Deprived [DEAD]

Chapter 1

I can't stop thinking back to the images. They haunt my dreams and every minute of my life.

I can't do much research on the subject since the internet isn't exactly ours to use.

The government took away that privilege after they learned a few of our citizens were plotting with the Australians. World War V would have started if it weren't for removing the World Wide Web.

A weight seems to land on my shoulders. I shouldn't have used it. They probably already know about what I did.

"Fran!"

Emas's yell brings me back to reality as I run through the narrow halls of our home. He sits on the couch, his eyes glued to the television.

"You need to see this," he whispers as his fingers slowly comes up and points at the black and white screen.

The old television sits in the corner of our living room. The black and white picture makes me laugh some days, but the static noise in the background of the speech is what truly annoys me.

I walk closer, getting a better angle of the dinosaur of a television and finally seeing what he's so intent on watching.

Images like the ones I was looking at before flashed across the screen.

"Someone recently found out about our little secret. We now need to tell you all about these images.

"They were recently discovered using the internet. As you've probably noticed, a part of the brain is missing from one of the pictures. That is your so-called 'sex drive'."

I glance over at Emas, he doesn't acknowledge my glance. My mind races about the area of the brain missing.

Sex drive? What does that even mean?

"The world's population has been rising at an unexpected rate. In order to not overpopulate the planet, we've killed off your urge to reproduce. This way, we are capable of making babies in the lab, where it can be done at a controlled rate."

I gasp.

"Do not be alarmed though. The children in the lab are being raised like a normal child would be. They do have a sex drive so in about 20 years when they are of age, we hope the population will be once again at a controllable rate. Thank you for tuning in."

Emas sinks deeper into the couch. I can almost hear the gears in his mind turning. The squeaking sound the couch makes as he wiggles in thought annoys me.

"I knew it!" I scream at the screen once that words had finally sunk in.

Emas stops wiggling as the static from the television channel fills the room. We can't believe this has happened over the years. Were we born this way, or did they destroy our brains in their labs?

My breaths become shallow and I feel lightheaded. My knees become weak and I slump against the wall. I slowly slide down onto the floor as his words replay in my head.

"...we've killed off your urge to reproduce..."

Emas glances over at me after those heart wrenching words roll through my mind.

"Is it actually possible though? It can't be true. How could they even find a way to do that?"

I can feel Emas's heart break at the new reality. How can reality be new though? It has just always been fake.

This plan of theirs, all the images of the brain slowly being destroyed.

I wouldn't be surprised if they started working on this plan a long time ago. It explains the abundance of extinct species. Animals were the first target.

Who knows how long it took to destroy the human race’s urge. With the nearing 13 billion people on the planet, how did they manage to destroy everyone's brain in the same fashion?

Nothing seems to make sense anymore. All the things I was taught as a child has just been shoved to the curb with this new information.

The blue sky may not even be blue. Water may not be a fluid. Oxygen may not be what we breathe. The government may not be everything.

My breath catches in my throat. The room seems to sway around me, my head pounds. I don't know why I care so much, it's pointless to care.

I was never 'normal'.