Viewing Thread:
"Gift - story"

This is the tired result of an evening spent musing and plagiarising Catch-22 and 1984 very badly, rather pointlessly, when I'd much rather be out of my head somewhere, preferably (for once) entwined with a female.

'Enjoy'

-----------------------

The island was one of many. Ever since the Great Crusade, the islands had become just that, islands in a sea of moonscapes and skeletons and hanging people left to choke slowly on their brave thoughts. The islands were protected by the People, made and worked on by the People. They were everlasting, because life was everlasting and diesease was non-existent. Each island was seperated by several miles, glistening to each other in an almsot naieve cheeriness. Each island could hold thousands, thousands of the People who reported everyday to the Group and then went and did their assigned task. Every now and then, as one got old, they were taken away and sent onwards, to the next island. The odd thing was, the people noticed, but soon forgot, was that there were no newcomers from the outside to each of the different Islands, those who would be held in honour and worshipped for their service, and eventually would make it to Heaven, where they would live forever in glory and peace and security. There were of course those who were concieved by the people scheduled to concieve that day, and they did so with gusto, for concieving was considered both neccessary and vital for the prolongment of the Islands security. From an early age, the babies were filled with medication and ideologies. They were kept in sealed sterile envrionments, entertained and educated by the people scheduled to entertain and educate the babies that day, and did so with great gusto, because to entertain and educate the babies safe from any dirt was vital to the prolongment of the Islands security.

Chia was a worker. She didn't know what she really did, except she did what she was scheduled to do, like all of the People. She concieved roughly every 10 months (she was proud of being the creater of almost 8 children). She didn't know where the children were though. In fact she didn't even know they existed, because the process of pregnancy never happened. All that seemed to happen was concieving, then a period where little was remembered, except there were no schedules, and then the pregnancy was over. Then, a few years later, a person bearing a slight resmeblance to her and her concieving partner of that particular day might be seen from afar, but no connection was made.

Chia was also old. She was pregnant for the 8th time, at least she thought she was, that was what she had been told. That day, she was scheduled to work on the farms on the North Side of The Central Hill. The Hill was beautfiul. It represented all that was good. Chia walked down the sterile passage with scented air created by the Infusion Group, and then walked out into the flawless blue sky and sun that always reigned over the Island she lived on. In fact, it wasn't an Island, it was the world. Chia walked purposefully over the genetically modified grass, then turned down Path 17 and began walking to the rhytmn of the People's Stride. She thought she enjoyed this bit. You moved fast, regardless of everyone else, because everyone else was moving regardless of you in lines, and you went first to your allocated area, then to your allocated workplace. Everyone obeyed because working as scheduled was essential to prolonging the Islands security.

Chia walked past the turn to Rout 17A and then turn off down By-Path 17B and walked up to the entrance to the farm. Behind her the Island stretched out into infinity, filled with farms and factories and smoke and sunlight and trees and green fields and the People toiling tirelessly for the People. Chia ignored this. She knew the scene, and why would surveying it more than the scheduled times change anything?

Chia entered the nearest enclosure of the farm where she was supposed to work, and set about schything the genetically modified grain. The whole Island was modified to eliminate diesease. Air, grass, soil. There were no animals. Only trees and grass, changed to increase the rate of photosyntheses to increase the amount of oxygen in the air, to aid the People. In turn, the plants absorbed vast quantities of CO2, meaning a perfect balance had been struck. No illness existed because there were no illnesses, people were fit because the air was changed and they never stopped toiling. They were dosed up with medication from the second of conception to the time they left. They never knew this of course. All they knew was that they needed to work harder every day for the People.

Chia worked all day. Her fellows did the same, never speaking or making any suggestion that they weren't the only people on the Island. She neer tired of toil, the People's Voice was always in her head, driving her on. At the end of the day, the lights flared in the sky, and they all began to march back to their scheduled places.

That was when Chia disappeared. People did that.

Chia woke up in red. Totally red light filled her vision. She was aware of a ticking sound and a hum.

Chia woke up in blue. Totally blue light filled her vision. She was aware of a ticking sound and a hum. There was no connection.

