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A better World for The Children

Evolution Unleashed

By Jacobie JonesPublished 3 years ago 9 min read
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So clean, so perfectly polished was the dark wooden floor as I was escorted to the office of X, that it almost took on the appearance of water beneath my feet.

In that moment, I longed for it to swallow me whole, drowning me in a peacefulness I can now only dream of. Saving me from a terrible crime, I have not yet committed.

"Pick up the pace Grandad!"

"We haven't got all day!"

Barked the two guards either side of me, their supposedly evolved minds not appearing to have mastered manners yet.

They poke and joke at me as I'm manhandled to the office door of X.

The slightly taller of these two guards, his face flecked with prepubescent hair, presses a buzzer next to the door and after a couple of seconds a rather serious young voice replies:

"This better be good news?"

"Yes X, we have him."

Replies the guard after clearing his throat with an anxious cough."

"Excellent. Bring him in."

Replied the serious voice, as the large metal door in front of me began to open.

As I walked into the office of X, a pure white room without furniture or decoration, I was greeted by a young boy who sat on the only chair in the room.

"Sit."

He tells me as he points at the floor in front of him.

Only for a moment did I think about disobeying his request. Even so, my slight hesitation was noticed and before I knew it, I was falling to the floor with a sharp pain in the back of my head. The marble floor of the office was cold and hard and both my knees and face were less than grateful for being acquainted with it.

"I appreciate that at your age you feel like you haven't got much to lose, but I think that you might feel differently when we start removing your arms and legs."

Said the young boy calmly as he looked down on me from his chair, his small feet, unmarked by years of use, dangling in front of my face, unable to reach the floor.

As I looked up at his youthful face, perfectly symmetrical by design, he smiled at me with perfect white teeth. I would have thought this pity or compassion were it not for his eyes, like two black holes void of light and love, which desired to consume me and everything I represent. As he stared at me, not once blinking, he began the formalities of my summons.

"Jake Rivers. 21years old. No residence. Status: Fugitive. Is this correct?"

Said the young boy firmly, his smile from moments ago now transformed to a frown.

"Yes, that's me. And you must be X?"

I replied calmly, already knowing where this line of questioning was leading.

"Born Naturally before the Reset I see. Not many of your kind left, or so they say. I guess that makes you an endangered species Jake, congratulations."

Replied X, skipping over the formalities of social etiquette. Ever since "The Children" came to power, many natural human customs and cultural behaviours have been lost, or inradicated.

"You have a sister as well I see, Sophie Rivers, age 12. Current location. Testing Facility 9. Current status, unresponsive. Don't worry Jake, we'll crack her soon enough, then she'll be one of us."

Said X, examining me for any emotional response, which I'm sure if discovered would be used against me. In that moment I tried not to think of Sophie, about what terrible experiments she was being subjected to.

"I sense an anxiety within you Jake. Does it not please you, that your sister will be separated from her weakness?"

Asked X, with an almost concerned tone to his voice, an instrument of deceit which may have fooled another man less familiar with "The Children" and their abilities. It's a type of telekinesis, incorporated into the "Grand Design", a biological blueprint for the perfect Human. It enables "The Children", to read the minds of others and in the case of young Humans, even control them. Fortunately for me I'm too old to be vulnerable to their psychological manipulation. Even still, I must keep my mind blank, for the wolves are lurking at the door, salivating for knowledge.

"No, I'm not anxious. Well maybe slightly, but only because I'm not sure why I'm here."

I replied, speaking honestly as I had assumed I would already be dead by now.

X paused for a moment, seemingly in anticipation of another response, his eyes fixed on me like a hunter watching its prey.

"And yes, it does please me that my sister is being...helped."

I responded hastily as to not arouse suspicion. Yet despite my best efforts to not think of my sister, my traitorous denial of her liberty was weighing heavy on my mind and I feared the cracks were beginning to show.

"Good. I can tell that you care for her deeply. It is for this reason that you come before me today Jake."

As X spoke, with an unnerving calmness to his young voice which chilled me to my core with its coolness. He extended out his small hand, which was clenched into a fist, and slowly opened it before me. Barely contained within his infant grip, to my horror, was a small silver heart shaped locket on a silver chain, which belonged to Sophie.

"Do you know what this is Jake?"

Asked X, the smile now returning to his face, a testimony to the absence of humanity within him.

"No, I've never seen it before. What is it?"

I replied quickly, almost choking on the words as I tried desperately to conceal the dred growing inside of me.

"It's an interesting piece. On the surface just a useless trinket. An omission of weakness for vanity, worn to elicit emotion. Yet concealed within its cold, hard casing, exists its true value. A warmth, a power that defies distance and time."

