‘It’s a perfect night, isn’t it?’ Megan said, looking at the first stars of the evening.

‘It is way too late for you two, and it’s dangerous for women to be outside now.’ Michael said, a bit nervous.

He felt they had become too carefree over the last weeks. The three of them were walking home in the dark from Square Plaza to Seventh City Wife Factory. They had lost all sense of time today in the bar with Andrea and one of the Women are Human girls, and maybe they had drunk a bit too much man beer too. Tom seemed to finally have relaxed about a bit about who could drink what, and eating together for once had made them feel invincible, as if the whole hostile world they had always known had disappeared overnight. Things were looking good indeed, with the unsegregation movement at least gaining its own place in The Nation, and Project Pen Pal taking off and opening up a new future in which the sexes would be able to connect with each other more when they wanted. But none of this changed anything of the aggressive daily reality of The Nation in which there were dangerous and entitled high-rated men that you couldn’t do much against. And now in the cold air of the night Michael felt sober again.

He knew he wasn’t the one who was going to be in trouble when they arrived too late at Seventh City Wife Factory, although he seemed to be more worried about than the girls, who had some weird faith in his Gamma-1 privilege for some reason. But he was also nervous because they had to pass through some places where you wouldn’t want to be in the dark. To be honest, he wasn’t even used to being outside at night with girls. So while the girls where relaxed and giggly he felt the tension rising up inside of him.

‘Poor Greystone isn’t going to be happy indeed.’ Megan said.

‘Ah, but we have our class One male with us who is your fiancee, and he can’t say anything against that, poor Beta-3.’ Eliza said relaxedly, but Michael wasn’t convinced.

‘You know that it’s a risk for you both to be here now without a permit, especially for you, Eliza. They probably won’t say anything about Megan if I say it was my idea, but I don’t think they’d let me take two girls. And how on Earth do I explain a tipsy chaperone?’

‘Well, they might suppose you’re just doing a lot of hanky-panky and they won’t care how many girls you use for that if they’re just low quality E-girls. I’m worthless anyway to them. Unsellable goods you know. No-one gives a rat’s toenail about me.’

He stopped and stared at her in horror.

‘Don’t say such terrible things, Eliza!’ Megan said.

‘It’s still true. And the bureaucracy doesn’t care either. So unless something goes terribly wrong on the way there they’ll just let us in, look the other way, and we can profit from that terrible “don’t ask, don’t see” mentality for once.’

‘Eliza, You scandalous woman! But we better not stand still here for too long.’ Megan said.

Michael and both girls intertwined their arms.

‘I would never be able to think like that, but after all I’ve heard she might even be right, Megan. And me being a class one male unfortunately does mean a lot too, for Greystone and consorts too. It’s completely unfair, but maybe for once it’s unfair on our side indeed. I’ve told you both before to use all the Gamma-1 one privilege you can get from me.’

‘It’s still horrible that anyone would think such things at all about you, or about us,’ Megan said, ‘a man of integrity like you is hard to find, and they don’t even realise what you are.’

They walked through 20th street in silence. Dark apartments towered over the even darker street, with muddy lawns like black holes and unhealthy-looking trees like high towering phantom monsters here and there between the box-like buildings. Michael noticed that several streetlights were broken, more than last time that he’d walked here in the dark. The Great Nation was cutting down on energy again? Even with renewable energy electricity was a rationed resource. This was officially an Epsilonville, but he knew these buildings were populated by both impoverished Deltas and Epsilons. It wasn't like the Alphavilla and Betaville villas that he could see a bit further, which bathed in light, and which were more like the house he lived in himself. Low-rated men lived here with their families, and unless their kids had a higher rating than their parents, they wouldn’t get a chance to study properly too. You needed to be a Gamma at least to get a scholarship, and seeing the housing circumstances a lot of kids in these buildings weren’t able to adequately prepare for their rating tests. So even though there wasn’t any hereditary caste system, chances were big that children of low-rated men became low-rated men themselves, and that they had to live here in Epsilonville too, having low-paying jobs. Which was still a lot better than the actual non-citizens apartments in the neighbourhood on the other side of the city, but those were places where no-one passed through unless they really needed to be there. Epsilonville was high society compared to the places for the unrated, and for non-citizen men.

