B.I.N.D

B.I.N.D - Dystopian short story.

Prejudice, crime and discrimination have escalated so much that eye contact between people has been made illegal for the past 300 years. People are now only permitted to communicate by wearing specially designed hi-tech blinders called B.I.N.D. They cover nearly ¾ of the face with limited eye view restricted to staring at the ground. The technology was created by an elite tech group who are the current ruling government. The abbreviation of the party meaning - Blinding If Notice Discrimination.

Cities are no longer hubs and meeting points but instead made up of endless pedestrian walkways all designed with the intention to keep people moving and walking at paces where the chance of meeting another person is eliminated. Cars were illegalised over 200 years ago with walking now the mandatory form of transportation. People often choose to live closer to the cities edges to lesson there walk times to work. The government believes it’s tackling climate change and obesity issues in a combative way. So as the world is flourishing once more humans have now become the contained species.

The pathways lead predominately to places of work however coffee shops, restaurants, gyms and nightclubs are also accessible but B.I.N.D is always to stay on. Communication is strictly prohibited to technology so that the government can dilute any chances of P.C.D. The punishment of a removed visor even due to a technical fault is blinding. Blinding’s began over 150 years ago after people began revolting against the head tech. There haven’t been any revolts in the past 100 years since pathway restrictions were enforced. Humans are now required to walk a minimum of 2 meters apart and always to be looking down.

Togan and Tala were on the left pathway of the city, approximately 6 metres apart. They had worked at opposing buildings for the past 3 years but were yet to ever meet. Due to over population and mass extinction events people are now created in test tubes and grown in incubation tanks. The government then lottery babies off to hopeful candidates once they reach 9 months in age. The aim is to create genetically faultless babies in the hopes of maintaining a perfect society of obedient humans. Endless studies into disobedience and criminal thinking have resulted into fine tuning human genetics into 6 DNA selection paths.

1. The Creatives

2. The Scientists

3. The Entrepreneurs

4. The Doctors

5. The Entertainers

6. The Care givers

By tailoring genetics to these specific categories, governments are able to monitor and forecast the inevitable story telling of each person’s existence. Providing them with the lifestyle, tools and human interactions that would benefit them most to become their best version of themselves.

Although Togan and Tala had never met they shared a secret. Togan had been told from a young age that he was determined to be a doctor. His early memories tracing back to his childhood playing dress up in hospital gowns and playing operation games. For his 16th birthday he remembered receiving his very own engraved stethoscope. Although told he was to be a doctor, Togan never felt as comfortable in the role as his classmates. Everyone else seemed to be a natural in the medical room yet he always felt suffocated and unfulfilled.

In order for the pathways calculations to work methodically sometimes the B.I.N.D technology would sound an alarm and flash red, this was to work as a ‘traffic light’ cascading down the people on the path. Another path could then cross undisrupted. For Togan this happened every morning at 8.30am he had become well accustomed to the quick vibration and sharp sound that would burn his ears for the next 2 minutes.

Tala being a day dreamer and guilty of living in her head too much failed to acknowledge the red light echoing around her and collided with a strong force in front of her. In a state of shock, she looked at Togan and gasped. Confused by what she was seeing staring back at her for it was a mirror image of her own face yet with masculine features and a more defined jaw line. As part of the genetic testing projects and to monitor risks of overpopulation it was ruled that there should never be any siblings created. And yet as Tala stood staring at what could only be described as a nearly identical version of herself, she saw the shock mirrored in the eyes of the stranger.

The headset turned green and Togan knew it was time to continue the pace his eyes ached in the sunlight as he saw for the first time in his young life human bodies moving towards him at precisely the same speeds. The girl staring up at him did not seem concerned that her B.I.N.D had fallen loose and was hanging low on the back of her head. He reached for it quickly in case the military spotted her, and her fate would be changed forever. The physical act of moving the heavy B.I.N.D back into place bought Tala back into reality with her eyes now firmly back on the ground. She watched as the feet so close to hers turned and began to leave in a quickened pace.

The day passed quickly for the two strangers, both consumed with troubling thoughts about their earlier interaction. For Togan it ran deeper for his eyes had briefly glimpsed life and the physical world not just some artificial projections that dominated his waking hours. He had tasted the sweet nectar of fresh air and the warm kiss of the sun leaving him wanting for more.

There was an intention today when Togan and Tala woke. The predictability and precise timetabling of each moment of their lives meant that there was high percentage that they could meet again. Neither one of them delayed in there morning rituals and both left promptly at 8.15. Both counting the minutes until the 8.30 crossing when they might steal another greeting. Togan arrived first and began to slow his pace, he calculated that by slowing himself he might buy them additional seconds. Tala dared to lift her B.I.N.D, it was designed to be heavy so that any chances at peaking were punished by the heavy demands on the neck. She spotted him and felt like he was reaching out to her she could see in those stolen seconds that he had slowed to a crawl of a walk. These types of paces were punishable by strict fines however she felt validated that his need to meet again was as demanding as hers.

