The Dystopian Gene

by S. E. Meyer

  “Yes, but I know how hard you've worked to save and how badly you want to move out. If you do this, you throw all that away. You'll have to start all over. I can't let you do that.” Sara squeaked. Her face paled and then she nodded back off.

  “Sorry sis, but you don't have a choice.” Anna pushed the call button and within a few seconds a nurse arrived in the doorway.

  “Can I help you?” the nurse asked.

  “Yes,” Anna replied. “I have the money for the treatment.”

  The nurse nodded. “We better get started. She's not doing well,” she explained and then pulled out her tablet. “Just need your thumbprint and the funds will come directly from your account.”

  “I know how it works,” Anna sniped while pressing her thumb down onto the tablet.

  Anna let out a long breath as she stared at the numbers on the screen. She glanced over at Sara and then confirmed the transaction.

  There went the last of it.

  Anna shook her head. So much for ever getting my own place.

  The nurse pressed several call lights on a small panel next to the doorway. It was only a few minutes before three staff members entered the room and wheeled Sara's bed towards the hall. Anna leaned over and squeezed Sara's hand as she passed by. Sara opened her eyes for a moment and Anna leaned over her.

  “Good luck, brat.” Anna forced a smile behind the tears stinging her eyes. She bent over and touched her lips to Sara's forehead. Anna straightened and Sara returned a weak smile as the nurses rolled her bed out of the room.

  Charlie touched Anna's arm.

  Anna recoiled.

  “Whoa, are you okay?” Charlie asked.

  “No, I'm not okay,” Anna replied and then pulled the scarf down around her neck. She tossed her hair, still damp from her morning shower.

  Charlie pulled out the picture Anna left behind at the clinic. “Where the hell have you been? Everyone’s worried about you. We went to the clinic, and all we found was a small box, a letter, this picture, and your phone smashed to pieces.”

  “I'm sorry, Charlie, but I can't tell you. There's too many microphones and cameras.”

  Anna sucked in a breath. “Oh no,” she said, fumbling to get the scarf back around her face.

  “What are you doing?” Charlie asked.

  “Facial recognition cameras. People are after me Charlie. I can't stay long.” Anna reached into her shirt and pulled out the locket. “Do you have an evidence bag with you?”

  “Yes, I always do.”

  “That's my Charlie, always dependable. Pull it out and open it.”

  Charlie did as instructed and Anna held the locket over the open plastic bag. She split the locket with her fingernail and gave it one shake. Anna bent over to examine the evidence bag to make sure the hairs had made it inside. “Okay, seal it Charlie. I need a DNA search ran on the hair in that bag. I need the results as soon as possible.”

  Charlie nodded. He sealed the bag and tucked it into his pocket. “Speaking of searches, I looked up everyone in this picture. I ran facial recognition searches through all the databases, and, Anna,” Charlie made eye contact before continuing. “They're all dead.”

  Anna swallowed hard.

  “Even Atticus?” she asked.

  “Yes. They all dead except for one. Damarion.”

  Anna wrinkled her brow. “Well, what does that mean? Do you think he might be next?”

  Charlie shook his head. “Or it could mean he's the murderer.”

  “I don't believe that. He may be wealthy, but I don't think he's a bad person. If my mother said I can trust him that's good enough for me.”

  Richard came around the corner and entered the room in such a rush he almost ran into Anna.

  “I don't have time for you Richard,” Anna spat.

  “You will have to make time,” Richard replied and then glanced over Anna's shoulder. “Hey, where is Sara?”

  “She’s being treated,” Anna replied.

  Richard cocked his head and frowned. “Treated? How is that possible?”

  “I paid for it,” Anna snapped.

  “You realize she'll keep getting sick, right? Unless you accept my engagement.”

  Anna flew onto Richard, grabbing him by the collar. She slammed him up against the wall and then placed her nose a quarter inch from Richard's. “You leave my sister alone. Or I swear, I will kill you!” Anna yelled. A ball of spit landed on Richard's cheek. She let Richard go.

  “Anna, I'm from the Cromwell family. We always get what we want,” Richard said as he loosened his collar.

