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

Again, I shook my head. “No, it’s—”


But she had one last question. “Will it keep us safe?”


And that was what everything boiled down to now, wasn’t it? Keeping the Colony safe. In a small voice, I had to admit, “No.”


My father turned back to his console, no longer interested. “Then we don’t need to know it.”


I wanted to scream in frustration at them. How could they chooseto be so blind? Did they wantto be led around like little children, buffered from everything bad, protected from anything they didn’t want to know? I growled in anger, upset at them for not wanting to listento me. Maybe the Overseer was right. Maybe no onewanted to listen.


Maybe everyone wanted things to stay the way they were.


Everyone but me. And Kyer. Everyone but those of us brave enough to stop taking the pills.


Chapter 50