Wretched by Offer Reish (best free ebook reader for pc .TXT) 📖

the stage and beyond the first line of people in the audience. The movement belonged to Industry employees who had been instructed to stop Jessica's speech, end The Existents' event and allow the immediate opening of the show. When this group of young men was about to climb the small staircase that led to the stage they were stopped by two policemen who were part of the increased security detail that had been deployed to secure the event and ensure the safety of The Existents and the property in case the crowd became overly excited. The current concern was that if Jessica were disturbed in any way the enormous crowd might get out of control. So the stage remained clear of anyone who wasn't Jessica or the black masks, but suddenly lights started dancing around the Gardens and music not loud enough to drown out Jessica's voice but sufficient to fluster the crowd emerged. A majority of the crowd, including Leonardo, believed this to be a technical malfunction that would be repaired shortly, but Jessica thought differently and rather than pause and wait, she increased the volume and the speed of her speech. The crowd's silence was broken and there was a tangible sense of discontent and restlessness that was felt as strongly on stage as in the backmost rows in the audience, so that Jessica was almost bellowing in order to be heard over the music and the rising murmur. But even then neither her confidence nor her conviction foundered, and she was almost as beautifully feminine as she'd been in the first moments after the stage lights had come on that evening.

"You might imagine that to prevent a mother- any mother- from crying out when her baby is taken away from her would require the employment of extreme measures. Indeed, to this end the Industry has contrived a method whose efficiency is exceeded only by its cruelty; it is so cruel, in fact, that I would recommend any mother present to leave now and never hear what I am about to say." This last sentence was obviously not a sincere one (and it wasn't meant to sound like one), since there wasn't a single woman in the audience who, even if given a real chance, would dare forego Jessica's next few words. The restless murmur of the crowd died down again and now only the slow, beautiful music and colorful lights broke Jessica's dominance.

Leonardo was afraid of what Jessica was going to say next, but he too didn't even consider shutting his ears or asking his mom to somehow make it go away.

"On Saturday afternoons, and once a year on this day of celebration and of beauty and of exuberance, breeding mother Wretches- outlets- are forbidden to give birth- to produce. This is done voluntarily by the mothers, who do everything within their power to delay birth until the forbidden period is over. Mothers have even been known to physically block newborns' path to the world. This 'voluntary' delay of the newborn's birth has been induced by the Industry through realizing mothers' worst imaginable nightmare- worse still, in fact, since it is something so terrible that one couldn't imagine it unless one has seen it take place. Before, a punishment was developed by Industry scientists to convince mothers to prevent brining a newborn to the world during the forbidden period at all costs. It was quite simple, really: a device known as Bad Mothers would be brought into the Production Camp where the offense had taken place and the mother and her newborn placed inside. The mother would be placed inside a small cage and her newborn was locked beside the cage in a sealed transparent tank. The bottom of the mother's cage acted as a catalyst: whenever a certain weight was exerted on it, water would be pumped into the newborn's tank. Once the mother realized this, she would cling to the top of the cage with all her might and never touch the bottom. But even the strongest, most tenacious of mothers couldn't hold on forever, and eventually they would all plunge to the bottom and have their own body weight cause the tank next to them to fill up and drown their helpless newborn. In the open, before thousands of other mothers who bore witness to the atrocity, they would helplessly accept the fact that they were physically responsible for the deaths of their newborns. It was so effective that for five years no newborn Wretch has come to the world during the forbidden periods. I say this to you not as a woman, a future mother or an Existent, but as someone whose sense of compassion burns inside her at the thought of this injustice."

The red lights were now playing on Jessica and the small podium she was at, and for some reason all Leonardo could see instead of the red light was blood. Blood on the podium, blood on Jessica's beautiful face, and even blood on his black mask which made him shudder and take it off. Hailey, like most women in the audience, stood silently with a pale, blank expression on her normally warm and emotional face, while many of the men began to holler and wade through the crowd toward the stage.

"Can any mother here imagine being put in a Bad Mother with her newborn? Can anyone here imagine even being forced to see this without running away? The Industry has so far done well to keep this reality away from us- and what I have told you is just one type of abuse out of countless others- but no longer. Now, my friends, we must choose how to act: pursue justice with compassion toward these miserable creatures who are paying an unimaginable price so we can be served- or perpetuate the injustice with justice's eternal nemesis: indifference."

