The O Men

13

         In that moment it was conceivable that I was dead, in a sense. I hadn't died yet but I was seconds away, but within that span of time, my whole life flashed before my eyes - my life wasn't very fulfilling I've realized. Just hours of mind numbing school, a visorboard repeating what I already know, the monotonous rides on the transport, the hours of work after school, capping off SALZ jars, - probably imported from the SwissGerman region of the Union state. I vaguely remember them fighting over one of the last original countries that never got swept into the War of the States - England. In fact, we are still at war over this territory, and based on the peace that war brings the Major Party, it's evident that the O Men army could be controlling this whole war, letting up the Union soldiers only to break them down. It's all to keep the state at war, because when there's war, then there's a reason to keep supply low, which forces the people to care about basic living situation rather than higher level thinking. Quite a diabolical way to control your citizens, but it works, unwittingly so. They remove the individuality of the people and keep them at a primitive level of survival and that's how the government stays wealthy and comfortable. At that realization I begin to laugh

"You know it's funny," I say, Ashier's eyes trailing my movements closely. "In the moment you pointed your gun at me, I came to the realization that individuality was not the only thing the state had to remove from the commoners." Ashier's eyebrows arch up in confusion, she's suspicious, but her love of violence has clouded her intelligence - she's nothing more than a defect to Orion. This means that if I were to die, Orion would give power to Lilah. Ashier's decisions will bring life in the state down lower than it had been already, so there's no way within this logic that Orion would give her power unless she was literally the only option.
"You had to remove their ability to become intelligent" I said with a smirk. Ashier's eyes widened, I knew that she was caught off guard - my suspicion was correct. Rose took this chance to disarm the Observers, who we realized weren't really observers at all. They were just commoners paid to act as an illusion. Ashier wanted to kill me herself all along. I took in the move rose made to disarm the others and I contemplated whether attempting to do the same would be wise

"Do you have anything to add before I blow your brain to bits?" She hissed through her teeth.

"What a smart use of alliteration." I responded. Before I knew what I had done, Ashier's gun was in my hands and she was on the ground. "What the fuck was that!?" She shouted, obviously disoriented with growing rage. I look back over at rose, her smile of approval making me feel all jittery on the inside. Lilah looked at me in shock, unable to fathom that I'd be able to learn a move like that just from one glance.

"Jeez I'm so glad you're on our side" Lilah muttered. Rose only smiled. I turn to look back at Ashier, who amazingly was still on the ground.

Rose, without hesitation, shot each commoner in the head and shot Ashier in the legs. "That'll keep her from following us for a while. Lilah was the visor off?"

It was.

We all breathed a sigh of relief, Orion has no knowledge of this, and killing off Ashier would have been a bad move, Rose was acutely aware of this fact, and simply made her immobile. With our luck, no one would come check here for long enough to have her contract gangrene and possibly die from illness, rather than me becoming public enemy number one. We got back into the waste truck, the driver was unaware of the events, and didn't question the new passenger, nor the fact that I was covered in glass and Rose was covered in blood in such a way that you know it didn't come from her. No one said a word while getting into the car. There was nothing to be said. As we approached the city of Meridian, I felt myself relax a little bit - the sensation of adrenaline leaving my body alarmed me a little bit, which shot it back up a little bit.

         "Let yourself relax a little Charlotte" Lilah said, it was obvious that she could sense my fear. "It's not healthy for you to be this way, you're already much thinner than when I last met you." This was true. Although they re-fed me, I never really fully regained my lifelike flush of red, nor was I able to regain the weight I had lost back completely - the 'parasites' must have interfered with my body's artificial DNA settings and reduced my ability to store fat. My hair would have been about shoulder length by now, but I  kept shaving it off because I was able to work more efficiently, and the strange disease that took hold of my scalp swiftly disappeared, which meant that my hair was going to grow back much faster now. I trailed off on this thought, and just as I expected, it was abruptly interrupted.

         "We're almost here. Put these on" rose said, handing me some Meridian city clothes. "Change quickly now. We need to make our jump from this waste transport seamless." I held the clean clothes in my hands, receiving flashbacks from the torture and the manner in which I received those clothes being the exact manner I received these. Standing there and shaking, I attempted to speak, only to choke on my tears as the events of the torture flooded back to me. All that kept being repeated to me was the torture and him handing me my clothes, and I collapsed yet again. Lilah was startled by my sudden dysfunction, but Rose understood.

         She sat near me and started speaking. "Hey hey listen Charlotte it's gonna be ok, just breathe now, yes that's it just, just breathe." I finally calmed down, feeling very exhausted I got up, changed into the new clothes, and fell promptly to sleep. What I wasn't aware of was the fact that Rose knew all too well what I was experiencing, for she experienced the same thing in her training years. "You know I'm honestly surprised that Charlotte's handling this so well." Rose spoke absentmindedly

         "How on earth is THIS," Lilah said, pointing to me. "Handling it well?"

         "Well," Rose began, " I was beginning training to become an observer in Uma city - My parents were Observers so naturally I would be placed to be one too. They'd teach us the technique for moving as quickly as possible and as silently as possible to cause the least amount of disruption possible when time comes where we have to, well, remove someone. They'd have us do grueling exercises to help us build muscle quickly, and the genetic alteration they do enhances that for us. I was one of the stronger ones fortunately, I was around 13 at the time, I started my training at 8 years old. One day we were doing our rooftop exercises when I saw one of the 9 year olds struggling to keep up, so I fell back and taught her the proper posture and she quickly caught up. I didn't think much of it. I was summoned by my instructor that day, who told me that I was not to help the other trainers under any circumstances and that they should develop the ability to figure it out themselves. Me being an impassioned teen, I of course opposed the rule. The instructor started to beat the shit out of me and stripping me down so that his hooked belt hit every part of my skin. Once he was done, he left me cold and naked on the floor. He dropped the belt next to me and told me to be in bed at the usual time and left. I think that's when I realized that maybe I don't want to be an Observer. I'd have nightmares about it and I'd falter just like Charlotte did right now, but I never gave my myself permission to collapse, even though I wanted to. It was unbearable just having that happen once. The fact that Charlotte here was able to endure this sexual torture multiple times capped with starvation shows her true mental capabilities. I can only wish for a will as strong as hers." She said, as she stroked my head, which was lying on her lap. "Maybe then things would have been different."

"You are strong" said Lilah. "No one is weaker and no one is less, that's what I've come to learn. Every one has a different level of tolerance and for you to have reached that level and kept yourself together shows your strength"

Tears began to outline Rose's cheekbone as she finally allowed herself to cry for the first time in 6 years.