Read The System for Free Online Page B

heart felt like it was banging its way out of her chest; she was gasping for air but still she ran, not towards anything, but away, away … They could see her. See her every move. They had always seen, always been watching, waiting. But they would not get her. They would never get her. She would run, run until death took her, if that was the only way of escaping them. And as she ran, all she could see was his face. His pinched, knowing, evil face. And he didn’t even know he was evil. He didn’t even know what that meant …
    Evie woke with a start, just like she always did, a judder, a gasp, sweat-drenched sheets, the sickening realisation that she was still here, in this place that Lucas wasn’t, the immediate, devastating knowledge that he was somewhere else, that she had no idea if she would ever see him again.
    She pulled herself up, got out of bed. It was a huge bed, way too big for her, covered in soft white sheets, softer than anything she’d ever felt back in the City, the Settlement, the two places she’d called home in her life. The two could not be more different: the City, a paranoid world of rules, of labels, of a System that controlled everything and everyone; the Settlement, a place of learning, of building, of freedom of expression, of community – and yet now she was in a place more different still. And all she wanted to do was go home. To Lucas. To Lucas …
    Was he still alive? Was the City still there? It seemed impossible somehow, impossible it should still exist now that she knew this place existed also; impossible that Lucas should be alive knowing what Thomas was, knowing what he had done. They had been here for five days; Evie felt like she had counted every second, every minute, every hour as she waited for it to expire. She wanted the weeks to go by, for Linus to fail to deliver his System, for Thomas to starve her, torture her, kill her. He would never return her to the City and death would be infinitely preferable to this no-man’s land, this purgatory of nothingness, of isolation, of imprisonment. Evie had been imprisoned before, not physically but emotionally; back in the City, where the System controlled everything, she had spent her days paralysed, fearful, empty. But then she had experienced freedom, had understood what it felt like to take responsibility, to challenge, to fight, to believe, to hope, and she wasn’t going back. She couldn’t. She would rather die.
    At least … She closed her eyes. If Lucas was alive, then she could at least cling on to the thought that he might come. No, not come. They would kill him. That he was safe, then. That he was back in the City, left alone by Thomas because he was no longer of any interest to him. If Lucas was alive, then the world was not an entirely dark and vile place. If Lucas was alive, then there was still a light glowing somewhere.
    Just not here.
    She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them again and walked to the bathroom. Her bathroom. Her own bathroom with a shower that jetted warm water over her, soaps that smelled of roses, soft fluffy towels to dry herself with, mirrors to educate her on how she looked. Evie had never seen so many mirrors; they adorned every wall, reflecting themselves back at her, creating walls beyond walls, a thousand Evies trapped behind them, staring at her, pleading with her, take me home …
    And there, in the corner, a camera. Keeping watch. Checking up on her. She resented it, loathed it, but it was better than the System. At least she could see it; at least she understood how it worked.
    In the City the System had been a terrifying thing; people had believed it could see everything, possibly even their thoughts. It had been all powerful, deciding whether citizens were good or bad, labelling them accordingly and striking terror into their hearts whenever their label changed for the worse. When the System had been destroyed, Evie had thought it was over; she and Raffy had escaped