Annual Checkup

To most people, the looming shadows of the slums’ makeshift homes and towering heaps of garbage in the wee hours of dawn would seem unsettling, downright spooky. They’d be scrunching their powdered noses disgustedly at the stench of sun-baked trash, human waste and the unmistakable scent of misery.

Needless to say, the lone figure leisurely strolling down a hardly recognisable path, hands in her pockets and posture relaxed, was not what one would consider ‘most people’. In fact, Eris prided herself in being unlike other people. To her, the smell of humanity’s so called ‘other side’ paired with cool dew on haphazardly strewn about corrugated metal sheets symbolised the freedom she was desperately trying to achieve.

Several blurry figures were darting around in the shadows of her peripherals but she paid them no mind. Wether they were the haggard forms of starving people or scurrying rats didn’t matter. They served their purpose of reminding her why she was doing the things she was doing all the same.

As the young woman left the slums behind and crossed over into Eden’s streets filled with buzzing noise, busy people and even busier traffic she slipped her hood off of her head and shook out her raven locks. Foregoing her habit of hunching her shoulders, she straightened her spine and donned an open, friendly expression. After all, in public she’d have to be Rachel. Or rather, Eris would have to pretend to be Rachel, at least until they switched again. Seeing that the annual check ups, or as she liked to call them, annual weed-outs, were tomorrow, she sincerely hoped that the switch was soon. If not they’d have to find a way to delay the appointment.

Walking down the sidewalks that were always drowned in the humming led-lights of the over saturated billboards, Eris smiled at all the people Rachel might know. It just wouldn’t do being found out when they were so close.

The very second that the door to their apartment fell shut behind her, the woman allowed her entire body to slump over onto the couch and heaved out an exhausted breath.

Finally, sleep overtook her already hazy mind and she gratefully embraced it. Only a few more days. Eris closed her eyes.

_____________

As Rachel opened her eyes, she let out a pained groan. Apparently, they’d fallen asleep in some incredibly awkward position so that now, instead of feeling as well rested as she should after sleeping, there was a sharp pain in her neck, as well as back. And her shoulders. As well as her right knee.

After a second of confusedly peering around the room, she realised that she was on her couch. Shooting into a sitting position, Rachel gasped at the charcoal powder that stained the pristine cushions where her head had just lain.

Sighing exasperatedly, Rachel set on doing her morning stretches to hopefully work out all these little cricks and kinks in her sore muscles. She couldn’t help but wonder what Eris had been up to yesterday, finding their hoodie still smelling of trashcan and their jeans of sweet copper.

Turns out, the coppery tang came from a shallow but long gash that ran from her ankle to her inner knee. Just what was she…? At the very least Rachel didn’t have to make up some story about accidentally getting drunk again like that one time when she and Eris had switched right in front of a police officer. She wasn’t a good liar, couldn’t lie to save her life, the complete opposite of Eris who blatantly lied people in the face, just to laugh at them later.

Then again, it was probably a good thing she was a horrible liar. Considering lying could seriously impact the results of the annual check ups. Which were…today. Hold on. She had absolutely forgotten about those! Curse her scatterbrained self, Rachel was going to be late if she didn’t start getting ready now. That was another thing that set her apart from Eris, who was incredibly put together.

“Stupid, Rachel. Stupid!”

Right after showering and scrubbing the coal out to turn her hair back to its natural blonde tones, as she started scrambling around their apartment to acquire the needed clothes to go out and into the eye of the public, Rachel started to worry. A little, ever so slightly. She’d started worrying about these check ups ever since she started talking with Eris. Actually since she started not-talking with Eris, because they couldn’t talk and that, that was probably the only thing Rachel genuinely hated about their situation. Physically being unable to speak to her best friend, that is.

In front of the elevator, Rachel impatiently tapped her foot. Eris was right and she was wrong, as always, and Rachel questioned why she’d ever though it was a good idea to live in one of the upper apartments of a high-rise.

“Ah, fuck it. This is taking too long.”

Deciding to put their fairly impressive amount of stamina, that had mostly been obtained by Eris’ running from authorities at night but that’s besides the point, to use, Rachel opted to completely forego the elevator and started sprinting down the stairs, leaping over six steps at once.

Her destination, the Golden Apple, was situated right in the centre of the city and was surrounded by a park filled with luscious greens and fountains. It was the most important out of all the Eden’s facilities and by far the most well known check up centre. Eris always commented that she thought it ironic how the public had dubbed those facilities ‘Forbidden Fruit’.

The lobby of the building was already overflowing with the people of her district, the air filled with the chattering of hundreds of people. After she got her number at the front desk, Rachel made off to find a free bench to wait for her turn.

Not even a second after she sat down, the screaming started. A young man came barreling towards the exit in her bench’s direction, a pair of guards hot on his heels. The guards were shouting for someone to stop him, but as her eyes met the man’s panicked, red rimmed ones Rachel knew she couldn’t do it. Steeling her resolve she summoned her inner Eris attitude, and made a show out of trying to grab the escapee’s coat and tripping, effectively providing a barrier between the three, before landing flat on her nose.

Willing tears to well up, Rachel stared up at the guards guilty and played into her dramatic side by clutching her nose and sniffling.

“I- I’m so sorry! You said to sto-op him and now he escaped and i-it’s my fault and I’m so, so, so sorry!”

After that whole scene, she went back to idly sitting and waiting her turn.

When her number was loudly announced over the speakers, the blonde made her way to her assigned room. Upon entering Rachel was greeted by the sight of two guards and a doctor.

As always, she was hooked up to a polygraph and asked the standard questions. Normal things like how she felt, if she liked where she lived, if she’d ever though of committing murder, if she’d noticed anything unusual about herself or others.

Normal things that were used in standard procedures to determine a person’s personality so that they could be sorted into a district as well as one’s mental state.

Now, in the past Rachel wouldn’t have had though twice about any of these questions and she most definitely never would have doubted the system. That Rachel had found out that her blackouts weren’t just blackouts, and that she didn’t get stab wounds and hand shaped bruises simply by fainting in weird places.

“Well then Miss Denvers. It seems we’re all done! Your statistics have stayed much the same, which is a good thing, but if we look at this part right here.” The doctor shoved a tablet so closely to her face that she count make out anything at all, “Then it’s clear to see that you’ve become more assertive, so much so that if you continue in that direction, we might be putting you into district seven since it would match your profile.”

“Alright, thank you! Ah, if you don’t mind me asking. There was this man running out a bit ago.”

At this, the doctor’s gaze sharpened into a glare. “Yes, there was. What about him?”

“Nothing much it’s just, well you see, he ran into me and that could’ve ended badly, you know? So I just…has he been caught yet?” Well, Rachel might not be a great liar, but she’d gotten pretty talented in twisting the truth.

“Sadly, no. However, there’s no need to worry as he’s not a big threat. Just the usual tainted thoughts, not that isn’t horrible enough. He’ll join the people on Flip Side soon enough.”

“Ah, alright then. Thank you again.”

______________

Eris sat atop her building and listened to the city’s noises. This would be the last time for a while in which it would be calm, after all. Then again, it’s never really calm.

As she’s waiting for the clock to strike midnight, she smiled. They’ve been working for a long time towards this, after all. From her spot, she has a perfect view of the Golden Apple. The most forbidden of the forbidden fruit.

Right when the clock chimes twelve, the Golden Apple goes up in flames and paints the surrounding area in flickers of molten lava. With it, the city burns.