Red Day

The air seemed to smell different today. There was a sweeter scent in the breeze- more than usual, Katlaya noticed. The sky also seemed to be casting a darker shadow than it usually did. She couldn’t tell if it had always looked like this, or if maybe she was just starting to get paranoid. Decidedly, she made a mental note to ask Harban when she got home if he noticed it today too. They knew a day was coming when this was to be expected, but they were never given the exact date or time- just a general idea of the era in which the Elders of the Council told them to prepare for. According to their estimates, it would be somewhere between her 35th-90th year. She was only 17 now, but that day, and everything that would happen when it came, always lingered in the back of everyone’s mind- even her old neighbor Lionul, who was 95 years old, and had no chance of surviving it or seeing it. He would be replaced by the time it came around. Unless of course, it came earlier than the Elders predicted. Which, to Katlaya, was definitely a possibility. Secretly, and only to herself, she often wondered if the Council really knew anything, or if they were just spouting nonsense to keep them all in some sort of limbo. She tried to never really spend any time thinking about that day which was to come, (which the Elders deemed, ‘Resurrection Day,’ but to everyone else just “Red Day,” though they never referred to it as that in front of them.)

Hurriedly, Katlaya walked along the sidewalk with a quicker step in her pace today, as Red Day was on the forefront of her mind now, making her feel uneasy. She usually just tried to forget about it- like a distant dream you had a long time ago, but can’t really fully forget. She hurried along the cracked sidewalk and looked up at the houses as she passed them. She wondered what they looked like before her and her people, the “Semi’s” were brought here. Now, the houses were all piles of broken down bricks and busted out windows, but she often wondered about the people who lived in them before they couldn’t anymore. She slowed her pace as she came across her favorite house- it was only two blocks from hers, but it had always fascinated her. It was simple really, painted white with dark blue frames around the windows, and cream shingles on the top. The windows were blown out, but somehow the grey curtains were still hanging, floating in the sweet scented breeze. Katlaya stared at the house, and though it looked nothing like hers, there was a sort of calming feel about it and she had always wanted to have a closer look inside. The Elders didn’t permit it though- Semi’s weren’t allowed to trespass on the houses that were once lived in by the humans who had chosen not to cocoon, and that’s why the Council of Elders had the houses ruined. The Elders called those humans the “Semi-Totius,” Latin for half-whole. Katlaya had never really known what happened to the Semi-Totius who had chosen not to cocoon as the Elders had only sort of alluded to their fate, but it was obvious that there was no room for them now. Katlaya had never seen one, and she always wondered where the Elders had put them. She watched, transfixed as the grey curtain floated in the window, as if it would just fly away in the wind. Suddenly she felt a shiver spread through her despite the warm summer day, and she quickly turned to rush home- the bag of supplies she had just traded for banging against her arm.

“Hello, Misha!” Katlaya yelled as she finally reached her house, closing the front door behind her. “Harban? Dai? Where are you?” she yelled, as she kicked off her shoes and walked into the kitchen. She found Misha standing at the sink, and without looking up she answered, “Hello Katlaya. Dai is in the study and Harban isn’t here- he had to stay late at the lab.” Katlaya walked away from her given mother and crossed to the back of the house. Semi’s weren’t allowed to call each other, “Mother,” or “Father,” or “brother,” or other terms she had heard that the Semi-Totius humans had called each other. The Elders made it clear that this was to make sure there was no room for affection, because that could lead to attachment to one another, which was thoroughly discouraged. Semi’s were made for one reason only, and it was to not make the same mistakes that the Semi-Totius families before them had made. As she walked along the hall, she was discouraged that she would have to wait for Harban to come home- she didn’t dare ask Misha or Dai if they felt the air was changing. Misha had made it perfectly clear that Red Day was not to be discussed in the house or anywhere around her- and that only the Elders had the right to do so. Finally Katlaya made it to her room and laid down on the bed, irritated that she wouldn’t be able to ask Harban if he sensed a change till tomorrow. The idea of Red Day coming early had been eating away at her all day, and she tried to think of what Harban would say when she asked him. “Stop worrying, Katlaya. Red Day isn’t for a long way off. And anyways, it’s what we are made for. If it comes early, if it comes late- it shouldn’t matter to us. It only matters that we are prepared for it.” Katlaya sighed and rolled over. Maybe it was her paranoia that the Elder’s were wrong, and Red Day could very well occur tomorrow, but she decided that maybe today she would visit her designated Totius human.

Katlaya had only visited her Totius human twice in her life- once at the age of six, and then once when she was 14. Semi’s rarely visited their designated Totius’s, mostly because they were a grim reminder of Red Day, and what the Semi’s had been created for.

Katlaya took a deep breath as she approached the little house behind hers that kept her Totius human. There were four little houses in the back, one for each member of the house, a little daily reminder every time she looked out her window of their existence. She placed her hand on the finger pad, and waited for the green beep to appear before the glass door slowly wafted open.