  The light in the hospital room suddenly turned off and then back on again. Anna spun around to see her father and aunt standing in the doorway. Aunt Delores had her finger on the light switch and counted. “Two, six, ten, fourteen, twenty-two,” she said as she flicked the switch five times.

  Anna stood next to Charlie, squinting in thought for a moment. Her eyes widened. “That's it! That's it!” she yelled out. “Brilliant, Aunt Dee.”

  Anna smiled and placed a shaking hand over her chest.

  “I have it! I have the smart drive password. That has to be it. Jax said it was eight digits.”

  Two federal agents pushed passed the group and turned to face Anna. She recognized the Jims immediately.

  Anna shot her palm out in their direction. “Don't have time for you guys either, I have to go.”

  “Go where, Miss Wool? Back to the Wolf?” The Jim on Anna's right laughed. “You're not going anywhere. We’re bringing you in for further questioning. We believe you know where the Lonewolf is.”

  “try to stop me,” Anna said. “There's no one between me and the door.”

  The Jim on Anna's left pulled out a gun and pointed it at Anna.

  “I will shoot you.” the man replied through a sneer. “I have authorization to use lethal force. Whatever it takes to bring you in.”

  In a split second Anna dove for the door.

  “No!” Richard screamed and jumped between Anna and the Agents.

  Anna heard two shots ring out as she somersaulted across the floor through the open doorway. She glanced behind her in time to see Richard fall to the floor, writhing in pain and clutching his left shoulder.

  Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Anna bolted down the hallway without looking back.

  CHAPTER 14

  Lonewolf sat at the table next to Jax. He ran his hands across the wisps of hair on his scarred head as Jax worked on cracking the smart drive. “How many tries do we have left before we lose it all forever?” Lonewolf asked.

  Jax turned in his chair to face Lonewolf. “We have one left,” he whispered.

  Lonewolf buried his head in his hands.

  “Do you have another thought on something that might work?” Jax asked.

  “No,” Lonewolf groaned.

  “Hey, how about your name? Lonewolf? It's eight digits.”

  “We already tried that.”

  “What if I change the letter 'o’ to zero's and make it alphanumeric,” Jax suggested.

  “I don't know,” Lonewolf replied and once again ran his hands through his wisps of hair. “If we don't get this right, then all of this was for nothing. It means Margaret died for nothing.” Lonewolf sat up in his chair and let out a long breath.

  “Stop! Wait! I have it!” Anna yelled as she burst into the room and unwrapped the scarf from her face. She floated towards the computer and clapped Lonewolf on the back. “You still have one try left?” Anna asked.

  Jax nodded. “Yes. We have one left.”

  Anna's eyes sparkled. “Well, thank God I got here in time. I know the password,” she announced, beaming with pride.

  “Are you sure?” Lonewolf asked.

  “Positive,” Anna replied. “It was right in front of me the whole time. I've heard this set of numbers so many times I often have trouble get them out of my head.” Anna turned to face Jax. “Try these. Two, six, ten, fourteen and twenty-two.”

  Jax lowered his
eyebrows. “That's interesting.”

  “What is?” Anna squeaked.

  “Those numbers. They are the first five prime numbers multiplied by two.” Jax returned to the keyboard and typed in each digit, speaking them out loud as he did. “Two, six, one, zero, one, four, two and two.” Jax paused with his finger hovering over the enter key as he looked at Lonewolf. “Are you ready?” he asked.

  Anna rubbed her hands together. “Yes, yes. Do it already.”

  Lonewolf smiled. “Of course, it all makes sense now.”

  Lonewolf nodded and Jax drove his finger into the keyboard.

  The screen in front of them flashed several times before lighting up with a flurry of pictures. Screen shots of bank documents, and stock holding reports showing majority shareholders, flew across the screen. Names and dates, along with copies of transactions, took up corners of the screen. Anna watched as a small picture of Cornelius Cromwell was displayed at the top center of the screen while hundreds of company logos filled in below him like a large puzzle. Lonewolf and Jax leaned in closer to study the information.

  Anna shook her head and let out a breath. “I don't understand. There's too much information here. What does it all mean?”

  Jax clicked on an icon displaying two reports. “Look at this,” he said. “Original application and lab reports for three new food additives submitted by Cromwell Industries. And see? Cornelius was the one who approved them. Here's another document. It looks like they appointed him interim president of the Food and Drug Board for one year during that time. How convenient,“ Jax finished.

