Sixteen year old Aine lives in the Colony, and his whole life was decided before he was born. In two years he will marry the girl next door, Brin, who was assigned as his Other at birth. Then he will be given a position in the Colony's workforce that best suits his talents. Each night he takes four pills, like everyone else in the Colony, and he knows the pills keep them safe and their world in order. Everything is fine. Perfect, in fact. Until Aine accidentally drops one of his pills. Terrified, he tries to hide the mistake, but when he dreams for the first time in his life, he discovers all he's been missing. What scares him more than not taking the pill, though, is how alive his dreams make him feel. Because it isn't Brin he dreams of but his best friend Kyer. Another boy. Suddenly Aine's world turns upside down, and he doesn't know what to think or who to trust. All he knows for sure is he's falling in love with Kyer, which is forbidden by the Colony's Code, and he will do anything to protect their budding relationship. Even if it means defying the Overseer and leaving the Colony behind.

The Colony Book 1: Rebellion

On the first level, the guide found an empty room she herded us all into, then she wheeled in a cart full of battered and used consoles. “These aren’t connected to the Colony’s mainframe,” she assured us as she handed out the consoles. “You can play around with these and get an idea of what sort of programs we use here in the Oversight Center, but none of the changes you make to the data will be recorded. So have fun! You can’t accidentally mess anything up.”


I took the console she gave me and turned it on. It lit up blue the same way my console did, then the words Elder Logisticsappeared. I tapped the console to bring up a menu, to see what sort of files I could review. Probably nutrition information, maybe a list of people currently residing at the facility, or an idea of what sort of activities they did by looking through a recent supply order.


Chapter 45