Megan suddenly grabbed his hand and squeezed it, and all his thoughts about society and inequality were cut short within a fraction of a second. From out of the darkness two men suddenly stood before them. He froze instantly, but not without placing himself before the girls to shield them from the newcomers, an Alpha and a Beta in expensive suits and typical high-class hats. They were the last people you’d expect in a dark Epsilonville streets, and definitely looked like bad news.

The leader of the two, an Alpha-2, addressed him with an arrogant voice.

‘Hey, Gamma-boy, give us those girls, we’re a bit bored tonight.’

Michael gasped at the long muscled man with a moustache and dark eyes. He was only a Gamma-1 himself, so according to the rules of male hierarchy Michael had to obey him in everything they demanded from him that wasn’t highly illegal, without many loopholes. But that wasn’t even an option in this case.

‘They are not mine to give to anyone.’ He replied calmly, while panicking inside.

He saw the other guy make a fist. ‘Then they are ours to take. Women always submit to men. That’s the order of nature. And what are you doing here anyway? It’s no time for fine schoolgirls to be parading around like this in this dark Epsilonville.’

‘None of your business.’ Eliza said fiercely, and the Alpha-2 turned his eyes to her.

‘How, little curly has a voice. I like that.’

His Beta-3 friend let out an ominous laugh.

‘Leave the girls alone. They are only Wife School students.’

‘Well, then they are out way too late, aren’t they? And if they are training to be a Wife, they could use some experience with a Real Man. Come on, brainie-wimp, just let us have some fun with them. You can pick them up later at school again if you want them for yourself another time. They will learn more from it about Real Men tha, you could ever give them.’

Michael felt both the panic and the anger growing inside of him. ‘Leave them alone, I said. They are Free Women.’

The boy started laughing, and reached out to grab Megan.

Be a man, Michael said to himself. You have to defend those who need to be defended. Especially women and children need to be defended by a real man. It was an idea from a time before the Nation, but it actually meant something to him now that something had to be done, and he was the man here. But what could he do? He wasn’t a fighter and his opponents seemed to be trained in combat as well as in street fights. Some young men went far beyond the daily ‘Be a Man’ sessions with militaristic exercises, instead of skipping them whenever possible. But he still had to defend his friends here, he really could let those creeps have their way with the girls.

‘You let her…’ He began, but the Alpha-2 suddenly grabbed him by his throat, while his cheering companion came to his assistance by grabbing his arms beyond his back. The only thing he was thinking about was how to get the girls into safety, but there wasn’t much he could do alone now against two highly-trained men who held him in control. He couldn’t use his arms at all, and he couldn’t move.

‘You little wimp. We’ll finish you coward first then, and after that we’ll take the girls,’ the Beta-3 said.

Michael tried hopelessly to yell at the girls that they had to run, but no sound came out of his throat.

Inside he felt like a horrible failure.

But then everything suddenly happened very fast. The girls glanced at each other, and came into action. Suddenly Megan took a few steps backwards until she merged with the darkness behind them, while Eliza took an attack pose, and unexpectedly she leaped in between the two men like a cat before she attacked with all her force. Without any warning she kicked with her knee between the legs of the Beta-3 who was holding Michaels arms, who promptly let go and sunk onto his knees, deep in pain. His Alpha-2 friend tried to grab her, which meant that he had to let go of Michael too in the process. But again Eliza’s knee proved too fast for him to react, and soon he too fell down, also screaming from the pain.

Before Michael even realised what had happened he stood there free again, with Eliza taking his hand and looking in his eyes for a fraction of a second to check if he was okay. He looked at her in utter amazement, but there was no time to talk now. Both men were slowly standing up, and one of them reached for something in his pocket.

‘Now is the time to RUN!’ Megan screamed from out of the shadows and they started running as fast as they could, in the direction of Seventh City Wife Factory. Michael was still holding Eliza’s hand and they ran for two streets before taking a rest. Michael realised whose hand he was holding, and let go, but now wasn’t the time to be embarrassed about something like that.

