Company

Part Two: Company

By: Travis Lee

Second (or perhaps Final) Draft - December 7, 2003

The blue sea rested under the gaze of the crimson sky. Crusty, gray remains of a beach lay in front of it. Strange yellow insects, the results of mutations, crawled in and out of the filth. Millions of eggs incubated and eagerly waited to hatch in the sand.
         A strip of silver pipes and buildings lay just in front of the beach. Seventeen of these strips decorated the beachfront landscape. They were completely devoid of anything resembling life. They were Cells. The Society had designated the Cell in front of the beach Cell 15. Under the crimson sky, and in front of the slumbering blue sea, Citizens lived inside the Cells, obeying every whim of The Society.
         Travel outside the Cells was limited. Work and grocery shopping were the only excuses accepted by police droids. There were no nature walks. Family picnics were non-existent, for the concept of families had been eliminated long ago. A child was born and he/she was taken to The Society’s training facilities where their early childhoods consisted of evaluations to determine their future classification as a Citizen: Elite, Basic, and Below.
         The grocery store was a single line where customers spoke to a droid through plexiglass. The silver, emotionless droid processed the order and other droids delivered the goods to a Citizen’s individual Cell the same day. Not much variety was present in the selection; food was a bland, repetitive mix of black juice produced in labs. The juice was horrible and nauseating, but it was only needed once in the morning, to cleanse the mind of impurities. All Citizens were impure by nature and the wage of impurity was death. Dreams were the mind’s way of expressing these impurities and the morning black juice was The Society’s way of stopping impure thoughts for the day. One meal in the morning and a Citizen forgot. They forgot about their thoughts, complications in life, the search for meaning, and all other impurities until night, when the process started once more. One swallow and suddenly the only meaning in life consisted of two values: servitude and worship.
         Lexi sat on a stool in her now individual Cell. The featureless stools, video screen, and walls haunted her by day and night. She couldn’t escape them, no matter how hard she tried. Being surrounded by The Society’s absolute authority was one matter; experiencing it at night was entirely different. They had the audacity to invade her dreams, her final place of sanctuary. Her dreams of her lost love could not have been impure, for they felt so good. Her once pleasant night visions were now corrupted by visions of The Society’s flag and it’s earsplitting pledge: “I have but one soul to offer, and I hereby offer it to our lord and savior President Holbrook and all Keepers of The Society!”
         Work didn’t fare much better. Ten hours a day, she was frozen in front of a computer screen punching random numbers on a keypad. She didn’t even know the numbers’ purpose and she’d been doing it for over fifteen years! Early in life, back when she’d been naïve and curious, she’d inquired to one of the white, stone-faced droids as to the numbers’ purpose. His answer had been an electro-shock that had immobilized her left leg for seven months. During that time, she’d limped everywhere. She’d barely breath and sleep due to the pain. As bad as it was, there had been no way of relieving it. Medical droids were reserved exclusively for Elite Citizens.
         However, it didn’t matter now. Work didn’t hold much meaning anymore. Lexi looked at the pole where the red, white, and blue stripes had once resided. Her eyes followed the invisible trail to their new home: the concrete floor.
         One time. That’s all it had taken. Every day, at 1:63, Citizens were required to stand upright in front of the video screen and recite The Society’s pledge. She had faithfully done so along with her fellow Citizens for well over twenty five years, but one day, one day out of 245, she’d missed it. She knew it was a deadly offense. It was disrespect to their lord and savior. It was heresy. Missing the pledge carried a stiff penalty.
         She ran her hand across her bulging stomach. She had more important things in her life than repeating the same pledge for thirty minutes.
         Lexi thought of who was coming and quickly removed her hand. She couldn’t bear that thought.
         Company is coming over to Lexi’s Cell, that’s how the message had flashed across the video screen during the nightly news. Company was indeed coming. The Society had many different methods for spying on Citizens and extracting information. When her sentence had flashed across the screen, her mind had quickly run through all possibilities before settling on the most obvious: her Cellmate, that thoughtless, Society-worshipping bitch.
         As she thought of this, a repulsive smell from the furnace reentered her nostrils. Despite its repugnance, she smiled.
         She was the final woman her Cellmate would snitch on.
         Heavy footsteps approached her door. Death’s hand pounded on it.
         They knocked first… how fucking polite...
         Three nightmares simultaneously entered her Cell. They were tall. They wore brown masks and their eyes were bottomless pits into oblivion. They were dressed in gray, mechanical suits; blue blood pumps protruded in and out of their arms. Each one clutched a powerful black plasma rifle like a newborn. The nightmare to her left approached first.
         “Lexi,” his voice was pervasive and uncaring. He sounded like the very droid he was dressed to resemble. “You have violated commandment 15: honor thy Lord Holbrook.”
         They didn’t ask for a defense because none was needed. She was a dead, guilty bitch. A dead, guilty bitch…
         A mechanical hand seized her neck. The suddenness of the grab sent shivers through her. Her stomach kicked.
         The hand tightened its grip. She was led to stand. The other two nightmares held her arms. They led her outside to the vast expanse of pavement under the crimson sky.
         The wind blew. She savored in its feel against her skin. She savored the final heat of the sun’s rays that she had once disliked so much. Her time had come. The nightmares released her arms, and her stomach kicked again…
         “No,” she whispered while fighting back tears. “Don’t worry.” She caressed her bulging stomach one final time.
         “Lexi,” the beast whispered. The empty tip of the plasma rifle whispered an ominous fate at her temple. “You are hereby declared unfit to exist in Paradise.”
         She finally cried. Her tears tumbled to the black pavement.
         He pulled the trigger and right before she went out, she heard a scream that wasn’t her own. The source of the scream quickly faded along with her and they both died under the crimson sky.

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