OCCULTA

Written by: Chris Fennell, Anne Grimm, Megan Hasenwinkel, and Rachel Seow

Written for Vibs Petersen, FYS 27
December 11, 1997

CHAPTER 2

Morning. Today, according to her document, Wen was fifteen. She drew her legs out from under the bed cover and felt the cool, soft floor gently give under the weight of her feet. Moving to the south wall, she picked up the wall-cutter and made a tall slice in it. Light and air immediately oozed in like hot green-fruit juice, thickly coating her skin all over, filming her air passages. Breathe deep.

Behind her, she heard the rustle of her acquaintances, Kin and Non, getting out of their beds. Before she stepped away, she pushed her face up to the wall opening, her fingers sinking into the soft surface, and squinted past the dense light. The All filled her vision, glittering and multi-blued, a vertical river stretching in all directions. As close as she was, its immense surface seemed to undulate yet she knew the All was solid, as yet more solid than anything else within the city it encircled.

If she craned her neck, she could just see a strip of hard green directly overhead--clear skies as usual. Her mind already on work at the BB, she pulled away from the wall opening and walked to the clothing box over her bed. The in-air was already cooling to counter the out so she chose pink clothes accordingly.

Dressed, she moved to the food box and pulled out chunks of green- and purple-fruit, a soft morning cake and a pitcher of water.

"Wen, you will be at BB-30 today, correct?" Kin inquired of her as he pulled on pink undergarments.

She nodded, waiting for the cake to melt in her mouth. "Give this to Yar." Kin put a large case before her, "I am working with Ald today."

"She must complete the Samples by one," Wen replied.

"After, have them brought to me," Non continued, pulling a top over her head.

Finishing her meal, Wen put on her pink coat, collected her things and walked out the main door. Morning had only just been started and, as usual, Wen was one of the first ones up. Far above, little streak openings let in new light that quickly diffused, spray-painting everything in a green mist. The boulevards striping the city were devoid of life and the only sound was the drawn-out sighs of the cool in-air, exhaled from the immense walls and ceiling.

Wen had just begun the short walk to the BB when people began to appear, dribbles of pink silently leaking out of the walls. But soon the muted thudding of thousands of shoes filled the city, rarely interspersed with a last, brief instruction spoken from one acquaintance to another. The boulevards, their surfaces just moments before unmarred, were now mottled with a rash of seemingly identical bodies, tall and leeched of color with their short, pale hair, yellow eyes. They walked in slow, loping steps, their long, narrow footprints momentarily dimpling the chewy ground, eyes unwavering from the boulevards stretched out before them, ageless faces blank.

Then, a new sound cracked the smooth peace: a stark cry, a girl child. She stood out in sharp contrast to everything with a tiny head of brilliant red hair. Her face, too, was brilliant red from crying and she was shaking due to her inappropriate, blue smock--another burst of radical coloring. Her watering, black eyes darted about and her face was pinched with fear. A perfunctory glance was cast by a few passer-bys but the streams of pink rippled by, unceasing. Wen vaguely recalled seeing the child at the BB she worked at and supposed it had accidentally wandered out. She wasn't certain but the child looked to be about three. What was obvious was that this was one of the ExceptionsToTheRules or E2TRs.

Every so often, there would be a baby in a batch formed with a singular disease whose cause was as-yet unidentified. It was known as the E2TR Syndrome. The symptoms were easily recognizable; in fact, they were impossible to miss: the child would almost always be formed with abnormal coloringthere had been one especially severe case in which a child had been formed with black hair and blue eyes. In every single case though, mental retardation was always prevalent, the dominant characteristic being unnecessary vocalization (a 98.377% increase as compared to that of normal babies), quite often of the non-comprehensible variety including inexplicable bouts of high-volume, monosyllabic expression. In one such case where the noise had continued for hours with no sign of cessation, doctors had seen no other option but to put the baby to deatha circumstance which, in any case, would surely have been inevitable. Other examples of atypical behavior due to the mental retardation were attempts at physical contact with other babies, harmful facial expressions and abnormally elevated amounts of energy with a mature baby known to use its arms and legs to propel itself very rapidly in an aimless manner around the room.

Though the root of this disease was unknown, it was immediately evident that there was a definite link between E2TR Syndrome and the diseased babies' diets. Simply put, the babies were unable to ingest any of the usual foods without violent reactions ranging from vomiting to instant death.

When the disease first began making an appearance around the time of the fourth generation Pullusians, a precautionary assumption had been made that the disease was contagious. At first, babies who were recognized as having contracted E2TR were instantly killed. The Executive of that time felt that other options should perhaps be sought and so research projects were initiated. Large batches of babies were ordered, with the diseased specimens placed in strict quarantine and on controlled diets. The first successful attempt was with a group of test babies who were fed a diet consisting solely of dehydrated foods. Vocalization dropped 71% and there was marked improvement in mental facilities, but none of the specimens survived for more than a few weeks. All manner of diet substitutions continued to be tested when, finally, success was had with What-About-This?-#9002: a pasty mush that had all the required nutrients and yet was 100% unnatural. As was expected, there were a few resulting side-effects but, for the first time, E2TR babies were staying alive.

Then another major break-through was made. Babies who had shown only mild adverse reactions were carefully weaned back on natural foods. When allowed a sufficient amount of time (approximately four years), the majority were actually able to overcome E2TR. Discolorations would eventually fade and normal behavior would develop soon after a regular diet was resumed. Of course several never did recover and were disposed of. But because of this potential for recovery, all E2TRs were granted four years in which time they could either recover or die. "It's too cold for blue, you should be dressed in pink," she instructed the child once it had paused in its wailing to look up apprehensively at her. "Come with me, I'm going to BB-30."

Then she turned and resumed walking until she felt a small tug on her jacket.

"Wait!" the child pleaded in an absurdly loud voice common of E2TR victims, "You're going too fast."

Shortening her steps, Wen said in a calm voice she hoped the child would emulate, "Release my jacket."

The child stubbornly clung tighter to the hem so she had no choice but to keep moving, every few seconds feeling a pull as she unconsciously sped up to her natural pace, dragging the child forward.

"I'm Eveille, and you?" gasped the child, her high voice wobbling as she scrambled on her short legs to keep up with Wen.

"My name is Wen," Wen answered, not looking down.

"Oh. Well actually, I've been told that my name is Ehv but when I hear it, I feel...I don't know how to explain but kind of the same way I do when I have to eat that mushy stuff one day after another. So I changed it to Eveille. I don't know why but I like the sound of Eveille better. Do you want me to make up one for you?"

"No. One cannot change a label without there resulting in confusion and inconvenience." Wen realized that it was futile trying to reason with a child like this, and so, said no more.

"I don't get confused when people call me different things. I know when to be what.." Eveille paused for a while to catch her breath and then blurted out, "Wen? Am I going to get in trouble?"

"Possibly." This child obviously had a severe case of E2TR. Wen didn't think that it would live past the four-year limit.

There was a long stretch of silence and then softly, "I'm kinda tired. Could you carry me?"

"No, we're almost there." Wen kept moving, the sound of the rapid slap of little feet and tired panting trailing behind her.

Finally they reached the building. It was not terribly large, about sixty stories high, and yet only the top ten floors were used. Formed of Strong-and-Soft--the name that the first Executive had given to the indestructible yet malleable material that formed all the structures within Pullus City--the skin of the building looked lumpy. At its foot, in clear blue type, was the sign "Baby BoxChild Containment Unit #30" also referred to as BB-30.

Continue to Chapter 3