The Bellows

Please listen closely as we divulge some very crucial information. You have all been chosen and thus saved from the degradation and chaos of a society that will soon disintegrate. As you know, the heat on the earth is rising, making the outdoors nearly uninhabitable. What you don’t know is that mixed with the toxicity of pollution in the air and in the water, women have been rendered infertile. You were chosen as newborns, unaffected by the infertility and toxicity of earth. You will now hold the hefty burden of repopulation on your shoulders. However, there will be rules. Overpopulation has nearly eaten our planet alive. Crime, pollution, overconsumption, and so much more. Repopulation will be calculated and monitored. Understand this -- selection was not random. Selection was done with utmost deliberation and care. If you are here, you have been chosen. If you have been chosen, you are amongst the 0.0001% of the human population. You are amongst the New Order.

The booming voice was heard by all the Chosen People. It had been heard everyday since the genesis of The New Order. It was the sturdy and trustworthy voice of the Highest One that pulled the people out of their induced slumbers. The voice of the Highest One rang clear and true each morning as though exuding from the very air molecules which surrounded the Chosen People.

Cody was a Third Generation, the newest and youngest generation. The elusive voice slithered into her dreamscape and pulled her into the present. She dreamt of many things the night before -- meeting the man behind the voice, the Highest One himself; she dreamt of her trip today, and she dreamt of clouds whizzing by as she looked out of the window of the SoarSpeed. She might catch a glimpse of one today.

“Good morning, Sora,” Cody spoke to the thin screen built into her bedroom wall. “What are my levels today?”

A streak of light glided smoothly across the outline of Sora. She, too, was awake. “Good morning, Cody. Here are your levels.Today’s report indicates healthy levels of...” Sora proceeded to list the healthy levels of that which Cody did not understand, but nonetheless felt pleased with the capabilities of her body. Finally, she finished, “No infections, diseases, or other conditions of concern recognized. Though your iron levels are lower than usual. Your Personalized Functionality Packet is ready now.”

A package of powder was administered from the slot beneath Sora. Cody blended the powder with a NutriDense smoothie mix and drank the smoothie, feeling instantly uplifted and revived, as though she had tapped a life source within herself. The faculties of her skull buzzed alive and she felt illuminated. It was just the boost she needed today. Today was a day she dreaded each year -- the annual trip to The Bellows.

She followed the motions of Sora’s calibrated workout, showered, dressed, and got ready for the day. When Chosen Helen knocked at her door on cue, Cody exited and pressed her back against the door behind her. Across from her were Charlee and Cash. As Third Generations, they were all christened with C-names, and as such they all lived in the same hall. But as Year Twenties, this was the last year they would live in the shared living style. As Year Twenty-Ones, they would be allotted a more private living situation.

They walked through the hall, dropped several stories through the escalator, and ventured down a tunnel and into the metro in a uniform line. Walking through the tunnel, Cody looked above and caught a glimpse of the freshly squeezed blueberry sky. The sun shone strong and fierce. With the air as toxic as tangerines sweet, people of the New Order did not go into the outdoors. In the land of the New Order, intricate systems of architecture snaked around the city, allowing for mobility while severing any thread of possibility for the direct sunlight or outside air to slip into the clean atmosphere. They saw the real sun through the windows of the SoarSpeed, but it was understood that prolonged exposure could cause deterioration to the body and to fertility. It was just once a year that the people of the New Order were exposed to the mighty sun in all her damning glory; the rest of the year, they were warm and protected under the light of the SyntheticSun.

Through mists of anxiety, Cody found her seat and sat. Across from her, Charlee and Cody seemed to sink into theirs. They exuded a deep calm which couldn’t penetrate the thick gray air around Cody. It caught in her lungs and stewed in her chest.

The SoarSpeed jolted, as did Cody's stomach. She thought she might throw up the thick gray feeling that clung to her insides, but it remained intact. With a basket of Calms in Chosen Helen’s grip, she surveyed the Year Twenty-Ones as she walked through the aisle. Upon seeing the ghostly conditions of Cody, she smiled knowingly and placed a package into her palm.

“And here we are -- another trip to the Bellows,” Charlee cooed.

“Our tenth trip and Cody looks like she’s ready to vomit,” Cash said with a steady smile.

“Some get used to it, some don’t, I suppose,” Cody offered.

“Look, I get it. I don’t blame you,” Cash said. “The Bellows are absolutely disgusting. It’s depressing. Everything is filthy, there’s no order. I suppose that’s the reason to enjoy the trip, though. You know, to understand this is where we would be if it weren’t for the knowledge and power of the Highest One. We’re on the right side of history and science. That’s something to be grateful for.”

