The Color "Alone"

Debrief

The world is no longer what it used to be.

Fifty-four years ago, war over diminishing resources had taken over the lands, countries pummeling one another for years (World War 3, if you will) until a devastating ray in space shot its beam of flame onto the earth. It had been a major space mission years ago that succeeded as a backup, in case problems become too unbearable. The world was in shambles and, with there being no hope of survival at the time, the ray targeted the planet as a whole to end the human race as quickly as possible. The earth became dry, scorched, and vegetation struggled to grow, giving up after freshwater became too scarce of a resource in the following years — animals quickly disappeared in suit. Rain didn’t fall as frequently, and monsoon season became the driest part of the year.

The only problem now was that the ray had malfunctioned. It hadn’t fired enough energy to fully deplete the natural resources, therefore leaving the people to perish slowly in agony.

Factories bloomed quickly once scientists and engineers learned to harvest clean enough water from the ocean using cheap human labor instead of using an expensive machine or power plant. As history had shown, if one person or a robot could not do the work, then hundreds of people and a set price could. Skies were then polluted due to smog and smoke. Breaths were taken at risk, but life was slowly getting back on its feet.

It was then decided by all rulers of any remaining major countries that productivity and work were the only things that could restore order. No distractions. No playing, no children, no entertainment of any sort, no love, no laughter, no color. Even the rumored bright hue of the sun about has been dulled by clouds of smog. There was and will only ever be work. It was the only thing we lived for.

Clothing was restricted to the basic pallet of white, black, and the wide spectrum of varying greys in-between — people with colored hair and eyes had been exiled from any and all borders to keep from attracting attention, to keep people focused. Black, white, greys, and the darkest of brown were the only colors in the gene pool. The higher ranked Officials had once tried to have us all look the same with similar haircuts, but it had been voted down in the House. Children were expected (forced) to work when they turned ten, after five years of cramming essential knowledge into their little heads. The oldest life (usage) expectancy was seventy-five years old. Families were separated — though nowadays Breeders were removed from their offspring after a year — as each individual was assigned a sector relative to their age group, then to the quadrant of their gender, before given a cabin to live in seclusion. The Passing was a whole day of no working, dedicated to moving out of old sectors and onto new ones when a citizen had reached a new age group. There were five groups: infancy to age 10, ages 11 to 18, ages 19 to 30, ages 31 to 50, and ages 51 and older. The single year between turning 11 onto 12 was filled with training for basic, simple jobs.

There wasn’t much inside the cabins, just the basic necessities: a bed, chair, table, cupboard, lamp, two sets of clothes, and a full bathroom along with supplies. They were fairly small, plain white rooms, since we were only ever in our cabins at night after work to sleep, which meant they are also kept fairly neat. This varied person to person.

Constructive schooling was administrated from the ages of twelve to seventeen, featuring the typical subjects: mathematics, science, history, and language arts. No “physical education,” because the school board found work to be enough exercise. No electives, fine arts, nor extra-curricular activities, because they were against various laws and not relative to any sort of productivity. No citizen of the Reviving States is to spend recreational time unless instructed to do so…. There shall be no possession of colored liquids and/or items without license or Official approval….

The schedule for students was simple: wake up at five in the morning; head out to work for two hours; go to school from seven am to two in the afternoon; return to work for another four hours; go home to drill through two hours of homework while eating dinner, then go to bed by eight thirty in the evening. Nine o’clock at the latest. Once graduating school, the schedule removed homework time to add in two separate hours of down time (one for lunch, and one to clean up for dinner in our cabins); school hours turned into more work hours. Any time not spent in school or other required activities generally meant more work.

I am sixteen. I live in Phoenix, Arizona; Sector 32, Third Quadrant, Cabin 259. My name is Kaleb Derro. And, yes, I was the one who set off the fire alarm.