The Corruption

My hands trembled as they wiped away warm beads of sweat that dripped down and burned my eyes. The taste of copper still lingered in my mouth. I frantically ripped the wires from my scalp and torso that tethered me to the motionless body laying before me. My blurry vision began to clear, and I could feel my face contort with disgust as I scanned its features. It was like staring into a mirror, a cold lifeless version of myself. Down to the thick black locks of hair and brown pear-shaped birthmark below its left eye, she…it was identical. Its almond-shaped eyes, wide open, staring back at me; they looked just like my own, but this person…this thing was not me; it wasn’t even human.

Alarms blared in the distance. I struggled to hold my own body weight as I navigated through a labyrinth of operating tables and comatose humans having the last of their humanity drained away.

“All available personnel to transfer bay 12 immediately. Code 501. I repeat, all available personnel to transfer bay 12 immediately. Code 501, subject cannot breach level five!”

The emotionless voice boomed through the speaker just above my head and sent a chill through my bones. I knew that voice, a voice I’ve heard many times before, each time cut a little deeper than the last.

The thudding of steel-toed boots echoed as the guards approached the other side of the large metal doors before me, I desperately tried to pry them open, my efforts in vain. In a flash the doors swung open, and a blinding light flooded the dimly lit room. Before my mind had enough time to react, a shockwave of pain raced through my body. The electricity from the guard’s baton hit my back as my muscles convulsed and a searing pain shot up my spine. The boots were no longer a sound in the distance, they were now mere inches away from my face as I violently jerked on the ground before them.

My body slowly surrendered to the pain, but not before I caught a glimpse of a shiny gold object out of the corner of my eye. With the last bit of strength I could muster up, I reached out and clutched the small heart-shaped locket that had fallen off of my neck as I collapsed to the ground. This was the only piece of my old life that I had left, and if now was my time to go I refused to leave it behind.

I still remember the warm and fuzzy feeling I got the day my mother gave me the locket. It was my tenth birthday, and almost a decade later it’s the only gift I remember getting that day. She had one just like it. My dad gifted it to her the day she graduated from medical school, and she almost never went a day without it around her neck. On the back of the locket was an inscription; You can do anything. She would say these words to me every night before bed and then make me repeat them back to her. I always admired it growing up, and when she placed mine around my neck, I felt exactly the way I’d always pictured her, invincible.

We were supposed to go to the zoo that day, but we never made it. It was the second worst day of my life, and the beginning of the end of the world as we knew it. Nobody can explain how the end started; some theories say it may have been a virus or some sort of genetic attack on earth, but people just started losing their minds. They called it The Corruption. Everyone started turning on each other; mothers killing children, families lighting their homes on fire, country leaders firing weapons of mass destruction for no reason at all. Murders, robberies, and unspeakable crimes skyrocketed out of thin air. Those affected were so psychotic they barely remembered their own names. My own father drove a car straight into our living room and almost killed me. Mother and I managed to escape and make it to safety. But nothing’s ever been the same.

People who weren’t affected by the corruption began to gather in groups just outside of Washington D.C. once word spread of a haven in the area. Eventually we made it to what we now call The Colony. It’s a secure facility that expands for miles underground. Originally it was built as a government testing site for human inhabitation when climate change took a turn for the worst around 2021. But they abandoned the project around 2259 when the EPA discovered a way to use magnetic poles to reverse the effects of climate change on the planet.

For some, the colony was a haven. For others, a prison. 2 years after those of us that remained unaffected had settled into the colony there was another corruption outbreak in the facility and 10 people were killed. Even though there were thousands of us and 10 was only a small percentage, people went into panic mode. Shortly after the second outbreak Dr. Sarah Montgomery discovered a way to genetically test for a person’s susceptibility to The Corruption. The day the PFC (Possibility for Corruption) test was created was the last day I saw my mother’s face. That was the worst day of my life. I can still remember the horrified look on her face when my test results came back. Everyone was tested and separated according to their results. Those with less than 10% possibility were moved to the upper levels of the hive, where living conditions were the most optimal. Those with 11%-40% possibility were moved to the center levels, living conditions there were not the best, but still tolerable. While those with 41% and above were forced to live in the lowest level of the hive, in the worst possible conditions.

