“Residents of Lower Sector 5.52, it is now 04:00 Solaris. Proceed to Out Sector 4454. Residents of Lower Sector 5.52, it is now 04:00 Solaris. Proceed to Out Sector 4544. Residents –”

Lilac opened her eyes, rubbing away the sleep. Ignoring the robotic female voice, she yawned, blinking away the tears as a cloud of acrid, noxious gas wafted by. She squinted, rubbing away the sting. A face filled her vision, dirty and set with large round brown eyes.

"Mornin' Lilac."

Lilac fell back down. The rustling and crinkling of plastic bags filled the air. "Gah! What the hell?"

Peals of laughter rang through the air. "That expression was priceless! I should do stuff like this more often."

Lilac rubbed her forehead. "For Founder's sake! Why must you wake me up like that?"

The girl, Chickadee, blinked. She looked up at the compacted rubbish that made up the ceiling. "I dunno. I think it's fun. Fun for me."

Lilac sighed.

Chickadee smiled, showing misshapen yellowed teeth.

"Residents of Lower Sector 5.52, it is now -"

The two girls looked at each other before sighing. The incandescent light flickered as its power supply, the chemical river, briefly stopped.

Lilac nodded towards the thick, stained blanket held up by the rusted nails protruding from the walls made of crushed cans. The curtain opening rustled as a light breeze prodded at the stained, brown fabric.

Chickadee frowned as the loudspeakers urged the residents to gather. “Do we have to go?”

Lilac sighed. “You know what happens to Absents. I can deal, but you? You don’t stand a chance.”

Chickadee froze then nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”

Lilac smiled wryly. “Let’s go and deal with this daily nonsense.”

…

Lilac squinted as the giant holographic camera projected into the predawn sky. Scanning the vague shapes of trash mountains, she saw countless people standing on the slopes and gazing above.

The girl blinked as she felt a tug on her shirt. Looking down, she raised her brows. “What’s wrong?”

Chickadee pointed at the holographic camera. Looking up, Lilac examined the floating specks of light making up a giant, round disk. She shivered as she realised that the specks of lights flickered, indicating propellers.

A shiver ran down her spine.

Why? Why did they send drones here in the Outlands? Lilac squinted at the beacon of light that was the city. The sudden waste of resources was absurd. No one spent that much on the Trash. Not unless –

Lilac clenched her fist. She turned her attention to the streams of people gathering in the clearing down below. Nodding to Chickadee, she carefully walked down the trash mountain, grimacing as various objects prodded at her feet.

“Ouch!”

Lilac glanced at Chickadee who shook her foot. “Careful. The sun’s not up yet.”

Chickadee nodded.

Holding each other’s grimy hands, the duo half-ran, half-tumbled down the rubbish slope. They stopped as they ran into the back of another person.

“Hey, watch it!”

Lilac looked away. “Sorry.”

Squeezing through the crowd of shivering, stinking people, the duo looked up. More people began filling the concrete square. Soon, everyone packed together as the late arrivals filled up all available space.

Lilac could not even move her feet off the freezing concrete floor. “At least those giant rubbish heaps were warm.”

Chickadee snorted and shook her head. “You say that every morning.”

“Residents of Lower Sector 5.52, it is now 04:30 Solaris. Please pay respects to the founders of the Edicts of Progression.”

At that, forced cheers rang throughout the crowd.

The hologram shifted to ten golden stars.

Lilac frowned as she noticed the flickering again. She was not mistaken.

Those were drones.

Uneasiness settled in her stomach like a heavy stone as she clenched her fist once more. The last time they sent drones to the Outlands, many died. Though at that time, cullings were only a distant reality.

Another cheer automatically rang from her mouth as the announcement continued.

“It has been fifty years since the Party of Progress established the Clean-Up initiative. Since then, the world has seen more progress than ever before.”

Tension in the crowd rose as the stars slowly descended.

“Resources that would have been diverted to machinery have been reallocated elsewhere. Rubbish congestion has slowly been decreasing over time.”

More forced cheers.

The stars now hovered just above everyone’s heads. Yet, no one dared to move. Everyone stared straight ahead in an attempt to draw as little attention as they could towards themselves. Lilac stopped herself from clenching her fist as her heartbeat rang in her ears. Though the chill of the sticky concrete floor sunk deep with her bones, she dared not to move. Even an outsider like her knew of the consequences.

