They were exactly the same, well same but different. Each keeper retained his own facial features of course, making them somewhat individual, on the outside at least. But everyone one of them had the same cold, hard stare, the same set to their shoulders, the same inexpressive face. They carried their bodies the same, limbs stiff, backs straight, muscled arms always holding their rifles at the ready, wore the same immaculate uniforms. Their eyes, no matter what the color, had the same look to them, always assessing the situation or the person in front of them, always moving and alert. But at the very same time they looked dead like their souls had been plucked from their chests. Eve had pretty much considered them the same man, all two hundred of them, because even when they spoke it all came out the same, a deep, firm, no nonsense tone. The words too were always the same, turn around to be scanned, back to your homes, move along - when they handed you your rations or when they had taken someone out and they lay bleeding in the dirt - move along. The same, every single keeper, like the dolls they gave little girls.
Eve had never seen anything different in her twenty years of life, until him. She'd probably seen him a hundred times before or maybe not, there was no way to know for sure because he was the same...until that day.
"How did you do it?" he growled, grabbing Eve's chin to tear her eyes away from the dead keeper lying at their feet.
"You killed him." she lamented, eyes drawn back to the green orbs staring up at her lifelessly. Eyes that at the very last hour of his life had shown he did have a soul, that he wasn't like the others. L17 was his name, though not a name by any means.
Eve jumped, then stiffened when the heat of the scanner was suddenly warming the back of her neck. The keepers all moved like spectres in the night too, which was very disconcerting for men that were so large.
"Everly Grace Talon, age twenty, junior nurse, sector two, house ten, mother, two brothers." came the monotone voice over her shoulder. He could have gone on forever, the chips held all of their information from their blood type to their biometrics, even their threat level.
The Eye was all knowing.
Eve peeked at the spectre behind her out of the corner of her eye wondering, needing to see if her keeper had been different. Maybe she'd only seen what she wanted to see in L17. The keeper just stood firm, already scanning the busy square around them, eyes dead to the world like all the others. L17 had been different, even if for just a moment.
"Everly." the controller said her name slowly and firmly, fingers tightening painfully on her jaw. "How did you do it?"
She looked at the controller for the first time, tears streaming down her cheeks. Why was there light in his eyes, why did he get to retain his soul when the keepers had it trained right out of them? She'd never thought about it before but now it was impossible to ignore.
"D-ddddd-do do what?" Eve stuttered, badly wanting to pull away, sickened by his touch. But disobeying a soldier of the Eye of God was like asking for death.
She'd seen dead bodies before but always from afar and never had she been made to feel their hot blood splatter her skin. Death and destruction were all around, as much a part of life as breathing but Eve had never actually had someone ripped away from her like that. Though she'd barely known him that's how it felt. She'd felt an immediate connection with L17, which outside of her small family had never happened.
The controller frowned at the emotional state of the woman, admittedly surprised that she would cry over something as hated as a keeper. Normally he wouldn't deal with the citizens, they were low, prone to being weak and amoral but clearly there was something special about this one. More and more of the keepers had begun breaking down and no one could figure out why. It had started small at first, one keeper here or there, a trivial loss, but now it was happening on a monthly basis. They were the top, the elite, supposed to be physically and mentally perfect in every way and yet they were going nuts! None of his specialists had been able to reach them, stop them from self destructing and in several cases taking others with them...but she had.
With her help, willingly or not, they might not have to tweak the training regimens or the breeding program. There was always an uproar if they changed the breeding system or introduced a new serum. The citizens didn't see their vision, didn't understand that they were just preserving what was left of humanity. The Eye of God hadn't ruined society, they were just the ones left to pick up the pieces.
"Get L17 to give you the gun." his voice was a cross between urgency and exasperation. "How did you talk him down?"
M. Cooper, the controller's name patch read, why did he get a name when the keepers didn't?
She squeezed her grey eyes shut as they were once again seeking out the dead keeper of their own accord, blood pooling around his head. The sick, wet sound of him hitting the ground was playing in her mind over and over, making her belly roil.
"I just talked to him...like a person."
He'd told Eve her eyes looked like souls as he crouched down to where she sat by the dilapidated water fountain, though she wasn't quite sure what he'd meant. Before she could ask though the keeper went on, asking if she thought he had a soul. That's when he'd pulled the handgun out and his eyes had teared up, muscles tense and twitching.
"Get rid of him!" the controller snapped at the keeper breathing down her neck when her newly opened eyes slipped to L17 yet again. "Anything in particular? Any key words?" he demanded, roughly grabbing her by the elbow and dragging her with as he walked away from the scene.
Eve took one last look at the keeper as she stumbled after Cooper and barely suppressed a gasp. She would have sworn on her life she saw him blink...but no, no if it had happened it must have been his nerves. Not even a keeper could survive a bullet to the skull from point blank range.
"No." It wasn't any of his business. And what did he mean by key words? "I just told him that there was always something to live for."
There'd been more, so much more but he didn't deserve to know. Eve had given those words to L17 and he'd believed them enough to return the hand gun to its holster. Their conversation had probably lasted about ten minutes, fifteen at most but it was real, she'd felt it. She couldn't even talk that real with her mother as guarded as she was. The controller considered Eve's words and determined that she was lying. He'd made a career out of people, knew their habits inside and out. But he wasn't ready to call her on it yet because she'd done something he hadn't been able to. There were more important things to consider, like her value to the program.
"Sector two, hmmm?" he asked, already steering Eve towards the bridge. She'd heard there used to be a lake running beneath it but she'd never seen it for herself.
"Yes." she said slowly, trying to put on the brakes.
The controller simply tugged her on without breaking stride.
"How old are your brothers Everly?"
She could tell immediately that the controller wasn't just asking to be kind or conversational and her pulse kicked up nervously. There was an angle, an implied threat written on his hardened face.
"Please...I haven't done anything wrong…" people disappeared all the time, sometimes for no other reason than to prove a point.
Cooper turned to the citizen and smiled, feeling certain satisfaction when her body quivered in fear. Everly was a bit thin, her brothers probably got the majority of the rations, but looked strong, her body would hold up. Perhaps there were even more uses for her beyond solving the mystery of his of his soldiers' minds.
"And I'm sure it'll stay that way. Won't it Everly?"
