No matter how she tries to rationalize the carnage unfolding in front of her, with her outward appearance seemingly calm, her soul is screaming for justice. All the other personnel either watch with a smirk on their face or stand calmly staring at the monitors. But she can't afford to have an outburst of emotion, the last woman that let her feelings slip was executed immediately. She has to be more responsible than that, she must free at least one baby from this slaughter.
Cubicles are set up in four foot squares both across and lateral. Each is constructed of a high density stainless steel allowing for a suitable experimental area. Both sides of the walkway have these pens stacked two high and fifty long. Four men in all black hazmat suits begin to unlock cell after cell, as two more men come behind them and open the bulletproof glass and remove the infant or toddler that occupied them. In the middle of the walkway a temporary conveyor belt was placed allowing for quick removal of all the children. The two men place the toddlers on the conveyor at three foot intervals, the belt stretches the entire length of the walkway leading directly to the furnace at the far end. She wonders if these monsters even feel remorse or sorrow, and she knows her race is considered inferior by them, she still can't fathom behaving the way they are now. But what can she do? She asks herself. What good will come of saving one of these babies, how can it impact this world for the better? She dismisses these second judgments and decides if her life is worth anything at all she will die to save one of them.
One by one the six to eighteen month old babies are traveling down the conveyor belt, most quiet and calm with the impending pain and death approaching. As the baby hits the wall at the other end of the path, a reinforced steel door shoots open just long enough to let each baby inside. Once past that door the baby will fall twenty feet into the molten slag waiting at the bottom. Heat and steam rise from the lava searing them on their downfall. It isn't known when they actually die, whether being completely dissolved by the lava or the flame and steam shooting upwards as they fall. But once the steel door opens each infant is no longer serene and quiet. They scream and flail their arms and legs as the belt drops them down and continue to wail until they hit the molten death pool. There are four hundred children in this complex, all awaiting or experiencing this fate. But this is just one of the experimental plants on the Eastern side, as many as a dozen others exists although all whereabouts and data is kept secret from each other.
She wipes the tears from her eyes when no one is looking and curses herself for letting them pour out in the first place. She can't afford anyone to see her do anything out of the ordinary. She has worked at this plant for several years and only a few weeks ago learned what was planned for the "experiments". She hated that word, how it could be labeled on any human was unknown to her. The pens were half empty now and most of the workers continued to watch the monitors in delight, even with some making jokes about the slaughter taking place. She had to make her way around and collect the linens from the now empty cells. She left the observation room and was almost immediately stopped by a security guard.
"Where the fuck do you think your goin mutt?" SO Watts asks. Special Officer (SO) is an elite trained military branch specifically formed to watch over the experimental facilities in the country. Boys are selected after passing a series of physical and psychological tests at the age of seven. Training then begins in secret until they reach the age of 18 and enter service officially. Not much is known about their rituals and agenda. Not even the elected president has authority over them, that right is solely up to the Safekeeper organization.
"Linens, sir" she responds immediately, as she knows firsthand the brutality they use to keep everyone in line. She has known people who have disappeared when they crossed or failed the Safekeepers, although it is an SO she last sees that person with. SO Watts pulls out his standard issue assault knife, this was deemed both necessary for instilling fear as well as a potent weapon. The handle is a heavy carbon composite capable of breaking the bones in the face and chest with a single blow. The glimmering jagged blade was equally terrifying and more than capable of disemboweling or decapitating any of the mutts, whether they deserved it or not. She continues gathering sheets and pillow cases from the living area that housed the staff, even as SO Watts' gaze can be felt piercing through her. She dare not hesitate, recoil or brace for an assault from him, this was only shown to make their attack and beating more brutal and result in the loss of life. Half way done with the twelve rooms she can hear him walk away and crumbles down to the floor. She holds a sheet against her face and belts out a long much needed cry that she often has when she is alone after surviving another day of work. However, this weeping was not for her own safety as was the norm. She was concerned for all the life ending down the corridor and had to figure out a way to save them. There are cameras everywhere and biometric scanners can tell who enters what room at what times and when they exit. She has to be careful, there is little sense in grabbing some children just to be caught and killed along with them.
