Inside Venus

The Others

The alarms blared too loud. The skylights blinded us too brightly. The twins groaned, Anita and Charles slowly untangled from each other on their pile of patchwork cushions. I sat up and almost hit my head on the ceiling of my little curtained alcove. Auntie May coughed.

Our shack was number six-four-three A. Six for the floor of the Other Area. Four for how many of us lived inside, three for how many of us could work. A for the fact we were the first to be classified on this floor. There were other families like us on the floor, but they were mostly blood-relatives.

I opened the curtain to my alcove an watched as Anita straightened her skinny little body and Charles pulled the blanket over his head. I snatched it from him and folded it loosely. Auntie May waved at me blindly, hearing me walk towards her.

I sighed as I helped her stand from her cot and guided her over to the part of our shack I called the living room, set her on the couch and got some water from our tap.

As I got dressed and grabbed my work bag I reflected on how much I hated those people.

We were Others,  Anita, Charles, May and I. We were descended from the people that lost the Supremacy. The war that destroyed the planet humans lived on before. Earth. The people called Japanese had advanced technology, and the white Americans had the materials and space. They banded together and formed the Supreme Race. Anyone not of those two, or preferably a mix of them was considered lesser, and were left to die in the radiation. The exception was only those who could afford a seat on the ships that came here, to Asium. Those were the people that had been royalty before or wealthy. Royalty was corruption.

Asium had a Protector. The third one since the great Journey. Protector Staff was a "good woman" and she was "pureblood" so the Supreme people loved her. We hated her. The Others.

Anita tugged my sleeve and I looked down at her, she was in her regulated school dress already and had her hair brushed. She was definitely my favorite. Charles was struggling with the buttons on his shirt as he did every morning.

"Yes, Anita?" I asked.

"Are you gonna try to get another job today, Red?" She asked, her little seven year old hands curling tightly around the hem of her skirt.

"Yes I am. You need to study hard today, okay?" She nodded and went to help her brother with his shirt.

They were both way too thin. So was May. So was I. Damn them with their restricted rations. We knew the other Areas ate much better than a slice of plain bread, a meat stick and one fruit per meal if you rationed things equally.

Working Area had food stations you went to at mealtimes, different meals cost different amounts of credits, I had heard from one coworker when I managed to land my last job. I basically folded towels in a place called a spa. It was in the Leader Area, where they had food storages and you paid with credits for whatever you could afford