With that, they sank deeper into their seats and looked out of the safe windows. As they flew further from The New Order and closer to The Bellows, the colors of the landscape blurred and bled deeply into the earth. The sky became steeped in a burnt, bubbling, soupy red. The sun was obscured in the sludge of the brown clouds. The ground was raw and exposed, desperately thirsty. A golden apricot light spilled through the windows. They were entering The Bellows.

*****

It was a town drenched in dirt and despair. Structures that once served as homes lay depleted in heaps of dusty rubble. Everything was dark. Dirt and sweat and grime and contamination lurked at every corner, ready to pounce if you made eye contact with it. They went by at a speed fast enough that you couldn’t quite take the view of one person fully in, but you could see a thread between each of them as they came in and out of view, creating a canvas of one collective Bellows person -- bubbling, cracked skin, depleted faces, and a general heaviness; but it was the eyes that haunted Cody. Some looked vengeful, others full of sorrow, but most looked utterly empty. They were soulless vehicles wrapped in a sagging flesh cover. Many ran for the bus, though it was an idiotic and pathetic endeavor. They could never catch up with SoarSpeed, they could never pry their way into the New Order. They were damaged goods.

“Thank The Highest One these beasts are going extinct,” Cody heard Cash murmur. They were going extinct, but not as quickly as expected. Or desired. Some of these people were indestructible. Some were still fertile, some must have found ways to protect themselves from the toxicity. It was a haunting image that Cody could do without each year, but according to The Highest One it was necessary to see how the others lived. It was necessary to see why they were the dying faction of the human population.

As the SoarSpeed coasted through the broken belongings of The Bellows, Cody saw something she had never seen before. Seemingly spaced equally apart were people, women, cloaked in black with only their eyes visible. Lockets gleamed at their chests.

“Hey, guys,” Cody leaned over to Charlee and Cash, wondering if they’d seen what she had. It was then the SoarSpeed derailed and all went dark.

*****

Time became stiff and halted to an immediate stop. Or time melted and hours slipped frivolously by. Cody had no grasp on the construct that structured her life, kept her safe, tucked her in at night. Time had left her grip and what she was left with was an impenetrable terror. A thick, blurry film seemed to encapsulate her vision. The only thing that seemed to slither through the fog was a gleaming, silvery shine. A locket.

“Hello, hello?” said a watery, effeminate voice somewhere nearby. When she blinked her eyes open, a woman came into sight. She was unkempt and unruly, redolent with grit and grime, and old. Cody had never seen someone so old. Yet she had a radiant loveliness about her. Her eyes had life that bore into her and pulled her into the red world.

“Who are you? Please tell me now, who are you?”

“I -- I’m Cody. I’m a Fourth Generation of the New Order. I am graduating this year as a Year Twenty and I,” she was cut off abruptly by the mysterious woman in front of her. “You’re graduating. What are you doing after that? What have you studied?”

“Well, I'm studying everything right now. Some mathematics, science, language, architecture, health, order. And now I was to take a year off to be assigned a partner to fulfill my New Order Duty and,” yet again, she was cut off. The woman in black looked as though she were digesting the information. Swirling it around her mouth, swallowing it, making sense of it all. She snapped back to Cody.

“Listen to me closely. You are going to get back on that bus today, and you’ll go back to your New Order. But there are things you need to understand and I don’t have much time to tell you. Your people will come here to fix the bus and bring you all back. But we here need you to know the truth. And when you’re back, you can do with this information what you choose.”

She had tears in her eyes and she tightly grasped the heart-shaped locket around her neck.

“Our babies were stolen from us to start the New Order sixty years ago. They promised us we were Chosen Ones, but once we had our babies they left us to rot in a dying society. They contaminated every water source with infertility treatment. Society went to shambles, there was no hope. It became understood that we would go extinct while you repopulated.” She wiped a tear.

“But you can’t just let us die. It’s inhumane, it’s not right. You have the resources to save us. There’s not many of us left. So many have already died.” A second SoarSpeed was approaching from a distance. Fear strained the dark eyes of the woman dressed in black. “I need my daughter, I want her to know me and the truth.” With shaky hands she opened the locket, where there was a picture of the woman many years earlier holding a small, pink baby. She unlatched the locket from behind her neck and placed it in Cody’s hand. They didn’t have any time left. “Please, do what you can to help us.” Then she was gone.

A figure hovered above Cody. It checked for The New Order Tattoo on her wrist. It kneeled, inspected her reddening body closely, stood up, and said, “All good.”

Cody staggered to her feet, trying to enter the SoarSpeed. But the door closed firmly and jerked into movement. Cody saw Charlee and Cash and she pressed her palm to the window, showing the opened locket -- the mother and her child. Cash shut the curtain while Charlee’s eyes softened. She ran after the bus furiously, desperate to make eye contact with somebody. But, as Cody knew, it was impossible to catch up to a SoarSpeed.