Eden

• Josie Madden, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2018

Carlo lazily pried his eyes open, cursing the blinding streaks of light that peaked out from in between his blinds. Feelings of dread and anxiety filled his limbs as he awoke, resulting in his movements being shaky and unsure. He mentally braced himself as he pushed his body up and staggered over to the doorway. Carlo briefly glanced around his apartment which was dark and minimalistic, a result of his hasty attempt to block light out of the accommodation, and his refusal to decorate. The living quarters were assigned after The Department of Wellbeing deemed him a bad influence to the other inhabitants of Eden, he had been separated from his family, his friends. But it didn’t matter anyway, others dismissed his recent epiphany as crazed ramblings and gave him pity. He didn’t want pity, or to be talked down to either. He wanted independence, a chance to prove himself. The four walls, the domed city, the boxed apartment, it all constricted him, a cage within a cage. His chest heaved with suffocation, feeling weak as he thought of the possibility of escape. Carlo found himself stumbling towards an LED that he used to select meals. He tapped an icon for breakfast and chewed a nearby pen, contemplating. His therapist said that his thoughts of a wider world, one beyond Eden and the Society were misled and irrational. That he simply believed there was more to the world as a coping mechanism for his own feelings of discontent.

Everything Carlo could possibly imagine was in Eden, when he strained to put his thoughts into images he visualised landscapes. Pristine visions of waterfalls, forests and horizons filled his mindscape, the pictures the very image of tranquillity and freedom. But, it felt… wrong. The waterfall was just a feature, fake like a habitat inside an amusement park. Carlo struggled to rack his brain for something that had felt real, something that hadn’t been constructed by the endless drone of builders. Surely materials were limited, but somehow factories seemed to create them out of nothingness. His thoughts were only invaded by the pungent smell of toasted bread and avocado, coming from the chute to his left. He eyed the food suspiciously, suspecting it had been filled with his prescribed pharmaceuticals, which he had refused to take for the past couple of days. He clutched the meal with one hand, and gripped a handful of his shirt with the other. Hesitant, he faltered over to his mattress and shifted it against the wall. Underneath, a large container was hidden. It concealed dozens of meals, which he had been stockpiling. Carlo suppressed a sadistic grin, this would be his one choice, the only decision he would make his entire life, which would be to end it.