She finishes putting the soiled linens in her basket, a yellow contraption with wheels on the bottom to allow even the feeble woman ease of carrying several laundry loads, and an idea strikes her to smuggle out as many kids she can fit in her basket since she has to roll it outside in the back to the separate laundry facility. It is lucky the operators don't want such trivial and remedial things in the same building that they sleep in. She pushes the cart around the living quarters and heads towards the back exit along the experimental area, the last section is being attended to now. She glances through the windows and can see the operators have finished setting up the last conveyor belt and have already put half the children in this section on the belt to the furnace. She pushes slowly trying to figure out a way to save some, any, or die trying. The four men inside are wiping sweat from their brow and carry on a conversation like they are unloading sacks of cement.
"I'm gonna need a drink after all this work." One of the workers says.
"Last one on the belt, he's not going to go anywhere let's go get that drink now." The other worker says. The four men exit the area just as she pushes the cart into the opening and can see a toddler on his back on the conveyor naked and serene. He doesn't try to crawl or roll off the belt, he just lays there making baby noises. She dashes towards the last child as it reaches a few feet from the furnace and doesn't think she is going to make it in time. The door opens to the furnace as the child is almost swallowed by the molten slag inside and she grabs his arms and yanks him free of the doorway and the doom below. The child begins to scream until he looks up into her eyes and calms down, this may be the first face of his own race he has ever seen. She lays the kid carefully in the cart and tells him "Just be quiet for a little longer, we are almost home." She scurries down the hallway to the back of the facility and is relieved to not see anyone around. The metal door shoots upward as she approaches and she can breathe the outside air and for a small moment thinks she might actually pull this off. After entering the empty laundry facility, which is also her and other servants living quarters if they are required to stay for more than twenty four hours. The cart bumps against a washing machine and she says "sorry" and races to her room to grab her belongings and most importantly her car keys. Most mutts aren't allowed to drive freely but working for these facilities allows a monthly pass to travel around for supplies and any other errands the operators require. She wraps the toddler in a soft blanket she brought from home to help calm her down after particularly hard days at work. Her car is a very run down and beat up two door that has more rust then the original yellow when the car was new forty years ago. The child is laid down on the passenger floor and covered with some of the extra papers and trash that litter her car. She takes off quickly and speed down the empty streets. It is almost four in the morning but this area of town is very sparse and allows these facilities the ability to operate in anonymity rather nicely. If she can make it to her apartment in the slums she can get enough supplies to make it out of this country. Heading there she begins to panic and think about the officers and operators watching her escape on the monitors and tries to think of an alternative plan. She won't make the thirteen hour drive without gas and food for the baby, but it is too risky to go to her house. The very cruel and emotionless SO's are terribly efficient at tracking and finding fugitives, and she knows Watts is a particularly cruel and bloodthirsty person. She runs a red light and curses herself for drawing more attention to herself, she nervously checks her rear view mirrors to check for any police behind her but none so far. She swerves to the left and makes a quick turn on another street towards where a co-worker was staying. About ten minutes later she is screeching up to a rundown house that looks as if it was fired upon several times over the years, there are even scorch marks on the right side where it was set on fire at some point. She jumps out of the car leaving the child on the floor and runs to the front door and knocks.
"Mary? What in earth are you doing here at this time?" opening the door her co-worker Linda asks rubbing her eyes.
"I don't have time Linda, I'm in a lot of trouble and the less you know the least they could come after you for. I'm going back home out of this country and I need some gas credits and some food if you have any to spare?" Mary asks.
"Of course dear, I have three gas tokens that wouldn't burden me too much to part with. As far as food goes I don't have much just some bread and leftover pasta we had for dinner."
"I'll take the bread and tokens, thank you Linda I'm sorry for coming to you and hope I didn't put you in any danger."
