lives,” said Bevan as Michael reappeared.


“Yeah, and feeling a bit more human.”


Chapter 28