Chia woke up. She was lying down, at least that was what she thought. She couldn't make anything out in the white space she was in, so she was unaware of her orientation. Her mind wasn't really working properly. Her eyes were blurred, the Peoples Voice had stopped, and she was alone. SHe wasn't afraid, just dimly aware something un-scheduled was occuring. Suddenly the top of her vision turned black. The space was cut in two, into white and black, bottom and top. She looked up as far as possible, and realised she was lying down at the bottom of a very high artificial chasm. She couldn't see a top, or the sides, but her enhanced nerves were aware of a vast vast space ahead and around her. Suddenly, the black moved. It moved so supremely fast she didn't notice that the white was black until she opened her eyes from blinking.

Chia wasn't afraid. Why should she be? She wasn't in immediated danger. She didn't even try to move to test any restraints. She simply lay there and waited. Soon a light appeared across the black space, and figured approached. Chia supposed these were the People who were scheduled to see her on that day. Lights, blue, red, cyan, green, yellow, mixed and vile images of the Outside screamed and sound blared. She shut her eyes tight and screamed a silent scream, even her dulled senses blown to pieces by the assault.

Chia woke up. In front of her was a face. She didn't try to move.
'Relax Chia' the face said. Chia relaxed.
'You are being reintegrated Chia. You have served the people, but are old'
Chia remained oblivious.
'You must be reborn Chia, as the Gift we give to you is the eternal life'
This Chia wanted to respond to that.
'And the Gift we recieve from the People is the enternal life' she mouthed silently, glad to make an impression on herself, the People.

The face smiled. It was a bland face. Bland because Chia didn't even instinctively remark on it. Faces were irrelevant, even this disembodied one, and so Chia did not notice the difference between the pale faces of the People and the hardened face of this person, nor the fact it had fuller lips, cheeks and eyes than the People. The face spoke again;
'Chia, you are now being given the Gift. Accept and be glad'
Chia was accepting and glad, even if somewhere something suddenly woke up and screamed inside her.

The probes entered her face and released the Makers. Soon Chia was atoms and her inside was empty and bare and dead. Then the chips were taken for re-use. The sound chip that fed the Peoples Voice directly to the Neural Cortex was removed. The tagging chip was removed. The chip that released vaccine into her was removed. The chip that controlled her emotion was last. As soon as it was removed, Chia was gone.

Chia woke up. She was in a room that was all white again. All she knew was that she had been given the Gift. She was rejoiceful, for that was allowed in keeping the security of the Island. She felt down and realised she no longer carried a new Person. She smiled and new that it had joined the People. Suddenly something inside her screamed, and for the first time in over several hundered years of living, she felt fear, and her mind filled with feelings, thoughts, emotions and beings. She moaned and cried and fell on the floor, writhing with the agony of living fully. She screamed and no sound came out, her dark her flailing in slow motion as she was stopped by gravity. She was aware of being trapped in nothing, frozen. A voice entered her head

'Get out'

A second voice, this time from the frozen air, spoke.

'Chia. Stop.'

Chia couldn't stop, her insides were raging. She was older than anything she knew yet knew she was younger than most of her fellows. She knew?! What was knowing? Her mind blew open into a million billion trillion possibilities, questions, questions of questions and desires and feelings and reality and perceptions.

'Get out!' It was, she was, screaming with carnal fury and horror.
'Chia stop'

Now she knew. She remembered the fear from before. She was older than old, used. She had been blessed by her own ghost many times already, and knew she was decieved, broken and new. 'Chia, stop'

Chia was walking with the Man she always knew. He was smiling amiably at her as they walked down the white corridors. He had the same face as the face before she changed, she knew that now. He pointed left, and her dark, beautiful, mournful eyes followed, and watched as babies where grown in days inside their ancient mothers, unaware of anything. Babies where born in days, not months. Thousands upon thousands of failing mothers were having their recycled wombs used day after day to produce more and more children to prolong the security of the Island and the People. The Man never spoke to her. He pointed right to the Dissasembling Rooms, where Chia knew she had been made again, atom by atom and infused with the same ancient soul as before. They carried on walking for what seemed like hours, stretching away until one could no longer recognise anytihng but endless new People and white spaces and recycled People. The Man stopped and pointed to a door. Chia walked up and it opened silently. She entered.

