The Society (A Broken World Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

three decades ago."
    For a brief moment I almost asked what my reward was going to be. Surely after everything I'd done so far—after passing all of his tests—the Citizen-President was going to reward me with something magnificent. The temptation was nearly overpowering, but at the last second I heard the words in my head again—just like I'd heard them so often in my memories.
    Never ask for a reward. Just keep serving—sacrifice will lead to the reward you seek.
    "How can I serve, Citizen-President?"
    "No thought for yourself? No request that I fast-track you to receiving your franchise?"
    "Only if it is what's best for our Society, sir. I'm loyal to the ideals we were founded on."
    He smiled, and I knew that I'd just passed another test.
    "You're a strong young woman, Skye—stronger than almost anyone else I've ever met. Let's go infuse the same inner strength into the rest of your body."
     
     

Chapter 3
     
    The Society Presidential Administration Building
Six months earlier
    The next hour was a blur of preparations. The Citizen-President escorted me out of the Citizen-Administrator's office and deeper into the administration building than I'd ever been before.
    It was common knowledge that the most important parts of the administration building were buried underground, but I'd had no clue just how far underground they were. A quartet of military guardsmen followed us from the office we'd just left to an elevator hidden behind a locked metal door that was more than a foot thick.
    The elevator was just big enough for the six of us, and it required two different keys and the Citizen-President's thumbprint before it would move. When it did start moving, it did so with a shocking speed that left my stomach back at the ground floor. The panel in front of me only showed twelve floors, but that was misleading because we were moving for almost a minute before the first of the buttons lit up to signal that we'd arrived.
    We'd just dropped down a shaft that was hundreds of feet deep, and there were still more floors even further down.
    "We can't be too careful, Skye. The truth is that most of our population isn't ready to know just how hard we have to work to keep everyone safe. The core of our belief system is that the inhabitants of the cities out there beyond the energy barrier need to be given a chance to correct their ways. They need to be given time to develop and accept the sublime perfection of our system of living—the system that their ancestors rejected so long ago."
    I nodded. That was something every child born into the Society learned at the same time they learned colors and how to count to five. None of us were capable of understanding at that age, but memorization of the precepts meant that they became a part of us—understanding always followed with time.
    "All men and women have an inalienable right to pursue the highest version of themselves they can imagine." I said. "Society's obligation is to support each member in that pursuit. The gift of the best of each of us back to society will result in plenty for all. That gift must always be outstretched to those who have not yet started to believe."
    The Citizen-President nodded like a proud father at my recitation of the first precept. "Very good, Skye. I've dedicated my life to that ideal, to becoming the best version of myself I can be—just like every president since the Destroyer betrayed the Founder and snatched the promise of immortality away from us. The truth, though, is that the cities beyond the barrier are much more dangerous than most of our people realize."
    I shook my head—in astonishment rather than denial. "I thought that their technology was still centuries behind ours. We should tell everyone, sir. Knowledge of the full scope of what we are up against would inspire tens of thousands of people to reach higher, to find the better version of themselves that has been just out of their grasp."
    "I wish that were the case, Skye. I would be