Page 1 of Failed State

EVERY DAY IS MONDAY

SYDNEY

“Jesus fucking Christ,”I mutter as I slog through the streets of Tempest Seven. “Just because they locked us up like animals doesn’t mean we have to live like them.”

Pausing in my walk to the education center, I look around myself in abject disgust. The inhabitants of this end of Tempest Seven aren’t the bottom of the proverbial barrel, but outside of the ‘lockdown losers’, people stuck here never seem to get out of the cycle of poverty and despair. I don’t think it means we have to throw garbage everywhere and give the drones nice shots to prove to the humans that we’re as unworthy as the leaders of this stupid country say we are.

What would it hurt to tidy up, even if we don’t have much?

Honestly, I believe it’s only a third rooted in laziness. I think the other parts are exhaustion and hopelessness. Since the First Infected Being Sweep of 2020, supernaturals all over this country were tracked, catalogued, reassigned, and declared property of the government. By the time they ran the second through fourth sweeps, the population of some supernatural species dropped by fifty percent. The rules on how to track us down and receive your bounty were infuriatingly vague, whichgave the most violent psychopaths in the world a free license to kill, maim, rape, and disappear anyone caught on the ‘Non-Human Watchlist’.

I was a baby when my mother left, but my father taught me everything I needed to know about being a shifter. Unfortunately, he was one of the people who ended up on that list and was killed in the Second Infected Being Sweep of 2020. That sweep was brutal, and since I was a ‘half-breed’ orphan, I was placed in the orphanage in Tempest Seven. From the moment every child and teen arrived, they were forced to attend the Federal Enrichment Assimilation & Re-Education Center.

Our human professors taught us that being born this way is a punishment from their God, especially if you were a mixed type. At first, we tried to tell them about our various species, but it became clear very quickly what would happen if we didn’t fall in line. You either learned to smile and nod, providing the rote answers and scripts they gave you when tested or interrogated, or you died.

Now, in 2024, there are no rebellions against the Federated Human States of America, nor are there any aid workers from other countries left to help or try to get us out. The world has given up on the former United States—it’s been ruled a failed state by the United Nations and cordoned off at every border on land and sea.

We’re on our own in the former land of the free and home of the brave.

“As if anyone would want to come here anyway. Shit went downhill fast after that baboon was elected,” I mutter to myself. I realize I’ve spoken louder than I thought and I look around carefully, making certain I’m not near a Confession Enforcement zone or any other beings. My breath releases slowly when I confirm that I’m totally alone and not in a hot zone.

No one watches out for others now; the temptation to gain things your family or group needs is too high. A random person would dime me out for a week’s supply of crackers and I can’t blame them. Food and drink are rationed, our clothes are drab and provided, and the world is dimmer since the Sweeps. They force us to stay small so they’re in control, and we have to live with it because of the fucking Markers.

My hand flies to the back of my neck, grunting in irritation as I scratch at the tattoo that covers the skin where the implant is located. These were the second step on the path to the current tyranny of our ‘benevolent’ government. That spray tanned fuck won the election because the humans here were that goddamn stupid, and then the virus hit. COVID brought America to its knees and like all good con artists, President Taterman used the distraction to funnel money into secret programs under DARPA.

Men who stare at goats my skinny ass.

They released a widely contested study that blamed the virus on the ‘infected’. Unfortunately, they defined that as beings living in our country that had paranormal capabilities. The rest of the world laughed at the senile old fuck until the media hype was so huge that the various species around the world convened a leadership meeting. With so many cameras and videos everywhere, it was only a matter of time until a random human caught one of us doing something and bam! A viral TikTok would expose all of us whether we were ready or not. The vote was close, but the supernatural community decided to come out of hiding to protest their innocence.

‘The Unveiling’ was the most watched TV event in decades, and the consensus was our leaders had done the right thing. At least, until the next study was released. This one made Taterman damn near salivate as he screamed into the TV cameras about the ‘unclean’ liars and thieves who have been hiding in plain sight, taking our jobs, and stealing the lives humans shouldhave. It quickly devolved into a mass panic and our kind were left scrambling.

We’d told them who and where we were, like a bunch of fools.

Thus, the evil assholes at the top started their mission to protect the humans from us and reclaim their country. Supernaturals in other nations were fine, but the atmosphere here became dangerous within the blink of an eye. Taterman stacked his own deck in the courts and the legislature by fear-mongering, especially since the world was still reeling from a pandemic. Eventually, he was able to get the support he needed for the first Sweep.

Secret Supernatural Enforcement Agents used databases, social media, DNA websites, immigration records, and everything they could to gather the biggest dragnet of personal information ever assembled. Civil rights advocates and other world leaders were vocally opposed to such violations, but nothing could stop the juggernaut of hatred. Once they identified every supe in the nation—to the best of their ability—that’s when they stripped our citizenship, robbed us blind, and re-assigned every single one to the sectors they’d been building in secret.

Let’s be honest—they’re supe prison camps.

But the humans felt safe once more because while we were all being shuffled all over like cattle, the rest of the scientific community worldwide started to get COVID under control. Taterman crowed about the United States’ involvement, taking credit for slowing the spread by locking up the infected beings. No one but his nutty followers believed him, but at that point, it didn’t matter.

So when they came to implant the Markers, no one spoke up.

We all have them, and depending on what you are and how powerful you are, they are different. But resting above thespot where they cut us open to shove in the controller, there’s a matching tattoo of the logo that is now on the flag of the Federated Human States of America… but that came much, much later.

Democracy dies in the dark, the old slogan said… and here lies her rotted corpse.

“Hey, Syd. It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, huh?”

My brooding gets interrupted by the arrival of Thad, my friend since we got placed here four years ago. He’s a bear shifter and the size of a small SUV, but it doesn’t bother me. I survived the sector version of high school partially because we stuck together. My brains and his bulk were a good match and it kept us from getting cornered by the gangs and cliques.

Okay, fine, it kept me from getting cornered. Obviously, Thad held his own without me.

“That sentiment hasn’t been applicable for half a decade, man.” I toss my braid over my shoulder and wait for him to catch up. It’s our second week at the F.E.A.R. Academy’s college level program and being late is more than frowned upon. I have to give us extra time every morning because Thad lumbers out of bed like his animal—slow and grumpy. “We gotta get moving.”

The dark haired shifter looks at me, scratching the piratical scruff he’s usually sporting. “You’re ridiculously concerned about rules for someone with such a rebel spirit.”

“Rebels die, Thad. I’m very aware of that.” Turning on my heel, I head toward the huge building at the end of the main drag with a heavy heart. Losing Dad was hard and I’ll never forgive him for assuming humans are anything but ignorant beasts that barely rise above their simian relatives.

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