Inside where the Inquisitors. They never spoke. They just watched. Chia stood somewhere before them, looking at the red light that fixed her attention waya above their meaningless and invisible faces. She couldn't change her view, she was locked again.

'We have given you the Gift' something said
Out! Out! Out! Out! Chia screamed in her head
'Stop that'
O-!
'Stop. We, I, One says stop, you stop'
'Yes'
'Are you thankful for the Gift?'
No, no no! NO! Chia's mind was dying with the vehemence they injected into her.
'Of course you are. You know you are. Now stop'

The Makers entered her mind one last time and she stopped.

Chia woke up. She wasn't in the Sterile area any more. She knew that much because the air was different, and she knew it was real. Then she knew something else. Her mind was fading again, disappeaing into oblivion. She felt her pale arms and legs, and under the right arm she felt a tiny bump, and she knew the chips were back. She collapsed and sobbed, for she was old, and she was going back. Even as she cried, her tears stopped falling to the ground.

The Man entered and beckoned. She was released and taken down a final white corridor. The Man opened the door.

Chia screamed her last scream, of joy, horror, terror and above all incomprehension, both at what she was seeing and what the purpose was of it. Because she knew.

Endless, endless, plains stretched ahead of her. There were hanging people, choking on their brave thoughts. But it was free. It was dappled in clouds, and she could espy animals in the woods that lined a near hilltop, large creatures she knew to be animals from when she was New. The plains were alive, teeming, the air and soil was alive and fresh and she saw shapes wheeling in the sky. She screamed because the Man walked past her, out onto the plain and turned and smiled. Far ahead, Chia could see twinkling towers, that rose up into the dark sky far above. It was the City of Heaven, she knew, she knew and she hated knowing. It was hope, humanity and reality, freedom and mortality far ahead of her, and she knew behind her lay endless life and no life.

'Because we must do so. We must do so for the People to live in peace. Because we can' He spoke.

She fell, and even as she did, she froze, her tears half crashing on the soil that was full of life beneath her.

Chia woke up.

The schedule had changed.

Today was entertaining and educating the children in the way of the People.

----------

Thanks for reading.

This is the tired result of an evening spent musing and plagiarising Catch-22 and 1984 very badly, rather pointlessly, when I'd much rather be out of my head somewhere, preferably (for once) entwined with a female.

'Enjoy'

-----------------------

The island was one of many. Ever since the Great Crusade, the islands had become just that, islands in a sea of moonscapes and skeletons and hanging people left to choke slowly on their brave thoughts. The islands were protected by the People, made and worked on by the People. They were everlasting, because life was everlasting and diesease was non-existent. Each island was seperated by several miles, glistening to each other in an almsot naieve cheeriness. Each island could hold thousands, thousands of the People who reported everyday to the Group and then went and did their assigned task. Every now and then, as one got old, they were taken away and sent onwards, to the next island. The odd thing was, the people noticed, but soon forgot, was that there were no newcomers from the outside to each of the different Islands, those who would be held in honour and worshipped for their service, and eventually would make it to Heaven, where they would live forever in glory and peace and security. There were of course those who were concieved by the people scheduled to concieve that day, and they did so with gusto, for concieving was considered both neccessary and vital for the prolongment of the Islands security. From an early age, the babies were filled with medication and ideologies. They were kept in sealed sterile envrionments, entertained and educated by the people scheduled to entertain and educate the babies that day, and did so with great gusto, because to entertain and educate the babies safe from any dirt was vital to the prolongment of the Islands security.

Chia was a worker. She didn't know what she really did, except she did what she was scheduled to do, like all of the People. She concieved roughly every 10 months (she was proud of being the creater of almost 8 children). She didn't know where the children were though. In fact she didn't even know they existed, because the process of pregnancy never happened. All that seemed to happen was concieving, then a period where little was remembered, except there were no schedules, and then the pregnancy was over. Then, a few years later, a person bearing a slight resmeblance to her and her concieving partner of that particular day might be seen from afar, but no connection was made.