As X spoke, he opened the locket to reveal its contents. Nestled neatly into either side of the small heart shaped piece of jewellery, were two photographs. One of our Mum and Dad and one of our loveably stupid dog Rusty.

As I stared at the photographs, my Parents' faces looked so happy, so undamaged by the "Reset", that I almost didn't recognise them. It has been a hard few years, carving out an existence in a tomorrow that considers you a nightmare from which the World has finally awoke. Not always sleeping or eating. Always on the move from hideout to hideout, it was that way in the beginning at least. The Adults who didn't die in the "Reset" or escape to the Forest, were hunted down and executed without mercy, as if they were nothing more than an infestation that needed exterminating. The Children that were too young to understand or too scared to escape the labyrinth of bodies lining every street, were rounded up for re-education and taken away never to be seen again. At that moment, I looked up at X with an anger swelling inside of me like a hot tide, and all I could think about was Sophie and how I wanted nothing more than to save her.

"You'll never understand it you know? Love. To you it's just weakness, a state which defies logic. But you're wrong, it's our greatest strength."

The words exploded from my mouth like a bad taste, appearing to take X by surprise. He looked up at me, smiled and then slowly closed his small hand, tightening his fist until I heard the locket break within his grip. In that moment my instinct was to unleash a torrent of aggressive blows at his tiny frame, refusing to cease until he lay pulverised at my feet, a bloody trophy of my family's revenge. But I knew better. "The Children" weren't just smarter than we are, they were also much stronger.

"It is true that Love is no longer a feeling that I possess or value. That I consider it a weakness, a relic from a more primitive time ruled by emotion. But it is not Love that brings you before me today Jake."

I sat there confused by X's response as he slowly uncoiled his fist, revealing the broken Locket within. With his other hand, X reached into the small pile of twisted metal on his palm, picked out the two photographs, and threw them onto the floor like discarded rubbish. Before I could respond, X returned to the broken Locket and removed from its wreckage, a tiny computer chip which had been concealed within its frame.

"This is the power which I speak of."

Said X, smiling with the satisfaction of a chess master on the cusp of victory.

Had I not already been sitting on the floor then I would surely have collapsed under the realisation of my entrapment. Like a Rabbit in headlights I froze, as X continued to reveal the means by which my family would be destroyed.

"You're familiar with this technology I assume?"

Asked X, as he began to slowly circle around me, my body turning as cold as the marble floor on which it lay.

"It's a G.P.S tracker Jake. A primitive device built before the Reset. I assume your sister was carrying it on her person so that somebody could keep track of her location. But who would be concerned with such knowledge?"

I tried not to think about my Parents, who at this very moment were most likely huddled around the communal computer back at camp, waiting desperately for any word from myself or Sophie. With food rations always running low, our search for supplies began taking us further and further away from the Forest camp. Mum and Dad thought it was best to give both Sophie and I GPS trackers, so they could find us if we ever got lost. It would now be this same Love, which sought to protect us, that would lead my family to destruction.

" I don't know anything about that."

I replied, the words trembling my lips as I spoke them.

"Now, now Jake. We both know that you know, that your parents placed that tracker on your sister and that they are currently alive somewhere. Which is of course, in direct violation of the "Reset" protocol which states all humans of adult age, must be exterminated."

I wanted to do so much at that moment. To fight. To run. To plead. To scream. For I knew, even without the benefit of an advanced brain, what terrible choice was about to be forced upon me. Yet still I found myself without the strength to react.

"The thing about GPS trackers Jake, is that they contain data, logged coordinates pertaining to every place visited by its wearer. I have analysed the Data contained within your sister's chip, and I believe I have nearly discovered the whereabouts of your little camp."

"There is no camp! My parents died in the Reset! It's just me and my sister left now, you've got to believe me!"

I tried pleading with X with tears running down my face, forgetting in the heat of it all that despite resembling a small boy, no human stood before me to reason with. X just stared at me, almost mesmerised by my pain.

"What I believe Jake, is that you would do anything to protect the ones you love. I would say it impresses me, your devotion to others when your own existence is in peril, but it doesn't. Cancer may be alive but left unchallenged it will corrupt the entire body in its image. You and your Family are that cancer Jake and the world must be saved from it."

Said X, crouching down in front of me, his dark, soulless eyes meeting mine on my level for the first time.

"Tell me the location of your camp Jake, or your sister will be destroyed."

evolution
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About the Creator

Jacobie Jones

An up and coming writer hailing from the U.K.

Jacobie loves letting his imagination run wild, especially if it ventures into darkly comic places.

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