"And so, thanks to the CGC, the traitorous governors of the colony were banished and peace was restored, ending the violent conflict instigated by a few who thought they knew better than the CGC." The speaker, standing at the front of a classroom full of students, delivered his speech with the dry boredom of one who has said the same words day after day for years, written and approved once, then memorized and repeated ad infinitum. "Are there any questions?"
"Where were the governors banished to?"
He sighed softly. Every time he gave this speech, someone asked this question, and he cursed himself again for not including it in the original. "They were ejected from the Colony before the Great Door was sealed, forever locked outside our beloved Colony." He couldn't get approval to change the speech, only approval for a list of answers to give when questions were asked.
Before Kevin could asked another question the bell rang, signaling the end of the class period. The students filed out quickly, but Kevin lingered, slowly lowering his raised hand and repacking his book bag. The last book in was a small leather-bound journal. It was placed in the bag reverently. He joined his friends outside, speaking to them in hushed tones. "Guys, I think Mr Parson wasn't teaching use the real history of the colony."
"God, not this again." Jen rolled her eyes. "You've got to stop reading that stupid journal." Kevin silently urged her to keep her voice down. "It's just the idiot rambling of an old man, probably drunk or delirious."
"He makes too much sense to just be some kook!" Kevin tried to keep his voice down too, but always got excited defending the journal. "Look, I'm sorry. Can we talk about this later?"
"Why?" Jen again. Paul and Lindsey knew better than to try to get in the middle of this argument. "Are you afraid someone will over hear and take your precious book away? Hey!" she started shouting to other students as they walked through the hall. "Hey everybody! Kevin's got --" Kevin tried to grab her, put his hand over her mouth to quiet her, but he missed his lunge as she took a step closer to the throng of people. "-- a journal written by a crazy guy denouncing the CGC!"
"Dammit Jen!" Kevin cursed. "Why did you do that?" He ran, dodging students and faculty alike, as fast as he could until he was through the doors to the school corridors. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" In the colony proper now, he ran down the main corridor, looking for somewhere to hide: an open door, a closet, anything to get out of Walkway 17-C. He tried not to think of the myriad security cameras that had watched him run, or of how many people had seen him and who among them would report him for truancy.
Kevin ducked into an open door, a broom closet, and closed it quickly behind him. It wasn't much, but it got him out of the traffic and most importantly out of the camera's eye. They had undoubtedly watched him duck in here, but at least he had time to think now, time to catch his breath. He pulled out his flashlight and Jack's journal, turning to the maps in the back.
"First order of business: where am I? Second, how do I get out? Third, where do I go next?" His immediate goals stated, Kevin narrowed down his options. "A broom closet off Walkway 17-C, about 90 yards from Classroom 5-C. This looks like it. Should be a vent on the South wall..." he trailed off has he played his flashlight around the small room. "There!" he used the light's built in screwdriver to open the vent cover and crawl in.
"These schematics don't show how damn small these vents are." If Kevin had been much heavier, or his shoulders more broad, he wouldn't have been able to squeeze through the shaft, cursing Jack Marshall under his breath as he crawled.
"What the hell was that about?" Jen turned to Paul. Everyone in the hallway went back to what they were doing before Kevin ran off. Paul shrugged slightly and walked toward their next class. Lindsey followed suit when Jen turned to her, the question still hanging in the air. Jen followed, muttering "It's just a stupid old journal, right?"
Paul stopped and thought for a moment before speaking. "To you and me, maybe, yeah, it is just an old journal. But to Kevin," he started walking again, "it's something more. I asked my dad once about Jack Marshall. Dad was around our age when the colony started. He said--" Paul lowered his voice as they entered the class room and took their seats. "He said he knew a man named Marshall way back when. Before the doors shut for the last time."
"You're kidding me! He's REAL?!"
"Maybe. Dad's kinda fuzzy on the early days of the colony. Half the time he says things that directly contradict what we learn, and I have to correct him."
"Still though. One reference might be a fluke. Two makes me wonder." Students were still filing in as Jen grabbed Paul's hand. "Let's go digging for a third!" She had a wild gleam in her eye that made him think it would be a good idea to follow along rather than argue with her. He waved to Lindsey as Jen dragged him back in to the hallway.