The marketplace hums with the constant buzz of conversation. Scents of mandarin orange and old pine taint the air, and huge ivory banners with huge red words reading “MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE: OBEY THE DICTATOR’S NEW LAW!” A boy with ruddy skin and a fox-like walk, Israel, slips through the calm (but not peaceful) streets. His eye catches a woman crying on her knees to a wealthy man; this is rare. Most people do not grant the feeling of sadness.

Huge buildings tower all around, with large gaps forming a path for vendors and tents. Children sit in the dirt of the streets, and guards patrol the stands and the crowds. Looking up, Israel also sees guards hiding in the shade of large balconies on buildings. Hearing someone laughing, he looked to see a guard speaking with a girl, and his helmet, which was made so that no guard’s face could ever be seen, was off. Clearly, he liked her enough to remove his helmet and grant her permission to laugh.

In this world, emotions had to be earned. To earn someone’s permission to feel an emotion, you could pay them, work for them, or merely ask them. Most people decided to put high costs on emotions, and therefore many people were never granted emotions. If anyone felt emotions without permission, whether by their body rejecting the injection that all people were required to get to block their emotions (unless granted), or whether by stealing permission, they were tortured, enslaved, and sometimes killed. Israel’s mother had been killed after stealing someone’s permission for feeling happiness.

The injection, infamously named the Control, blocked people’s emotions through a foreign and alien technique that astronauts hundreds of years ago had begun to discover. Other life-forms had discovered many things, and the human powers of the world killed all of them, taking the information for themselves. The world dictator, Ungaran, and lead scientist, Jessie Kay, had formed a master plan to earn a fortune by forcing people to ask permission to feel emotions, and created a new law to ensure proper punishment for any lawbreakers. The strange method of medicine was still a mystery to the public; how could aliens create a substance that seemed to detect someone being granted permission? How could it block emotions so expertly? Such were questions that would possibly never be answered.

Forgetting to look ahead of him, Israel bumped into a boy slightly older, and larger, than him. Slowly turning around with a blank expression, the boy said, “watch it, yunt.”

Israel’s face burned at the insult. It is a shortened version of the word yuntlune, a word meaning “slow” or “foolish”. The boy and others continue walking, and Israel quickly ducks to an apple stand as guards pass nearby through the crowd.

A girl with deep brown hair and bored eyes notices his anxiety of being caught by the guards. “What did you do, huh?” She asked.

Glaring at her, he murmured, “I didn’t do anything. It’s what they did.” She lifted an eyebrow, and he explained. “I’m what people call a Criminal Unauthorized Runaway Emotion-Feeling Entity, or-“

“A curefe,” she finished. Expression still blank, she admitted, “I want to ask you to feel an emotion, but if I do, then I might feel the danger of the situation and end up turning you in.”

Frowning, Israel said, “then I think I’ll deny your request.”

They both turned to shouts and clamour, and the girl muttered to herself, “great. Now you’ve done it, Liz- talking to an outlaw.” The boy who’d name-called Israel was pointing tiredly at Israel, and talking to guards, some of who were already running towards him.

Heart pounding, Israel turned to the girl, Liz. “If you help me escape, I’ll pay you enough for a year’s worth of sales.”

Looking down, she admitted. “Money isn’t want I want… it’s something that no one can grant me…”

The guards were getting closer. Fists slamming on the table, Israel hissed, “tell me what you want!”

She met his gaze, expressionless, but if he gave her permission, he knew that her green eyes would hold desperation. “I want to freedom to feel. I want to experience emotions on my own time, not their’s.” She motioned to the guards. “But I know that I can’t trust you.”

“Why not?” He asked urgently. “My mother was killed for stealing permission, and the entire world is full of dead-eyed civilians controlled by a powerful and cruel dictator. Don’t you want justice? Don’t you care?”

“I-“ she said, slowly glancing at the other vendors, who were peering over. “I don’t know where my family is. But it doesn’t matter right now. Nothing matters right now…”

“But freedom does matter,” Israel insisted. “You said it yourself; we should all be able to feel our own emotions. I can’t trust you either, but we can both work together right now, for the greater good.”

Sighing decisively, she agreed, “okay. I’ll help you, so long as you promise to keep your end of the bargain.”

“I promise,” he said immediately.

Her hand snatched his wrist. “In that case, we’d better start running.”

Liz sped down an alley, with Israel following. She let go of his wrist, and still seemed hesitant to trust him. Israel smiled to himself; no one had helped him in years, especially not those who knew what he was.

Soon they were flying into another street, in which bored vendors and alert guards quickly turned their attention to. “Keep running!” Israel shouted, and she did. They ran, climbed up walls, shoved past ambling pedestrians, and tried hard to keep a visual on the guards hiding high above. If any one of them had a clear shot on them, it was all over.

Sure enough, a shot sounded in the air. Skidding to a stop, he heard guards shout, “freeze! Put your hands in the air!”

Israel obeyed, but he slowly looked to his left. Liz was on the ground, unmoving. Blood seeped her clothes, and Israel felt his throat close up with emotion. He’d promised… he was going to help her feel emotions…

“Hello, Israel,” a sneering voice said. Looking up, he saw scientist Jessie Kay smirking and nearing him. “Dear boy, when do you think this will all end? When we ‘give in’ to your futile attempts to change society? This is the world now!”

“This is no world that I want to be a part of,” Israel cried out with passion. A soft breeze tussled his hair and cooled his sweating back, and for a moment, he felt the peace he’d long forgotten. But in an instance it was gone, and anger made him barrel on. “People should be free to feel their own emotions, all day, every day!”

Shaking her head sadly, she whispered, “you don’t understand… death rates were so high after society encouraged mental health issues, and governments dealing with overpopulation did nothing to stop suicide. This choice saved the world, Israel!”

A loud BANG resounded in the air, and Jessie collapsed, jerking on the ground as electric shocks traveled across her body, momentarily paralyzing her. Looking to his side, Israel saw a smirking Liz holding a weapon. Glancing at him, she admitted, “I’m a curefe too, Israel, but I’m the kind that can’t be killed.”

“Impossible!” A guard shouted.

“You lied,” Israel said, sensing the danger of the situation.

Ignoring them both, she flicked a switch she’d apparently been holding in her hand. Within a second, the entire city burst open, and flames consumed the sky.