Rand's biblical tone continues in the next chapter as she begins her description of her protagonist's love affair with a certain Liberty 5-3000. Equality 7-2521 immediately admits that this love a violation of the Law of Preference, and in fact the law that no contact can be made between men and women except in the Palace of Mating, where the disdainful process of reproduction occurs.
Liberty 5-3000 lives in the Home of Peasants outside the city, and often tends the fields near the road Equality 7-2521 is forced to sweep. He quickly spies her from the road, observing her eyes to be free from fear and guilt. He names her the "Golden One." Over the next few days the two begin to converse, both acknowledging their alienation from those around them.
Over the next few days, Equality 7-2521 observes a stark contrast between the Golden One and the men in his own hall of Street Sweepers, explaining that while she is not afraid of anything, his coworkers live in a constant state of fear. Rand also sets up a contrast between Equality 7-2521's glorious tunnel, which is seen as pure and clean, and the "odor of men" he must confront in his compound.
The end of chapter 2 begins to allude to the Unspeakable Word, the word that his society has lost to the ages. This word is connected with the Uncharted Forest, the Unmentionable Times and the Evil Ones who spoke it. Equality 7-2521 remembers the burning at the stake of a man who spoke the word a few years before.
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