My test came back at exactly 41% possibility, which I guess makes sense since my mother’s possibility was 4% and my father never even survived the initial outbreak.

My first 7 years in the lower level were tough. Those of us unlucky enough to be placed down there were given the leftover rations of what the upper levels didn’t eat. We were never allowed beyond the lower-level boundaries, which means not only did we not get to enjoy any of the basic luxuries of the upper levels like hot showers and warm food, but most of us hadn’t seen true, non-artificial daylight in the 7 years we were there. Living quarters were overcrowded and we were under constant surveillance. Not even bathroom usage was private anymore. It was on the 8th year that everything changed. Dr. Montgomery discovered a way to clone and transfer consciousness. This meant that they were able to take human consciousness from an “at risk” body and transfer it to an identical artificial body created to be immune to corruption. The first volunteers went willingly. They transferred their consciousness into what they called upgraded beings. These new bodies were mechanically altered to be immune to corruption, pain, sickness and human stressors. The upgrades looked and sounded exactly like their human counterparts, but they weren’t. After a while it became apparent that they were just a hollow shell of the human souls that they once were.

They were genetically engineered beings without the possibility for rebellion or individual thought. They lacked the ability to feel. After transfers, mothers had to be reintroduced to children, and families were nothing more than polite acquaintances in a shared communal space. For many people, this made no difference. If it meant they could get out of the hell that was the lower level and relocate to the upper levels they would give much more than freedom, memories and feelings. Slowly the numbers in the lower levels dwindled until there were only a handful of us left that refused to give in to the new way of life.

When the bribery and promise of a better life no longer worked, the threats and violence began. We were beaten, starved, and tortured into giving up our free will. Well, most of us were. Still, I refused. Most of us were made aware that a consciousness transfer only worked on a willing and open mind, so without our consent they tried to break us. Eventually people just started disappearing all together after transfer refusal. Our numbers declined steadily until it came down to only me. When it was finally my turn all I remember is the firm grip of two guards that held me down and shot a green glowing liquid into my neck. I fought as hard as I could until everything went dark.

For some reason I kept replaying my 10th birthday over and over in my head as I laid on the transfer bay floor motionless, clutching the small gold locket so hard it began to tear through the sweaty skin on my palms. Two guards carelessly dragged my limp body back over to the transfer table that I barely escaped from. This time they shackled me to the table with heavy metal cuffs.

Unable to move I stared at the darkness above me in silence until I heard the voice once again. This time it wasn’t coming from an intercom. It was here, coming from the woman that stood right in front of me.

“Subject 135, why do you continue to fight this? Don’t you want a better life? Don’t you want peace and stability among the rest of us?”

“My name is Zora, and if it means that I have to give up my memories, my soul, my life…then no. I don’t want it.”

“I’m sorry…Zora, you wouldn’t be giving up your life, you’d be enhancing the one you already have. I myself have undergone the transfer process and I can assure you; I’ve never felt better.”

“I said no.”

Her mahogany complexion glowed in the dim light of the monitors that surrounded us as she stared at me in confusion.

“You do realize that the only alternative to this is surrendering your life all together? Unfortunately, we can no longer afford to risk the safety of our colony.”

I hesitated. My throat was dry, and my eyes swelled with tears as the infamous Dr. Montgomery stood over my body with my fate in her hands. Was this worth it? Even here on this table, this doctor was incapable of seeing the pain she’d caused an entire generation of people by reducing humans into nothing more than numbers, tests and calculations. Was a life void of emotion, feeling and humanity better than no life at all?

“You can do anything.”

Those were the only words I could manage to get out through my tears, shaking voice and the lump of emotions that blocked my throat. She stared at me blankly, my emotional state did not affect her at all.

“Subject 135, will you surrender to the transfer and join us?”

I opened my mouth and still I could not find the words to express what I felt in that moment. My face was hot with tears as my eyes slowly shifted to the small gold heart-shaped locket around her neck. The twin to the locket still clutched firmly between my aching fingers.

“I will not surrender. Goodbye mother.”