  Lonewolf leaned in even closer to the screen. “What's this here?” he asked pointing.

  “Let's see," Jax replied, clicking on the link. “Oh, this is the actual laboratory testing results submitted to the FDB. Now that's interesting.” Jax said as his eyes widened.

  “What is?” Lonewolf asked.

  “These are the actual lab results here, and these are the ones submitted. They've been tampered with. Wow. Look at that!” Jax squeaked. “The lab animals had no ill effects from the testing, but see here? They were being treated with a compound called IH-3”

  “IH-3?” Lonewolf repeated. “That's the same compound that's used to treat Fleishman's”

  Anna leaned over and pointed at the screen. “See the date. This was forty years ago. How is it possible that a treatment for Fleishmans was being used before Fleishmans was ever discovered in the first place?”

  “Because Anna, this was all set up. To answer your earlier question, this all means that what we've always feared to be true, is a fact. And the proof is right in front of us,” Lonewolf replied, without looking away from the screen. “I have no idea how your mother did it, but she found the proof we needed. It will take a while to sift through all of this information, but on the surface it's all laid out brilliantly here,” he explained.

  “Proof of what, exactly?” Anna asked.

  Lonewolf pointed at the picture of Cromwell. “See here? Cromwell owns all of these companies, but the companies are owned by other companies, which are owned by other companies. At the end of the day, every food and medical company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cromwell Industries,” Lonewolf finished through a whisper.

  Anna wrinkled her brow.

  Lonewolf looked away from the screen and made eye contact with Anna. He let out a long breath before speaking. “That's just the top of the rabbit hole. What I'm saying is that Cromwell owns it all. Not only does he own all the seed and food companies, he owns the pharmaceuticals along with all the hospitals and clinics!” Lonewolf stared into Anna's eyes. “Are you understanding? Fleishman's is in the food Anna. It lines the shelves of every grocery store in every walled city throughout the country. It's in the food!”

  Lonewolf slapped his hand on the table. “Put there intentionally, damn it! And so Cromwell, and other rich families like his, are not only profiting from giving us treatments. Those same people,” Lonewolf took another long breath and pointed at the computer screen. “Those same people are the ones also profiting from making us sick.”

  Anna raised an eyebrow. “Jax, is there anything about monkeys on the drive?”

  Jax tipped his head. “Monkeys?”

  Anna shrugged. “Just a hunch. Mom sent me a message to find the monkeys.”

  “Give me a second,” Jax replied while clacking the keyboard. He shook his head. “There's nothing coming up with those key words.

  Anna let out a breath. “There has to be something. If it was important to my mother it means something.”

  “There's a lot of information here. I'll keep digging,” Jax replied.

  Anna shook her head. “I don't know, maybe I decoded it wrong. Okay, so going back to Fleishman's in the food. “How could something like this ever have been allowed? Even with Cromwell running the FDB for that time, how could it have passed Food and Drug Board testing?”

  Lonewolf laughed. “Sorry Anna, but that's a misconception. The FDB doesn't do any of their own testing. They approve based on the lab results submitted to them by the companies themselves. There's no actual oversight.”

  Anna shook her head. “Even so, why didn't someone figure this out when suddenly everyone got sick?”

  “That's the thing Anna. Everyone didn't suddenly get sick. There was built in latency. It happened slowly, over several years, and like a frog in a frying pan, the citizens never saw it coming. Nobody ever sees the social elite that stands behind it all, counting their money from the shadows. The greed is disgusting.” Lonewolf sat back in his chair.

  Anna sat down in the chair next to Jax and let out a long breath. “Ok, I understand what you're telling me. What I still can't fathom is how everyone let it get to this point.”

  Lonewolf stood up and then turned to face Jax and Anna. “It all started with a light bulb.”

  Anna dropped her eyebrows.

