Chapter 30: Chapter 30: Fake reality

On Thursday mornings, Emily’s day started off with PE class, which was usually held up in a wide inward space right at the center of the school. A group of thirty students in gym wear now ran in circles around the precinct, panting and gasping as the elderly coach prodded them along, shouting tiredly.

“Evans, you’re running behind! No talkin’ during warmup, Fahim!!”

Despite the demanding nature of the classes, the children were still mostly enthusiastic, powering on through the fatigue. Truly the athletic dream.

Sitting on a bench near one of the walls, the scrawny pale girl quietly scoffed as she watched the paunchy man urge them around, increasingly loud. He seemed particularly ticked off that day, too, so random insults would unfortunately be making up most of his vocabulary until the end of the lesson.

“Morty, what did I tell you ‘bout bringing toasters to class!? Now’s not the time to be making breakfast, goddammit!!”

The girl wore her usual, baggy clothing, hood pulled up like usual, weary of May’s menacing, rising sun despite getting to stay in the shade of one of the buildings.

Thankfully, Kay had managed to get her a medical certificate regarding her condition long ago, so as to excuse her from that class in particular. Such strenuous activity under the burning sun above wouldn’t do her health any good.

Nixemics weren’t necessarily a common demographic. They were certainly rarer than, say, people who suffered from myopia, but were still common enough that about one in every few dozens or so of people you found around the streets would still show the characteristic white hair and sharp red eyes. Contrary to albinism, which was considerably rarer and less volatile, the condition they suffered prevented them from even the briefest direct contact with ultraviolets, at risk of severe burns, and almost instant deterioration of the organism at several levels. Their clothing, specifically, had to be tailored to remedy that need as well.

However, the fact that she was required to show up at this place anyway was still annoying. She had much better uses to make of her already limited time, and being forced to sit there and look into dead space as an activity she couldn’t participate in took place in front of her felt like divine torture at its purest. And on top of that…

“The hell are you doing, Ullman!? Gah, why do I even try…”

The coach had turned his head around slightly from the passing double-column of students and glanced at her for a few seconds, turning back soon after to yell some more at her peers.

The girl clicked her tongue. She hated that look. It seemed like an odd mix of pity and annoyance.

(Like, yeah, sorry I can’t participate in that clearly very important warm-up session of yours. Want me to give you a balloon or something? While we're at it, isn’t it about time you actually started the class per say? You’re almost halfway through your time and warmup is still going…)

The feeling of impotence her regular body gave her recurred more often than ever during PE precisely.

She just needed the right working conditions.

Put a roof over them all, give her just a little bit of haema, maybe one or two doses. Hell, they could give it to everyone, really. As many gallons as they needed. Just those two tiny details would be more than enough for her to beat all these weaklings into submission, including the old man, at any game, challenge, or competition of their choosing, any shape and form, anything they wanted. Only real rule she needed was for there to be none.

The coach shouted at the others to stop, walking away as they slowed down and stood in place in the middle of the field. He was barking something at them about some game or sport or something, though without her boosted form she couldn’t hear it very well from such a long distance. Neither did she care much.

They all started towards the other side of the large precinct where several basketball backboards hung parallel to the walls of three school blocks. It wasn’t nearly as removed from the sitting benches as it felt to her, but she still found it insulting enough to do something like that with a student on a bench, seeing as she was still forced to attend class as if there was supposed to be something interesting to observe there.

She sighed. This was exactly the kind of thing she couldn’t take. There was nothing for her to do, or learn in this place, at this specific time. The term PE should be self-explanatory, after all. But she had to stay and watch nevertheless, because so had been decided.

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Legs crossed, she put her hands behind her head and leaned her back against the wall. Strangely, it helped her think a bit, though walking was still better.

Why were they all here, following all these rules, anyway? Why was it specifically like this, during the day? Why did it go differently during the night? How were people so comfortable snapping to and fro from one atmosphere to another at the drop of a hat?

And how was the board related to all of this anyway?

How had they risen to power? Had the same district managers always been in place? Had the board always been hidden from the populace like this?

What had happened in the past? How could she not know?

From the girl’s perspective, it simply felt as though she’d woken up one day, and the board was in charge, and the people lived the way they did, and, really, that was it. There was no other reason. No motive to explain any of it.

Likewise, she knew she had become leader of the White Phantoms at some point. She had done something to earn that position. She had fought however hard to reach such a place. But she couldn’t remember how, or when. It had simply happened, at some point. And she could no longer recall anything else about the matter. She was here, and she was doing what she always did, and that was it. That was how it always had been? Wasn’t it?

She couldn’t remember much of anything about anyone, admittedly. She couldn’t remember much of anything about anything…

The days were how they always had been. Same went for the nights, same went for her gang and all of the others. Same went for the UDS’s four districts. After all, outside of their great nation, what was there? Nothing. Nobody knew what was out there. And endless sea, perhaps. Nothing else.

Of course, she could retrieve one tidbit or other about the board from her tired mind, on occasion.

It was known, they’d saved everyone from death at the hands of a radioactive fallout, not to mention the pure anarchy that had allegedly taken place before the ‘Society’ had been fully realized. Nearly everyone ate it up, the people on the streets didn’t care as long as they had their little bottles of juice, and their children naturally learned the behavior from them until they were allowed on the streets themselves.

Young delinquents and other minors who chose to break the rules and sneak out after curfew were less than a rarity, and would generally never last very long anyway. The few lucky ones who managed to join a managing gang would get special privileges and be allowed to stay out late by concealed identity so long as they agreed to aid in their management gang’s assigned area.

Any minors belonging to non-elected gangs, or lone fugitives who couldn’t find a managing gang, would simply be captured and handed over to proper authorities by sweeping operatives. Some of them would then be judged, then quietly returned home with a stern warning and a fine. Others would simply disappear. Without a trace. Names, belongings, everything. Deleted from any and every registry and declared missing, forever.

Pulling the hood further down by the tip, the girl averted her eyes from the blue overhead. None of that mental yapping would be doing her good anytime soon. Why was she so obsessed with the history behind that place all of a sudden? All the causes behind it. Whether it could be true or not. Why did it matter, anyway?

As far as I’ve seen, you barely even own yourself… You’re just another disposable piece to use up on the game board.

She could feel her teeth grinding. How much of that could actually be true? Oh, she was losing her mind alright. She’d finally gone so low as to consider the words of a serial killer? What the hell was wrong with her? She’d been questioning some things about the UDS for some time now, but the insufferable thought had never been so recurring before the night she’d found Vince’s body in that alley.

She’d never had as many doubts. She’d just gone along with what the board told her while scheming for some small time takeover like everyone else did.

But, after that incident, it was as if her whole reality had been shattered. She was shaking. She no longer knew anything.

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