The Declaration

often. If Anna was caught out of bed, she’d be beaten; if she was found making her way to Solitary, she couldn’t conceive of a punishment severe enough.
    Gingerly, she sat up and looked around the small, cramped dormitory that had once served as the office to the Director of Operations, Department of Revenue and Benefits. There were ten beds in all, with little space between, each with a steel frame and thin mattress. On nine of them, female Pending Surpluses slept, hair splayed over their pillows and hands curled into little fists, a situation replicated all the way down the hall in all the other dormitories containing all the other Surpluses.
    Trying not to think too much about what she was doing, Anna eased herself out of bed and winced as her feet touched the cold, hard floor.
    Softly, recalling her Decorum practice, she slipped silently out of the dormitory and down the corridor. Grange Hall was strangely silent – even the Smalls seemed to be asleep. A surge of fear gripped her. She felt so exposed, so utterly vulnerable, alone in the darkness, her toes clenching against the coldness of the floor. With five hundred Surpluses and thirty staff, the Surpluses were rarely alone at Grange Hall; to be so now felt both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.
    Slipping through doors, down the stairs and then along the cold, damp and dark corridor that ran along the basement of the building, Anna finally found herself approaching the Solitary cells. Shivering, she wrapped her arms around herself.
    ‘This better be worth it, Surplus Peter,’ she muttered to herself as she turned the corner.
    But then she stopped abruptly and slipped back behind the wall. There, outside one of the three Solitary cells, was Mrs Pincent, with two men, one of whom was carrying Peter through the large, metal door.
    Anna frowned, trying to work out what was happening. Was he ill? Where were they bringing him from?
    Anna felt her heart beating loudly in her chest, and held her breath, peeking round the corner to see what was happening. She was fairly sure no one had seen her, but if Mrs Pincent and the two men were planning to go back upstairs via Staircase 3, she would be trapped. There would be nowhere she could hide – the stark grey corridor had nothing but the locked doors to store cupboards, and there was no way she could outrun them either; they were just a few metres away.
    But to her immense relief, once the men had deposited Peter and locked the door of his cell, they turned and followed Mrs Pincent the other way along the corridor.
    ‘You’ll get your money upstairs,’ she heard Mrs Pincent say as they walked away. ‘And if you say one word about this to anyone, the Authorities will find out about your little black market ventures, do you understand?’
    Anna heard the men grunt in reply, and waited until their footsteps could no longer be heard, then stealthily slipped round the corner towards the door of Peter’s cell.
    ‘Peter,’ she whispered. ‘Peter, can you hear me? It’s Anna.’

Chapter Nine
    It took five minutes of whispering and lightly knocking on the cell door before Anna got any response from Peter, and even then it wasn’t much more than a moan.
    ‘Peter, is that you?’
    There was a pause, then she heard a shuffle. It sounded like Peter coming closer to the door. She felt scared and relieved and embarrassed all at the same time.
    ‘Anna?’
    His voice was muffled and sounded sleepy.
    ‘Yes. I . . . I just wanted to check that you were OK. I didn’t know where you were, and then Surplus Charlie . . . I just wanted to check you were here,’ Anna said awkwardly. She shivered violently and wished she’d thought to bring her blanket with her now.
    ‘Anna. You’re here.’
    Anna frowned. ‘Are you OK?’ she whispered. ‘You sound funny. Did Charlie hurt you really badly?’
    She heard Peter yawn.
    ‘My head,’ she heard him say. ‘I feel . . . They gave me something. An injection. I feel woozy. How long have I been here?’
    Anna frowned. ‘You didn’t have an injection, Peter. Surplus Charlie kicked your head. He told me. But why are you in Solitary? Did Mrs Pincent find you?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ Peter said vaguely. ‘I remember the fight. But Mrs Pincent got me out of bed later and brought me down here. At night-time. They gave me an injection . . . What time is it?’
    Anna looked at her wrist.
    ‘Half past one,’ she said, her heart sinking as she realised just how little