On an Army base codenamed Hotel Echo, in what used to be England, a class full of children is strapped into wheelchairs so tightly that only their eyes can move. They’re young, around ten, but the lessons they learn include Greek myths, calculus, and European history. Melanie, our heroine, is top of the class and has no trouble remembering her lessons. But, she asks her teacher, does the stated population of 1,036,900 include Birmingham’s suburbs, or just the central metropolitan area? “Who cares?” he replies. “It’s irrelevant. The population of Birmingham is zero.”