Sinking Through Time - Future Past

Chapter 11 - A Whole New Ball Game

Lucy and Kevin looked to the door as Prairie entered the room.

"Thank you Kevin. You can go now," she said.

"Okay," he replied. "Good luck" he said to Lucy, squeezing her shoulder quickly before exiting the room.

"Did you have a good sleep?" Prairie asked Lucy.

"Ah, I didn't mean to sleep. I didn't realize how tired I was," she replied.

"Well, it's probably good you did as you're going to need a quick mind to be able to take in what I'm about to tell you," Prairie offered.

She went on.

"If I remember rightly your question to me earlier was about if our organization represented the general population of the world at this time and, if not, how it differed; is that correct?"

"Yes."

"Well, Lucy, I am going to play along and assume that what you told me earlier about being from the year 2014 was the truth and answer your question for you. It's a lot to take in. In return, I would like you to answer some questions about your time period. Are you in agreement?"

 "Yes."

"Good. Are you ready to hear about how the world has changed?"

"Yes, please," Lucy answered, happy that she was finally going to get the answers she wanted.

"Good. As you are aware you are in the year 2151, a full one hundred and thirty seven years after your year of 2014. Much has changed since then. I'll try to keep it as simple as possible but you may interject if necessary, for clarification," Prairie said, waiting for Lucy to confirm she understood.

Lucy nodded. Prairie went on.

"I'll start with the most obvious changes that I feel will give you an idea of what you have stumbled into. What you knew as the countries and continents of the earth are no more. The old continents have been divided up into different areas which are now known as regions. Countries don't exist as such. Each region is ruled by a controlling family called an authority. There are five regions and five ruling families.

There were thirteen ruling families but eight of them were either overthrown during the war of 2022 or eventually joined together with another family by marriage. It was the thirteen families that manipulated the world into what is now known as the Third World War or The Rights War.

By 2067 every country had come under one governing body. This governing body divided all the countries up into the regions we have today. Are you following so far?"

"I think so."

"Good. Now, the first order of the new totalitarian government was to make vaccinations mandatory. This wasn't as hard as you may think as there were growing cases of such things as the Ebola virus and people voluntarily lined up to protect their children. Those who didn't were forced to, for the good of the people they were told. Every growing baby had a vaccination chip inserted into them at week nine, during their mother's first ultrasound. What the government didn't disclose was the fact that this chip altered the genetics of the child.  I'll go further into that a little later if necessary.

The second order of the new government was to make having a child without a licence illegal. The majority of the population at the time thought this was a good idea as there were too many unfit parents and more and more children were ending up in the huge foster care system. They thought that licensing the population would reduce those numbers.

Natural conception was also made into a punishable offence. If you wanted a baby you had to apply for a licence and use IVF. You do know what IVF is, don't you?"