Compassion. Indifference. Blood. Leonardo was in a whirl, fascinated by these new concepts but at the same time almost at a loss as to Jessica's intentions and discouraged by the change in her. She now had to pause and gasp for air every few sentences, apparently due to both the high volume she was forced to maintain and the increasing violence in her body language. The lights were now swaying this way and that in an increasing speed, further aggravating the restiveness of the crowd. Never before had the Hanging Gardens area been so tumultuous.

Then, instantly, everything froze.

Something happened that hadn't happened in the city for five years before: a newborn Wretch, a new nonexistent, was brought to the world during a forbidden period. A scream- deafening, bloodcurdling, heart-rending- issued from inside the wall, so forceful that it seemed not to have to rise over the wall but pass right through the bricks. It peaked at the very first second and then simply remained, unchanging, dreadfully steady for another second, and another, and another…until nobody knew how long it lasted. There wasn't a single man, woman or child- Existent, police, Industry or audience- that didn't stand in silence, frozen, gaping, thoughtless throughout the duration of the nightmarish sound.

The scream was like none other. It was a loud screech, fraught with such pain and suffering that no actor could ever imitate it, no mind could imagine it, and no mother could hear it without feeling her knees tremble and her heart pound with an uncontrollable primordial fear. It was so terrible- so pure and inexorable in the profoundness of its pain- that all one could do when hearing it was to think 'Please God, don't let whatever is causing it ever happen to me." Even a boy like Leonardo, who didn't think he believed in God, found himself murmuring something like this. He tried to think about what Jessica had said before- compassion as the basis for justice- but the terrible feeling that gripped him during the scream didn't allow him to think clearly. The whole family was in the same condition, and even Hailey didn't turn her head to check on her sons or try to shield them from this traumatic experience.

Finally, after an unknown amount of time that probably spanned several seconds but seemed like- well, nobody could say how long it had seemed since time had lost any kind of significance, it finally died down. And though it still rang in the ears and twitched in the heart after it was gone, the relief of everyone there was great. It took Jessica several moments after the scream had subsided to resume her speech, and though she made an effort to sound as strong as before her voice became uncharacteristically shaky.

"It seems a Wretch has just been born somewhere behind this great wall." She didn't need to yell anymore, since although her voice was barely audible over the music she knew everyone could hear only her voice and nothing else. "And it will soon be placed in a Bad Mother device along with its mother. Unless we do something to stop it."

This unleashed the tumult of emotions that had been harbored by the crowd, and especially by the large group of men that had made their way to the front. They broke the first line of the audience and with unmistakable rage rushed toward the Gardens. The police force that was there to prevent any disorder that could lead to damage of Industry property looked like a cat-trapper called in to restrain a hungry lion. The team of Industry employees that had remained behind the stage until those moments retreated fearfully. But the men weren't after the Industry employees or the Gardens or the policemen. They were in a craze, not knowing where to direct their fueled animosity and frustration, and in the end they found themselves storming the stage and tearing it apart. For several moments Leonardo was worried they might hurt the black masks or even Jessica (if his mother hadn't been gripping his hand and rushing him away, he might've tried to help her) but the assault came to an end without requiring any human sacrifice.

The night that was supposed to be the greatest one in the history of the city and in the lives of many of the people ended in a shocking anticlimax. Leonardo threw his head around and caught one last glimpse of Jessica's weary face before he was swallowed in the sea of people scrambling to the safety of their homes. He felt terrible knowing that Jessica hadn't seen him that night, and he hoped she knew he'd been there the whole time.

Four

4

 

In the weeks that followed the Beauty Wall night seldom could a conversation be heard, a news piece be viewed or even a thought be thought that wasn't somehow related to the momentous events of that night and of the implications it was expected to have. (To say that any implication was expected would be mistaken, as it seemed that everyone expected there to be different implications, but of course most people believed that the implications they were expecting were the ones most likely to be fulfilled). There were developments on several main fronts that set the tone for grouping and side-picking of the people.

First to react to the night's events was the Industry. Wisely and prudently, senior members