The Year-Rounders

The year-rounders were about to immerge. The huge, metal door slid to one side with a low rumble, and then it clanged to a stop. A chorus of cheers rose up through the crowd as the devotees stepped into their first sunlight in over a year.

There were embraces between old friends and many handshakes of congratulations. The fun was short lived however, as a walk boss keyed his head speaker and announced to all present, "Everyone back to their stations. All walkers get moving now. You are already almost twenty minutes behind and we need to get you going immediately. I need all of the last year-rounders to make their way to the main crawler to begin orientation."

Nobody was surprised. No one grumbled their disapproval. This was the way it had to be. This was the way it had been all of their lives. As they all started to move, the people shouted good-byes and wishes of good luck to the new batch of year-rounders that would remain behind. They would enjoy their last hours in the sun until the cold zone caught up to them and they had to go down the tunnel; only to be sealed in behind the door until the majority of the world's population circled the globe once again.

Jonah walked along side of his sister Jenna. They were twins, and were both extremely good walkers. At twelve years old they could run ahead of, and then drop behind the entire fleet; all in a single shift. He said, "Do you wish you were staying?"

"You know I do not. I could care less if I never get drawn. I suppose you do?"

"Yes," he replied. "I want to rest... I want to rest and think."

They carried on in silence for a while. He started to drop back, slowly at first, and then after some time they were separated by almost a kilometre of terrain. She did not worry. There was the back line, and if somehow they missed him, a sweeper would usher him along.

He was lost in thought. He still automatically picked his feet up and put them down in a steady rhythm that he had known as long as he could remember. The problem was- if you started to let your mind wander and forgot to look up now and then, you started to veer off to one side. His misstep always took him to the left. Usually others would spot your wandering and tell you to have a look where you were going, but he was already far behind the stragglers and even further behind the primary pack that always stuck close to the main crawler.

An officer on the back line spotted him, just a dot far ahead at first, near greenhouse crawler number three, until he grew into the more familiar shape of an adolescent trudging along with his or her head down. Maxwell made a mental note to move ahead to the youth if he or she got within a half-kilometre. For now though, Jonah remained at a safe enough distance.

What had the boy so absorbed, was the dream of him self one day becoming a year-rounder. The thought of remaining in one spot for more than a few minutes, of only having to walk to the lavatory or the kitchen; sure you could sit, rest or sleep on a crawler but you were still always moving.