Story

She sat and watched the trees. Those big, green, beautiful trees. They seemed to light up the cold, metallic classroom that she, and forty-four other children shared. More images flashed across the giant white wall at the front of the room.

She heard the hum of the oxygen pump as Miss Beth turned it on. The young girl didn’t dare move, for fear it would upset her brain waves. They were always monitoring her mind closer than the other children in her class. Every time she blinked, she could feel the censors pulling at her face and the back of her neck. She tried not to wince.

“Alice!” called an emotionless voice from the back. “Pay attention! Your brain signals are becoming unstable, again.” Alice felt her face turn red as she sat up straighter and all the other children snickered to one another.

As Alice looked back at the screen, she saw trees that were affected by the “changing seasons”. The once green lush leaves were now bursting with colour. There were shades of red, and yellow, and orange that she had never seen before.

Her mind started to drift to a time before everything changed. Alice had a talent, a rare and dangerous talent. Alice could imagine.

In her imagination, Alice could see things that held such beauty, such mystery. To her it seemed like she was in a different, very distant world. Today she was imagining herself running through a forest full of trees. They looked just like the ones in the pictures. Alice could feel the wind blowing through her hair; she imagined it long even though it was really short. The green lush grass beneath her feet was soft, for she had no covers on. Then, right beside the biggest tree she had ever seen was a clear blue, sparkling pond.

Alice knew it was going to happen before she imagined running to jump in the cool water. She just knew he would be standing in front of her; he always was when she started to daydream. Especially when she was in this class.

Before she opened her eyes, Alice sighed and whispered, “Hello, Mr. Brooks.” The man standing over her as she lifted her eyes was tall and thick. His pitch-black hair was slicked back out of his face, which had a high forehead and a cliff chin. His nose held a slight point at the end while his lips were nothing but a cold, thin line. Alice had never seen Mr. Brooks’ eyes, that black lens running from ear to ear always hid them from her.

Miss Beth was already rolling to the front of the classroom. Her mechanical eyes scanned Mr. Brooks, then Alice. The trees had stopped appearing on the wall as Miss Beth’s monotone voice spoke to Mr. Brooks. “Get her out of here! The function of her mind is disturbing her classmates.”

“Come along, then, Miss Alice.” Mr. Brooks’ deep booming voice seemed to echo off of all the metallic objects in the room, including Miss Beth. He reached across Alice’s desk and tapped a button on her screen. Her chair hovered away from her floating desk and Alice jumped down. The covers on her feet made a clinking sound as Alice followed Mr. Brooks out the door, down the hall and flew up the shoot (a tube that used pressurized air to “shoot” a person to different levels of the building). They went to the top level of the school.

Alice stepped out of the shoot, “I know, but I can’t help it. It isn’t my fault honest!” she wined to Mr. Brooks. The life size wall only nodded, like he always did. With slumped shoulders and a hunched back, Alice hung her head meekly and clicked behind Mr. Brooks to a single door at the end of the hall.

Even before Mr. Brooks had reached out to scan his hand so the door would open, the small girl already knew what waited for her inside. She didn’t care that the wires were still stuck to her head and they were still watching her, Alice closed her eyes. Pictures of the most uncomfortable chair that you could ever sit in surrounded by three screens came to mind. One screen would show her brain waves; another, the parts of her brain that she used for her “talent”; and the last one would show what she was thinking in vivid QD – the latest technology in screen definition.

The lonely door slid open silently. There was the chair, the screens and a mess of loose cords. They would take the place of the ones that now were sending wireless signals to the master computer. The stars alone knew where that was.

“Sit.” ordered Mr. Brooks, pointing to the chair in the center of the room.

“I hate that chair.” Alice complained under her breath. Still, she made her way over and sat in the chair. Mr. Brooks followed and started to replace the wires. The first time she had sat in this chair, she was only four years old and had asked questions about everything. Now, she sat without as much as a glance at the screens turning on.

“Now,” the giant sighed as he sat on the opposite side of the see-through screens, his mitt like hands on top of his knees. “Why do we always have to go through this during Miss Beth’s class?”

“I don’t know. I guess it’s because I like to learn about what happened before the ‘big change’". Alice sat back in the chair and watched the middle screen, the one showing what she was thinking. It was lit up with the trees from today’s class, and the large bodies of sparkling water from yesterday.