"It's ok, I was looking forward to retiring soon anyways." She jokingly says as the two share a sad smile because they both know the only retirement allowed is death. They embrace for what they both know will be the last time they see each other and Mary runs to her car, still running and door ajar, as she turns before she ducks down into the car she can see Linda in the porch light with tears streaming down her face and she follows suit. She slams her door even as the tears flow from her eyes like a waterfall and she does her best to wipe them away. She puts the tokens and bread on the passenger seat and looks down at the sleeping baby on her floor. She can't believe she actually did this, she can't believe she has made it this far if only she could make it a bit further. She pulls onto the highway and passes a sign that says:
Western United States 710 Miles
Ten hours have gone by and the two stops at the filling stations have been extremely unnerving. She used the tokens that were given to mutts for gas and felt like everyone looking at her knew who she was and what she had done, but in reality they were just turning their nose up at having to see a mutt at all. The baby had woken up and was crying during the second stop for gas but fortunately no one had heard it and she gave the child some bread and poked a hole in the top of a water bottle so he could suck some down. He was around sixteen months she thought but it was hard to tell since she was ignorant to what experiments they had performed or what they had done. He did look happy, giving her reassuring smiles and coos that cemented the belief that she was doing what was right. As she gets closer to the border she has to think of another way across besides the guarded highways that separate these two countries. Both sides are at a constant state of about to go to full out war, whether it's the Eastern United States constant artillery attack or the Western United States airstrike in retaliation for the bombing. She gets off at the last exit before the big border that runs along the Mississippi River in St. Louis and begins to think about what options she has. She has known about people sneaking back and forth using old train tracks that used to connect these countries in a common commerce interest, but after the last war they had severed any connection to each other. She makes her way through the barren streets and gets closer to the river. St. Louis is mostly filled with military bunkers and artillery on both sides to keep a constant eye on each other. The river is running fast, faster than what she was thinking it would and is beginning to have second thoughts on attempting to cross this river. She drives down further and gets the baby out of the car and puts him in a backpack Linda had put the bread in and kept him wrapped in a sheet. The top of the backpack was open and she put it on reversely so she could keep an eye on him. He has been sleeping an awful lot and, not being a mother herself, she is very worried about his health. She walks over by the front of an old coffee shop and goes inside to find any supplies she can take with her when she sees a TV on in the back and is alarmed that someone might be here. She carefully tip toes around looking in doorway after doorway when she finds empty chairs with an ashtray that has dozens of cigarettes in it but none still smoking and she breathes a sigh of relief, she imagines soldiers come here to pass the time of being assigned border duty. There is breaking news on the television and her heart stops as she sees Linda's house and then a picture of her car leaving the last gas station she stopped at. She runs out the back and down to the river, she grabs her head and begins to panic, unsure of what to do next and emotionally exhausted from everything thus far. She knows Linda is dead, there is little doubt they beat her asking question after question until she gave out. Maybe she should have told her then she would have had something to give them and might still be alive. She knows it is naive to think things like that to not try to rationalize what these monsters can and will do. Clearing her head she looks up and down the shoreline and sees a beat up boat that looks like it is barely staying afloat as it is attached to a small dock. The boat mashes up against the dock as the current tries to set the boat free from its bondage and send it south. She reaches the boat and unties the rope and pulls out a broken paddle after setting the baby down with another bag of supplies. The current is stronger then it looked on the surface and quickly carries the boat away from the dock it was once tied to. She tries desperately to cross the river but only makes small amounts of progress as she approaches a bridge with soldiers on both sides. The Eastern soldiers open fire on her as she is swept under the bridge. Bullets hit the boat and strike the backpack the child is laying in, she screams out and paddles as hard as she can with her broken paddle and after leaving the bridge she is getting closer to the Western shore. Out of range of the soldiers that fired on her and close enough to the shore she grabs the backpack and jumps off the boat into the chest deep cold water and holds the backpack up and out of the water she gasps for air. She struggles to get out of the water soaking wet and puts the bag down and slowly unzips the backpack, she has flashes of going through all this just to let this baby die so close to freedom. His eyes are closed and he is motionless she stops breathing and stares down into this bag at this baby she risked everything for. She doesn't blink for what she feels like is an eternity and then the baby opens his eyes and cries.