Chia was also old. She was pregnant for the 8th time, at least she thought she was, that was what she had been told. That day, she was scheduled to work on the farms on the North Side of The Central Hill. The Hill was beautfiul. It represented all that was good. Chia walked down the sterile passage with scented air created by the Infusion Group, and then walked out into the flawless blue sky and sun that always reigned over the Island she lived on. In fact, it wasn't an Island, it was the world. Chia walked purposefully over the genetically modified grass, then turned down Path 17 and began walking to the rhytmn of the People's Stride. She thought she enjoyed this bit. You moved fast, regardless of everyone else, because everyone else was moving regardless of you in lines, and you went first to your allocated area, then to your allocated workplace. Everyone obeyed because working as scheduled was essential to prolonging the Islands security.

Chia walked past the turn to Rout 17A and then turn off down By-Path 17B and walked up to the entrance to the farm. Behind her the Island stretched out into infinity, filled with farms and factories and smoke and sunlight and trees and green fields and the People toiling tirelessly for the People. Chia ignored this. She knew the scene, and why would surveying it more than the scheduled times change anything?

Chia entered the nearest enclosure of the farm where she was supposed to work, and set about schything the genetically modified grain. The whole Island was modified to eliminate diesease. Air, grass, soil. There were no animals. Only trees and grass, changed to increase the rate of photosyntheses to increase the amount of oxygen in the air, to aid the People. In turn, the plants absorbed vast quantities of CO2, meaning a perfect balance had been struck. No illness existed because there were no illnesses, people were fit because the air was changed and they never stopped toiling. They were dosed up with medication from the second of conception to the time they left. They never knew this of course. All they knew was that they needed to work harder every day for the People.

Chia worked all day. Her fellows did the same, never speaking or making any suggestion that they weren't the only people on the Island. She neer tired of toil, the People's Voice was always in her head, driving her on. At the end of the day, the lights flared in the sky, and they all began to march back to their scheduled places.

That was when Chia disappeared. People did that.

Chia woke up in red. Totally red light filled her vision. She was aware of a ticking sound and a hum.

Chia woke up in blue. Totally blue light filled her vision. She was aware of a ticking sound and a hum. There was no connection.

Chia woke up. She was lying down, at least that was what she thought. She couldn't make anything out in the white space she was in, so she was unaware of her orientation. Her mind wasn't really working properly. Her eyes were blurred, the Peoples Voice had stopped, and she was alone. SHe wasn't afraid, just dimly aware something un-scheduled was occuring. Suddenly the top of her vision turned black. The space was cut in two, into white and black, bottom and top. She looked up as far as possible, and realised she was lying down at the bottom of a very high artificial chasm. She couldn't see a top, or the sides, but her enhanced nerves were aware of a vast vast space ahead and around her. Suddenly, the black moved. It moved so supremely fast she didn't notice that the white was black until she opened her eyes from blinking.

Chia wasn't afraid. Why should she be? She wasn't in immediated danger. She didn't even try to move to test any restraints. She simply lay there and waited. Soon a light appeared across the black space, and figured approached. Chia supposed these were the People who were scheduled to see her on that day. Lights, blue, red, cyan, green, yellow, mixed and vile images of the Outside screamed and sound blared. She shut her eyes tight and screamed a silent scream, even her dulled senses blown to pieces by the assault.

Chia woke up. In front of her was a face. She didn't try to move.
'Relax Chia' the face said. Chia relaxed.
'You are being reintegrated Chia. You have served the people, but are old'
Chia remained oblivious.
'You must be reborn Chia, as the Gift we give to you is the eternal life'
This Chia wanted to respond to that.
'And the Gift we recieve from the People is the enternal life' she mouthed silently, glad to make an impression on herself, the People.

The face smiled. It was a bland face. Bland because Chia didn't even instinctively remark on it. Faces were irrelevant, even this disembodied one, and so Chia did not notice the difference between the pale faces of the People and the hardened face of this person, nor the fact it had fuller lips, cheeks and eyes than the People. The face spoke again;
'Chia, you are now being given the Gift. Accept and be glad'
Chia was accepting and glad, even if somewhere something suddenly woke up and screamed inside her.

The probes entered her face and released the Makers. Soon Chia was atoms and her inside was empty and bare and dead. Then the chips were taken for re-use. The sound chip that fed the Peoples Voice directly to the Neural Cortex was removed. The tagging chip was removed. The chip that released vaccine into her was removed. The chip that controlled her emotion was last. As soon as it was removed, Chia was gone.

