4:37
Eyes flutter open
Wince at the harsh blade of light crawling through the chipped corners of the tinted windows
4:41
Breakfast
Watery oatmeal substitute
Juice of some fruit, imported from an off-world colony since there is no flora on idem
4:49
Instinctively clutch at left breast pocket for communion vial
Fuck
8 days since I last partook
5:0- ugh
Who the fuck cares
My entire body's stiff, preparing for that sickeningly polite knock at the compound gate
Fucking Greyshirts
I smile
I greet
I sweat
I shake
Their shifting weight coaxes out a squeal from the floorboards and my teeth clench behind my curled lips
Motherfuckers are standing on 8 days worth of Manna
Fuck
Manna
Fucking brain-death pills
I'm feeling things I didn't know could be felt
I'm thinking things I know shouldn't be thought
Just how much has he taken from me
All citizens must gather in the tabernacle at the dawn of the eclipsing binary to participate in the biannual Public Communion
Absence or abstinence is a punishable offense