“Tell me, what do you know about the ‘big change’?” Mr. Brooks leaned towards her.

Alice was taken aback. This wasn’t one of the routine questions. She sat up straight and thought. If she had been watching the screen, the young girl would have seen random historical events that lead to today’s society.

The Final War that would lead to the near destruction of human kind, all started because of greed. The richest part of the world was always demanding more of everything, while the deprived countries were all but legally enslaved to the rich. Then, the countries that were neither rich nor poor got mad and tried to make things easier for those who could barely go through a full day of work with anything to eat. The big rich guys wouldn’t budge, so the middle pushed harder. In the end, shots were fired, things blown up and mankind practically had to go back to the basics of survival skills. That was why Alice’s world revolved around cold hard knowledge and facts, not a child’s fancies or a person’s ideas.

During the war everything had been destroyed. The trees, forests, oceans, and almost every living creature; it was just gone. When she was little, Alice’s father would take her to the Taste of History museum. That was the only place in the whole city where one could go to see the animals that once roamed the earth.

Alice opened her eyes, even though she couldn’t remember closing them, and saw the large man’s gaping face as her memories appeared on the middle screen. She was sure that he was about reach up and remove his lens, but nothing happened. He just sat there, almost as if he was trying to remember one of his own memories.

“Um… Mr. Brooks?” Alice’s train of thought changed from museum memories to the view from her classroom, nothing but clouds. She imagined how those clouds would rain on her trees that were affected by the changing seasons. Mr. Brooks sat up straight to face the girl with the colourful cords attached to her head. “Was I close?”

“Almost, perfect!” Mr. Brooks said slowly in disbelief. “You just missed the part about when we humans took to the sky.”

“Oh, when Lindsey Torren put forward the idea for all humans to be equal in order for them to work together?” the small girl asked as a picture of Lindsey Torren appeared in front of them. The following images consisted of the beginnings of cities, the development of the hover units in a lab, and the first sky city state being lifted above the clouds by thousands of hover units.

“Yes, once most people agreed that ideas forming in the minds of our citizens was indeed a good thing that would benefit us. However, one man came forward and pointed out that it was, in fact, someone’s idea to start the war in the first place. The city as a whole decided that it was best not to promote such things thus to prevent war from happening again. You have been one of the worst cases.” Mr. Brooks stood and walked around to Alice’s chair. His large hands unclipped the wires. She was free of sensors for now. So she leaned back in the chair and let her talent take over.

This time there were now oxygen pumps were needed. The trees made it themselves. People actually talked to one another, using their voices instead of text. Children played. Parents laughed. There was blue sky, that wasn’t chemically induced. Water that wouldn’t kill you if you drank it. It was an earthly heaven.

“Alice! Can I not unhook you for two minutes?” Mr. Brooks’ voice shattered her happy world. She looked up and saw a vain popping out of his forehead. “Come with me.” He ordered through ground teeth. Alice sighed sadly and followed. On the other side of the shoot there was another door. It seemed not as welcoming as the other.

Inside, there was a silver table with white sheets and a pillow. Next to the table was a cart. Alice was too short to see what was on it. Mr. Brooks lifted her up so that she was sitting on the table. She glanced over at the cart. A single syringe with a clear liquid waited. Alice felt all colour drain from her face, all strength flow away with it.

Mr. Brooks gently laid her down and using one of the sheets, covered her up. Her hands and feet were both breaking into a cold sweat, along with her face. Alice’s teeth began to chatter. She was cold and hot at the same time. Alice was afraid.

“Don’t worry, young one.” He said as he cleaned the crook of her arm with a sterilized cloth. “The next time you will see me, you should have grown out of this faze and will no longer be a threat.” He had his back to her now. Alice couldn’t move fear froze her in her place.

The large man took off his lens, and set it on the cart. Try as she might, Alice still couldn’t see his eyes. “You’ll be fine. You’ll be in the company of others that share your talent.” He placed a mask over mouth and nose. Alice felt like a muzzled dog would have felt it there were any dogs left.

He leaned over her with the needle ready. “Enjoy your adventure in wonderland, Alice.” The last thing Alice saw was, dark brown eyes staring down into her faded blue ones with a sort of dark smile reflecting in them. Then everything went dark.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 07.03.2014

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Widmung:
This book is for all Alices everywhere.