Chickadee, on the other hand, shivered. Panic rose as Lilac saw a flash of movement in the corner of her eyes.

The stars dispersed into a swarm of drones. The swarm descended into the crowd, weaving from person to person with a low hum.

“However, this progress is not enough. To reach the target, we need something ambitious, something drastic.”

Lilac gulped.

The sky lightened with the rising of the sun, yet no one moved. The announcement was uncharacteristically slow.

“The Trash have not done enough. People of Cerella, we have heard your voice and felt your pain. Since the Trash have been leeching off your tax money, refusing to work, their status shall be demoted to Animalia. Their work shall be rewarded with leftover food that humans do not need. Their unevolved physiology is suited for their habitat. Additionally, they shall be tagged as property of The World Government. That is all.”

Everyone stood still as they watched the swarm lifted from the crowd and coalesced into a camera.

“Trash, by the new classification, you shall be subjected to new laws according to the Edict of Progression. You are Animalia; thus, you shall not speak. You shall not refuse a command from a human. You shall not eat human food. You-”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and, Lilac forced a wry smile as she released a breath. Nothing has changed, and nothing will change.

That fact was both saddening and comforting.

“Animalia of Lower Sector 5.52, please proceed to work.”

Lilac and Chickadee looked at each other and collectively sighed. The duo followed the giant queue of people towards a looming mountain of rubbish in the distance. The gasses released by the pile stained the air a toxic green.

Suddenly, a drone zipped into view, it’s round, camera body flashing. “Status Changed. Classification of 564898 is now Animalia.”

Lilac froze as her stomach knotted in sudden fear. The declaration of the change in status filled the air, making the queue grind to a halt. Even with the need to change classification, the whole situation felt strange. She clenched her fist and frowned. Why waste so many resources on Trash? The World Government had their humans to spy on, so why expend energy on Trash Animalia?

The drones quietened down as they began to rise, forming an ominous black swarm. Seeing this, people continued walking once more.

This waste, this sudden declaration couldn’t just be a celebration of the fiftieth year of installment? There was something else. She could taste it in the bitter air.

“Hey, why aren’t you walking? You may wanna starve, but I want to work.”

You are Animalia; thus, you shall not speak.

A shiver ran down her spine as everything seemed to pause. Nothing moved, and no one made a sound. Not even the wind rustled the plastic bags.

Lilac turned around, seeing as a middle-aged man paled. He looked around with wild eyes before running off. A few seconds later, the man convulsed and collapsed face-first into the piles of waste. The girl covered her mouth, and Chickadee squeezed her hand. The queue continued moving forward.

Lilac swallowed down her rising panic. It’s just an official declaration. The drones should move out after a day, and then the rules should relax.

She stopped as she faced the giant mound of unprocessed trash. An assortment of stinking cans, plastic, barrels and even bodies lay slowly decomposing. The buzzing hum of flies filled the air, and dim shadows of people picking up rubbish shifted rhythmically whenever a section was cleaned.

Lilac picked up a neon green plastic box from the stack and started sorting. Warmth seeped into her feet as she stood on the slightly bouncy pile of slimy rubbish. The girl pushed the drones out of her mind. Plastic in this corner and metal in that corner.

Chickadee tugged on her shirt and pointed at a point in the mound. Lilac squinted and nodded as she saw a familiar figure of a scrawny girl. She nodded, remembering the rule of silence.

Chickadee ran up, awkwardly carrying her box, causing a river of mice to flow down the slope.

Lilac looked back down, digging up a bit of rubbish. A rotting hand poked from the side. The girl’s chest tightened as she continued sorting around it, ignoring the maggots and the pieces of flesh that hung loosely from the bone.

Don’t look, don’t see and always forget. Don’t say, don’t dwell and worry about the next meal. Keep the mind keen, and don’t forget the value of education. Focus on survival. You are not who you were a few years ago. You don’t have the luxury of caring anymore.

Yet, despite that, why did she feel pain? Despite that, why did being alive feel so wrong? Why did the sight of a nameless body fill her with indescribable agony? This happened every day so why?

Tears ran down her face as gritted her teeth. Looking up, she watched as the sun fully rose, giving the sky its characteristic overcast shine. Even with the official declaration, nothing really changed. Even without the enforcement of rules, death still ran amok.

Nothing changed.