Sunday's Seven Sentence Snippet #2

Here is today's snippet!

It didn’t tell how we were forced to remain in a Government Bunker, living like rats in a cage, breeding on demand and occasionally getting killed off for outliving our usefulness. Not that I’m bitter. Really, I’m not. We are well fed, clothed, and educated. We have the opportunity to go out in the sun for regular exercise and are allowed to socialize with each other. We even get to watch videos or play computer games sometimes. But as I looked at a photo of a small family clinging to each other in the Shelters I couldn’t help feeling that something was missing from our lives here.

By Ykmyks (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

In today's snippet, X5 is reflecting on life in the Bunker and he compares the Gifted to rats in a cage. The children who live at the Bunker are all there because they have specific psychic gifts, usually the ability to have visions of the future, though there are others. Though the Gifted have been told the Bunker is run by the government, the truth is that it is controlled by a very secretive group called The Consortium. 

In order to ensure a good supply of subjects, the Consortium has a strict Reproductive Program. Subjects are matched based on their genetics and the likelihood of producing offspring who have inherited those traits. And once the offspring are produced, they are taken from their parents to be raised by the workers at the Bunker. 

So while the Gifted have their physical needs met and are kept in comfort, they have never been outside the Bunker, just as rats are kept in their cages. But although he can't yet identify what is missing, X5 has always had the nagging suspicion that he needs something more. The longing for that something more is part of what drives him to do the things he does throughout the book.