Photo: Haseeb Jamil
Nolan’s favorite part of his studies were the monthly visits to the Memorial Hall. He loved that they kept the name even though there are currently 15 hallways in use and 20 in construction. Every day he learns how to read, write, and speak in the language of the Royals; studies the history of the City, especially the Citizen Wars; memorizes the Memorial tunnels, and of course learns how to fight in any given circumstance.
He went to the regular schools until he was thirteen and was able to begin learning about the truth of the City from his father and the Denizens. It was refreshing to learn about the true history of the City instead of the brainwashing that the other children receive in the City’s schools. Nolan tries not to look down on the other children his age since he knows that although he knows the truth and they are memorizing propaganda, he must make sure that no-one suspects that he may one day lead the Denizen charge that will finally bring the City to the glory it deserves; bring the City back under the rule of the Denizens instead of the lying brain-washers. The Meetings are the most difficult since Nolan is the only person in his family who can go since the rest have been exiled from the Central City.
The walk to the Meeting is a lonely and quiet one for a sixteen year old boy who has no idea where he stands in the city since to the people he passes on the street he is a Citizen, but when he goes home he is a Denizen. Nolan made friends with a couple Citizens his age, but realized that the friendships were doomed since he could never introduce them to his family and he was not permitted to go into the Central City for anything other than official errands and the Meetings. At each meeting, Nolan sat quietly in the back of the hall and took notes so that he could later describe everything in detail to the Denizen leaders back home. In order to seem less suspicious, he would stay for a little while afterwards to grab some snacks and exchange a few careful words with the Citizens. These conversations never lasted long since Nolan barely considered himself a Citizen and no longer attends the City school so he has nothing in common with the people there besides his official identification as a Citizen.
On his nineteenth birthday, Nolan was given his first real assignment. This is the moment he has been waiting for, he studied the Memorial tunnels for years so that he could one day become useful to the Denizens’ mission. His task was simple in theory since he simply had to distract the guards from whichever room the Denizens were in and everything would go smoothly. The problem, however, is that the guards never leave their posts and the doors are locked very securely so a quick lock pick would never work. The only solution was that Nolan would become an apprentice to a retiring Guard and then they would have full access to the tunnels. Nolan was the best candidate for the job since he had memorized almost all of the tunnels just by visiting once a month for several years. He would excel in his apprenticeship since he would not require any real training; the project was given a time limit of three months before the Denizens would move on to a different project.
As he walked into the Memorial Hall on his first day as an apprentice, Nolan felt as though he was going to be a part of everything that the Hall represents. He felt proud to work to protect the Hall, he tried to ignore the irony of his simultaneous employment with the Denizens. The guard who he would work for, Nathan, was a kind old white-bearded man who genuinely loved the Memorial Hall. Nolan was happy to listen to all of Nathan’s advice and information about being a Memorial Guard since he could see how proud the old man was to be a guard and how sad he was to retire and leave the halls.
After a month of studying the halls in more detail than he could before, since he now has access to the more in depth information available to the guards, Nolan reached the end of his apprenticeship. His last day as an apprentice was Nathan’s last day as a Memorial Guard and the day of the Denizens’ first opportunity to attack the Hall. They chose this day because they felt that Nathan would be less guarded since he would be sentimental about leaving the Hall and would linger while trying to enjoy his last day. Another reason was that this was their last opportunity to use Nolan as a resource without making him receive the blame for what they would do in the Hall. All the blame would fall on Nathan since he is the senior guard on duty.
Nolan talked with Nathan all morning about life as a guard and about what he will do as a retiree. They talked about how much more time he would have and how he would finally be able to spend time with his family and still come back to the Hall for visits. When they left their post for their lunch break, Nolan passed a note to the Denizen who was waiting in the hallway with the updated security information that was revealed in the morning meeting. He tried not to think about what was about to happen because he was happy to be a part of the Revolution, but was also anxious about what would happen if they got caught and all the blame fell on Nathan. He really cared about his mentor and would be very sad if all his bright plans for retirement were destroyed by the Denizens.
During the lunch break Nolan tried his best to keep Nathan talking so that the Denizens would have more time to break into the room and get the job done. He only delayed Nathan for five minutes. Then they rushed back down to their post where Nathan immediately knew something was off and prepared to enter the room he had been guarding for years. Nolan grabbed Nathan’s arm, not knowing how to tell him to stay out of the room, but Nathan signaled for him to stand guard while he drew his gun and walked towards the open door. Nolan didn’t know what to do; he could destroy his own life by telling Nathan what was going on, or he could let Nathan go into the room and endanger the Denizens’ mission. While he was trying to decide what to do, Nathan entered the room. Nolan heard him ask them to stop what they were doing, but Nolan knew that the men inside the room wouldn’t listen. He heard Nathan ask them again, and thought about how he is such a kind old man, and then heard a gunshot. He rushed into the room and saw Marcus, one of the Denizen muscular goons, walking away from Nathan’s bloody corpse on the ground. Nolan cried out, “Why did you shoot him?? He was a harmless old man!”, as he bent over Nathan’s body to check to if there was any chance he could still be alive, but to no avail. Allen, who was leading the mission, looked up from the coffin he was rummaging through to give him a nasty look as he said, “He got in the way, Marcus took care of it. You got us in here, that doesn’t mean you have any say in what goes on. So get your whiny little ass back in that hallway and don’t let any more fucking idiots get in here. Got it?”. Nolan nodded slowly. “Then get out!”. Nolan got up slowly, looked down at Nathan’s body and thought about how sad it was that this man died in the room he had proudly protected for years without ever questioning why it needed to be protected. He walked back out of the room, closed the door and stood guard just as Nathan had done for fifty years. At the end of his shift he walked out, alone, for the first time. He walked out of the Hall remembering Nathan, pushing aside the memories of Nathan’s last moments, and ducked his head as security officers rushed past. They would soon find out what happened, and as long as he did what he had been taught all his life, they would never find him. Only time would tell if the Denizens would ever find him.
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