The man was not guilty of treason, Gage decided with a sureness that unsettled him, his only crime was craving freedom. This should not warrant execution.

But his father was too black and white to see that. You were either guilty of a crime or not. You were either sentenced to death or not. Prisons had been abolished before Gage and even his father had been born. His only chance of escape was death.

Gage looked to his father, leveling his glare so that for a second they both stared at each other. Gage was trying to burn his opinion into those green eyes, but it was to no avail. The moment passed. The gaze was dropped. The man convicted.

Gage cursed, stood up abruptly and fled the room storming through the corridor and not looking back at yet another Silver trial.

"Well, how was it?" Leon asked full of curiosity. He was young and the Silver politics still intrigued and inspired him.

Gage tried to remember when he was thirteen. Had he felt the same? Maybe there was a time when he too had idolized Locke Masters like his little brother. Now he just felt betrayed. Anytime his father saw him or spoke, he had a sense of betrayal that he couldn't shake.

"Well let's see," Gage slumped against the kitchen table and looked at Leon from where his head rested in his arms. "The guards brought him in, asked for a statement, didn't let him give that statement, Silver found him guilty and then he was executed."

"Did you see it?" He had the fascination with violence the only a boy his age could have.

"No. I left."

"When father lets me go along with him to the trails, I will always stay until the end." Leon said matter-of-factly as he poured a cup of coffee for his older brother.

"Yeah I bet you will." Gage wasn't going to try and convince his brother of what Silver really was. He was still being tutored by the Silvers so it wasn't his fault that they were to him everything the said they were.

"Gage." His father's voice was firm as he entered the kitchen, one of the few rooms in their little compound. "I do not appreciate you leaving mid trial."

"And I don't appreciate watching an innocent man die," Gage retorted lazily. He grabbed for the black coffee and took a swig, shooting Leon a grateful look. "It's always the same outcome."

Locke sighed and sat down across from Gage. Leon poured him too a mug of coffee, and sat down quietly obviously eager to be a part of a 'grown up' conversation. His father raised an eyebrow at him but let him stay, perhaps he wouldn't be the failure Gage was turning out to be.

"He was endangering himself." Locke waited for Gage's inevitable reply to this but when it didn't  come he continued. "If he were to leave the compound he would enter a desolate world. There he would find no food or water or anyone for miles. Or worse he could find himself in the black compound and they would tear him apart for his clothes and anything else he might have on him," what Gage's father didn't mention was that one of those things he had on him was meat. This was how Locke always spoke: the white compound was unwavering in their kindness and generosity and the black compound was violent and would kill a man for a lot less than the clothes and food he would provide.

Gage saw Leon visibly shudder at these words. He like every other child of the Silvers, believed these stories they were brought up with. White was good and black was evil. But Gage had rebelled when he was a year older than Leon was now. After a long fight with his father, Locke had finally, grudgingly, agreed that Gage could be educated along side those undecided who were not yet segregated. He knew those kids. Some were in fact assholes, and some were affectionate and sweet; but, most were anywhere between the two and real people, not like the stories at all.

He wondered if Leon would turn out like him or his father. He wondered if the black and white compounds were as opposite as everyone said. He wondered what would happen to his two best friends, Nix and Shea, next week when their class was to be segregated.