‘I should have defended you as a man. Not the other way around’ Michael panted.

‘Not now.’ Eliza replied. ‘Get away first.’

They ran and ran, through the dark streets in between the apartments of 20th streets and Seventh City Wife factory. How were they ever going to explain this to anyone?

In the darkness of the open square before Seventh City Wife Factory they finally stopped, completely out of breath.

‘No-one behind us?’ Michael asked after half a minute of letting his heart rate and breath return to something closer to normal.

'Doesn’t seem so.’ Megan whispered.

‘You were incredible, Eliza, thank you.’ Michael said.

‘Ah, well… self-defence is a controversial subject for Wife School girls, but at least Miss Stone has enough sense to offer it as an elective. And I’ve taken every lesson I could, even when a lot of girls just laughed at it. You see it came in handy.’

He looked at her, still half in shock, but didn’t reply.

‘But now it's not the time for memories. We must try to get in unseen as fast as possible.’ Eliza said practically. They were still half running in the direction of the SCWF.

‘And how would that even be possible?’ Megan asked.

‘I know a way.’ She said.

Michael said nothing. He felt the adrenaline slowly fade but feared that this was only the beginning of the trouble to come. Why hadn’t their attackers chased them at all? Something was wrong with the whole situation. The trio slowed down and crossed the square in the direction of the SCWF building. They slowed down and started to walk slower. The girls seemed to be relaxing, as they were almost home. They could almost feel their beds calling already when a sudden amplified voice came out of nowhere.

‘Stop, you three!’

In a dark corner suddenly the lights of a police car switched on, and three armed officers stood there, their guns and a search light pointed at them. One of them had a micro-megaphone, and another one held a walk-phone in his left hand. Michael moaned. So that was what the Alpha-2 had reached for in his pockets after the attack. Wireless phones were rare and expensive indeed, but nothing too fancy for an Alpha. And there always were police cars patrolling around 20th street so it wasn’t hard to mobilise one if you had the right contacts.

‘Shit,’ he whispered.

All three of them knew that they were in big trouble now. No matter how justified the self-defence had been, what they had done to an Alpha-2 was heavily problematic with the hierarchy system of The Nation. And heavily punishable too, especially for him. An armed police agent stepped forward.

‘You three, come with me.’ He said.

Michael cursed again.

The man looked at his badge with a mocking smirk. ‘Gamma, and attacking an Alpha. You know you are in deep trouble now, brother, don’t you?’

He held up his hands. ‘Take me, but let the girls go back to school!’ He said.

‘We can’t do that, after such a low attack on an innocent Alpha. We’ll have to take all of you to the cell, and contact your parents.’ The policeman said, with a satisfied smile. He didn’t know why, but some people just seem to be sadists, and this copper was definitely one of them.

*

Michael didn’t remember much of how they drove him to the police station afterwards. Only a deep despair bigger than the world around him, that wasn’t focused on himself in the first place but on the girls. No matter how hard he had pleaded, they had taken Megan and Eliza too; instead of dropping them off at wife School. They’d been separated at arrival and he was brought into a dirty and dark cell, alone and stripped of everything including even his badge. He had no idea what was going to happen to him now, but it was clear that it couldn’t be anything good.

Waves of despair and self-hate came over him. He hadn’t been able to defend Megan and Eliza at all, and when they had successfully defended themselves against those creeps the Nation itself had taken revenge. Eliza had been incredible, indeed, but what difference would it make? Everything was so unfair, and he was so angry, and so confused, and too afraid to think straight or to fall asleep.

He didn’t know how much time had passed in this nightmare-like state of daze when suddenly another cop came in and commanded him to follow. As a zombie he walked to a heavily-lit room which only contained an interview table, where yet another policeman awaited him for an interrogation. Michael noted that his uniform was different from the other agents. He was also a Beta-2, so this one was much higher in rank than all the other policemen he’d seen. And also higher in rank than him. Or at least than he had been until they took his badge away from him earlier. Without his badge he was nothing, he suddenly realised.

The man gestured that he had to sit down, and then looked at some papers that he’d brought.

‘Mister Adams?’ Michael nodded.