  “I will explain it to you. Explain how we all got here. We are all slaves Anna. Squeezed for over a century, and all the time the multinational corporations have increased their wealth. They have been milking our life and our freedom from us since the turn of the last century. People think we've made progress. I say no. We've been going backwards. Our first incandescent light bulbs were built to last one-hundred years, and they did. One dangled from the ceiling of a firehouse in Livermore, California, illuminated twenty-four hours a day, for a hundred and thirteen years. But soon companies realized that would not do. So they made things with an expiration date. You know why? Because why sell just one toaster to a family when you can sell them one every three years. Why not add hidden software in phones and computers to slow them down to the point of being unusable so people will buy the next version?” Lonewolf shook his hands in the air as he continued while Anna and Jax leaned in closer.

  “That's when the money flowed, planned obsolescence, pressed on by the stockholders, who by now, were not happy with making record profits. No, they wanted profits to go up every year, forever. How is that sustainable? And if a company can't do that, then their stock becomes undesirable. So, companies, pressed financially to outperform. looked for any way to get an edge. Soon enough, by the mid nineteen hundreds companies had gleaned so much, there was literally no more to get. So what happened? Through advertising and social manipulation, companies soon made it socially acceptable for women to work. They needed employees to take over for the men who went to war.”

  Lonewolf pressed his lips together. “Now, I have nothing against woman's rights. In fact, I have the utmost respect for what those women did for our country. Taking on those jobs and being ridiculed and treated unfairly by the men that ran the companies they worked for. Terrible conditions, at best. Those women are heroes. But that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about what happened after the second world war.”

  Lonewolf let out a long sigh and continued.

  “The corporations saw an opportunity. They wanted families to have two incomes. There is a song from a Broadway musical from
1946.” Lonewolf puffed out his chest and sang the lines. “Anything you can do, I can do better! Anything you can do, I can do too.” Lonewolf paused a moment before continuing. “It was a song sang by a man and a woman, singing alternate lines. I know it seems silly, one Broadway song, but that‘s only one example. There are hundreds of examples of how the social elite changed the status quo to add a second income. This was an uphill battle at first, but couples soon realized the American dream was just out of reach without more income. They couldn't afford the things they wanted, or more specifically, afford the things others seem to have. Herd mentality took over in the form of keeping up with the Jones's. It was all seeded by major corporations, and once that was done, bam!” Lonewolf slapped his hand on the table in front of Anna and Jax

  “So now we have a second income they can get us to spend. Which we did. The markets boomed! Textiles industry, now clothing two income earners flourished. And of course the automotive industry doubled their sales because two people needed to drive to work. Two incomes meant people could afford bigger houses. The average home size changed from nine-hundred square feet to over two-thousand. With all that space, people bought whatever they could to try and fill it. The furniture industry boomed. Then they invented prepackaged foods because people were too busy working to cook. That catapulted the food industry and grocery stores into the mainstream. There was no such thing before the middle of the century. Once all of this became the norm, they sold the American dream, hook line and sinker.” Lonewolf took a breath to let the information sink into his audience.

  Anna nodded, teetering on the edge of her seat. “Go on,” she coaxed.

  “Well, here's where it gets really messed up. The corporations, and the wealthy families that run them realized that they didn't have to manipulate our money out of us through advertising alone. No, they turned us against ourselves through psychological warfare. What will my friends and neighbors think if I drive an old piece of shit car? What will my mother think if I can't provide a nice home for my family? What will my boss think if I'm not wearing new clothes?”

  Lonewolf took in a long breath and then continued in a whisper. “We got so sucked in to social fascism, a tightly knit, neat and proper little box of what is expected of all of us.” Lonewolf paused and then spread his arms wide. “They introduced manufactured fear. Fear of what people will think of us, fear to disappoint, fear of standing out, fear of being ridiculed. Fear to offend. It played right into the marketing companies' psychological warfare plans. These ideas were all seeded. Most people do not realize that billions of dollars have been spent researching on how to bend the subconscious mind. And all the while, the rich would stop at nothing to continue the status quo. So when money once again became tight, something had to give and people stopped saving. When that wasn't enough we spent more than we made. Cheap and easy credit became widely available. In less than fifty years, we went from only ten-percent of homes being mortgaged by banks to over ninety-percent. Then they introduced social media. So now people didn't have to keep up with their neighbors and coworkers alone. No, now everyone has a thousand friends to compare themselves to, right? And everyone in your news feed is going on vacation or buying a new vehicle. They planned all of this, to continue to get people to buy things they don't need, with money they don't have.”