Fiction: Group 4
“I assume you have seen it. On your bulletin board.” She was piling up pieces of data. The walls are
filled with holograms of various work awards and clips of award-giving ceremonies.
“Yes. Manager.”
“Your mother’s funeral is held in Sector ‘SAR 2’. You are going to take the Height Railway to the
sector. Understood?”
“But hasn’t Sector ‘SAR 2’ been quaranti…”
“Silence!” She stomped her cane in half. Her stare strangled my voice. Her pupils were the colour of
dried blood.” You are doing what I say, with no exception.”
“Y…es. Great Ma…nager,” I stared blankly to her furious expression.
“I wish not to enter that dreadful place…yet you have to.”
I thought I glimpsed a sight of sympathy on her long-frozen face.
I rushed back to my spot in the factory, grabbed my identity chip and inserted it in my veins. If I got
lost, Manager could always bring me to safety with this device. Yet I had doubts about where Manager was
taking me.
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Sector ”SAR 2” had been quarantined long before I was born, unlike Region “SZ”, where I lived with
peaceful workers and citizens outside the barrier. Some unknown virus had spread over the two “SAR”s,
turning them to notorious locusts, which would damage our world-renowned…no, there was only one
country in the world, after the Third World War …a country, a region, once renowned for agriculture, an
amiable weather to the stark contrast of the dreadful north, a plethora of delicacies... So they must have been
exiled, exterminated, or have expired.
They had to be.
I'd said too much. Or I knew too much.
But I had only had I handful of occasions being away from the factory, such as having my limb cut off
accidently by an exposed revolving saw when I was 10; luckily they had prosthetic limbs so perfect that they
fit the missing space exactly, and made inserting chips much more convenient. When I was eligible for
working in a factory, I left school immediately and had joined the factory ever since. So I was quite
interested in what other parts of our country had to offer.
I started to notice the lack of colour, the misty atmosphere, filled with seemingly poisonous substances,
which I could tell from the thickness of the outer layers of the train.
After passing through the thick walls of obsidian-like metal, the scenery was even more depressing. The
skyscrapers demolished, with smokes still rising from some remnants of those buildings. I looked at Manager,
who was sitting at the opposite seat. Her eyes seemed far away, back to the distant past.
“You know, Subject 2047. I wish you had a more beautiful name,” she uttered quietly.
I didn’t know what she meant. I had always been Subject 2047, then, now and forever.
I slept for a while. There was really not much to see except ashes. We passed through a polluted small
river with the remnants of skyscrapers trailing along it.
Finally, we arrived at the terminus. The station was hollow, not even a locust appeared.
“Go to the hospital beside the station. I’ll wait for you here”
“Yes. Manager.”
“No…Call me Lucy.” Her voice somehow softened.
“Yes…Lucy”
Suddenly, she held my chin up. I was frightened, but her face glowed of warmth for the first time. I
relaxed a bit.
“Child, would you smile for me?” Her eyes seemed watery. Weird.
But I smiled, the best I could muster.
And she smiled back. Even weirder.
I stepped out of the train and walked to exit.
Just before the train door closed, I thought I heard something.
“I’m sorry.”
Everything there was dark and gloom. I had to sense my way through the surroundings. The gloom was
thick and creepy. Yet the dilapidated structures and the lack of life bring ominous thought to my mind.
At last, I arrived at the hospital.