When a traffic light was about to initiate a quick vibration would alert the user the action was about to take place. As the vibration started Togan already had his helmet off as Tala began struggling with her own clasp. Togan stared deep into Tala’s eyes recognising the precise shade of blue that he always thought so was so unique to his own genetic pattern. A startling shade of Sapphire with small flecks of purple began glistening back at him – ‘How’ asked a soft voice. Upon hearing her voice Togan immediately felt comforted as though he knew this girl although impossible it was somehow true.

A siren began to blaze above them as one of the local B.I.N.D B.U.G.S began to scan the scene. Reports and CCTV were already being submitted and now human force would be on its way to inflict whatever punishment they deemed fit. Togan grabbed Tala and sprinted off the pathway. No one had ever gone of pathway before and the unknown thrilled and terrified the two mirrored souls. More alarms raised as they fled around sky rise buildings, narrowly missing the worm tails of other humans on their paths.

Togan could see a traffic light system in operation so seized the moment to pull Tala through the gap before the next pathway began to cross. He spotted a library up ahead. With both B.I.N.D helmets dangling around the backs of their necks weighing them down, the adrenaline kept their minds busy and legs moving. As they busted through the door the first thing they noticed was the silence. The large library that dominates such a large square footage in the city centre, was filled with no one. It was then that it dawned on the two that since B.I.N.D technology had been invented access to knowledge, languages and information had become accessible within the blink of an eye. People know longer needed to read from books and come to libraries to learn. The sirens could be heard faint in the distance so they ran further into the chambers of the library. They knew they didn’t have very long until they were found but both were so eager to make this impulsive act worth something.

Togan noticed Tala wearing a locket it was a small heart shaped antique that would not have sparked interest to most however Togan saw a familiarity that matched the same golden locket hiding underneath his shirt in the shape of an oval. He reached for his own locket and pulled it out slowly. Tala now spotting the antique yellow of the chain reached for her own. They both turned them over and noticed a large T was engraved on the back in the exact same typeface.

Tala’s expressive eyes had now begun to fill with emotion as though she was discovering something about herself that was locked away deep inside. ‘Does yours have anything inside it?’ she asked tentatively. Talan looked confused he had never questioned his necklace hiding anything else inside, he had worn it for so many years now it had become as familiar as fingers to hands or toes to feet. ‘I don’t think it opens it’s just an oval’ he responded. Tala looked at him with a knowing look ‘the trick to opening a locket is to tap it 3 x on its side at just the right pressure and it should open up’ she slowly demonstrated with her own locket and revealed a small slightly torn image inside.

Photos had been banned many years ago and Tala knew what a risk it was to show Togan such a forbidden item, it was bad enough if they were caught without there B.I.N.D tech on, if they were found with photographs as well the punishment would surely be death. No one was permited to truly look at their parents. BIND was even to be worn at home with the only times it was permitted to be taken off was when sleeping or alone in a locked room. Tala’s parents had been killed when she was a baby and her aunts had never explained why. This photograph of her mother holding her was her only connection to her history and her most treasured possession. The image showed a happy woman smiling down at her baby. The photograph had been torn to fit inside the locket so she had never seen the other half. However, the love in her mother’s eyes staring down at her had filled her with joy forever. Togan looked at the women in the photograph and felt his insides clench, the women looked alarmingly like Tala who in turn looked like him. He tapped the locket as Tala had instructed and the small latch opened. Out fell another tiny torn image– both of them gasped quietly and reached to pick it up at the same time.

Tala dropped her hand and instead reached for her own image. Togan unravelled the preserved image and they laid them side by side. Tala felt a rush of joy to finally see the other half of her torn memory. She saw a young man holding a baby looking down at the infant with the same love and joy echoed in her mother’s face. It was her father. After so many years questioning who and what they looked like and here they were together and happy. Togan looked at Tala as the realisation that they hadn’t been genetically grown they had been born from their mother and created out of love. Togan felt silent tears falling from his eyes, his normal stoic unaffected composure now suffocated in emotion. He was not alone, he had Tala his twin and a memory of their parents who had been hiding away for all these years with the answers locked on his chest.

A loud explosion could be heard within the library, B.I.N.D armed forces were closing in. The two siblings reached for one another and hugged with all the years they had never had and cried for the memory of their lost parents. With the sound of footsteps growing louder they caught eyes and silently shared a message that this reckless decision was not done in vain as if even for a moment a stolen family was reunited once more.