Zah stood in darkness at the side of the path. She was no longer aware of the crowd behind her, nor the formation of soldiers opposite. All there was were the drums, beating hypnotically, like a single pumping heart. She had lost all sense of her own body, she could not even feel the floor beneath her feet. They had all become one in this vast living body they called the Hive.

She looked up in the direction of the doors. Soon they would open, like the jaws of some great beast long in sleep, and light would flood in and illuminate its dark belly. How long had it been since the last Exition? A hundred years? She had not believed that when the time came all the hinges and pistons and teeth would remember themselves. But here they were moments away – the drums getting louder and faster, making the floor shake and the air buzz – and she knew it was enough to bring anything back to life.

Several times she teetered, pulling the hands she was holding, but did not fall. Her kin surrounded her on all sides and together they held and swayed like a web. She looked back to where she had last seen Sully before the lights went out, slouched forward, arms clamped in the vice-like grips of the soldiers. Even now, part of her did not believe this was Exition. Exition was just an idea, something from legend. It did not happen to them, not in this lifetime. She kept expecting the lights to come back on and an announcement telling them a mistake had been made, or that he had been forgiven. This was Sully after all. Her brother. Good old Sully. Time and time again she sensed his imminent reprieve, a tiny flame of hope flaring inside her; but nothing came, only the drums rolling on.

A deep rumbling emanated from below, followed by a series of thunderous knocks. Something massive was under strain. The floor trembled and dust fell from above. Panic swept over her. The doors were too old, too heavy. They would collapse... and then the sun would flood in and burn them! Save us Father, she cried silently, don’t open the doors! She was on the edge of fainting. Then something clicked and the doors began to open. Relief surged through her body. The Hive still stood. They still stood, breathing and trembling, watching the long blade of light race forward down the ramp, cutting the darkness. People gasped and stepped back. It must not touch them, not even for a second. As it grew it lost its edge, blending into the darkness like drifting smoke, touching them all.

She could see the soldiers’ bright bald heads and glinting drums and the reds of their shirts. The shadowy forms of her brothers and sisters flickered either side. Someone screamed. There was Sully! Appearing on the path as suddenly as a struck match. He had no free hands to shield his eyes. He battled to turn away from the light but the guards held him in place.

It’s safe, she told herself. Father says so. A bit of sun can’t kill you. It will be over soon. Be strong. Look at Sully – he’s not burning.

The doors scraped over the stone and face by face, brick by brick the cave came back to life; though it did not look how it did before. The sunlight was harsh and filled the room with sharp, elongated shadows. Slowly she turned her head to face the sun. She was afraid, but she could not stop herself. She felt exposed and vulnerable – as if the doorway were a hole in her own skin. A palette of shimmering embers glared back at her. She squinted hard, trying to make sense of it. At last the doors banged to rest. The drums stopped, and an unnerving silence fell.

There was the sun! Nesting on the horizon atop the hazy, snaking dunes.

Sometimes she imagined it was just a hole cut out in a vast blue canvas and behind this canvas was an ocean of fire that threatened to spill out and engulf.

Stop it! she told herself. The sun is a star millions of miles away.

She had seen the sun every day of her life. She had seen it born and die a thousand times. Like the others, she had been taken by Sully around the Hive on his special tour, room by room, following its journey from sunrise to sunset.

But that was always behind glass, she thought. To see it like this made her squirm.

’Children, the time has come.’ Father’s voice boomed out from a dozen loudspeakers. He was somewhere high above their heads, hidden in shadow.

A great cheer went up, not only from her brother and sisters - whose voices were filled with adoration - but the soldiers opposite. She was used to seeing her class all together – all forty-six of them – but she had never seen the soldiers en masse before, packed in tight like a bulging muscle. They looked strong and fearless.

’We must cast out that which threatens life and that which desires life no longer.’

All her life, Father’s words had comforted them. Even now, they wrapped her up like the walls of the Hive. Yet inside her heart raced with dread.

’Your brother has murdered a man,’ said Father. ’He has taken a life that I created. Yes, the victim was only a soldier but he was made of my blood and bone, made to protect life. Do you see that you are all pieces of me, joined together in this great body?’

’Yes Father,’ they shouted. ’We see.’

’When one of you is damaged, I am damaged and without me there would be no life. I have no choice but to cast him out!’

’Cast him out!’ they cried stamping their feet. ’Cast him out!’

Zah found herself mouthing these words, unaware of what she was saying. People pointed up towards Father. They could see him now their eyes had adjusted, clutching the balustrade of the pulpit. He had pulled himself out of his wheelchair.

’Go on my son,’ said Father, his voice trembling. ’Leave us. Leave your Hive. Leave the living.’ He signalled with his hand to the Captain who stood near the prisoner. The drums resumed with a vengeful crunch and the guards led him towards the door.

Suddenly she was aware of the heat pouring in from the outside. Oh Father! She was burning up. This cannot be. In desperation she turned round, expecting to see in the faces of her brothers and sisters, what she felt in her heart, but instead she beheld a sea of hardened, hungry eyes, all willing him out.

She looked back to Sully - at those tassels of grey hair and ruddy face that she loved so much - and watched in horror as the soldiers pushed him forwards on his own. Why don’t you resist? her heart screamed. Beg for forgiveness. Fight. Do something!

But Sully kept going, neither stopping nor looking back. His steps were slow and cautious, but nothing about him spoke of fear.

He is insane, she thought with a rush of hatred.

He disappeared into the blurry haze of light until he was no longer a man but a dark sliver silhouetted against the sun. Soon her eyes burned from watching and she had to look away. A residual flame danced in her retinas. By the time she looked back, there was no trace of Sully. He was lost in the brightness of the dunes. The doors screeched into action and began to close. The shaft of light thinned and drew back until it was nothing more than a line. Then it was gone. The sound of the doors locking together, the resumption of artificial light, the faces of her kin, were all too much. It dismantled her from the inside out. She sank down on the floor and wept.