Purity Drive #887220

Purity Drive Clinic 4/88.1, Low Stacks

Perseverance couldn’t believe her luck. She had only just moved down to the Low Stacks the week before and, as chance would have it, a particularly voracious gust of warm air had blown the flyer from a gutter into her path. The annoying thing had got stuck to the bottom of her boot but, as she peeled it off, a flutter of excitement hit her stomach.

Purity Drives are back! Contribute now to claim your ND20,000 and help build a better world!

Twenty thousand New Dollars! Perseverance had heard that there were new Purity Drives heading to the Upper Stacks, but it was something new for them to head this far down into the lower City.

Perseverance booked her appointment immediately; she’d heard nothing but good things from others she knew who had given contributions. She soon found herself sitting in a rather tired-looking waiting room, flicking through old magazines and eyeing up a see-through box in the corner.

“You can open it you know, it’s only there for show. They’re not real EnDees,” another girl sat in the room. Waiting. Staring. Her friend sat with her, nodding in agreement.

Perseverance stood up, walked across the room and opened the box. She thumbed through a pile of New Dollar bills, wafting the paper against her nose.

“They sure smell like real EnDees,” the smell of money was unmistakable. Even New Dollars smelled like Old Dollars now. The future was old.

“I’m lucky to be here. I just stumbled across one of the flyers they were giving out down in the Low Stacks,” Perseverance continued to smell the money. Fake or not, her eyes might as well have been rolling in her head, like a shark smelling chum.

“Yeah, I’m the same,” said the staring girl, “but it’s definitely not real. They just do a wire transfer straight to your account once you’ve made your contribution. I think they just leave those there to make it harder for you to change your mind. Got to keep dangling that carrot…”

“Why would you though?” her friend chimed in, “I think what they’re doing is great and everyone benefits. The Choke almost wiped us out; we need to do everything we can to help to drive out the infertility.”

“Yeah, although my sister says she heard…” the door opened, interrupting the girl.

“Perseverance Jones, this way please,” a nurse dressed all in ‘New Republic Red’ stood at the door. She didn’t look like a friendly nurse, but did they ever? Perseverance had always hated doctors and hospitals. Someone always wanted to stick you with something sharp, or give you news you were absolutely better off not knowing.

“Please undress and put on one of those gowns,” Nurse Red pointed to a rail in the corner of the room which held a stack of white gowns, then she left. Perseverance did what she was told then sat on the edge of a metal gurney which was placed just off-centre in the room.

The nurse returned with a small black notebook tucked under her arm. It was emblazoned with a large scarlet letter “P”.

P for Purity, P for Perseverance, P for Population…

She untucked the notebook and opened it to reveal pages, but not pages of paper. The pages were ‘New Liquid’, electronic versions of the leaves that were once made from trees. The electronic pages shimmered with liquid letters of contract. The top of the first page simply stated "#887220.009". Perseverance glanced over the pages, of which there were quite a few, whilst she heard the nurse utter phrases such as “non-disclosure”, “binding” and “irrevocable”. None of it mattered. All Perseverance could think of were those twenty thousand EnDees that were soon to hit her account. And the good that she was doing, of course.

At the bottom of the last page was an image of a fingerprint which Perseverance knew meant “imprint here”. She placed her thumb over the image, the contract disappeared and the liquid letters formed the new words, “Thank You Perseverance Jones! Your Contribution (#887220.009) will build a Better World”.

A better world.

Since the Choke, the world couldn’t really get much worse. Humanity had known it was coming, of course, as it always seems to. Still, it did nothing. Old themes, repeating over new centuries. Humanity would never learn; never change. But we are all philosophers when things go wrong; we look back and say how could it have come to this? We are so very adept when looking at the past, yet seemingly so unable to apply our fantastic philosophies to the future. The Choke was the latest lesson. Humanity had poisoned the world, then Mother Nature poisoned humanity.

“Please lie down”.

Perseverance lay down on the gurney. The air reminded her of every hospital room she had ever been in; shivering cold and chemical. The air felt bright against her eyes and skin, like a physical presence pressing down into her body. She hated these places.

The nurse pulled a large machine on wheels over to the gurney and then moved a hinged part of it over Perseverance’s abdomen. There was suddenly a loud banging noise, followed by a sharp pain in her groin which moved to her stomach quickly, then stopped.

“Thank you. The extraction is complete. Please get dressed.”

As she put on her clothes, her slab beeped in her pocket.

New deposit EZbank.net. Please check your account.

Perseverance felt fantastic. She had made a genuine difference; a genuine contribution. Re-populating the world was the priority and, above all else, she knew that this time it would be different. Twenty thousand EnDees for a few eggs and a chance to heal humanity. Perseverance had gotten the better end of the bargain.

Lazarus Colony, Pacific Platform 82.11

“Doctor Simms, we have the latest batch from the Stacks.”

“Thanks Tee, can you just lay it on the bench please?”

The young assistant placed the metal container on the bench. Stickers covered the lid and sides of the container.

Biomaterial.

Purity Drive 088: Batch 887220

“Could you do me a favour, Tee, and turn down the broadcast on your way out?”

The cast was blaring out of two speakers at the back of the lab and the projector flashed bright images of the New Republic against the white walls. Henry Simms had worked for Purity Control for five and a half years, screening and processing batches of produce, retaining and manipulating only prime specimens for implantation. He had led the implantation unit in Lazarus Colony for just over a year and was also in charge of research into the effects of the Choke on female fertility. No-one had been able to determine yet why some women were affected, whilst others appeared immune, so the work he was doing was vital.

“Will do, Henry, do you want it right down?”

“Please. Actually, maybe just leave it on low for now,” Henry didn’t look up.

The assistant stopped and watched the screen for a few seconds, the broadcast that had been blaring was coming to an end.

“Why do you think they do it, Henry? The On-Landers?”

“They don’t know, Tee. They think they’re saving humanity which, I suppose, is true. We are humanity.”

The assistant nodded, turned and left the lab.

Of course, Henry knew something that no-one else did, at least no-one outside of the elite few based at each of the oceanic platforms. The extraction machine didn’t only extract the produce. In another generation it would extract the On-Landers altogether.

A commercial began to stream in the background as Henry opened the fresh batch of eggs.

Purity Control. Driving out impurities to build our Better World.