Read Silo 49: Going Dark for Free Online Page B

enough information to approve matches is what gets retained forever.”
    Graham tried not to smile at that. A simple summary sheet for every person was retained for use in approving marriage matches as the generations passed, but they contained no details. That was good.
    He wanted to take no chances that this energetic young man might start scanning in documents and perhaps give the others what they needed before he was ready for them, so he kept a serious face as he gave his directions. He had to be subtle about how he went about his delaying tactics. He wanted to give every impression that he was doing exactly what the voices in Silo One had instructed him to do despite the fact that he had absolutely no intention of ever finishing any such task to their satisfaction.
    After the medic left, hurrying down that first spiral of stair and out of sight, Graham sat in the silent cafeteria by himself. He watched the view with its never ending display of filthy deadness outside and sipped from his canteen of tea. He thought about what he was doing, what he was planning and how he had come to this point.
    Even if the conversation he’d overheard hadn’t been one that concluded with a decision to kill his silo, he would be delaying or not doing this tasking. He felt betrayed but not just for himself. He felt that betrayal for everyone that lived in Silo 49. He had been led to believe that each silo was precious and represented the last hope of mankind. He had been told that all they did was for the future. He had believed it all and justified every bad act, every cleaning and every lie because he believed it.
    It turned out that wasn’t true at all. His people had become an interesting set of medical circumstances to be collected, collated and filed away. Silo One cared nothing for them as people. To them it wasn't the legacy that mattered because these people, however sick, were still the seeds of that legacy. It was a perfect legacy that mattered to them and this silo was tainted based on their perfect standards. Tainted, no longer wanted and in need of discarding. He wouldn't have it. He wouldn't allow it.
    He didn’t know the precise moment when he had stopped believing in the absolute rightness of Silo One. He thought it had eroded in stages, dropping off of him in layers like the rust that seemed to wear away the bones of the silo one thin flake at a time. That made it very hard for him to define any specific moment in time for the loss of his belief, but he did know that every shred of whatever faith had remained fell away with that overheard conversation. Now that he had heard them as they were, without whatever carefully chosen words they used to deceive and control, he realized that they were only madmen without scruples.
    For Graham there was no other possible explanation other than madness of some sort. He had been raised for the position he held in the silo. He had shadowed from the early age of fifteen for it and for more than twenty years he had remained a shadow even as he watched others his age progress in their careers and gain authority and trust. He had been patient and remained true to his purpose through it all. When his uncle had succumbed to cancer, like so many others had after him, choking on blood and begging for death, Graham had slipped the key from his uncle's neck and around his own. He had been secure in the knowledge of his place in this world.
    When the two keys had clinked together under his coveralls, he had felt alone, but also strangely ready and confident. He had trusted the process. He had trusted the Order. He had trusted that all would come to fruition as it should if he only did the right things.
    All that had gone from him over the years and the last now blown away like the dust outside. He wondered if his uncle had felt this same loss of faith and confidence. He thought back but found nothing in his memory that stood out. Like all the Heads of IT before him, his uncle had trained