Chia woke up. She was in a room that was all white again. All she knew was that she had been given the Gift. She was rejoiceful, for that was allowed in keeping the security of the Island. She felt down and realised she no longer carried a new Person. She smiled and new that it had joined the People. Suddenly something inside her screamed, and for the first time in over several hundered years of living, she felt fear, and her mind filled with feelings, thoughts, emotions and beings. She moaned and cried and fell on the floor, writhing with the agony of living fully. She screamed and no sound came out, her dark her flailing in slow motion as she was stopped by gravity. She was aware of being trapped in nothing, frozen. A voice entered her head

'Get out'

A second voice, this time from the frozen air, spoke.

'Chia. Stop.'

Chia couldn't stop, her insides were raging. She was older than anything she knew yet knew she was younger than most of her fellows. She knew?! What was knowing? Her mind blew open into a million billion trillion possibilities, questions, questions of questions and desires and feelings and reality and perceptions.

'Get out!' It was, she was, screaming with carnal fury and horror.
'Chia stop'

Now she knew. She remembered the fear from before. She was older than old, used. She had been blessed by her own ghost many times already, and knew she was decieved, broken and new. 'Chia, stop'

Chia was walking with the Man she always knew. He was smiling amiably at her as they walked down the white corridors. He had the same face as the face before she changed, she knew that now. He pointed left, and her dark, beautiful, mournful eyes followed, and watched as babies where grown in days inside their ancient mothers, unaware of anything. Babies where born in days, not months. Thousands upon thousands of failing mothers were having their recycled wombs used day after day to produce more and more children to prolong the security of the Island and the People. The Man never spoke to her. He pointed right to the Dissasembling Rooms, where Chia knew she had been made again, atom by atom and infused with the same ancient soul as before. They carried on walking for what seemed like hours, stretching away until one could no longer recognise anytihng but endless new People and white spaces and recycled People. The Man stopped and pointed to a door. Chia walked up and it opened silently. She entered.

Inside where the Inquisitors. They never spoke. They just watched. Chia stood somewhere before them, looking at the red light that fixed her attention waya above their meaningless and invisible faces. She couldn't change her view, she was locked again.

'We have given you the Gift' something said
Out! Out! Out! Out! Chia screamed in her head
'Stop that'
O-!
'Stop. We, I, One says stop, you stop'
'Yes'
'Are you thankful for the Gift?'
No, no no! NO! Chia's mind was dying with the vehemence they injected into her.
'Of course you are. You know you are. Now stop'

The Makers entered her mind one last time and she stopped.

Chia woke up. She wasn't in the Sterile area any more. She knew that much because the air was different, and she knew it was real. Then she knew something else. Her mind was fading again, disappeaing into oblivion. She felt her pale arms and legs, and under the right arm she felt a tiny bump, and she knew the chips were back. She collapsed and sobbed, for she was old, and she was going back. Even as she cried, her tears stopped falling to the ground.

The Man entered and beckoned. She was released and taken down a final white corridor. The Man opened the door.

Chia screamed her last scream, of joy, horror, terror and above all incomprehension, both at what she was seeing and what the purpose was of it. Because she knew.

Endless, endless, plains stretched ahead of her. There were hanging people, choking on their brave thoughts. But it was free. It was dappled in clouds, and she could espy animals in the woods that lined a near hilltop, large creatures she knew to be animals from when she was New. The plains were alive, teeming, the air and soil was alive and fresh and she saw shapes wheeling in the sky. She screamed because the Man walked past her, out onto the plain and turned and smiled. Far ahead, Chia could see twinkling towers, that rose up into the dark sky far above. It was the City of Heaven, she knew, she knew and she hated knowing. It was hope, humanity and reality, freedom and mortality far ahead of her, and she knew behind her lay endless life and no life.

'Because we must do so. We must do so for the People to live in peace. Because we can' He spoke.

She fell, and even as she did, she froze, her tears half crashing on the soil that was full of life beneath her.

Chia woke up.

The schedule had changed.

Today was entertaining and educating the children in the way of the People.

----------

Thanks for reading.