‘You have been accused of needless violence against two higher-ranked men including an Alpha-2. This is a serious misdemeanour in our laws, as you should be aware of.’ Michael just nodded, awaiting more. But this wasn’t a good start. ‘But there are some differences between the stories of the victims and the stories of your girl companions, so we want you to clear up some things.’

Michael sighed when the policeman went on.

‘We want to hear your version first, before anything else. So please tell us what happened. Do you have anything at all to say to defend yourself and your low deeds?’

The use of plural pronouns while there was only one policeman in the room made Michael conclude that he was being invisibly watched, and maybe even recorded or filmed. But he couldn’t do anything about that, and he couldn’t panic now. He had to keep his cool and exercise self-control, even in his terrible state.

‘Those two creeps tried to assault my fiancee and her friend. We only defended ourselves against sexual predators. They didn’t want to listen to no, and they were strangling me.’

A silence fell, and the policeman looked up from his paper, frowning. ‘And for that you kick an Alpha-2 in the balls. Only for a girl? A Wifeschool E-girl?’

Michael noted that the other guy who wasn’t an Alpha-2 wasn’t even talked about. If it would only have been a Beta-3, with him as a Gamma-1 they probably wouldn’t have reacted like this, as their ranks were more or less comparable or at least not that far apart.

‘For a friend, and for a woman threatened with sexual assault. And to be honest, she actually did it herself, the kicking was Eliza’s doing. Those two held me under control and they were probably going to beat me up because I didn’t let them have the girls. I was unable to defend the girls at that point, so maybe they were right that I’m not a Real Man in a way.’

‘The victims say you attacked them without a reason, Mr. Adams. And now you are shifting your responsibility by saying that one of the girls did it? That is just low.’

‘I’m only telling you what happened. Not that I’m proud of it. I really wished I could say I did it, and take all the responsibility myself. But they focused on me as the man, and Eliza turned out to be the better fighter and she saved all three of us. Didn’t she say that herself?’

‘She did say something like that, but who would even believe a girl? Or a Gamma when there’s an Alpha-2 involved for that matter. No, it’s clear. You were a coward who attacked those two fine men without a good reason, and now you are going to pay for that. We can’t have violent thugs attacking our fine Alphas without consequences.’

He shook his head. ‘Wait, am I a coward or a violent thug now?’

‘Don’t complicate it, dude.’

He fell silent when he saw the cop’s expression. He should have watched out. Surely they were beyond inconsistent in how they blamed him now, but there was no way of using reason against these people. They were not reasonable, and they hated him just for existing it seemed. Being reasonable would only bring out hate now. There was no reason or logic to be found here in The Nation when it came to the hierarchy between men.

He sank in his chair, hopelessly. He knew that he wouldn’t convince anyone. They believed whatever they wanted to believe, even if it wasn’t consistent at all. No-one could be a coward and a violent thug who had kicked those ‘fine men’ in the balls at the same time. He didn’t really mind taking the blame if it would keep the girls out of trouble, but the way they still called him a coward while they believed he had done the violence as a Gamma was outrageous, and it told him that he would lose this no matter what.

‘You know what. Forget the story about Eliza kicking them in the balls. Everything is my responsibility. Just let the girls go home and keep them safe, if you have any male pride left yourself.’

The eyes of the cop widened. ‘You little brat! You lowly Gamma scum break all man rules by attacking an Alpha-2 and then you lecture me on how to be a man? How dare you?’

‘Nevermind, just nevermind.’ He said. He knew he had gone too far again. But anything he’d say now would go too far. He was too tired to walk on eggshells now, and even in a better state it would be hopeless to even try. The biggest problem was not that anything he said could make it worse for him,but also for Eliza and Megan, so he better kept silent now.

‘Hah, now you’re not so noisy anymore, are you? You wimpy coward. I knew you had no backbone!’ The man said when he didn’t react, but He didn’t answer anymore. This seemed to make the policeman even madder, but it seemed he had heard enough anyway, because he wrote down a few words on his paper and then suddenly said.

‘We know enough now, Mr. Adams. You go back to your cell, and then we’ll see how we will deal with you.’

And back to his cell he went, in utter misery.