There was never any smell in the room, and somehow that was more stifling than a bad smell. Katlaya walked toward the little green pod in the middle of the room, in the shape of a large egg. There were four tubes attached to the pod, one on the head, one on the bottom, and one on each side. But inside the perfectly gleaming green glass pod, lay her sleeping designated human Totius.

Her name was “Anya,” written on the clipboard at the end of the bed that the pods rested on. Katlaya stood over Anya and suddenly felt her breath catch. It was strange to look upon your own face. She realized that she was now around the age Anya was when the Semi’s were made. And at six and 14, Katlaya hadn’t really spent enough time noticing their similarity, but now it was undeniable as she watched Anya sleep in the little green pod, unable to move. As she watched her chest rise and fall, Katlaya wondered about Anya’s life before she was put to sleep. She wondered what she had seen, and what made her choose to sleep until Red Day came. The Elders said that they had known Red Day was coming when the ash started to fall. That was when the Semi-Totius humans had begun to die, and the 10 scientists who had formed the Council and become the Elders discovered that it was the pollution in the air, slowly killing them off. They had predicted that the Old World was ending, and had been the ones that decided the fate of the Semi-Totius humans. They were to be put to sleep while the ash fell and the sky darkened, and their DNA was used to create clones that were to live their lives, and prepare for when Resurrection Day came- the day the Council predicted it would be safe again for them to wake back up. That was the day when the New World would come, and they would no longer be Semi-Totius humans, but Totius humans. And the clones, Katlaya, Harban, Misha, Dai, and all the others were created just the same as the Semi-Totius humans- the only difference was that they were altered to be able to breathe the air without any of the toxins in it affecting them.

Katlaya looked down at the girl she was cloned from. It was strange to know that she would have to leave when Red Day came and Anya was woken up. The Elders never really told the Semi’s where they were to go, but it was understood that there wouldn’t be room for them, just like how it had been for the Semi-Totius humans who had chosen not to cocoon.

Katlaya watched Anya, still unnerved by the face that was her own, so peacefully sleeping. She inspected her every inch, noticing the same veins running in her eyelids, the same curve of their upper lip, and even the same divots in the knuckles of their hands. That was when she noticed it. Staring at the hand that had made her own, Katlaya noticed something gleaming in Anya’s right fist. She didn’t dare touch Anya, looking at your own self in another body is one thing, but touching it was something completely different altogether. Still, her curiosity couldn’t be tempered, and she realized that she had pressed the little yellow button at the side of Anya’s bed, and the green pod slowly opened in half, exposing the top half of Anya’s body. Katlaya tentatively reached out to Anya, hesitating with every breath. She took a start when they made contact, Anya’s hand was so warm and soft just like her own, and Katlaya realized she had never been in such a strange situation before. Nevertheless, she continued to uncurl Anya’s fingers, opening her palm. Inside her tight fist was a little heart shaped box of some sort, and Katlaya just stood there looking at it- not daring to grab it. How did it get there? How was it possible that the Elders had missed this? The Totius humans had not been allowed any personal belongings on them when they chose to be put to sleep- how did Anya manage to keep it hidden in her hand? Katlaya also knew that the sleeping Totius humans were regularly checked on- their vitals and organ movements were consistently regulated by the tubes attached to the green pods that they slept in. How did this go unnoticed? Maybe it was put there? Perplexed, Katlaya grabbed the little heart. She realized as she inspected it over in her hand that there was a little button on the side, and knew from her study of the Semi-Totius humans that it was what they deemed as a “locket.” Often, the Semi-Totius humans would put pictures inside of the people they loved, as some sort of affectionate gesture. Katlaya was disarmed, she felt in some strange way that she was invading Anya’s privacy, but she couldn’t help her interest in the little charm. She pushed the button, and the locket latched open. Katlaya seemed to lose her breath and catch it at the same time as she gazed upon the picture inside. It was of a man, a young man, probably in his early 20’s from what she could tell. But there was something about him that was so eerily familiar, though Katlaya had never laid eyes on him before. Somehow, the longer she stared at the picture, the more she seemed to recognize his dark hair, and dark eyes. She recognized the softness in them, but she had no idea from where. She knew that she had never seen this human before in her life, but somehow she felt she knew him from somewhere. Katlaya suddenly felt extremely warm and tried to take deep breaths. Why was she feeling emotion? This is what the Elders discouraged- this was why affection was not allowed within her given mother and father and Harban. But then why was she feeling this way? Why did the picture of the man in the locket create such a strong feeling within her- especially as she had never even seen him before? Had other clones ever experienced this too?

“Katlaya!” Quickly, she shoved the locket in her pocket and clumsily pressed the yellow button again to close the pod over Anya as she heard her given mother call her name. She couldn’t let Misha know what she had found.